From drug addict to prospect to the Major Leagues? This could one day be the story of Tagen Struhs, one of the Angels 2010 draft picks. I won't even attempt to steal the thunder from the article, but the drafting of Struhs not only conjours memories of Josh Hamilton's ongoing struggle with substance abuse, but also of former Angels farmhand and current Chicago White Sox closer Bobby Jenks.

Struhs has yet to sign a contract with the Angels and is currently working towards his GED. The 1134th overall pick doesn't often make the major leagues, but I have to root for this guy on his way to recovery alongside the long and lonely road through Arizona, Utah, Iowa, and the other stops on the way to Anaheim.

Stirrups posted an interesting ESPN article about a month ago, which essentially proposed floating divisions for realignment.

Ken Rosenthal proposed 3 realignment plans, and as he states in the beginning of his article, it's impossible to make everyone happy when it comes to realignment. However, none of his plans are any good, in my humble opinion.

I say add two teams to MLB, making for the first expansion since 1998. There will be 32 teams, and each league will have 16 teams. There are a number of different possibilities for new cities. From past conversations, those cities look to be Portland, Las Vegas, Nashville, Charlotte, OK City, San Antonio.

Each league will have 4 divisions. The Wild Card will be eliminated, and the seeding will be division winners, 4 vs 1, 3 vs 2, and so on.

(Portland and Nashville expansion)
AL East – New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore
AL South – Tampa Bay, Texas, Kansas City, Colorado (Switch to AL)
AL North – Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland
AL West – Angels, Arizona (switch to AL), Oakland, Seattle

NL East – New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly
NL South – Nashville (EXPANSION), Houston, Florida, Atlanta
NL North – Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis
NL West – LA Doyers, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland (EXPANSION)

(OKC and San Antonio expansion)
AL East – New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore
AL South – Tampa Bay, Texas, Kansas City, San Antonio (EXPANSION)
AL North – Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland
AL West – Angels, Colorado (Switch to AL), Oakland, Seattle

NL East – New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly
NL South – OKC (EXPANSION), Houston, Florida, Atlanta
NL North – Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis
NL West – LA Doyers, San Diego, San Francisco, Arizona

(Las Vegas and Charlotte expansion)
AL East – New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore
AL South – Tampa Bay, Texas, Kansas City, Colorado (Switch to AL)
AL North – Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland
AL West – Angels, Las Vegas (EXPANSION) Oakland, Seattle

NL East – New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly
NL South – Charlotte (EXPANSION), Houston, Florida, Atlanta
NL North – Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis
NL West – LA Doyers, San Diego, San Francisco, Arizona

(Portland and San Antonio expansion)
AL East – New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore
AL South – Tampa Bay, Colorado (Switch to AL), Kansas City, San Antonio (EXPANSION)
AL North – Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland
AL West – Angels, Arizona (Move to AL) Oakland, Seattle

NL East – New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly
NL South – Texas (Move to NL South), Houston, Florida, Atlanta
NL North – Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis
NL West – LA Doyers, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland (EXPANSION)

Perhaps I missed something, but geographically, these seem to make sense and they also keep major rivalries intact. The only real ugly division would be the AL South, with Tampa Bay sticking out there into the Gulf, but it seems no worse than the distance from Arlington, TX to Seattle, WA, and is definitely better than putting the Red Sox in the Central, as proposed by Rosenthal.

I've been following this story of a University of Georgia Freshman baseball player who was paralyzed from the waist down after crashing his scooter, and I felt it was worth sharing on HH. Chance Veazey has been doing extensive rehabilitation, and has recently left the Shepherd Center to head home to South Georgia for the holidays. UGA has rallied around their scholarship athlete who was to be the starting second basemen this coming season, and he has received visits from UGA football coach Mark Richt and other members of the athletic community.

Should you feel like making a donation for a fellow Angels fan, donations to help offset his medical expenses can be made to Athens First Bank and Trust Company (AFB&T), Senior Vice President Phil Bettendorf, P.O. Box 1747, Athens, GA., 30603