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The Oakland A’s are one of the teams that are thankful for the extra wild-card spot in the playoffs.

Although they are still long-shots to make the playoffs, a winning start has boosted fans’ spirits as the season unfolds.

Last season they began the season very similar to this year, by hovering around .500. Their downfall began after they were 27-27.

In the following 14 games they lost all but one, including 10 in a row at one point. The season was all but lost after that run.

This season they have a couple key pieces that might help them stay strong throughout the season.

Bartolo Colon is shaping up to be the A’s ace this season.

Last year they were led by Gio Gonzalez, whose production dissipated after the All-Star break. He was the owner of a 2.47 ERA before the break and a 3.94 ERA after the break.

They will rely on the veteran arm of Colon to stay strong throughout the season and in crunch time.

The biggest piece of this team’s equation is Yoenis Cespedes.

Cespedes is the offensive firepower that the A’s have lacked in previous seasons. Cespedes has a chance to hit 35 or more home runs and be a big threat to other teams.

Last season in Cuba he hit 30 home runs in 90 games.

In the stretch that the A’s lost 13 of 14, they lost nine of the 13 games by three runs or less. The A’s have the pop in the lineup to get those runs back quickly. 

The big question is if he can be more productive than Josh Willingham, who Oakland parted ways with during the offseason. 

What is lost in Willingham’s production from last year (29 home runs, 98 RBI) is that 18 of his 29 home runs came after the All-Star break. The A’s season was lost by that point.

Cespedes will not get the job done by replacing Willingham’s numbers; he will have to surpass them. Most importantly, he will have to put up huge numbers throughout the entire season to help the A’s stay in the race.

These two guys might have a huge say towards the end of the season when the wild-card spots are up for grabs.

Most importantly though, the A’s are exciting fans and putting a quality product on the field.

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The Oakland Athletics are reportedly negotiating with journeyman pitcher Bartolo Colon, but the 38-year-old right-hander won’t change Oakland’s fate in 2012.

Colon resurrected his career in 2011 with the Yankees, pitching better than his 8-10 record suggests. Prior to last season, he hadn’t thrown a pitch in the majors since July 2009. Striking out 135 and posting a 1.29 WHIP in 26 starts however, he had a solid year for New York.

Colon was reliable for the Yankees, and with Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill leaving in recent trades, the A’s need to bring in someone.

Oakland’s rotation has weakened and they have done little to improve a lineup that finished 20th in runs, 22nd in on-base percentage, 24th in batting average and 25th in slugging percentage last season.

Meanwhile, the Angles have added Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, and the Rangers will be as dangerous as ever. Sure, the A’s can beat up on the Seattle Mariners again this season, but I would be shocked if they win more than 66 or 67 games.

Again, Colon was decent last year, but A’s fans would be foolish to expect him to return to greatness. The 2005 AL Cy Young winner is just 22-31 since 2006.

He can still be productive and it’s never bad to have a veteran option at the back of your rotation. Still, there is a bleak cloud hanging over Oakland’s 2012 season, and the addition of Colon will do little to change that.

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Not since the late Early Wynn pitched for Cleveland in a comeback to win 300 games has there been a pitching staff with two starters who look like the monsters who ate Cleveland.

Bartolo Colon and C.C. Sabathia, in combined British stone, would be heavy enough to build Stonehenge. Colon’s kind public relations guys claim he is still under 275 pounds. Sabathia is in the same ballpark as his fellow Yankee starter, but he hides it better.

If you want super-sized stars, then these two pitchers are now rivals for the Tweedledee and Tweedledum award, Kirstie Alley’s former prize.

When will an enterprising dieting food company sign them up? They’d eat everything on the menu.

Over the offseason Sabathia was said to have lost 30 pounds. Well, he found it again with a Happy Meal or two. Kind hearts have suggested the pitchers have a metabolism problem. On the moon, they’d only weigh 50 pounds, each. Fortunately for them, stripes make them look thinner.

In Boston the weighty issues generally have been limited to the hamburger-munching habits of Big Baby Glen Davis, but if you wanted to make a sandwich with Baby between those Yankee pitchers, he’d look like lean ground beef.

If these guys were playing for Mike Shanahan, they’d be on permanent suspension. Someone should tell them that Refrigerator Perry played football, not baseball.

If we measured C.C. in liquid weight, Sabathia would likely top a million. We are told that 1000 cc’s equal 2.2 pounds.

No doubt Yankee haters will call Sabathia and Colon many names related to being overweight, just don’t call them late to the dinner table.

We think Red Sox trim boys like Jacoby Ellsbury and Josh Reddick would fit into one pair of Colon’s pants, though we are not eager to see such a feat accomplished on a Twitpic.

