I thought about the way he struck fear into multi-millionaire ballplayers and fired managers like they were clerks at CVS. I thought about the way he was equal parts loathed, feared, and respected by fans of the opposition.

I really started to think about how there might be a million more Mark Cubans in my lifetime, but there will never be anyone quite like George.

Now if you’re looking for me to give perspective on the old-school, tyrannical, terrifying, trust no one, fire everyone Steinbrenner of the 1980’s and early 1990’s, you’ll have to go somewhere else. By the time I got to know him as a fan, he was coming off his second suspension from baseball and was a more mellowed, subdued guy...at least in some regards.

But make no mistake, he was still “The Boss.” Even in his advanced age, there was never a doubt who the alpha dog with the Yankees—or in baseball for that matter—was. It was always Big George.

As a Red Sox fan growing up in Steinbrenner’s world, he was more terrifying than any player, coach, team, or organization of my youth. He was an almost mythical figure, rarely seen, but always heard from, and, much like the Godfather, someone who could always get things done. Steinbrenner wasn’t just an owner, but was the scariest kind: one with lots of money who wasn’t afraid to spend it.

During his heyday (and basically every day), Steinbrenner was like a 16-year-old girl with her father’s credit card at the mall. If he saw something he wanted, he went and got it. No trade was impossible for the Yankees, no free agent splurge too outlandish. If his team was struggling during the season, you always knew he’d put pressure on someone to do something to make the squad better.

There was nothing he wasn’t capable of.

Because of that “fear no one, crush everyone” attitude, Steinbrenner was at the controls of the most dominant sports organization of my youth. Not only did fans of other teams know their teams weren’t beating the Yankees, but I also always got the sense that opposing players knew that too.

I remember watching the 1998 World Series when the Yankees played the Padres. After eight innings of Game 1, you could see in the Padres' eyes that they knew they were toast, and sure enough, they were swept three games later.

Nobody beat the Yankees in the late 1990’s, and like I said, it was more because of Steinbrenner than because of any one player.

It was that burning, win-at-all-costs passion that made The Boss the best owner of my lifetime.

(Follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres)

Just a few days ago, I wrote about Cleveland Cavaliers' owner Dan Gilbert and his comments regarding LeBron James leaving his team. With the death of Steinbrenner yesterday, it’s all kind of worth repeating.

While I thought Gilbert’s comments about LeBron were crass and a bit over the top, they also gave me a newfound respect for the guy. At the end of the day, Gilbert stood up to a superstar and stood behind his fans and remaining players. He made his point clear: LeBron James wasn’t bigger than his organization. He promised that he’d continue to do whatever it took to put a championship-caliber team on the court.

Good for him.

Steinbrenner was like that...times 45,000.

Again, as a Red Sox fan growing up in the late 1990’s, watching the Yankees pile up championships was terrifying, frustrating, and angering, and it was probably just the same for every Braves, Mets, and White Sox fan too. We didn’t just despise Steinbrenner.

We hated him.

At the same time, how could you not respect him?

(Because of length, this is just PART of Aaron's article on George Steinbrenner. To read the remainder, please click here or visit Aaron at www.aarontorres-sports.com .

Also, for his take on all things sports, be sure to follow him on Twitter @Aaron_Torres and download his App for your iPhone or Android)

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The guy whose starts I’ve come to purposely avoid because he pitches at the same pace that my 94-year-old grandma walks up a flight of stairs...THAT guy was throwing...a NO-HITTER!!!

I was like a kid finding out there was no Santa Claus for the first time. “No, no, no, this can’t be true!” But it was true.

(This is just PART of Aaron's article on baseball's pitching revolution. To read the rest, be sure to click here or visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com)

Although I couldn’t watch any of the game because of FOX’s goofy blackout coverage, Matsuzaka pitched eight innings of one-hit ball, and the Red Sox went on to win, 5-0.

