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For a sport that presses traditionalism tightly to its bosom like a cap during “The Star-Spangled Banner,” baseball has increasingly embraced technology in recent years—a surprising move from a league that saw the Chicago Cubs wait until 1988 for their first night game.

The small kerfuffle created by 61-year-old Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost over his Apple Watch typified this technological paradox. MLB gifted Yost the timepiece for managing the American League at the All-Star Game, but he can’t wear the high-tech watch during games because he could hypothetically gain an unfair advantage by using its “smart” capabilities. For his part, Yost claim he uses the watch conventionally (to tell time), and the watch needs the phone to have the smart functions. But for now, would-be cheaters must stick to the old-fashioned methods of gaming the system, like relaying signs using semaphore.

Aside from watch phones and phone watches, there are other types of tech that baseball players and coaches employ to improve on-field results. And no, this isn’t about titanium necklaces or the St. Louis Cardinals hacking the Houston Astros’ scouting info. It’s also not about Eric Byrnes’ robot Pitchf/x strike zone or Oculus Rift umpires. We examined the forefront of sports innovation, which includes The Matrix-style three-dimensional tracking of every play and even a training device that looks suspiciously like a sports bra.

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When it comes to crossover athletes, there are enduring legends like Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, and then there are more marginal cases like Brian Jordan and Drew Henson. Baseball is incredibly time-consuming, from a 162-game regular season in the MLB down to travel teams in top-flight youth baseball, so it allows precious little time for other endeavors, let alone another professional sport, but at least it’s low-impact.

While few of these players participated in their crossover sport beyond the high school level, it’s a testament to the tremendous athletic ability possessed by the average baseball player (David Ortiz notwithstanding).

These 10 MLBers—each active in pro baseball during 2015 (sorry, no Bo or Deion)—have each proven themselves adept in another sport.

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Everyone from fans and sabermetricians to teammates and general managers judge baseball players on their April-to-October results, but that forgets the bleakness of a wintry offseason.

While some might choose to spend the time off maniacally shoving an arm into a barrel of rice, a la Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan, these eight players made headlines during the winter and early spring for more significant reasons.

And no, we’re not referring to Alex Rodriguez—he of the two home runs and .905 OPS through 13 spring games—winning the job of New York Yankees’ full-time designated hitter.

Instead, these eight players have either put in major work during the offseason in a variety of ways, or they’re tearing up spring training and making an impact with the regular season looming.

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Every baseball fan with more brain cells than fingers can tell you that teams wearing throwback uniforms is a brilliant idea. From both a stylistic and a marketing standpoint, bringing back classic designs not only celebrates the game’s rich history, it provides a fashionable wrinkle during a protracted regular season marked by humidity, pitchers stepping off, batters stepping out and additional delays for replay review.

Paradoxically, old designs help keep the game fresh and new, but teams should not decide to go retro merely for the nostalgia itself. The old Houston Astros rainbow uniforms left lasting memories, but no one wants to bring those back for more than one or two games a year as a lark. Similarly, the Chicago White Sox should never again wear shorts during games.

Instead, only the best aspects of retro MLB design should be carried forth, with a keen sense for both timelessness and era-specific kitsch. The Chicago Cubs wore nine throwback uniforms for the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field, which is slight overkill but still very prudent. 

Renewing the retro look offers new opportunity, not just to sell more caps and jerseys, and not just to cheer for bygone days, but also to reinvent the present, which is especially necessary for two teams without a World Series title to their credit: the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers.

This list by no means forms an exhaustive compendium of retro style in need of a resurgence, but these five designs need to come back in some form, from more pinstripes and different caps to increased simplicity and more powder blue.

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Baseball’s All-Star Game has many quirks to its credit. The so-called Midsummer Classic actually takes place near the start of summer, which begins only three weeks prior in late June. And despite some pegging it as the midway point of the regular season, most teams will have already played about 60 percent of their schedule.

And then there are the painstakingly designed uniforms produced for the All-Star Game each year, only to see players take the field for the actual game clad in their respective boring team duds. Arguably, the best thing about the monotonous Home Run Derby consists in getting to see players wearing the unique AL and NL jerseys designed for that year. 

Of course, as with alternate jerseys, spring training uniforms and batting practice gear, the goal is to sell more MLB-licensed product. But in the past 15 years, some of the uniform designs have distinguished themselves as stylish, elegant tributes to the host city. These five designs, listed chronologically, comprise the coolest All-Star jerseys from the millennium so far. 

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Playing for a stuffy, conservative, monolithic franchise like the New York Yankees carries certain advantages. Not only does the team set the goal of a championship each season, but if you’re married to a Yankee—like the wife of recently acquired starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy—you may benefit from your husband having to shave off his beard.

However, compulsory beard-shaving seems like an antiquated team policy in 2014. While the Yanks ensure their pinstripes are ironed and pressed, other teams around Major League Baseball know how to let loose and have some fun. 

Cultivating a good clubhouse environment can be integral to fostering a winning atmosphere around a team, especially considering the rigors of a 162-game regular season. These five squads know how to relax once the final out has been recorded, whether that involves locker room pranks, amazing bobbleheads, wrestling chants or donning retro comfort wear en masse. 

