Kuzul

Here’s something odd to ponder. 

Will fans, media and even perhaps members of the actual team (the ones who have remained at least) look back on the end of the 2011 season, along with all of its traumatic aftermath, and think to themselves, “we’re all better off that things went down the way they did?”

It’s not a normal way to view things that one finds to be so agitating. Make no mistake about it, unless you were one of the people for whom their actual job changed or was at least altered as a result of last season’s Red Sox implosion, then it really wasn’t that bad. 

Don’t get me wrong, it was bad. It was the worst way to end a baseball regular season that I can remember. Even worse, was the fallout. Red Sox fans had to endure the departures of long-standing favorites. Symbols of success had become ones of failure. It was a major bummer. 

With that in mind, there’s no way it could be looked at in any way as a good thing, right? 

There’s no explicit rule about what exactly makes a team mentally strong. There’s no magic formula for toughness. Bobby Valentine has arrived in Fort Meyers and has brought with him a new ban on beer in the clubhouse. 

His style is going to differ dramatically from that of the more laid back Terry Francona. Managers of all types have had success in Major League Baseball. Billy Martin was far more high strung than Valentine, yet he found success. Bobby Cox was not known to be the same sort of high-strung presence that Valentine is, but he was also wildly successful. 

Tony La Russa was controlling but also very cerebral. Joe Torre offered up a similar personality to that of Terry Francona. All men found varying degrees of success and failure as managers. That’s because there is no magic formula for success. 

A lot of it is on the players. Yes, there are the tangible things like maintaining physical conditioning. There’s also an attitude and a group dynamic worth thinking about also. Every team that losses doesn’t lack that cohesiveness, but those that ultimately win often do. 

The one thing that’s most apparent from last year’s collapse wasn’t that the players were fat or drunk, it was that the bond—the unity in thought and on-the-field attitude—had somehow become fractured. 

This year’s current Red Sox team has yet to play a game or even really play an inning of baseball, but already they’ve displayed something that, from the outside looking in, last year’s team lacked: unity.

There really does seem to be an edge to the team. You can see it in the nearly identical takes from members of last year’s Red Sox when it comes to the more publicized aspects of the collapse. 

It goes beyond that, though. In today’s Boston Globe, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz gets noticeably angry at long time Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy over a case of mistaken identity. It seems that Shaughnessy and fellow Globe writer Kevin DuPont had made an online video discussing the 2012 Red Sox, and in that video DuPont drew a comparison between the current David Ortiz and now-retired Red Sox slugger Jim Rice.

The comparison wasn’t all that flattering, and Ortiz was angry about it. It’s not the anger so much as what he says to Shaughnessy at one point in the column. After Shaughnessy inquires as to why Ortiz was so angry, he snaps.

“I am still here for a reason, right? Anybody can have a bad season. I work my ass off to get better every year. I always come hungry and I try to make things happen.”

Boston Globe 2/25/12

Clearly Ortiz is fired up. It’s not even March and he’s already pissed off at the press and the fans and anyone who doubts him. This attitude was alluded to by Clay Buchholz over a week ago, when he first showed up in Fort Meyers. 

“I think a lot of the guys have come here with a chip on their shoulder about it and we want to do well and we want to go to October this year.”

Boston Globe 2/16/12

Is it a stretch to suggest the possibility that a unified and somewhat angry Red Sox team with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove could be a more dangerous team this year? Is it a stretch to also suggest that their manager, who has been absent from a major league dugout for nearly a full decade, also has something to prove? Could that mix result in 5-to-10 more wins? 

That’s all it really has to do. The Red Sox, in spite of the highly publicized collapse, finished with 90 wins. A 95-100-win season would likely assure the team of, at the very least, a playoff berth. After that, who knows? Who knows whether or not last season’s collapse was the end of a great era or merely the spark to begin a new one? 

As of now, no one knows. We’re going to find out soon enough, though. 

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There promise to be entertaining positional battles during MLB Spring Training 2012.

In particular, much is at stake when a veteran player competes against an up-and-comer for a starting role.

Secondary to winning the World Series but above most other things, MLB players are motivated by the possibility of playing everyday.