As I sat back late Saturday night to review it all, I started thinking. Crazy thoughts at first, like, “Did my Starbucks barista slip something into my frappuccino this morning?”—still not 100 percent sure I totally believed what I’d seen from Dice-K.

Then I started thinking about this baseball season as a whole. About how it seems like once a week we see a pitcher carrying a no-hitter into the seventh inning and beyond. How more than ever, ERAs seem to be bottoming out like the stock market 18 months ago. How every team seems to either have an ace on its staff or one that’ll be in the big leagues in six months.

And then it hit me: After years of watching 10-8, four-hour baseball games...is pitching back? I’d say so.

Now before I go any further, I want to make a few things clear: I’m not any Sabermetrics guru and don’t have a detail-oriented, ESPN research department backing up what I’m going to say. All I know is what I’ve seen with my own two eyes, and from what I can see, we’re in the midst of a pitching revolution. From what I can tell, it’s not only for the reasons you think.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, I think the easy—and unfortunate—place to start has nothing to do with the pitchers themselves, but with hitters and steroids. While we’ll never know how much of an effect PEDs had on the power surge from the early 1990s to the middle of the 2000s, I think we’d all say it was pretty large.

After all, every Major League Baseball organization decided to build their team the same way during that time: Find the biggest, baddest slugger you could, pay him lots of money, watch him hit home runs, watch fans get excited about those home runs, and hope that somewhere along the way you won a few games.

By the turn of the century, that line of thinking turned guys like Greg Vaughn, Jeff Bagwell, and Juan Gonzalez into folk heroes and multimillionaires many times over.

(If you're enjoying Aaron's work, be sure to follow him on Twitter @Aaron_Torres)

Sure, the game was tainted to a degree, but the fans seemed to be happy. The fact that most first basemen looked more like middle linebackers than ballplayers became irrelevant. The fact that Albert Belle bulldozed second basemen like they owed him money was considered “gamesmanship,” not “’roid rage.”

And when Barry Bonds’ biceps grew three sizes overnight, like the Grinch’s heart on Christmas Eve, it was considered insignificant. The home runs kept coming, and the fans kept turning out, even if it was hurting the game.

As for the here and now, while we all know that PEDs aren’t entirely out of baseball, since the Mitchell Report came out a few years ago, they at least seem to be under control. Maybe the most apparent sign is that baseball players again look like, well, baseball players, rather than mutants created in Victor Conte’s BALCO lab.

Yes, Ryan Howard is a big dude, but then again, he comes from a family of big dudes and doesn’t really look any different than he did as a minor leaguer. Albert Pujols is strong, but not overwhelmingly, disgustingly, “Maybe this guy is on something” burly, like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were a decade ago. As for Prince Fielder, if there’s any secret to his super-strength, it definitely comes dipped in chocolate.

Beyond just the dearth of HGH, steroids, the cream, and the clear, though, are other factors too.

For example, teams are getting smarter in how they build their clubs.

Take the Padres and Giants, for example. These are two teams that play in two of the biggest ballparks in baseball, yet a decade ago were constructing their squads the way everyone in baseball did: by overpaying for whatever slugger fresh off the WWE scrap heap they could find.

Since then, though, someone had the bright idea to say, “Hey, we play in huge ballparks; how about we stock up on some pitching rather than boppers who’ll break down in a year?”

The result has become tangible, as those two teams are ranked No. 2 and No. 5 respectively in team ERA coming into Monday night’s games. In a related story, they’re also a combined nine games over .500. Weird, I know.

Looking around the majors, it seems like every roster has at least one front-line starter, sometimes more, the result of what I’m going to call pitching’s “perfect storm.” My theory is basically that as we’ve made our way out of the steroid era, this is the year where everything came together for the guys on the mound.

Think about it...

(This is just PART of Aaron's article on how pitching is being revolutionized this season in baseball. To read the REMAINDER, please click HERE or visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com.

