Kuzul

This offseason, Cliff Lee and Carl Crawford will be headlining this year’s free-agent class.  Both players will be demanding major contracts, and both players might end up in New York.

Well, Lee will be in the Bronx, but the verdict is still out on Crawford.

For teams that can ill-afford to get the “Big Fish,” they must look at other options—the second-tier players.  Guys that can still contribute, but will be affordable to acquire. 

With the start of the offseason just five days away for the teams that failed to qualify for the playoffs, here are the 10 best “Buy Low” Candidates for this offseason.

You will not agree with all of my selections.  You will mention guys that I left off.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but this one is mine.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Let’s play ball. 

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The final week of the 2010 regular season has arrived and the Rangers and Twins have already popped the champagne.

The Rangers success can be attributed to finally having solid starting pitching. Nolan Ryan really does make whatever he touches turn into gold.

The Phillies have clinched at least a Wild Card position, while the Yanks and Rays are battling for the AL East crown. The loser gets the Wild Card.

Thinking back to April most experts wouldn’t expect the upstart Reds to be one game away from clinching their first playoff birth since 1995.

The Braves, Giants and Padres are fighting for two spots. The Giants effectively ended the Rockies’ season by winning two-of-three against the Rox over the weekend.

How big is the Giants and Padres season ending series now?

Buckle up, it’s crunch time.

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As the 2010 Major League Baseball regular season begins to wind down, it is time to start to think about candidates for the annual awards.

After years of hitters dominating the league, this season has been all about the resurgence of the pitcher.  That is why this year’s NL Cy Young race is filled with a lot of pitchers who have had great individual seasons.

Here are the top five candidates for the 2010 NL Cy Young award.

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Have you ever looked at an actor and thought how much he looked like a baseball player, football player or boxer?

Some bear such striking resemblances to a sports star that it is almost freaky.

I know in the movie Billy Crystal did for HBO called “*61”, I was overwhelmed with how much Barry Pepper looked like Roger Maris. It was just incredible.

That got me to thinking about which stars looked quite a bit like which actor.

Take a look with me and see if you agree about the resemblance.

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If you hit 30 home runs for a playoff team, everyone in baseball knows who you are.  If you win 20 games for a team that clinched a playoff berth a month ago, there will be no shortage of accolades.

But what if you are an above average hitter and play standout defense for a mediocre team?  What if your pitching is leaps and bounds ahead of your appallingly bad staff?  What if you got off to a slow start but were on fire in the second half?

Or, what if you are third -year player having a breakout season on a team full of over-paid and under-achieving superstars?

Then, in all likelihood, you will be unheralded.

Here is a list of the 20 most unheralded players in baseball.

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The advent of sabermetrics has changed the way we look at “clutch.”

“Situational hitting” is luck. “Inducing weak contact” is luck. “Performing under pressure” is luck. It’s all been proven with math and logic and regression analysis.

But screw that, because it’s a pennant race, and even the most logical stathead has subjective ideas about who he’d most want to see step to the plate with his favorite team’s season on the line.

Here is my 2010 All-Clutch team, comprised of the players who have demonstrated the best ability to perform when it counts. I tried to limit my list to players from contending teams, since they’re the only ones who really matter at this point.

Here’s to hoping we get to see one of these guys come up with a big hit this October.

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The trade deadline always brings new excitement to MLB teams and their fans, and it doesn’t matter whether the team is struggling or on their way towards the postseason.

This year there was a bevy of players who were sent all over the place and for some, it was really hard to keep up, but for others it was a torrent of player news they couldn’t get enough of.

It all started with Roy Oswalt, and went on from there, so let’s take a look at my top 10 list of who I feel were the best trades in 2010.

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The baseball season is a lengthy one, and can often be a roller coaster ride for players, coaches, and fan bases alike.

Things can go from good to bad, and bad to worse in the blink of an eye, and there have been a number of huge collapses through the years leading up to the pennant race.

However, for the following 10 teams, their collapses took things to an epic level, as they all but had a playoff appearance in the bag before, for one reason or another, the wheels fell off and the teams spent their October watching from home.

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Over the many years of player comparison and analysis, our understanding of what it means to be a great baseball player has continually evolved.

Along with that, we have also formed a better comprehension of the concept of a “bad” player.

There was a time when we would assess shortstops, catchers, and center fielders based merely on their offensive contributions, a practice we now understand to be shockingly limited. If ballplayers are to be judged, they must be judged for all of their contributions, both their hitting and their defense.

With this in mind, we take a look at the 20 worst players of the 2010 baseball season, guys who just kill their team in all facets of the game.

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“And down the stretch they come.”

Those words, made famous by horse racing announcer Dave Johnson, should be playing on  loudspeakers in baseball parks all across the country.

With the regular season coming to an end, there are some divisions still up for grabs, and wild cards still to be determined.

While we wait to see which teams will be playing in this “second season,” let’s take a look back at the greatest pennant-race performances of all-time.

While some players buckle under the pressure, these players performed when the lights shined the brightest, and were the difference between a playoff berth, and missing out on a chance at a World Series championship. 

Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Let’s play ball. 

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