So far Charles Barkley has not weighed in on the issue of the Yankee avoirdupois, but the pitching staff provides fans with love handles to grab onto for the remainder of the season in case it turns into a bumpy ride.

Herman Melville wrote about whales and ended up in New York in his twilight years. The Yankees have clearly harpooned a few more Moby types.

We don’t want to criticize the Yankees too much because we all know the World Series doesn’t end ’til the Fat Man pitches. 

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Stock traders know all about the buy low, sell high philosophy.  So do fantasy baseball owners.   

To win in fantasy baseball, you have to get guys on the cheap who turn out to provide a lot of bang for little buck over a short period of time, and then you have to trade those same players away when their values are at their highest points in order to acquire better players who will help you win your league.

Two-plus months into the season there are several hitters and pitchers who are exceeding expectations, and chances are they are not going to keep up their frenetic paces, whether it is because they will get injured, lose their jobs, or come crashing back to earth. 

Here are five players I would trade now before their fantasy values start dropping like afternoon soap operas.  Deal them away for solid fantasy performers before they realize they are playing over their heads, or else wind up stuck with them at the All-Star break when their trade values dry up.  

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As the MLB season heads into the dog days of summer, we all sit in anticipation to see what big names will be moved at the deadline.

Will the New York Yankees get their top of the line pitcher? Will the Milwaukee Brewers make another surprising splash like they did in acquiring C.C. Sabathia in 2008?

We will find out soon.

At this point, we can just sit back and hold out hope that our respective teams can keep winning ballgames—pleading that they are in position to make a bold move at the deadline.

On the other hand, it doesn’t always work out as planned—as no one wants to be on the losing end of a bad deal.

We’ve seen many lopsided deals over the last 20 years—although in most cases it takes years to determine the winner.

Here are the 13 Most Lopsided Deals Since 1990.

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Despite hurling some of his best stuff in five years (1-0/2.40/15 IP/17 K), Bartolo Colon will start his season with the Yankees in the bullpen.

Yankees skipper Joe Girardi announced Sunday that the team will round out their rotation with Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia as their fourth and fifth starters.

Though the announcement was touted as “expected” by many media outlets, including ESPN, it still comes as a surprise to anyone who has followed both of their springs, or even their careers.

Colon was the victim of a manager already making up his decision as to who he was going to pick before either of them took to the mound. In an article from ESPN, Girardi touts what Freddy Garcia had done in the lead up to spring, and in the past season, as the reason he picked Garcia over Colon.

Colon did not have any stats to speak of in 2010 due to injuries.

So if Colon outperformed Garcia so blatantly this spring, and Garcia has been mediocre at best over the past few seasons, what put the nail in the coffin for Colon?

Versatility.

That’s right. Joe Girardi’s reason to ESPN was, in essence, that he didn’t expect Colon to be this good:

“Bartolo was the wild card in all of this,” Girardi said. “I didn’t really have any expectations for Bartolo. I had no idea what to think, what he was going to do. You didn’t know his velocity was going to be as high as 93, that he’d have that much movement on his fastball, that he’d be able to pick up a cutter in a day. And it happened.”

So the only place that makes sense to keep him is in the “mop-up duty” roll in the bullpen, where Colon will see very limited action.

This could very quickly become a moot point, however.

Both have a very long injury track record over the past five years, we could see one (or both!) of these guys land on the DL before we even have time to argue who should have gotten the spot.

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It was recently announced that the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Yankees’ pitcher Sergio Mitre in a deal that sent outfielder Chris Dickerson to New York in return.

At the moment, this seems like a win-win situation for both teams: New York announced that Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia will round out the rotation, and Bartolo Colon will move to the bullpen, most likely as a long reliever, a role which Mitre possessed last season.

Dickerson, on the other hand, has seemed like a bit of a nuisance for the Brewers. At age 28, he was acquired from Cincinnati in the deal that sent Jim Edmonds there from Milwaukee. Once in Milwaukee, he posted a very slight .206/.250/.268 split last season, though he was a bit in 2009, where he posted a .275/.370.373 split. However, he’s still only 28, so he’s got time to develop.

This is hailed as a smarter move for the Brewers, whose rotation is currently suffering. Zack Greinke is currently on the DL due to a cracked rib and will miss a handful of starts at the beginning of the season, and Shaun Marcum, who was acquired from the Blue Jays this offseason is experiencing some shoulder issues, though he will only miss one regular season start, which is good news for Brewers fans.

Because of these issues, the Brewers are lacking some depth.

Yovani Gallardo, who has been an outstanding pitcher for the Brewers and is currently predicted to pitch 219 strikeouts this season, will most likely make the start on Opening Day, though the Brewers have yet to confirm who will start for them against the Reds for the season opener.

Slated to start after Gallardo for Opening Day weekend is Randy Wolf and Chris Narveson, respectively. While this currently doesn’t pose too many risks, the Brewers need a pitcher to fill the role.