Old-timers often have too much pride to accept reserve roles, while the young guys don’t want to pass up opportunities to establish their legitimacy.

All the following individuals will appear in the big leagues this season. That’s a victory in itself.

However, their performances over the next few weeks could dramatically affect their futures in baseball beyond this summer.

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Baseball’s offseason has been highlighted by nothing but Ryan Braun, the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Angels.

Lost in the mix is a billion-dollar franchise. The only billion-dollar franchise in baseball.

Where are the New York Yankees in every baseball discussion?

It’s like they are nowhere to be found. It’s like a changing of the guard has happened in baseball.
 
No Boston Red Sox and no Yankees.

These days, hype is the deciding factor before a season even starts. Bandwagoners have already jumped on the Angels because they hefted out $240 million for Albert Pujols.

The same goes for the Tigers, who forked out $214 million for Prince Fielder.

La deedah.

Usually it’s the Yankees who make the offseason splash. Four years ago, New York spent $180 million on Mark Teixeira and $161 million on CC Sabathia.

But this winter season the market was bare. They were not in the running for Pujols or Fielder, leaving only trades open for consideration.

And that’s when they made a splash by acquiring 23-year-old Michael Pineda out of the blue from the Seattle Mariners.

They also got rid of a headache in A.J. Burnett and signed a reliable bullpen arm in David Aardsma.

It was like the Yankees felt they didn’t need to do much. Like they were already set.

And that thinking was right.

New York is still the most complete team in baseball, whether or not they made a move. The best money spent came from the Yankees and what they didn’t do.

It’s what they have and are currently spending on.

They still have stars in Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano.

Oh, and two guys named Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

They now have a solid starting five with Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Pineda, Hiroki Kuroda and Phil Hughes.

The Yankees have it, as they always do.

While they are aging very quickly, this is still the team to beat in baseball. There’s nothing better than beating New York, as Detroit found out in last season’s divisional playoffs.

New York exited October in stunning fashion. Tigers manager Jim Leyland even said every satisfaction is knocking off the Yankees. There’s no better feeling.

Going into the season, the only question mark is whether this team’s lineup will wake up when those playoffs start. If 2012 comes down to wondering if New York will make the playoffs as they always do, they will. This team finds ways to win with what they’ve got.

With baseball’s regular season on the map in a little over a month, New York will enter the season with a potent, productive offense and an impressive rotation.

If I had to pick a team to win it all from the start, it would be New York.

Vegas even agrees. You can’t buy into the hype of Detroit and Los Angeles. NY is the odds-on favorite to win it all at 6/1.

See, I hate hype, as we have found out in other sports with the Miami Heat and New England Patriots.

It’s always a team that flies under the radar, and at this point that appears to be the mighty Yankees.

Like what you just read? Follow me on Twitter @audio_adam for more of my sports opinion. 

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Bryce Harper’s status with the 2012 Washington Nationals has become one of the hottest topics of Spring Training thus far. He’s one of the most talented prospects ever in Major League history, and it’s no question that the Nationals would love to have him on the 25-man roster.

Apparently, manager Davey Johnson seems willing to give Harper every chance this spring to make the club. Even though veterans Mike Morse, Roger Bernadina and Jayson Werth will all have the upper hand, Harper will still be given ample opportunity.

If Harper has a strong spring, Johnson and GM Mike Rizzo will have no choice but to consider him for the Opening Day roster. 

Harper is somebody who needs to be playing everyday, no matter the level. If he plays well enough this spring to make the team, but not well enough to start, the Nationals would be wise to have him play in AAA so he can continue to get regular at-bats.

Even if he did play well enough to earn a starting spot in right field, he would be a huge work in progress. It’s obvious that he has serious talent, but he still needs work defensively in the outfield, along with his base-running and with his discipline at the plate.

Such things can only be corrected with a sufficient amount of playing time. Playing sporadically as a fourth outfielder in the majors won’t do much to help his progression into the superstar player he seems destined to be.

The 19-year old is confident in his abilities, and given his manager’s confidence in him, it’s definitely a possibility that Harper will be suiting up as the Opening Day right fielder in 2012.