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Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com reports that the New York Yankees announced Tuesday afternoon that reliever David Robertson is being placed on the DL with a strained left oblique muscle.

Right-hander Cody Eppley has been recalled, according to Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News.

This is just the latest item of bad news for the Yankees, who have been plagued by the injury bug for the past two weeks. Not only did it end the season of the greatest closer of all time, it delayed the return of speedy outfielder Brett Gardner (who suffered a setback in rehab last week) and forced an early end to Ivan Nova’s outing Monday evening in Baltimore (due to a sprained ankle).

David Phelps would be the likely choice to return to the rotation if Nova misses any starts, since he has been much better as a starter this year than Freddy Garcia.

Robertson had assumed closing duties after future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera tore his ACL. That injury occurred while he was catching fly balls in the outfield in Kansas City on May 3rd.

Robertson picked up his first save of the season against Tampa Bay on May 8th, but allowed a hit and two walks in the process. The next evening, he blew the save against the Rays, allowing four runs on three hits and a walk, raising his ERA to 2.63 on the season. He began the evening with an ERA of 0.00.

Rafael Soriano picked up the save against Tampa Bay on May 10th, the night after Robertson’s ugly effort, though Soriano did allow an earned run on one hit. Soriano was called upon not because of Robertson’s ineffectiveness, but merely because Robertson had pitched two days in a row and had thrown a lot of pitches.

But Soriano was called upon again on Monday night in Baltimore, even though Robertson was ostensibly fresh. Soriano would have had a perfect ninth, but Eric Chavez committed an error. Unflapped, Soriano promptly retired the next batter to end the game and seal the comeback victory.

It emerged that Robertson was unavailable due to an oblique issue, and that landed him on the DL less than 24 hours later.

It would be almost impossible to argue that Soriano is a better pitcher than Robertson, since the numbers stack up in favor of the latter. Soriano posted a 4.12 ERA last season and sports a robust 1.57 WHIP this year, with 13 K in 14 IP. By contrast, Robertson delivered an unreal 1.08 ERA with 100 K in 66.2 IP last year, and has already struck out 24 batters in 14.1 IP this season.

But as Yankees fans are swiftly finding out—after living with the greatness of Mariano in the ninth since 1997—closing the door in the ninth inning takes a special kind of pitcher. It’s not necessarily your best pitcher, or the guy that strikes out the most batters, but a uniquely stoic candidate that has experience and willful amnesia.

Rafael Soriano saved 45 games for Tampa Bay in 2010, and 27 for Atlanta in 2009, while Robertson has just four career saves. While no one will mistake him for Mo, Soriano has the experience.

He also has the closer-type contract. Against the better judgment of GM Brian Cashman, the Yankees signed Soriano to a three-year, $35 million deal. Soriano then quickly lost his eighth-inning role to the flame-throwing Robertson in 2011.

But in a world without Mariano, Soriano is the best candidate to close games for the Yankees, at least for this season. Being that no pitcher on the planet could possibly fill Rivera’s shoes, the Yankees would be foolhardy to ruin the confidence of a young up-and-coming reliever like Robertson.

He works like a charm in the eighth inning, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Let Soriano handle the ninth inning. He has the experience and he certainly has the stoic nature required to close. And if he fails spectacularly, at least he’s being handsomely paid for his troubles. Better to ruin the confidence of a 32-year-old and run him out of town in 2013 than to destroy a 27-year-old who proved last year he’s capable of being practically unhittable.

Robertson needs to mature as a pitcher anyway. He showed again and again last year that he was good at getting out of jams. But he had ample opportunity to demonstrate that because he was so good at getting himself into those jams. It was almost like he wanted to load the bases just so he could strike out the side.

That was something Mariano never did. Keep it boring, keep the bases empty, get the outs one-two-three, shake hands and go home. Robertson makes his appearances so thrilling that his Baseball Reference page actually lists his nickname as “Houdini.”

For now, the injury to Robertson guarantees that Soriano will be closing games. Unless he blows it, he could remain the closer even once Robertson returns.

Robertson can focus on getting healthy and spend some time reflecting on the bumpy week-and-a-half he spent as the closer. There’s no doubt he can get better and his brief trial by fire should motivate him to work on translating his eighth inning success to the ninth.

But as fate would have it, the ninth inning now belongs to Rafael Soriano. This is what he wanted when he came to New York and took the big money. This is his opportunity. He should sink his teeth into it and not let go—at least not until Robertson is ready to snatch it away from him.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

So, you spaced on the day of your fantasy draft and auto-drafted four catchers, ten starters and no closers.

Or maybe you drafted Andrew Bailey, Kyle Farnsworth, Matt Thornton and Joakim Soria. Have no fear.

While none of these relievers are fantasy studs, saves are a hot commodity, and astute waiver wire pickups can make all the difference over the long fantasy season.

The discerning save vulture can still make a run at the fantasy title, but you have to strike while the iron is hot and add these closers immediately.

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