This is most likely why they went after Mitre.

Mitre, who is 30 years old, has made at least one start each of the past seven seasons, but he has primarily served as a reliever in the past. Could this be his opportunity to become a starter again?

For right now, it looks like the Brewers plan on using him as a starter until Greinke is healthy again, and he could potentially be the long reliever once Greinke returns.

But is this really a smart move to make?

Mitre’s career record is 13-29, and his career ERA stands at 5.27. He’s posted a 1-1 record this spring training for the Yankees with a 5.73 ERA.

ERA that is consistently over five and a 31 percent win rate over his career? Are these the stats of a truly reliable pitcher?

While Mitre may get more opportunity in Milwaukee, there’s still not a lot of certainty with him as to whether he will succeed or fall.

Like Dickerson, Mitre still has time to develop in the minors if necessary, but that’s probably not the reason the Brewers pursued him.

Regardless of what role he plays, can Sergio Mitre get the job done in 2011?

Please share your thoughts. 

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The battle for the bottom two spots in the New York Yankees‘ rotation is coming to a head, and Bartolo Colon might have just clinched a spot for himself with a very strong outing against the Tampa Bay Rays.

While the Yankees eventually lost, 3-1, to Tampa, Colon did everything he could have possibly done to win a job as a starter in the Bronx. Featuring pitches with plenty of “life” on them, the veteran righty pitched six nasty innings, allowing only one run on two hits and no walks while striking out five.

Spring results are rarely important, and this game was no exception. It’s not the results, it’s how Colon got them—specifically how he threw the ball—that matters most.

According to one scout, Colon reached 93 with his fastball on Monday. But there was more than velocity on the four-seam fastball to get excited about, if you’re a fan of the Yanks. He also had wicked movement and location on his two-seam fastball, giving both righties and lefties fits with the offering.

There were also multiple broken bats and some sort of filthy splitter/slurvish sort of offering that dropped straight down off the end of the proverbial table to rack up another strikeout. Overpowering would not be too strong a term for what Colon did to the Tampa lineup on Monday evening.

The Yanks might not be ready to announce any final decisions just yet. But with only a week and a half until opening day, and with Colon pitching this well (his spring ERA dropped to 2.40), and with rag-armed Freddy Gacia having imploded in his most recent start, it’s difficult to imagine Colon NOT having locked up a spot in New York’s starting rotation.

Courtesy of Yankees ‘n More

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A great deal of attention has been paid this spring to the open slots in the New York Yankees’ pitching rotation.

The failure to sign Cliff Lee as a free agent and the retirement of Andy Pettitte are thought by some to leave glaring holes in the Yankee ranks.

The Yankees have three established pitchers at the top of the rotation in C. C. Sabathia, Phil Hughes and A.J. Burnett. 

Sabathia is the ace, a pitcher who can be counted on to go out every fifth day and pitch spectacularly most of the time.  He finished with 21 wins last year against only seven losses.

Hughes, though still young, is durable and dependable.  He notched 18 wins in his first full season as a starter in 2010.

Burnett is always a concern as he is Forest Gump’s proverbial “box of chocolates.”  You never know what you’re gonna get.

After those three, the competition has been wide open for the other two starting jobs.  Ivan Nova, Sergio Mitre, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia have all been given a chance to start in the back end of the rotation.

And some young kids named Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances have had Yankee fans salivating with the idea that these baby arms might be just what the Bombers need.

It might be a good idea to analyze just how important the fourth and fifth starter positions are in baseball, and to the Yankees in particular.

This analysis includes a look at all major league teams in 2010.  The Top Three starters on each team were excluded, and the remaining pitchers who made a significant number of starts for each team were considered in terms of wins and losses.

In the American League, the pitchers who saw regular work at the back end of rotations garnered 261 wins against 291 losses.  That is a winning percentage of .473.  If that were the winning percentage for a team over a 162 game season, that team would win just short of 77 games.

In the National League, back end guys got 277 wins against 334 losses.  The winning percentage is .453 which would translate to 73 wins if the percentage held for the entire staff.

Okay, that doesn’t necessarily mean very much, because you are including the pitching staffs of the Pirates and Mariners and all the other ne’er-do-wells.

So, let us analyze the playoff teams.

The Giants won the World Series, of course.  Through their regular season, the back end of their rotation had 23 wins and 20 losses.  That is a winning percentage of .535 or 87 wins if it were true of their entire staff.

The Rangers lost in the World Series.  Their back end had 25 wins and 20 losses for a winning percentage of .555 or 90 wins if applied as though the entire staff performed at this rate.

