Kuzul

The 2010 MLB season is drawing to a close, and while many teams and their fans are looking to the postseason, others are already looking to next year. In the case of some players, next year could bring major changes.

Recently, there have been reports of players being unhappy with their situations and requesting trades, most notably Colby Rasmus of the Cardinals and Prince Fielder of the Brewers. Other players look like they have been wanting out for a while, and as a result they may do just that.

The following is a list of 10 players who could be in a different uniform next season. Some, like those listed above, are almost guaranteed to be gone, while others on this list are long shots and likely will remain with their current team, at least in my opinion.

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With just a few weeks to go, the year of the rookie is set to come to a close in baseball, and what a year it was. So many great rookies appeared on the scene, many of whom would win the Rookie of the Year Award no problem most years. Of course, this is not most years. We have the performers, the hyped stars, and Stephen Strasburg this year, among all the other rookie to sneak on the scene that you may not have heard of.

The top five candidates in the AL and Nl, in my opinion, are listed. Some names included and excluded will probably surprise you; I’m looking past any hype and just looking at how well they have performed this year. There are so many names in the NL to choose from that many will be left off, even some that others may consider frontrunners. There are fewer in the AL, yet it is just as difficult to pinpoint a winner.

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Chris Sale was one of the many top-level college pitchers being looked at in the 2010 MLB Draft.

I was hoping, as a Cleveland Indians fan, that they would select Sale with the fifth pick. Instead, they went with Drew Pomeranz.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets then drafted Barret Loux and Matt Harvey, respectively, as Sale continued to fall.

After the Blue Jays drafted Deck McGuire, considered the most major league-ready pitcher at the time, the White Sox drafted Chris Sale with the 13th pick.

While the rest of these pitchers have yet to start their careers, and while Loux ended up failing a physical, Sale is already on the White Sox roster, and so far has pitched well for them.

In his first 10 appearances, without pitching in the minors, Sale has allowed one earned run in ten innings with an ERA of 0.90, to go along with a save, seven walks, and 16 Ks.

Doubly good for him is that since he’s the only left-hander not hurt on the White Sox roster, we’ll be seeing more of him down the stretch.

This begs the question… how did he slide so far in the draft? Perhaps Ozzie Guillen just saw something in him that nine other managers and scout groups missed.

He said himself in a blog by Doug Padilla, “They showed 10 seconds [of Sale] and I told [GM] Kenny [Williams], ‘This kid is better than what we have.’ I didn’t know him. I saw him for 10 seconds.”

Was the secret for his rapid ascent something as simple as being fine with the move to the bullpen?

I would have to imagine most first-round starting pitchers drafted would be at least somewhat reluctant to move to the bullpen, at least immediately. After all, they’ve been starters for many years, that’s what they know.

What the answer is, I don’t know. What I do know is that Chris Sale has already become a draft steal. Falling as far as he did, yet already pitching as well as he did, is a rare occurrence.

Only four players from the 2009 draft class have made it to the majors (all college pitchers, hint hint).

All have pitched well, but for Sale to adjust to major league life this quickly is a treat.

To be able to produce for a team trying to get in the playoffs is perhaps an even greater treat.

In the year of the rookie and the year of the pitcher, this rookie pitcher’s story is just as amazing as anyone else’s. I’m hoping for a great career out of him, as I’m sure the White Sox are as well.

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We are now into September, and by now the Cy Young Award winner tends to be clear, or we are at least between a couple players.

Last year at this time, Zack Greinke and Felix Hernandez were battling it out, the 13-8, 2.32 ERA against the 13-5, 2.77 ERA respectively. Both players had great Septembers that year, as neither player lost a game.

In the National League, it was down to the wire between Tim Lincecum, Chris Carpenter, and Adam Wainwright, and it ended up being an extremely close vote as a result; I’m expecting that again this year for both leagues.

In 2008, Cliff Lee was declared the winner already at this point, and Tim Lincecum’s 15-3 record received similar treatment, though Brandon Webb’s 22 wins took some votes.

This year, it is anyone’s game. In the National League, it is realistically between six players, with the top three in a deadlock.

In the American League, there are many players that can take some votes. Sabathia had a great August and has risen up the rankings, while King Felix is out to prove that wins are not everything. Lee’s struggles have made him no longer an automatic front runner, and Mariano Rivera will probably take a couple votes, even with this starting pitching.

