Baseball

Carlos Zambrano recently received his third Silver Slugger award, and second straight, as the best hitting pitcher in the National League. Zambrano actually dropped off considerably in his offensive production in 2009, seeing his OPS drop from .892 to .689.

But that .689 is nearly double the league average pitcher; National League hurlers compiled a miserable .355 OPS in 2009.

Johan Santana had long been considered the best pitcher in baseball.  From 2004-2008, there wasn’t a pitcher who could touch him, posting some remarkable numbers, especially when you consider that he called the AL home up until 2008:

The debate over when baseball teams did away with the four-man rotation is a hard one to settle. J.C. Bradbury, author of The Baseball Economist , located the move  to a five-man staff around 1969.

John Lackey. Matt Holliday. Jose Valverde. In a weak free-agent class for 2009-2010, those men stand out as the leaders of the mediocre pack, and well deserve the publicity they have already received and will receive throughout the next month.

As all students of the game know, however, there are always unknowns, always surprises. Each season, there are players who unexpectedly make an impact in a comeback capacity or after having been dispatched into baseball abyss due to injury or ineffectiveness.

With the departure of Carlos Gomez , the role of most scrutinized player in the outfield has unequivocally been awarded to Delmon Young . His status as a below-average defender has been well-documented, and 2010 will be a do-or-die season for him. If he can't find some success at the plate, there will be little reason for the Twins to hang onto him.

The emergence of Rene Tosoni , 23, certainly isn't helping Young's cause. Should Young struggle in 2010, Tosoni could be a candidate for an early or mid-season promotion.

Michael Bourn is now amongst the cream of the crop in terms of MLB defensive talent.

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, Bourn was named as a Gold Glove winner; and he’s the first Houston Astros outfielder to win the award since Cesar Cedeno (1972-1976).

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times.

The Twins need another infielder and they need a legitimate hitter to handle the two-hole in the lineup.

Both of these facts have been beaten to death by Twins fans this offseason, and for good reason.

For those of you who follow me, you know that I've been taking a close look at the Braves' offseason options over the past few weeks.

So let us think about this for a moment. The following stat line is that of player X's splits against right handed hitters.

451 ABs, 74 Runs, 124 Hits, 19 2Bs, 8 3Bs, 28 HRs, 62 RBIs, 18 SB, 4 CS, 57 BBs, 99 SO, .275 BA, .358 OBP, .539 SLG, .879 OPS.