The Yankees lost to the Rangers but had a better record in the 4-5 slots in the rotation.  Javy Vazquez and Andy Pettitte combined for a record of 21-13 which is a .617 percentage which is better than the staff as a whole and would have meant 100 wins.

The Rays won the AL East and had a back end record of 24-18 or .571 percentage worth 92 wins if the staff average had been the same.

The Twins had a 23-18 average almost identical to the Rays in percentage and projected wins.

Let’s get back to the NL.

The Braves had a much worse performance at 14-18 for a percentage of just .437 which would have given them only 70 wins if the other pitchers had not been much better.

The Phillies were 25-16 for a .609 percentage or 98 wins.

The Reds were 15-14, and so they were just barely over .500 which would have been 84 wins.

For a little bit of fun, and to give Yankee fans a look at what the fourth and fifth starters have meant to the Yankee teams from 1996 through 2009, let’s look at the World Series champs for that period and how well their back end of the rotation did.

In 2009, Joba Chamberlain started 32 games and was 9-6 with a 4.75 ERA.  Sergio Mitre started nine games and went 3-3 with a 6.79 ERA.  Chien-Ming Wang started nine games and was 1-6 with a 9.64 ERA.  Chad Gaudin started six games and was 2-0 with a 3.43 ERA.

So for the most recent Yankee champions, the back end of the rotation was 15-15. 

In 2000, David Cone, Denny Neagle and Ramiro Mendoza filled out the back of the rotation for the Bombers.  They combined for a record of just 18-25.

In 1999 Roger Clemens and Hideki Irabu started 62 games and combined for a 25-17 record.  No one would think of Clemens as a fourth or fifth starter, but he had fewer starts that year than any other regular.

In 1998 Irabu and Orlando El Duque Hernandez started 47 games and had a combined record of 25-13 on perhaps the greatest team in major league history. 

In 1996 David Cone, Dwight Gooden and Ramiro Mendoza were a combined 22-14.

So, what does the analysis show?

To this writer, who did the research, there is no conclusion. 

The results are really all over the board.

Last year, some good teams had better winning percentages with the back end than with their top starters.  In the Yankees case, that is primarily because AJ Burnett was so horrible. 

No one who is a Yankee fan would want Javy Vazquez back.  It was Andy Pettitte who had the great winning percentage that elevated the Yankees’ starters last season.

In some winning seasons, Yankee 4-5 starters have been very good.  In other years, they are less than mediocre.  The same is true for other teams.

Ivan Nova has looked very good this spring, including a no-hitter over the Orioles for six innings on Wednesday.  Garcia, Colon and Mitre have certainly shown they are all at least serviceable.

But for the Yankees to win, they cannot depend on any of these guys.  If Sabathia and Hughes don’t match or come close to last year’s numbers, there has to be a pick up somewhere. 

Perhaps Burnett gets his head on straight and shows what a guy with great stuff can really do.

Perhaps, Jeter, A-Rod and Tex all bounce back to have years far superior to last season, and the offense makes up for weakness in the starting rotation.

Perhaps, the bullpen, with the addition of Soriano and Feliciano and the maturation of Robertson, reduces the pressure on starters to win.

At least for now, although it is intriguing, the fourth and fifth starters don’t necessarily mean very much to a major league team.

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A lot of questions surrounding the New York Yankees pitching rotation entering spring training are being answered half-way in.

The biggest question mark had to do with starting pitching.

Many experts felt as though after C.C. Sabathia, Phil Hughes and AJ Burnett, the Yankees really had no one one on their roster to fill the final two spots of the rotation.

The Yankees went out and signed a few players who may be past their prime, but were great pitchers in the MLB at one point or another. This list included Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and Mark Prior.

Garcia and Colon have both impressed as potential starters, and Prior has looked solid coming out of the bullpen.

Garcia is still yet to give up a run in five innings, while Colon has allowed three runs in nine innings. Obviously, spring training stats do not always translate to the regular season, but both of these are promising signs.

Prior has pitched a single scoreless inning so far, but may find himself in AAA to start the season until he builds up his arm strength.

A lot of baseball enthusiasts thought pitching would be the weakness of the Yankees, and it is still obviously not their strength. With that in mind, the Yankees may have found some veteran pitchers who want to revive their careers and pitch for a World Series ring.

Another possibility for the Yankees is to start off the season with a four-man rotation and either give the fourth spot to Colon or Garcia or have them split starts.

This is an interesting suggestion because obviously the Yankees rotation is very top heavy, and the more starts for Sabathia and Hughes, the better. If Sabathia and Hughes can stay healthy and don’t wear their arms out, I think it would be smart for the Yankees to limit the starts of the back of the rotation.

With Opening Day only about 20 days away, the Yankees have some time to figure out their rotation, but not a lot. Fortunately for them, their offseason signings have looked smart so far and they could potentially have three pitchers reviving their careers this season.

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