Also, for Aaron's thoughts on all things sports, be sure to add him on Twitter @Aaron_Torres)

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Well I'm back again today, to provide you with additional information, on how to project sleepers, and avoid the busts that'll ruin your team. Remember, you don't win fantasy baseball championships by taking Albert Pujols or Hanley Ramirez in the first round. You win them by finding the best values in the latest rounds.

So sit back, relax and enjoy. And stick with this article until the end, when I reveal my 10 sleepers you need to know.

(Remember, this is just PART of Aaron's Fantasy Baseball Preview for 2010. To read this article in its entirety, please click here , or visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com . And click here to read Part I as well)

1. Stay Away From Rookies

No, no, no.

Don't do it.

You're better than that.

Seriously stop!

STOP!

Don't draft Jason Heyward, Stephen Strasburg, or Aroldis Chapman.

Please, for the love of God don't do it!

Because for all the talk about these three potential superstars, the key word there is still potential. And while Heyward, Strasburg and Chapman may be great in two or three years down the road, they won't be this year. They'll still be drafted that way though.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm high on all three.

How could I not be? Bobby Cox just called Heyward the best young outfield prospect he's seen, since...Hank Aaron. Damn.

But here's the thing that everyone forgets.

While Hank Aaron may have evolved into one of the greatest home run hitters in the history of the game, it didn't happen overnight.

As a matter of fact, Aaron hit just 13 of his career 755 home runs as a 20-year-old rookie in 1954. While Heyward may eclipse that 13, I don't think he'll hit 45 either. Which is key, the ability to differentiate what could happen from what will happen.

Remember, it was right around this time last year, that Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters was being touted as "Mauer with Power."

Pretty lofty expectations for a guy who was 22 at the start of the season, and he ended up getting drafted based on that expectation. Well, "Mauer with Power," ended up spending the first two months of his season in the minor leagues, and finished with just nine home runs.

He was hardly the value people projected him to be when they drafted him. Again if you drafted him, it was based on what could happen, rather than what would happen. Don't make that same mistake again this year.

So unless you're in a keeper league, let someone else deal with Heyward. Let someone else draft Strasburg. Let another manager through growing pains with Chapman. They'll be great, just not yet. And you'll be ready to pounce when they are.

2. Build A Deep Pitching Staff: While the early rounds should be reserved for getting power bats (and maybe one stud starter), it's the middle rounds where you want to build depth in your pitching staff. The way I look at pitching is the way actual Major League teams do: You can never have too much.

Unlike hitters, pitchers are hardly a proven commodity, or even consistently great. They come and go, the way 20-year-old females come and go from John Mayer's house.

Over the course of the season, pitchers miss starts, lose command, get demoted to the minors and go down with shoulder, elbow and back injuries. Remember, it was just two years ago that Erik Bedard was a top 40 selection. Now he's hardly a top 400 selection, and the rest of his career is in jeopardy.

Which is why the middle rounds are when you need to hoard arms. Look high, look low, in Arizona, Milwaukee and Seattle. Get righties and lefties, starters and relievers. Hell, you might lose your best pitcher tomorrow and need to be prepared. You can never have too much pitching.

(Click here to read Part I of Aaron's tips, including his philosophy on early round draft strategy)

3. There's No Such Thing As A "Hometown" Discount: This is a rule that I guarantee you will find only here, exclusively at AaronTorres-Sports. Let me explain.        

In my 14 team head to head league (cough...previous champion...cough), almost every guy I play against grew up in New York.

They're as big a group of Mets and Yankees fans as you'll find anywhere. All they need is a little hair gel and their own tanning beds, and they'd be just about set to star in next season of Jersey Shore. I wish I was kidding.

But Jersey Shore joking aside, it is in this league, that I have never once had a Met or Yankee on my fantasy roster.

Why?

Because everybody in my league goes crazy over them.