Harper’s emergence with the team would have a direct effect on Werth, who will be asked to shift from his natural position of right field over to center. That move would make Bernadina the team’s fourth outfielder, or emergency plan just in case Harper falters.

Werth, who failed to produce at a level reflective of the monster contract he signed prior to last season, would have a tough task ahead of him. He would be asked to transition into playing center field everyday, as well as being asked to cover for the inevitable mistakes that Harper would make in the transition to an everyday outfielder.

Werth’s offense, though, will probably benefit from Harper’s presence in the lineup.

In 561 at-bats last season, Werth hit a putrid .232/.330/.389 with 20 home runs and 58 RBI. With the added protection of Harper, Werth would theoretically see an all-around increase in his production.

Having Harper on the roster would surely improve the Nationals offensive production. That being said, the defense would take a pretty big hit, at least at first. Harper seems determined this spring to improve his game, so he may turn out to be a more-than-serviceable outfielder.

The Nationals figure to be a much improved club this season, with or without the presence of Harper on the 25-man roster. The additions of Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson will be huge for the rotation, and the under-the-radar signing of Brad Lidge should help to solidify the back end of the bullpen.

The team won 80 games in 2011. With the additions of Gonzalez, Jackson and Lidge, the team could see its win total increase into the 88-range. With Harper on the team, though, that win total could increase even further into the 91-range.

With 91 wins, the team would most likely be fighting with the revamped Marlins for a Wild Card spot. Should they win the Wild Card, the Nationals could end up cast as a playoff sleeper in October.

There’s no doubt that Harper will be a productive major leaguer when his time comes, but he could really be a valuable asset to the Nationals this season. Although he may make the defense a bit weaker, the offense and the bench will be improved as a result of him being on the team.

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I’ve worked in baseball for quite a while, and much of my work has been dedicated at least in part to public relations. At the minor league level, PR responsibilities are very different than in the major leagues. Nevertheless, I find myself at times like these shaking my head at several high-profile missteps.

The Boston Red Sox have been embroiled in a PR nightmare since their epic collapse in September. (Type the words “fried chicken and beer” into Google and the top four results are about the Sox.) And it seems with every step, they manage to find another puddle. (Disclaimer: I’ve been a Red Sox fan for nearly 30 years.)

Saturday morning, one sentence from Red Sox owner John Henry gave an interview the tone of defensiveness and arrogance. When asked to explain his comments about Carl Crawford back in October, which has prompted a spring training apology from the owner, Henry said, “I don’t want to go through it again … I explained it and people seem to not want to hear the explanation.”

Would it have been difficult to just say, “I had a misconception about the makeup of our lineup, but our baseball operations team clarified it for me,” or even, “I stay out of baseball decisions and it was a knee-jerk opinion simply colored by the difficult month we went through?” Or he could have shown his support for Crawford by telling the press, “I think the world of Carl and we look forward to him having an excellent season.”

Instead, his answer expressed a defensive contempt for the media that journalists aren’t very fond of. Yes, we know they were digging for some more dirt and hoping Henry would put his foot in his mouth. The Red Sox owner, who is seeing the goodwill earned by two World Series titles after 86 years of pain slowly erode, effectively said to everyone, “Leave me alone!”

Pushing fans and media away with a “this is my team” attitude will alienate Henry and his partners just as much as those two championships endeared him.

Speaking of pushing people away, Josh Hamilton recently told the press, “I don’t feel like I owe the Rangers.” The comment was one of several eye-opening statements made by the former AL MVP about his stalled talks for a contract extension with the Texas Rangers.

Hamilton made headlines three weeks ago when reports surfaced that he was seen drinking at two Dallas-area establishments. For most players this is a non-story, but for a former first overall draft pick whose substance abuse problems threatened his career, it was bound to be front-page news.

Both the content and the timing of Hamilton’s comments were suspect. He is trying to put the most recent incident behind him, but aggressively suggesting his value to the team over the last few years begs media and fans to examine both sides of the ledger. Right now, the public wants to see a humble man working hard for their favorite team. The organization needs to see a player who understands the damage his latest incident does to both Hamilton and the team, not someone trying to paint over it with past achievements.

