Kuzul

Who truly is the best player in baseball?

Could it be someone like Albert Pujols, who has arguably the best bat in baseball? Could it be Matt Kemp, who might have the best combination of offensive tools right now? Could it be Justin Verlander, who simply overwhelmed opponents from the mound last season? Could it be Roy Halladay, who might not be as flashy as others but is incredibly durable and highly effective?

What truly determines how much value a baseball player provides? That is what we’re here to figure out. Therefore, without further ado, here is my list of the top 50 players in Major League Baseball right now.

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The 2012 Philadelphia Phillies look strangely similar to the 2011 version. All of the biggest contributors to the team’s success will be back in the City of Brotherly Love for at least another season.

Of course, this logically leads to the question as to whether or not the same top performers will have equally productive seasons. That’s what I’m trying to address today.

Here are my statistical projections for each of the top-six players on the Philadelphia Phillies. This is kind of a power ranking because the top five are in order, but I am also predicting each of their individual stat lines.

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The Philadelphia Phillies have re-signed Jimmy Rollins for a contract of three years worth about $33 million, according to Jim Salisbury. There was also a vesting fourth year added to the deal.

Phillies fans should be thrilled about this deal.

Of course, this does mean that the Phillies are not trying to get younger. I realize that, and I realize that infield prospect Freddy Galvis is in a bit of a predicament right now. However, like I have written many, many, many times before, the Phillies are in a position right now to win.

They are getting much older, and eventually they will need to rebuild. Every team goes through that cycle.

However, before that happens to the Phillies, they need to make the best possible effort to win right now. Rollins will help them do that much more than Galvis. Sometimes it takes young players a few years to actually break out and perform at the level that we know they can. It could take a few years for Galvis to reach the level of production that the Phillies need right now.

As a more established veteran, Rollins is in a better position to provide that to the Phillies. He has a great combination of power and speed that is rare among shortstops. Yes, he is getting older, but his career is definitely not over, and he still has a lot to provide to the Phillies.

I would like to think that this move came about because of all the writing I have done about why Rollins should return to Philadelphia. However, the real reason that Jimmy Rollins is returning to Philadelphia is undoubtedly because Ruben Amaro Jr. believes that he will help bring another world championship to Philadelphia.

That would certainly make all Phillies fans happy.

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The Cincinnati Reds have acquired Mat Latos for a package headlined by first base prospect Yonder Alonso according to Ken Rosenthal. You have to love this trade if you are Cincinnati Reds fan.

First off, by trading Alonso, that virtually demonstrates that the Reds will be committed to bringing Joey Votto back long-term. I kind of doubt that the Reds would trade away their insurance policy if they were not relatively certain that they could bring back Votto. That news should be very exciting because nobody likes to hear about their potential MVP candidate leaving.

However, Latos himself is a very good addition.

Latos is only 24 years old. Alonso is also 24 years old. They are not selling the farm in order to bring in a veteran for the short-term. Although Latos has been with the Padres for three years, he is by no means old.

Also, Latos has been pretty successful for these first three years. His career record is unfortunately tilted towards the losing side at 27-29. However, he had been playing for the San Diego Padres. They have virtually no offense, so his career 3.37 ERA has apparently not really been supported. He also has quite a bit of control as his WHIP currently sits at 1.15.

He definitely has top of the rotation potential, and now that he plays for the powerful Cincinnati Reds, he will most definitely get much more run support. The National League Central could now be much more interesting with the Reds making this highly significant move.

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Again, we are hearing the same news from Oakland. According to MLB.com reporter Jane Lee on Twitter, “Everyone not named Jemile Weeks is still available.”

Because of that, I think it is only a matter of time until we see young left-hander Gio Gonzalez on the move somewhere. Of course, the multi-million dollar question is where that will be.

According to Ken Rosenthal, there are a number of teams that are obviously interested in Gonzalez. He is young, cheap, and talented. Rosenthal lists that the Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals are the main contenders for his services.

Of all of these options, I kind of like the Nationals going for him. First of all, I don’t think that they would trade him within the division to the Rangers. It could happen, but those types of trades rarely do. Therefore, that narrows the field to three.

All three of these teams have valid reasons for wanting Gonzalez. However, the Nationals seem to need him more than the other teams.

Allow me to explain.

The Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves have been atop the National League East for several years. The Phillies are getting older, but they still should have a solid performance in 2012. The Atlanta Braves are only getting better every season, and even though they kind of collapsed last season, they will return to fight for the top of the division this coming season.

