February 2010
Young Arms Define 2010
The upcoming season in Major League Baseball will be headlined by dazzling, young pitchers.
After an unprecedented 2009, Zack Greinke turned heads while pitching for the consistently cellar-dwelling Royals, and breezed his way to a Cy Young award.
Fire-balling righty Tim Lincecum managed to grab a second straight Cy Young in a somewhat strange voting in ’09. He walked away from the three-man battle with Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright splitting votes between them, which allowed Lincecum to sneak in and snag it away from the Cards’ hurlers.
All eyes will be on that pair, who claimed the two top ranks of fantasy pitchers, according to Yahoo Fantasy Baseball, but will share the spotlight with a plethora of other extremely talented starters the MLB possesses: Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Jon Lester, Matt Cain, Josh Johnson, Ubaldo Jiminez and J.A. Happ, just to name a few. All age 27 or younger.
All of these are considered the aces of their staff, with exception of Cain and Happ, who play second fiddle to Lincecum and Roy Halladay. Not a bad tandem to pitch behind.
Each considered a power-pitcher, other than Happ and possibly Cain, will use their mid-90s fastballs to turn hitters circles and pile up strikeouts. Cain and Happ will rely on location and off-speed pitches to be effective.
Coincidentally enough, all of the teams other than Greinke’s are looked upon to be competitive in the 2010 campaign.
A widely known fact, pitching dominates hitting early in the year, will undoubtedly give these young men, if I may say that, some early success.
So, make sure to set your DV-Rs and TiVos to record every episode of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, and I’d be willing to take it to Vegas that you’ll see one of those faces on its’ “That’s Nasty” segment any given night.
Should Cards Have Made One More Free Agent Move?
Little has been said regarding the Cardinals’ free agent signings other than, “glad we got Holliday back,” but one more signing could haveset them in a far better position regarding their pitching staff.
A proven winner, Chien-Ming Wang, was on the market until just recently after being signed by the Washington Nationals.
Wang, a previous two-time 19-game winner for the New York Yankees, has proven his ability to pitch, when healthy, in the tenacious American League East. Previously with the Yankees, Wang injured himself running the bases in Arizona, and has struggled each of the last two seasons, only making a total of 24 starts.
Despite health issues, Wang looks as if he’s recovered from his right shoulder strain and bursitis he suffered last season, and is in good form for the upcoming campaign.
The Cardinals signed the always-dangerous Brad Penny this offseason for $7.5 million base salary, with a $1.5 million possible incentive bonus.
Penny struggled early on last season with Boston, but was sent to the Giants, where he returned to old form, managing a 4-1 record in six starts. His struggles in the AL East are what shipped him right out of town.
Wang, who has won many games in the AL East, slipped out of the Cardinals’ grasp without even a consideration.
Hesitation on the side of the Cardinals, as well as many other teams, allowed Washington to snatch Wang up, for a humble $2 million base salary with an additional million in possible incentives.
It looks as if, with the current payroll, the Cards have about $7 million to work with, according to Matthew Leach, Cardinals MLB.com Beat Writer.
The team supposedly wanted to wait until Spring Training or later to make a move that will bolster the team at any position. The Cardinals have made it known they are seeking help in a few positions: third base, back-end rotation help, and a left-handed bat off the bench.
A main target of the Redbirds for third base help is Felpie Lopez, who had a brief stint with the Cardinals in ’08. David Freese currently sits as the favorite to win the job, who has had his own problems this offseason.
Lopez would most likely take no more than half of the remaining budget of the Cardinals, which begs the question: Why was Wang not a candidate for back-end rotation help?
Instead of looking into the possibility of signing a pitcher with proven dominance, they signed former Cub lefty, Rich Hill.
Hill, with Baltimore a season ago, struggled mightily, recording a .500 record and a 7.80 ERA in 14 games (13 starts).
The departures of Joel Pineiro and John Smoltz left two vacant spots in the rotation, with one being filled by Penny, and the other still up in the air, and no overpoweringly strong favorite heading into Spring Training.
Wang would’ve been that favorite, had he been signed, but instead, it will be battled out by Hill, Jamie Garcia, Kyle McClellan, Mitchell Boggs and Blake Hawksworth.
For the small price to pay for Wang, the upside was tremendous, especially working with one of the most highly touted pitching coaches in the game, Dave Duncan.
redbirdfan13
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