There are 12 to 13 people that could win the Cy Young if they have stellar Septembers, including a couple that you have probably never even heard of! Such is the beauty of this race, though it’s a pain for those that dare rank them.

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When two opposing forces meet, the results can be explosive. We see it in television, movies, and even in our everyday sayings (the unstoppable force vs. the immovable object, or more simply, red vs. blue).

The Yankees gave a huge contract to Carl Pavano after the 2004 season, and after the 2008 season, the Yankees gave up on Pavano. This was the result of numerous injuries, including Tommy John surgery, which had fans very unhappy that the Yankees wasted their money on this guy. He signed with the Cleveland Indians, and pitched well enough to be traded to Minnesota, where his career has gotten back on track.

Let’s say that his problems had Yankees fans seeing red.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Kerry Wood had an amazing rookie year in 1998 for the Cubs. Injuries began to pile up right after that. Injury, after injury, after injury caused Kerry Wood to make the disabled list more times than the Red Sox outfield this year.

After an attempt to make him a closer in 2008, Wood signed with the Cleveland Indians (always the middle man) and became their closer in 2009 and 2010. He struggled though, and he was traded to New York.

The player who was always hurt and rarely effective was given to the Yankees, even though that’s exactly who they got rid of in 2008. they acquired, at the deadline, someone rather experienced wearing blue.

Red vs. blue. The Yankees get rid of an ineffective pitcher who goes on to play well, and later acquire an ineffective pitcher who, so far, has been great for the Yankees. Explosive result? Very much so.

In his 10 appearances, 11.2 innings, he has allowed only one earned run, thrown 15 strikeouts, and has been the setup man Joba Chamberlain never was. The question is, how?

Perhaps it’s the lack of pressure now. The Yankees have a dominant closer, as well as a great rotation, so if Kerry Wood in the eighth allows a run or two, it’s not the end of the world. Granted, this is New York; there’s automatically pressure for anyone and everyone, doubly so if you have baggage like Wood does.

Perhaps it’s that he was always meant to be a setup man. We never saw this side of Wood (except for some of 2007), we only saw the starter and the closer. There’s nothing wrong with being a setup man. After all, some of history’s better setup men were Yankees: Paul Quantrill and Tom Gordon, among others.

Maybe though, just maybe, it’s everything realigning. The Yankees lose Pavano, but acquire Wood. So long as Wood doesn’t get injured, everything is in check.

Or maybe the Indians are just good luck for the Yankees in matters like this. They’ll take the low-risk, high-reward, low-pay guy from them and return a low-risk, high-reward, high-pay guy, such is the bartering system of the smaller market teams.

Whatever the case is, the Yankees have bolstered their bullpen in a move no one thought would mean anything, and by doing so they’ve cemented their status as this year’s front-runner, as unlikely as the source of the cement was.

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Making the rounds right now is the news that Stephen Strasburg will likely have to undergo Tommy John surgery, meaning he would miss the rest of 2010, but also all of 2011. This is bad not just for Strasburg and the Nationals, but for baseball as well. The most hyped prospect since, well, another pitcher who will show up on this list, he was set for great things.

Instead, we are left wondering if he will be the same after his injury. This is not an uncommon occurrence, sadly. Many pitchers started off with amazing careers, only to befall injury and have to retire early, or perhaps worse, pitch on as a shell of their former selves. Ten pitchers in this list had great starts to their careers, but fizzled out quickly due to various reasons.

It’s a list that Strasburg, we are all hoping, will not end up on.

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There’s one thing that you never, under any circumstances, want to hear when scouting a pitcher.

Raw? That’s not a big deal. The pitcher can be developed in the minors, as long as it may take, and it can still work out.

Wild? That’s a problem, but again, it can be worked out, whether it’s just a wild arm or something psychological.

Lack of Passion? We are getting close, but even this is not the worst; if the pitcher has talent it can still work out. After all, Rube Waddell was a Hall of Famer.

The answer, of course, is “injury prone.” Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, and so many others have had their careers shortened drastically due to injuries. Yet, before these injuries, they were highly touted prospects that pitched extremely well in the majors. Stephen Strasburg is in that same situation. He has pitched very well in the majors so far, yet in his rookie season, he has now been on the disabled list twice.