Seriously you should hear our war room on draft day: "David Wright's gonna hit 40 home runs! Phil Hughes is gonna get 24 wins! Brett Gardner is gonna win the triple crown!" Umm, no he's not. Thank you very much.

But really it's not their fault. We all get irrational with our teams. We can't help ourselves.

Whether we intend to or not, we get attached to a guy after watching him play 162 times over the course of six months.

We know his strengths and weaknesses. We know what his body language looks like when he'd rather be at the strip club than the on-deck circle. We know when he had a tough night with his wife, or girlfriend, or in some cases both. Which is why I stay away from the "hometown," guys. Nobody can get a fair gauge on them.

And you should do the same. If you live in Los Angeles stay away from Dodgers and Angels. If you live in Chicago don't draft a Cub or White Sock. When it's a player on our team, one of our guys, we just can't be rational.

Which is why it's best to just stay away.

(To find out who Aaron's biggest fantasy sleepers are as well as several other tips, please click here or visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com . Also click here for Part I , where he reveals early round draft strategy.

Finally, for his thoughts on all things sports, be sure to add him on Twitter @Aaron_Torres )

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In my formative years, I was watching Braves and Red Sox games every night, while my peers were ingesting unhealthy amounts of Sesame Street and Power Rangers (all right, I can’t lie, I watched the Power Rangers too).

I played from the time I was barely old enough to tie my own spikes all the way until my high school graduation. It’s the sport whose strategy and tactics I understand the best, making me annoying to watch postseason baseball with, as I turn into an armchair Tony La Russa any time something even semi-exciting happens:

Well, if you double-switch this guy with that guy, then the pitcher doesn’t have to bat until the 11th inning, we improve defensively at second base and right field, there won’t be a lefty vs. lefty matchup for eight batters, and...

Meanwhile, whoever I’m watching the game with gives me the same stare your grandpa does when it’s time for him to go to the proctologist: Aaron, I really don’t care what you think about this double switch. Just shut up so I can enjoy this game!

Yet out of every sport that I do watch, baseball is still the one which I write about the least, and it really isn’t even close. During football season I spend way too much time thinking about Saturday and Sunday’s matchups, the problem of every team only having one game a week.

What’s the weather going to be like? How will Mark Sanchez handle that 3-4 defense? Should I really have wagered my unborn daughter’s college money with Les Miles on the road?

During basketball season it’s the same, as I study players' body language like Dr. Phil, all the while trying to figure out who I should pick in my NCAA Tournament pool or trade for in my fantasy league.

As for Major League Baseball, well, it just doesn’t interest me. As far as I’m concerned, it's seven months of the most egregious over-analysis there is anywhere. We sit there and stress one night because Chase Utley went 0-for-5 with five strikeouts, wondering if “maybe the game has passed him by,” and then watch the following night as he goes 4-for-5 and instantly becomes a Hall of Famer again.

We have stupid arguments with our friends like, “Seriously, who should we try to trade for as an extra outfielder, Emil Brown or Rocco Baldelli?” Umm, wait a minute...who cares! It’s our fourth outfielder! But that’s what we do in July. It's 85 degrees, and we’re drinking beers at the beach. We just need something to argue about.

Ultimately, none of this stuff matters, because over 162 games lots of stuff happens. A lot of stuff.

Guys go in and out of slumps, get hurt, quit on their teams, and get in bar fights on the road. They get promoted and demoted from the minors, traded, and are sometimes given their outright release.

But after those same 162 games, everything gets figured out organically. It always does. We really didn’t need to argue about Brown or Baldelli; 162 games settled the debate on the field. Just like during that same time it was established that the Yankees were the best team in the American League, and Tim Lincecum was the best pitcher in the National League.

After seven months of regular season baseball, no stone is left unturned. It can’t be.

This is why I only watch baseball in passing until the postseason. The baseball regular season is a huge sample size, and no matter what happens in March-September, everything always sorts itself out by October.

