Kuzul

Every offseason the free-agent class is headlined by a small group of big-name players. In 2008, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira were the big names. Last year, it was probably John Lackey. In 2010, Cliff Lee is undoubtedly the biggest fish in a very, very small pond.

The problem is, players of this ilk command huge salaries and usually end up on big-market teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets. The most interesting part of free agency is to be found when one looks past the big names at bargain players—those whom people had forgotten about.

Even when looking at the underrated players on the market, this year’s free-agent class is still poor.

Not to kill the suspense but, no, Cliff Lee will not be appearing on this list.

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At the beginning of the 2010 season, there were very few people in this world who could have predicted that the Giants would beat the Rangers in the World Series.

But it happened.

Now we have the opportunity to look back with the most glorious of hindsight and laugh at all the predictions we made.

There’s no more what-ifs to think about, and no regrets on any decisions, because every trigger Brian Sabean pulled, every double-switch Bruce Bochy made, and every sign that Buster Posey threw down brought us to where we are right now. 

World Series Champions.

Anyways, it’s time to look back on all the ridiculous ideas I had rattling around my head on March 1, 2010.

And there were some crazy ones.

Again, for those not familiar with the term, SWOT stands for Strengths,Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Let’s take a gander.

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MLB trade rumors have every team shipping away a good player for prospects or for an even better player.

How many of these rumors are actually true we will never know. But with the general managers’ meetings just three weeks away, there is going to be a lot of discussion. And with free agency just starting to kick into high gear, is going to be no shortage of good players available this winter.

The Hot Stove League is starting to fire up so we’ll take a look at who is (reportedly) available and whether or not they will actually be dealt.

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The National League Rookie of the Year announcement was made earlier today, and Giants catcher Buster Posey deservedly took home the honor. He received 20 of the possible 32 first-place votes, and beat out fellow phenom Jason Heyward of the Atlanta Braves.

Posey helped lead the Giants to the World Series title, and he could also be considered an NL MVP candidate for his contributions.

With Posey’s great season, this is a good time to look back at some of the other great debut seasons posted by catchers recently, as catcher may be the toughest position to man as a rookie.

So here are the top 10 seasons from rookie catchers in the past 20 years, including this year’s phenom, Buster Posey.

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More so than any other sport, baseball is truly an all year event. The World Series ends, and we get treated to about four months of rumors, speculation, blockbuster signings and trades, and unheralded moves that pay major dividends down the road.

While this year’s free agent class is obviously lacking in depth, there are a few marquee talents headlining the group, such as Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford, and Jayson Werth. Additionally, a few future Hall of Famers near the end of the road (Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome) may be available at bargain prices.

I enjoy speculation as much as anyone and have taken a stab at predicting where some of the cream of this year’s crop will be suiting up next season.

Most of the contract guesses are a shot in the dark. How much each player gets often depends on how soon they sign, and it’s hard to guess who will sign when.

If you like this piece, please become a fan and give some of my other work a look. Enjoy!

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Each season, players seemingly come out of nowhere and become catalysts for their team. Whether it is a high-profile rookie, a second-year player, or simply someone who finally got their chance, new stars pop up each and every season.

What follows is a list of the 25 players most likely to breakout in 2011. There are a number of top prospects on the list, as well as some former top prospects who have still not lived up to their high billing.

So as the offseason wheelings and dealings begin to unfold, here are the 25 guys who will make their teams better with a breakout season in 2011.

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The San Francisco Giants have been the 2010 World Series Champions for about a week now, which means Tim Lincecum and his buddies are probably just now fully appreciating what they’ve done for the city.

However, as the champagne from San Francisco’s first baseball title goes flat and the last scraps of confetti get washed away by November rains, greedy Bay Area eyes are already turning toward 2011 and beyond.

The rosier lenses in the region see a lot more winning down the road.

With the young rotation bristling with talent and forged by postseason experience, Buster Posey behind the dish, and a budget that can/should expand efficiently, there is plenty about which to be excited if you follow baseball on the shores of the San Francisco Bay.

Yet any discussion about los Gigantes that involves a look to the future inevitably comes back to Lincecum, his slight build, and his importance to the team. The (sound) logic is that the horizon gets considerably grayer if the Franchise isn’t taking the pearl every fifth day and his skeptics are perpetually predicting the first muscle strain or bulging disc that will announce the beginning of the end.

For Timmy and for the Giants.

But those skeptics haven’t been paying attention.

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English romantic poet and literary critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge is credited with coining the phrase “suspension of disbelief.”  

The term describes the requirement a work of fiction places upon a theoretical audience member or reader to willfully accept as truth certain fantastical or implausible elements contained therein.

This aesthetic imperative enables us to become invested in alternate realities we know to be false, and use the shadowy truths and broad archetypes we find so appealing in fiction to simplify the dizzying complexities of our own empirical reality.  

Now, let’s be honest: Major League is as far-fetched a film as they come. The parallel universe created here—familiar to us because it speaks a well-known language of baseball, complete with well-known team insignia—provides the framework for the ultimate underdog story.  

Fueled by the multiplication of unlikely events, the narrative pays the debt that every suffering baseball fan believes he’s owed.

But in a much larger sense, it follows the blueprint drawn up by the deepest desires of humanity.

We take tremendous comfort in the story because it expands the limits of what Man, even in his most wretched state, is capable of.

The elevation of the lowest common denominator empowers the human imagination to reach heights untalked-of and unseen, fulfilling our eternal hope that the lives we lead eventually break loose from the shackles of mundane monotony we’re so accustomed to wearing.  

Prince Hamlet tells us that fiction holds the mirror up to nature; and so it does.  

But fiction can also increase our appreciation for the beauty of nature’s reality.  

The 2010 San Francisco Giants were branded as “misfits” and “outcasts” early in their playoff run. Against all odds, they became World Champions, triumphing twice over teams they weren’t supposed to beat.

The formula is familiar. The Cleveland Indians in Major League provide a bare-bones model for misfit champions that our own beloved Giants flesh out.  

Only when we move from the fictive to the real, we transform our implicit contract of “suspended disbelief” into the power of “sustained belief.”

So let’s get started, shall we?

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Brian Wilson has quickly become one of the country’s most beloved sports icons after the San Francisco Giants came home with a World Series Trophy.

After Wilson and company “raged” it up with the rest of San Fran, he went on the Tonight Show to have a chat with Jay Leno.

Oh yeah, and he brought the trophy with him.

Brian Wilson not only held his own with Leno; he stole the show.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch the interview, you’re in luck!

Read on for more.

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With the announcement of the National League Rookie of the Year due on Monday, baseball fans find themselves in a place they did not expect to be.

In spring training, prior to the 2010 season, two rookies commanded the attention of the baseball world. One was a 20-year-old man-child in Atlanta, the next Ken Griffey Jr. or perhaps even Frank Robinson, whose five tools were already self-evident and whose place in the starting lineup on opening day was all but guaranteed.

The other rookie phenom was slated to be, perhaps, the greatest pitching prospect we’ve ever seen, and while he was not due to make his team out of spring training, there were those who thought that once he did join his team, he would be the best pitcher in the National League.

Remarkably, surprisingly, unbelievably, neither Jason Heyward nor Stephen Strasburg will be announced as the National League Rookie of the Year tomorrow. While they both enjoyed very good seasons, and both matched the hype surrounding their emergence, the best rookie in the National League was nevertheless a World Series winning catcher from San Francisco named Buster.

Buster Posey, that is.

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