Albert Pujols, I humbly thank you on behalf of a younger generation of baseball fans who always dreamed of witnessing a landmark World Series moment that will last forever. This is precisely reason why I always craved the platform to cover major league baseball for a wide audience. A generation of baseball fans born after 1980 previously hadn’t been given the opportunity to watch such a historic postseason feat play out in front of our eyes. Few of us were old enough to observe Kirk Gibson hobbling to the plate and delivering a pinch-hit, walk-off home run off the unflappable Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 Fall Classic. Our parents passed down their retellings of Reggie Jackson smashing three home runs off three different pitchers – Burt Hooton, Elias Sosa and Charlie Hough in the 1977 World Series. - http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/10/23/hartnett-has-america-finally-embraced-albert-pujols
You don't need a rocket scientist or a flux capacitor inventor to figure out that World Series games take longer to play than regular season games. Managers tend to yank their starting pitchers at the first sign of trouble, and this usually will occur during an inning rather than after it. Also, there will be more trips to the mound to talk to rattled pitchers and these trips will occur earlier than they would in the regular season. And of course, there are the commercial breaks. Having the games in prime time generates more money from advertisers, which means FOX has to squeeze out every penny from said advertisers. Simple translation: There are more commercials per break in the action than you would see from April to September. http://studiousmetsimus.blogspot.com/2011/10/hey-kids-how-do-you-like-world.html?mid=50
C.J. Wilson, finally promises to pull in that contract big enough to purchase his long-awaited solid-gold rocket car. Wilson, the heat-hurling lord of the lefties figures to have at least two very impressive suitors — the New York Yankees and his present team, the Texas Rangers. Since becoming a starter two years ago, he has posted a combined 10.5 WAR, sporting an ace-worth 3.24 FIP this year. Not only does Wilson have a shot to break the bank, but there appears to be a chance that twirling titan CC Sabathia may opt out of the final four years of his contract with the Yankees. Sabathia has been yawningly awesome through his 10-year career, never posting a FIP- higher than 96 and assembling a career-best 2.88 FIP in 2011. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/free-agent-market-starting-pitcher
What about the Nationals? How good of an off-season did they really have? Did Jayson Werth get bumped up in price by the Yankees as they were said to have done to the Sox for signing Carl Crawford? The problem is this……………For years, no free-agent has provided enough worth to build a club on by themselve, George Foster by the Mets in the mid 70’s helped cripple the Mets farm system, and free-agent signings have been for the most part a bust for most the last 30 something years. It takes a “TEAM EFFORT” from the front office down to the bird dogs, development people (ie, coaches/instructors) and the players themselves, to build an organization, and for years we have seen this happen with Dave Dombrowski’s teams, the Twins when Terry Ryan was in charge, The Phillies thus far with their Scouting Director still in the seat, and Ruben Jr grew up a Phillie, so he understands the old tradition, that Paul Owens and Dallas Green helped build years ago with veteran scouts like Tony Lucadello, and their west coast ol’ timer scouts and may God rest their souls. http://xmlbscout.angelfire.com
The change is mechanics will be a good thing for him long term. He still holds the skills of an major league pitcher, the same ones that got him touted as the top overall college pitcher heading into 2010. Once he learns to use the new delivery and brings it in line with his strengths, he’ll work lower in the zone using the natural sink his fastball delivers. In time, I also think that he’ll bring his curveball back to a plus level pitch. If he can do that he’ll have mid-rotation stuff. He has the upside of a #2 starter, but I don’t see him reaching that level with his current pitch mix. While he’s a big 6-7 and 260 he hasn’t put himself in the workhorse mold yet and may never be a true workhorse. But a solid #3 pitcher with decent K rates are possible. Another possible outcome is using his 95-96 mph fastball potential in shorter stints with the possible plus curveball and making him a dominant RP. It’s not in talks yet. He’s still young. But it may be his best bet at being a dominant major leaguer. http://baseballinstinct.com/2011/10/24/prospect-instinct-anthony-ranaudo-rhp-boston-red-sox
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