What is most troublesome about this is, Hamilton has an agent, so why didn’t he use him? He is going through a difficult period of his own doing, and he is embarking on a contract year. He has a person in his employ who is paid to represent him, especially when the business relationship between the player and organization is strained.

Players too often get suckered by the siren call of the microphones. They fail to realize the value of an agent isn’t always in the negotiations themselves, but in plausible deniability. An agent should be the hard-talking media magnet, the guy who takes the slings and arrows when the player’s stance might be unpopular. When the press shows up for the player’s reaction to his agent’s comments, he can draw inspiration from the clichés listed in Bull Durham: he’s just there to work hard and help the team.

Hamilton pays someone to be bad, so let him be the bad guy.

Speaking of bad guys, no player has been more demonized in recent months than Ryan Braun. His reputation as a rising star and good guy took the hardest of hits when it was reported that he failed a drug test. The MVP award was being bestowed to a cheater, read the headlines.

The mandatory 50-game suspension was overturned, though, in a decision that crashed down on the baseball world this week. Braun arrived at spring training immediately after the announcement, holding a press conference that many have hailed as a lesson in crisis management and image recovery.

The trouble I have with it all is that the “vindication” Braun experienced is the result of a technicality. A procedural mistake got the positive test tossed out because it opened the door to either tampering with or degradation of the sample.

If this was a victory for anyone, it was for conspiracy theorists everywhere. There are those who believe Braun was let off the hook because he plays for the Milwaukee Brewers, the team formerly owned by commissioner Bud Selig. Others speculate baseball simply couldn’t handle another tarnished MVP.

Major League Baseball, for its part, was furious. It was the first time a player successfully appealed a suspension for performing enhancing drugs. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called it “a gut-kick to clean athletes.”

Regardless of the arbitration result, a cloud of guilt still hangs over Braun. He continues to express that he has never taken a banned substance, but there has been no explanation as to how exogenous testosterone, or testosterone from outside his body, entered his system. His representatives did a great job of avoiding that point, because it wasn’t necessary to argue their case.

The result is a player who has been proven not guilty, but he is by no means innocent. A cloud will continue to hang over him, even as he does and says all the right things. He has no reason to revisit the issue or argue its details because he was already exonerated by baseball. The court of public opinion is not swayed by technicalities, though.

The commissioner’s office suffered a black eye that won’t heal any time soon either. Its system was proven faulty, which will cast some doubt on any positive test, at least in the near future. The game once again has to suffer the whispers about whether one of its stars is breaking the rules. And if a perceived “good guy” like Braun can have a positive test, who else out there might as well?

This is the one case where I don’t have any PR advice except this: move on. The commissioner’s office needs to learn from its mistakes and not make them again. The press may ask about the procedure for every positive test in the next few years, and it needs to answer them politely and appropriately. It made a mistake, after all, and getting defensive like Henry will do no good whatsoever.

And Braun just needs to continue trying to be the good guy. He held his press conference, he answered the questions. Eventually, the questions will slow, though they may never stop. For his benefit, I hope he has a good season, because a drop in production will simply fuel discussion that he was an MVP-caliber player only until he was caught cheating.

But sometime soon, another player or executive will put his foot in his mouth and my PR antennae will go up just as quickly as my fan’s heart sinks.

(For more, please check out my blog at http://sportsinbriefs.wordpress.com/)

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Minnesota, we have a problem. 

With just ten days before their first spring training game of the year, the Minnesota Twins have already encountered a major issue:  Joel Zumaya is injured.

After throwing this morning, Zumaya experienced discomfort in his throwing arm, according the CBS’s Jon Heyman. ESPN’s Phil Mackey later confirmed that Zumaya was bothered in his right arm and will get an MRI either tomorrow or Monday morning. 

The Twins signed Zumaya to a one-year deal just over a month ago and an injury to his arm is the last thing they wanted to see. After appearing in 62 games for the Tigers in 2006, Zumaya has failed to appear in more than 31 games since then, primarily due to injuries.