Which brings us into the offseason, and mainly the last 10 days, into a time affectionately known in baseball circles as the “Hot Stove Season.” During the past week and a half, the following things have happened, completely reshaping next season in the process...

(To read the REMAINDER of this article, and the rest of Aaron's work, please visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com)

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Baseball’s not a perfect sport, we all know that.

The games start too late. They run too long. Tragically, Steve Phillips is no longer around to analyze (He’s innocent I tell ya!). And because of rain, snow, sleet, meteor showers, and aurora borealis, this postseason—which seems like it started 11 weeks ago—might not end until sometime around Christmas Eve.

But come on, this is baseball. It’s America’s pastime. And it’s time for the World Series.

Whether its incredible athletes (ok incredible might be a little strong), beautiful girlfriends, or just baseball you like, there’s something for everybody in this World Series. So while you shouldn’t need a reason to tune in, I’ll give you a few anyways.

As a matter of fact, here are 13:

13. Alex Rodriguez, Clutch Hitter

It’s really only right that the 13th reason on this list be old No. 13 himself.

Look, we all know why not to like Alex Rodriguez: He’s a known cheater. His salary is larger then the GDP of Tanzania. That whole Madonna thing was really, really weird. But I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret, I’m kind of rooting for him. I have been for a while now.

This guy is the best player in the game. And the way that our grandparents talk about seeing Willie Mays in person, is how we should be appreciating Alex Rodriguez. But because of all the aforementioned stuff, his approval rating has always hovered just slightly ahead of George W. Bush’s.

But here’s the crazy thing, since he’s gotten to New York, the guy’s won two MVP awards. He’s had at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI every season, including this past summer when he limped around the whole month of April like Joe Paterno on a surgically repaired hip. And yet up until a few weeks ago, we talked about him like he didn’t even belong on the playoff roster, let alone starting at third base.

Sure in past years A-Rod hasn’t always been the most clutch player. But it’s also not his fault that since he’s gotten to New York, their best pitchers have been a bona-fide No. 2 starter (Chien-Ming Wang), and a good, but not great, Mike Mussina. You win in October with great pitching, and let me ask you, would you want Wang or Mussina pitching deciding games for your team in the playoffs? Me neither.

Luckily, for whatever reason this year, the heat’s off of A-Rod. He’s got protection in the lineup. He’s got big arms at the front of the pitching rotation. And he’s decided that he doesn’t need to be Alex Rodriguez media mogul and international superstar, but just Alex Rodriguez the baseball player.

Most importantly, he’s doing everything that you’d ever want a guy on your team to do. He’s high-fiving everybody but Tim McCarver. He’s playing through pain. He’s getting big hits when his team needs them the most.

So root against Alex Rodriguez if you’d like. Hold grudges if you must. But I’m happy for the guy. I never thought I’d say this, but even for a guy making $27 million a year, he just needed a break.

12. Jayson Werth

Quite honestly, I don’t know much about this guy. As a matter of fact, there are Saudi Arabian oil sheiks that I’ve been paying closer attention to lately.

But looking at Werth, doesn’t he just seem like a guy you’d want to go out with after a game and grab a beer? At the very least, I feel like he’d be “that guy,” at the strip club that makes the whole experience 1000 times better. You know, the one who disappears approximately 90 seconds after you get into the place, blows $150 bucks in the champagne room with a girl named “Peaches,” and still leaves smiling and saying stuff like, “That was awesome,” and, “Best 150 bucks I ever spent!”

Plus, when I went to a Phillies-Mets game earlier this year and the New York crowd burst into a “Jay-son Werth-less,” chant, not only did he laugh it off, Werth also made several sexually derogatory gestures to the crowd behind his glove. It was just inappropriate enough to get an even bigger roar, but done just quickly enough where the cameras didn’t catch it. You really had to be there to appreciate it.