Obviously, the Marlins have come to compete this season. They grabbed Jose Reyes, Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle very quickly and seem to want to change the power balance in the East this season.

For the sake of completeness, the New York Mets are trying to rebuild, so while I do not see them competing for the division title this season, they are trying to position themselves for a future run.

Where does that leave the Washington Nationals? They are a team full of young talent. Stephen Strasburg will be returning this year, and we will probably see the debut of highly-touted Bryce Harper. Even their more established stars such as Ryan Zimmerman or Jayson Werth (and I do realize that he struggled last year, but he still could be a star) are 27 and 32, respectively.

All of this praise being said though, they still need to improve to compete in this division and Gonzalez is a very convenient way to do that. Like I emphasized above, the Nationals are very young at the major-league level. Because of that, they could afford to deal prospects to acquire Gonzalez since they will have time to replenish the farm system before they need the players in the majors.

I think that it is very possible that the Nationals create a solid offer for Gonzalez. The obvious incentive is to keep up in the East, and he would definitely provide them with an established starting pitcher who could headline their rotation.

Keep your eyes on this deal, and don’t be surprised to see him in Washington.

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With the future of free-agent shortstop Jimmy Rollins up in the air, here is an interesting rumor for you all to consider as a shortstop:

Omar Vizquel has been rumored to be working with the Phillies on some type of contract.

I first read about it on MLB Trade Rumors, but the original rumor broke with Enrique Rojas with ESPN on Twitter.

I really cannot imagine Vizquel being the top option for the Phillies. For a team widely considered to be far too old already, a 44-year-old shortstop doesn’t exactly help fix the situation. However, as much as it pains me to say this, I wonder if this means that the Phillies are planning on letting Rollins walk this offseason.

With Jose Reyes now off the market with his massive six-year deal with the Miami Marlins, it now affords the veteran shortstop a bit more leverage over the Phils. Talks between the two sides are reportedly not going well, however, as Rollins continues to insist on a five-year deal, while the Phillies won’t budge past three.

Please follow my logic on this one.

If Rollins does not return, the everyday shortstop could very well be 22-year-old Freddy Galvis. He had an excellent year in the minor leagues last year with a .278 average, eight home runs, 43 RBI and 23 stolen bases. However, Galvis still has some things to work on and it still trying to obviously reach his potential.

Who would possibly be a better mentor than a shortstop with the second-best fielding percentage of all time at the position? Vizquel has played more games at shortstop than anyone in history with a .272 career average. Could there possibly be a better mentor for a player who might possibly develop a similar skill set?

I know that is one very well could be purely speculation because the Phillies already have Michael Martinez and Wilson Valdez, with both capable of playing the position. It may not even come to more than this one article. For anyone who has read some of my previous articles, you know that I do not think that Rollins should go anywhere.

However, you have to admit that this is a pretty creative thought that I would have never even thought about speculating if the Phillies do not re-sign Rollins.

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I realize that hindsight is 20/20. However, it really struck me last night as I was thinking about trades that the Phillies have made in previous winter meetings how much I wish the Phillies could operate by hindsight.

I was struck mainly because in December of 2006 the Phillies traded for Freddy Garcia of the Chicago White Sox. Do you remember who was in that deal?

That’s right. Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez were traded for Garcia. Again, at the time, this seemed like a pretty good deal. Garcia had quite a few good seasons with the Seattle Mariners and then with the Chicago White Sox. In fact, in 2001 he came in third in the American League Cy Young voting. It seemed that the Phillies were finally getting a top of the rotation starter.

However, things didn’t work out so well for him in Philadelphia. He only stayed for one season and went 1-5 with a 5.90 ERA over 11 starts. He was out of Philadelphia the next year. However, he did have a very nice year with the Yankees last season and it was nice to see him pitching very well again.

Again, I am playing with the benefit of knowing the outcome, but I was just thinking about all of the demand that is around Gonzalez right now. A lot of interest is coming from the Yankees, Red Sox and Marlins, according to several different sources.

Why is there all this demand? Simply put, he had a great season last year. He went 16-12 with a 3.12 ERA. Part of me was fantasizing about what the Phillies would have looked like with him as the fifth arm in the rotation.

I know that there are a lot of factors that made him into the pitcher he is today, and a lot of his development probably came throughout the Oakland farm system. Therefore, who knows how he would have developed through the Philadelphia system?