In 2007, he missed 96 games after getting surgery on a ruptured tendon in his middle finger. Then in 2008, he missed 72 games after right shoulder surgery. A stress fracture later that season cost him another 41 games.

Zumaya missed 74 games in 2009 with another shoulder surgery. Two elbow surgeries over the last two seasons have kept him out of over 200 games, including all of last season.

The addition of Zumaya to the Twins’ bullpen was thought to be a good move if he could stay healthy, which doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. As of now, Minnesota has only a few quality relievers in their bullpen, with Matt Capps as their closer. Long-time closer Joe Nathan is now with the Texas Ranger and won’t be there to aid the struggling bullpen.

Having five surgeries on his right arm over the last five seasons is not what you want to see in a pitcher—and a sixth surgery may not be far off. Even at just 27, retirement may be the smartest course of action for the right-handed flame-thrower.

To say that the Twins are in trouble before their first spring training game is an understatement.

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With Grady Sizemore likely to miss Opening Day with a back injury, the Cleveland Indians will likely need to have Shelley Duncan produce in his absence.

Even the most optimistic Sizemore supporters like me figured that he would manage to make it to Spring Training before getting hurt. Somehow, that’s not the case.

While I still have faith that Grady will have some value this year, we’ve already reached the point in the season where the Tribe will need to find someone to replace Sizemore in the lineup.

Considering how I think Michael Brantley should get a shot in center field and could have a breakout year, the Indians will probably need to find a replacement in left field for at least part of the season.

I’d like to see Shelley Duncan get the first shot at filling that role.

2011 saw Duncan establish himself as a legitimate major league hitter. He had a strong .260/.324/.484 slash line, .808 OPS (123 OPS+), .346 wOBA (118 wRC+), 11 HR and 47 RBI in 247 PA. Despite the average OBP, he showed enough power to make himself a well above-average hitter.

There’s a good chance that Duncan will continue to improve in 2012. Check out how Bill James projects him for 2012:

.249/.335/.465 slash line, .344 wOBA, 13 HR, 45 RBI in 270 PA

Not a bad line at all. Plus, since that projection is only for a part-time role (270 PA would be roughly 64 full games), Duncan would be even better if these projections were stretched out for a full season, hitting 31 home runs and driving in 108 runs.

Now, the trade off with Duncan is that he’s not a great defender or baserunner. Assuming he’s slightly below average defensively and an average baserunner (assumptions that are backed up by the numbers on his Fangraphs page), we can use the Simple WAR calculator to get Duncan’s projected WAR to be around 1.9.

A 1.9 WAR isn’t going to be getting Duncan into the Hall of Fame or an All-Star game, but it is a perfectly good number for a regular player. Also considering the value Sizemore’s held over the past two years (-0.1 fWAR in 104 games), Duncan could end up being an upgrade.

There’s still a chance that Sizemore gets healthy and figures it out in 2012. But the key thing to remember is even though Shelley Duncan isn’t as big of a name as Grady Sizemore, he very well could be more use in helping the Indians win.

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The 2012 rookie class has plenty of talent.

Yu Darvish, Julio Teheran, Trevor Bauer, Devin Mesoraco, Matt Moore and Jacob Turner are just a few of the names that will likely be called upon to play major roles for their respective teams during the 2012 season. More than a few of them will have a solid chance to make their league’s All-Star roster. One or two might even accomplish the feat.

Without a doubt, the majority of the top prospects in baseball will make at least one All-Star game, what with a record 84 players being named to the two teams last year. Some teams and some prospects, however, will not be so lucky.

Some players are just two young, while some are just products of systems that have little to offer the big-leagues.

Either way, here’s a rough estimate on when each team’s top prospect will make their first All-Star game.

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In the words of the great Henry Rollins and his weekly KCRW radio show, “As-salamu Alaikum fanatics!”

I hope Rollins hasn’t copyrighted that greeting.

And anyways, in this instance it’s Tigers fanatics!

OK, so it’s day two of our 20-day, 40-player introduction of current Tigers listed on the club’s 40-man roster headed into spring training.