Some of this is the result of the Nationals being cautious with their star, and you can’t fault them for that. You never want to overexert your star. After all, how different would things be if Walter Johnson continued to have Joe Cantillon as his first manager? Well, for starters, it likely would have been his only manager, and he would have flamed out after four or five seasons.

Unfortunately, you could be as cautious as possible with Strasburg, but if this becomes a continuing trend, then it will be time to panic in Washington.

Do I have any particular reason to think that Strasburg is injury-prone apart from his two DL stints? No. Then again, no one had any reason to worry about Kerry Wood in 1998, and look at what has happened since.

Let’s say that, hypothetically, is does land on the DL again next season and this starts to build up. What’s the solution? All the Nationals can do is limit his innings and pitch count, but just as importantly, he may have to modify his pitching from trying to strike everyone out and turn into a Greg Maddux-type pitcher. He has the ability to do it should he ever have to.

Until then, let’s just shut him down for the season. We’ve seen he can pitch, let’s just make sure he’s 100% for next year. No need to risk another injury to move up to fourth place.

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Many baseball experts discuss the pitcher who has been unlucky, who just cannot seem to win no matter how well he pitches. Roy Oswalt is the main example being used this season, and his 8-13, 3.36 ERA season is indicative of a player whose win-loss record should be flipped.

Conversely, many players get really lucky breaks, whether it’s due to a great offense or getting a lot of run support, and as a result they have a winning record despite a decent at best ERA. As such, I am listing the top 10 luckiest pitchers. Some are borderline cases, and I try to limit them to players with not so good ERAs, though some who end up on this list will have fairly good ERAs as well.

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The San Francisco Giants have finally begun to start pulling away from the pack of wolves in the NL West. The Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers are falling behind in the standings, and it is fast becoming a two-horse race between the Giants and the San Diego Padres.

The two teams are very similar thus far: Low ERAs, a great first baseman, but otherwise mostly struggling bats. As a result, the two have nearly identical records, meaning that some players need to step up for both teams. Here are five that need to either turn a mediocre season around for the Giants, or need to take a good season and make it great.

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Every year in every major sport, there are several teams that will chalk up a season that did not go as planned to injuries. Usually it is done to save face when there were other problems, but at times, the team really was decimated beyond belief. The 2010 Red Sox are one of those teams.

It has now been reported that the Red Sox will be without Kevin Youkilis for the rest of the season, as he will have surgery on a torn muscle in his right thumb. This injury is particularly devastating as Youkilis has been a leader and one of the most reliable bats in the Sox lineup.

When you lose Jason Varitek, Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Cameron, and many others to the disabled list (thankfully not all at the same time), it is enough to destroy any team. Despite all these setbacks, the Red Sox are only six and a half games back in the AL East. 

With the injury to Youkilis, that’s as close as they’re going to get. He is one of three players to play 100 games for the Sox this season and one of five to play 90. Losing one of those pieces is going to hurt a team, especially one trying to play catchup against the Rays and Yankees, who are making strong pushes for the postseason.

It is rather strange to think that a team with 61 wins is pretty much done for the year now. After all, if they were in the AL Central they would be one game behind, as well as only two games behind in the AL West.

Mike Lowell is scheduled to get the majority of playing time in place of Youkilis. Lowell just recently returned from his own stint on the DL, having only played in one game since mid-June, and at 36, he does not seem like he has much left in the tank, certainly not enough to make up a six-game difference by himself.

Perhaps I’m being harsh in my judgment of the Red Sox here, but when you’re behind a team that’s known for playing strong in the second half (Yankees) as well as a team you’re only 4-8 against this season (Rays), that’s a very hard mountain to climb.

In the next couple weeks, the Red Sox play at Yankee Stadium and at Texas, and they are going to have to at least split those series to stay in the running. After all, those two teams got much better since July, and the Red Sox are only getting worse as more players fall.

General manager Theo Epstein said it best about Youkilis: “That’s not the type of guy you can replace.” That is certainly true. You can’t just find a guy with a 4.2 WAR and a .411 on-base percentage walking around. The Red Sox have given a great effort to still be in the hunt for a playoff spot this season, but with Youkilis’s injury, it seems like fate has already decided who gets a playoff spot.

The Red Sox will not be one of those teams.

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