Baseball: Christy Mathewson, Adam Dunn, Christian Bethancourt, Craig Kimbrel

Baseball:  Christy Mathewson, Adam Dunn, Christian Bethancourt, Craig Kimbrel

Christy Mathewson -  Here was an admirable character. Mathewson was one of the early college-educated stars in baseball. He was intelligent, creative (the fadeaway pitch), and honorable in ways that few people are these days. He was widely respected—aka electable—and as a devout Christian, he would have been a golden boy for the conservative right. Normally, that'd be a strike against him, but the national government of the time needed someone with the scruples of Matty. Plus, if he had gone into politics, perhaps he wouldn't have enlisted in the army at the age of 38, wouldn't have inhaled the lethal gas that slowly took his life, and perhaps we would have had him around longer than 45 years. —Bradford Doolittle http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15903

Dunn's struggles in 2011 -- his first season with the Chicago White Sox -- were well-documented, here and elsewhere. Although Dunn never hit for average, he still posted a respectable career batting average of .250 prior to 2011. That dropped to .159 last season. .159. That's lower than the batting average of fifteen National League pitchers last season with at least 60 at-bats. But the power outage is even more shocking. His career slugging percentage through the 2010 season was .523. In 2011, it was .277. .277. As a slugging percentage. And he ended the season with only 11 home runs. http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/1/25/2728481/adam-dunn-white-sox-projections-statistics

Christian Bethancourt, C, Braves -  Bethancourt is one of, if not the best, defensive catchers in the game. His arm is a pure 80; one scout reported a pop time of 1.68, the best he's ever recorded in his decade-plus of work. Offensively, the 20-year-old Panamanian has been a mixed bag; he has hit for a decent average but showed little in the way of power or patience. His approach still needs work, but after hitting five home runs in 72 Arizona Fall League at-bats, there's hope that his raw power might come around. The Braves hope he can show enough this spring to earn a Double-A assignment.

Craig Kimbrel splashed onto the scene in 2011 and simply dominated.  Granted he had some bad outings and battled inconsistency throughout the season that led to 8 blown saves. Still, the raining rookie of the year notched a record 46 saves for the Braves, was an All-Star, and managed 127 strikeouts.  His ERA was only 2.10 throughout all that and his WHIP was even more impressive at 1.04.  Kimbrel is an outstanding closer with the potential to be a HOF closer.  Last year I described him as a right-handed version of Billy Wagner and I will stick to that.  Kimbrel has a lights out 97+ MPH fastball and a slider that buckles even the best hitters. http://thecloserreport.com/2012-player-profile-craig-kimbrel-atlanta-braves/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed