Baseball

Okay, let's live outside the box and in the realm of great possibility.

Josh Johnson is an emerging ace. In his first true full season, Johnson dominated the competition with a 3.23 earned run average and a 15-5 record. He has two full years before he hits free agency, and then he could demand A.J. Burnett type money.

Yes, he truly is that good.

Take what you just read and add these five words: Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter. Think about the true dominance of a pitching staff led by those three pitchers.

So in case you had not heard, the fellow nerds of baseball prospectus, beyond the box score, fangraphs, and the like really lost their ability to complain about their annual insane individual award vote.

Greinke won the AL Cy Young over Sabathia (in fact, Sabathia wasn't even No. 2), Mauer won the AL MVP over Teixeira, and all was right in the world.

Recently I has the opportunity to visit the New York Yankees' 2009 World Series exhibit in their Hall of Fame. There were several great pieces of history at display in the exhibit. There was Matsui's bat, Rivera's hat, Damon's spikes, and many more items. But here are some items that may have missed the cut for the exhibit...

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In terms of baseball and its history defining the greatest hitter of all-time is an extremely difficult task. The reason for this is that there are two types of hitters: One is a contact hitter and the other is a power hitter.

For a contact hitter there goal is to get on base anyway possible whether it's taking a walk, using their speed to get on with a bunt, splitting the gaps for a double or triple, and occasionally a home run.

"Now batting for the New York Yankees, number two, Derek Jeter, number two." These are the unforgettable words that stay in the minds of fans at Yankee Stadium. Those words have been spoken by nobody other than the Voice of God.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are rapidly approaching a breaking point within the front office. 

Yesterday, I detailed how Frank McCourt's diminishing bank account could have a pulverizing effect on the Dodgers' organization. 

Which brings me to Mark Cuban, the possible savior for the future of the club. 

I keep reading and hearing from both Cubs fans and the media alike that Jeff Baker is likely to be the starting second baseman for the Cubs in 2010. If that happens, I think it will be a mistake.

You see, Baker has never done anything outside of Coors Field. It would be a leap of faith by Cubs general manager Jim Hendry to expect Baker to post the same numbers over a full season as he did during his time with the team in 2009.

Welcome to another edition of Thaddeus' Tampa Bay Rays Offseason Report. Each and every Friday, we're going to recap the moves, trades, signings, and other nonsense of the previous week in the wonderful world of Tampa Bay baseball; keeping you, Dear Reader, up to date with the team until Opening Day in April 2010 against the Baltimore Orioles.

With things so quiet on the trade front, you have to assume that the winter meetings will start the momentum of the offseason going—someone will overpay for a reliever that had a career year or a position player that was great two years ago but has been injured since.  The question for us is, what will Jim Hendry do?

The off-season is a funny time for baseball fans, especially when your pro football team is not setting the world on fire.

Following last year's World Series win by the Philadelphia Phillies, one player stood out in my mind in the off-season: Chase Utley.

In their six-game loss to the New York Yankees last season, Utley again stood tall.

Crowd cheering, chest-pounding, fire-eating, kill your best starter, hide your momma, where's Obama, we ain't lying performance.