And needless to say, I’ve been a fan ever since.

11.  The Continued Torture of Mets Fans

Speaking of Mets fans, at this point you’ve got to feel pretty bad for them. The last two years ended with awful late season collapses. This year’s team was so banged up that Ruben Sierra, Nook Logan, Roger Dorn, and Moonlight Graham were starters at various points. And now their two biggest rivals are squaring off to decide a World Championship.

As my friend Finn, one of the biggest Mets fans I know, texted me on Sunday night, “All I can hope for at this point is a bench clearing brawl with A-Rod and Ryan Howard both suffering career ending injuries.”

I think that just about says it all.

10. Nick Swisher’s Locker Room Hi-jinks

I could probably take a vacation to Aruba right now if I had a dollar for every, “Nick Swisher really keeps the locker room loose,” feature story I read this year. The way the New York media describes this guy, he’s some weird cross between Chris Rock, Stifler, and Bill “The Spaceman” Lee. He even sported a Mohawk for Game Six of the ALCS.

But here’s the thing, after reading the 85,000th “Nick Swisher is soooo funny” column this summer, I realized something: Nobody’s ever explained exactly what he does. And I think I speak for everyone when I say, I want some answers.

Does he put mayonnaise in Mark Teixeira’s batting gloves? Does he do funny Joba Chamberlain fist-pumping impressions when the big guy isn’t around? Shrink C.C. Sabathia’s game pants in the dryer? Send text’s to Minka Kelly from A-Rod’s phone?

Someone’s got to have an explanation for this, and I want some answers!

9. Charlie Manuel’s Press Conferences:

Over the summer I was reading Sports Illustrated when I came across a mind-boggling statistic. Of every player, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball this season (over 1000 individuals), only 22 of them have degrees from four year colleges. Twenty-two! And while it is a startling statistic, I know it makes a lot more sense when you hear a guy like Charlie Manuel open his mouth.

While Joe Girardi is intelligent and articulate, Manuel is an old-school baseball guy in every sense of the word.

And speaking of words, they’re not Manuel’s strong suit. There are New York City cab drivers who have a better understanding of the English language. Listening to a Manuel press conference is like watching the Blue Collar Comedy Tour . Only in this case, you might actually laugh.

Of course, none of that matters, since he’s gone 18-5 in the last two postseasons. Maybe most importantly, his players love him. Even if they can’t understand a word he’s saying.

8. Because More Than One Girl Has Told Me I Look Like Mark Teixeira

Alright, so that’s not a reason for you to get excited. But from what I can gauge, it’s not a bad thing for me either.

And besides, whenever a girl makes the comparison, it also allows me to make bad jokes, like: “Well if you saw me swing a bat, you literally couldn’t tell the difference.”

Ok that joke was reeeeeally bad (like this whole column). Let’s just move on.

7. A.J. Burnett’s Shaving Cream Pie In The Face Routine

No seriously, it’s funny! Isn’t it?

6. Cole Hamels Wife

Sure, Kate Hudson is getting all the publicity as the hottie du-jour of this World Series, but more love needs to go to our good friend Heidi Hamels.

Not only is she gorgeous. Not only is she a former contestant on Survivor . But she also had the underrated quote of 2009 when in February, she said in a Sports Illustrated interview:

“We’re in the process of adopting an AIDS orphan from Ethiopia. Maybe two. I’m so pumped. I’d adopt six if I could. When I was five years old-I grew up in a very rural town in Missouri, and I had never even seen a black person-they asked us to draw a picture of ourselves in the future, and I drew myself holding hands with a line of tiny black stick figures. I’ve always wanted this.”

No seriously, she actually said that .

Needless to say, it’s going to be a funny couple with week’s with Heidi. Take that Kate Hudson!

(To read the REMAINDER OF THIS article , including Aaron's Top Five Reasons To Be Excited For the World Series, please visit him at www.aarontorres-sport.com )

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