Baseball

1. Introduction

Buster Olney of ESPN wrote an interesting article about the analysis of each team’s schedule and how tough it is for those teams. I personally think MLB should take the article into consideration in making future MLB schedule and try to make tough team facing tougher schedule and weaker team facing easier ones, especially early in the season.

So you didn’t land Zack Greinke or Chris Carpenter. That’s OK, there are still plenty of value pitchers to help you post a low ERA.

Brett Anderson, Oakland A’s 
Anderson had a solid rookie debut posting an 11-11 record with a 4.06 ERA. I expect the win total to increase and the ERA to dip below the 4.00 mark.

Since Bleacher Report is such a distinguished blog, I must presume that Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane reads it, especially the postings that appear in the sports section of the Houston Chronicle . Perhaps he's reading this very post, thinking to himself, "What kind of a writer uses a weird name like Zoe-wee? Is that a pen name?"

Every winning baseball team has a player or two that goes relatively unnoticed, their contributions undervalued by the bigger names on the team. Sometimes they are bunt specialists, defensive wizards, or pinch hitting specialists.

But, to the true baseball eye there are many underrated players in the MLB today putting up quite remarkable numbers in equally remarkable ways.

Manny Corpas is a polarizing figure amongst Rockies fans.

Just two nights into his tenure as the host of KNBR 680 AM's Sports Phone 680, the evening show that airs at 7 p.m., former big leaguer F.P. Santangelo is proving to be an upgrade over the overly opinionated, sometimes under-informed Damon Bruce.

Sandy Koufax, hands folded in his lap, sat in the center of Nokia Theatre's bright stage between the Skipper and the Local Sports Columnist , who sat waiting for him to say something.

If there is one member of the 2010 rookie class that seems destined for stardom, it's Atlanta Braves rookie right fielder, Jason Heyward. In fact, stardom may be setting the bar too low for the ultra-talented 20-year-old Georgian.

Heyward will be given every opportunity to become the every day starter for the Braves this spring. The team made their intentions known when they traded former hometown hero, Jeff Francoeur in July, and let Garret Anderson depart in free agency this winter.

It was a three-run fifth inning that sparked the New York Mets to a 4-2 win over the Atlanta Braves today in Grapefruit League action.  Russ Adams hit a solo shot off of Chris Resop in the eighth to put the game away.

Mets also got offense from Jesus Feliciano, who was 2-for-2, and Ike Davis made his name known for the first baseman job with a 2-for-3 day with a double.

The Detroit Tigers, as nearly everyone knows by now, were on the wrong end of one of the most exciting baseball games in years. But losing to the Minnesota Twins in a playoff play-in game was just the culmination of what had been a horrific September/October collapse.