Nevertheless, this is where my mind went when I was thinking about the previous winter meetings.

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According to Comcast Sports, Ruben Amaro Jr. is going to meet with Jimmy Rollins‘ agent, Dan Lozano, at baseball’s winter meetings which begin on Monday in Dallas.

I have written before about how the Phillies should do what they can to keep him in Philadelphia. I still believe that, and I think that the Phillies have a very realistic shot at doing this.

The reason is that the market for Jose Reyes seems to be relatively limited, according to this article from CNN. In this article, Joe Sheehan examines a lot of possibilities; but he basically concludes that not many teams would be overly interested in Reyes, even though they may have the money to pay him.

How does this relate to Rollins? Reyes is a better player than Rollins, and there is not a lot of interest in Reyes or the shortstop position in general. Therefore, I do not think that there will be an overwhelming amount of demand for Rollins in the market, either. That might help his price drop.

The Phillies could still use him, however. They do have a need at shortstop. Freddy Galvis had a great year in the minor leagues, and I think that he looks pretty good.

However, I am also going to say that the Phillies are old. This is definitely no secret, but the point is that the Phillies seem to want to right now before they get too old. At the moment, Rollins gives them a better chance of actually winning. Maybe Galvis is a better long-term move; but I don’t think that it is a secret that the Phillies want to win right now.

Given this goal, bringing back their emotional leader and former All-Star would definitely help the Phillies win right now.

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The Texas Rangers are looking incredibly hot right now. They’re definitely the favorites to finally win their first World Series in franchise history.

First, we need to face the fact that pitching has not been the strong point of this postseason. However, the Rangers have had the best pitching so far of the teams remaining. Texas has a team ERA of 4.01 followed by the St. Louis Cardinals at 4.33, the Detroit Tigers at 5.04 and the Milwaukee Brewers at 5.47.

I know that the argument could be made that perhaps ERA is not the best way to measure their success. However, I tend to think that it is a relatively solid measurement in this case because it does show that the Texas Rangers are allowing fewer runs than any other team right now in the playoffs. This will obviously be important if they want to win the World Series.

Second, Nelson Cruz is simply on fire right now. Even though his average is only at .212 for the playoffs, he has five home runs and 11 RBI in nine games. He has been getting huge hits and making a huge impact on the Rangers. While a higher average would obviously be ideal, the run production is what is important here. If he is capable of getting big hits, that will definitely help the Rangers as they progress towards the World Series.

Finally, even though the Texas Rangers have been outscored by the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers so far this postseason, the Rangers offense scored the third most runs in baseball during the regular season. They have a very powerful lineup led by, of course, Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli and Ian Kinsler.

Combining this potentially powerful lineup with the fact that they have allowed the fewest runs of any remaining team seems to indicate that the Texas Rangers should be the favorites to win the World Series right now.

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Andrew Carpenter has been waived by the Philadelphia Phillies and was claimed by the San Diego Padres. This means that the Phillies now have an open spot on the 40-man roster and Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly speculates that spot might soon belong to Aaron Rowand.

Rowand was recently waived by the San Francisco Giants, so the Phillies could grab him for the rest of the season. He would provide some support off the bench as he is batting .286 against left-handed pitchers. Since this has been a weakness for the Phillies, this move does make sense.

Overall, Rowand is batting .233 with four home runs and 24 RBI.

He is remembered best in Philadelphia for going all out every time he played, even though it did lead to some less than desirable results occasionally. He was loved in Philadelphia, so this could be a very popular move with the fans.

The downside to this acquisition would be that Rowand would not be eligible for postseason play. Nevertheless, he might be worth acquiring for a month.

This season, Carpenter appeared in six games for the Phillies and posted a 7.71 ERA. He had a 1.821 WHIP which translates to 12.5 hits per nine innings and 3.9 walks per nine innings—definitely not stellar numbers in the major leagues.

However, he was dominating in AAA Lehigh Valley. In 34 appearances there he went 5-1 with a 1.79 ERA. He also barely allowed any base runners as shown by his 0.978 WHIP.

The other reason for opening up this roster spot could possibly be to prepare for the return of Joe Blanton from the DL. Nevertheless, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said, “We needed some roster space–just in case.”

Amaro’s quote seems to imply that something unexpected and could happen, so the return of Blanton has been anticipated. We will just have to wait and see what will happen for the Phillies.

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