Yesterday, we were introduced to a true infield prospect who will probably be spending most of his playing days down in Toledo this season, Hernan Perez. The 20-year-old Venezuelan who, for the past three years, the Tigers have been grooming at second base and shortstop in their minor league affiliations.

Young Hernan is another good reason to get down to Toledo to catch some minor league ball—especially when the Tigers are out of town and you need to get your baseball fix!

Hopefully, Perez is a name and face we will all come to know well in the coming seasons.

Secondly, we also took a look at the Tigers’ All-Star catcher from last season, Alex Avila. We reinforced and reminded ourselves of a lot of what we already knew about this valuable piece to the Tigers clubhouse, both as a defensive and offensive player, and as a true baseball professional.

As far as today goes, if I weren’t the person blindly picking the pieces of paper out of the coffee cup, I would think this whole exercise in getting to know our team was rigged.

Believe it or not, the first name that was drawn for today was, of course…do I even have to say it?

Prince Fielder.

And I have to say: I don’t even know how I feel about this. Ever since Prince was signed a week or two ago, we’ve been flooded with information on the guy. So, in a sense, everybody could probably use a break from the Fielder mania.

But at the same time, how appropriate that the roster cup gods chose for Prince to be drawn on only the second day.

We’ll get to Prince’s introduction and bio in a moment, but let me also fill you in on the second player to whom we are to be introduced today: Joaquin Benoit.

Holy Cow, talk about two big names on the Tigers roster. And they’re both relative newcomers to the team.

Let’s get started with the first player whose name was drawn, the Detroit Jungle’s own, Prince-and-the-New-Power-Generation-Fielder.

As everyone knows, Prince is the son of Cecil, who played for the Tigers in the 1990’s. A lot of you may not remember the days when Cecil was here in Detroit. But for those who do, you can’t forget those glory years when to hit 40-50 homers in a season meant stardom, adulation and a song written for you on the radio (96.3FM).

While he was with Detroit, Cecil was a three-time All-Star in 1990, 1991 and 1993; and he won the Silver Slugger Award in 1990 and 1991 as well.

Cecil hit 51 homers in 1990 and 44 in 1991. When he hit 50 in 1990, Cecil was the first player to do so in a single season since George Foster of the Cincinnati Reds, who hit 52 in 1977. And that was how Cecil got a song written for him on the radio.

Cecil was known for being something of a slow base runner, and some of you may remember being in the stands of old Tiger Stadium with the crowd chanting, “Run, Cecil, Run. Run, Cecil, Run,” whenever he was on first. Those were good times in Detroit.

Here’s an assignment though: how many players have hit 50 home runs since Cecil did it in 1990? Or perhaps the better question is, how many players have hit 50 or more home runs since the strike in 1994?

Aw shucks, we won’t get into that. This 20-day, 40-player introductory extravaganza is intended to be positive and informative, not negative and conspiratorial!

But here’s the answer anyway: according to Wikipedia, in the 17 years between George Foster’s 52 home run season with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977 and the 1994 strike, a total of two players hit 50 homers in a season (Foster and Fielder).

In the 17 seasons between 1995 and 2011, 24 (count ‘em, t-w-e-n-t-y–f-o-u-r) players have hit 50 or more home runs in a season.

Moreover, in the 33 seasons between 1961 and the 1994 strike, a grand total of only five players hit 50 or more home runs in a season. And those players were Mantle, Maris, Mays (two Yankees and a Giant), Cincinnati’s Foster and Papa Fielder. That’s why it was total insanity in Detroit in 1990 when Cecil did what he did.

Moving on, it’s worth noting that Cecil won a World Series title in 1996 with the New York Yankees after being traded from the Tigers in July of that same year.

Cecil played for five teams across 13 seasons (seven with the Tigers) and ended his career with a .255 batting average, 319 home runs and 1,008 RBI.

That gives us just a little insight into our current Fielder’s old man. Now let’s dig a little into his son, the player currently known as Prince.

Prince Fielder

Prince was born in 1984, which is a good omen for Tigers fans. He spent six years of his youth between the ages of 6 and 12 right here in Detroit while his dad played for the Tigers between 1990 and 1996.

In 2001, Prince was 25 when he began playing with the Nashville Sounds, the Brewers’ minor league, Triple-A affiliation.

In June of the 2005 season, Prince was called up to play as a DH during interleague play. He was then sent back down before being called up again later in the year to be used as a pinch-hitter for the remainder of the season.

In December 2005, Brewers first baseman Lyle Overbay was traded to Toronto, opening the door for Prince to become Milwaukee’s starting first baseman in the 2006 season.

In seven seasons, Prince has hit a total of 230 home runs (50 in 2007). His career batting line thus far is .282/.390/.540 with 656 RBI, 566 BB, 571 runs and 779 strikeouts in 3,527 at-bats.

That’s roughly one home run every 15 at-bats and one strikeout every 4.5.

Over 7 seasons, Prince’s 162 game average is 37 home runs, 106 RBI, 93 runs and 126 strikeouts.

Prince is a three-time All-Star (2007, 2009, 2011), a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner (2007, 2011) and the 2007 NL Hank Aaron Award winner.

I guess the royal question everyone wants to know the answer to is what will the next nine years bring?

Joaquin Benoit

Our second player today is the 34-year-old Dominican relief pitcher, Joaquin Benoit. For those of you who don’t already know, JB is 6’3”, 220 lbs.

That’s a lot of mound presence.

He comes at you with a mid-90s fastball, a mid-80s slider and a low-80s changeup.

Joaquin first signed with the Texas Rangers when he was only 16 and started playing in the majors in 2001 at the age of 23. He played eight years for the Rangers through the end of the 2008 season but missed the entire 2009 season after having surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

Then came the 2010 season with the Tampa Bay Rays; he was lights out, finishing the season with a 1.34 ERA and a phenomenal .68 WHIP.

In 2010, Benoit allowed only 30 hits, 11 walks and nine earned runs in just over 60 innings pitched, striking out 75 batters.

In November 2010, our Tigers went out and got him, signing him to a three-year, $16.5 million contract.

In 2011, Joaquin got off to a rough start with the Tigers, which may have had something to do with acclimating himself to being north of the 35th parallel. But he finished strong, pitching 61 innings over 66 games and allowing 47 hits and 22 runs, 20 of which were earned.

Benoit’s 2011 regular season ERA was 2.95 and his WHIP was 1.05. He finished with 63 strikeouts and 17 walks having faced a total of 241 batters.

Joaquin’s 2011 postseason was excellent. He appeared in five games pitching a total of 7.2 innings and allowing only four hits, one earned run, three walks and nine strikeouts.

JB’s 2011 postseason ERA was 1.17 with a 0.91 WHIP.

Joaquin was a crucial part of the Tigers greatest moment in 2011, which came in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Yankees in New York. In that game, he recorded five outs, striking out Nick Swisher with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th with Granderson on 3rd, Cano on 2nd and Teixeira on 1st and the score 3-2 in favor of the Tigers.

That’s four out of 40 so far, leaving 36 remaining roster players to go over the course of the next 18 days.

We’ll see who the roster cup gods draw for us tomorrow.

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As the 2011 Major League Baseball trade deadline approached, the Atlanta Braves front office watched as the rival Philadelphia Phillies dealt for outfielder Hunter Pence and chief wild card competitor, the San Francisco Giants, acquired veteran Carlos Beltran.  

General Manger Fran Wren patiently waited, knowing the best fit for his Braves wasn’t a corner outfielder.

Wren tells Sirius/XM sports radio he wanted a premium center fielder that was a true leadoff hitter at the plate.

Enter Michael Bourn.

Given a full season, Bourn will attempt to fuel what was at times an anemic offense during 2011. Atlanta finished in the bottom half of the National League in nearly every major category, including runs (10th), RBI (10th), AVG (13th), SB (14th) and Team WAR (13th).

Bourn’s top priority as a leadoff hitter is to get on base so he can provide run scoring opportunities for middle of the order hitters like Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, Dan Uggla and hopefully, Jason Heyward.

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