Lance Berkman

A team's fortunes can often be severely altered by the injury or severe under-performance of just one player. When a team is littered with those types of players (see the New York Mets), a season can be over in just a few short months.

Coming into the 2011 season, every team expects to be better. If they didn't believe that, what's the point in even playing the games, besides the money of course? Some of the aforementioned type of players have moved on to new teams. That doesn't mean they aren't expected to make a comeback in their new digs however.

Albert Pujols and Michael Young have been the main headlines heading into the 2011 Major League Baseball season.

Pujols, one of the greatest players in the game's history, is seeking a record setting contract extension from the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Young, one of the most loyal players in Texas Rangers history, doesn't want to be moved to designated hitter full-time and is seeking a trade. 

            The Cardinals were widely expected to win the National League Central last season. The acquisition of Matt Holliday was expected to provide some pop for the lineup and protect Pujols well - which he did. A fully recovered Chris Carpenter was predicted to be back to his old Cy Young form - which he was. There were many reasons why the Cardinals should have shown a better record in the standings, yet they weren't able to beat out the Reds for the division crown. 

With so many of the big name free agents signed early on this off season, it has been a winter of trade rumors, and while most have proved to be nothing beyond just rumors, the Brewers managed to pull off two of the bigger trades of the off season.

However, the rest of the NL Central has been fairly busy as well, as the Cubs, Reds, Cardinals, and Brewers all look to be in the running for the division. Even the Astros and Pirates made a handful of moves that could make series' against them that much tougher.

I guess the St. Louis Cardinals figured if they won the World Series with Chris Duncan starting 59 games in the outfield in 2006, they can do the same with Lance Berkman in 2010.

Today, the St. Louis Cardinals reached a one-year deal with first baseman and outfielder Lance Berkman worth $8 million.

For years, Lance Berkman was the centerpiece of an Houston Astros lineup that consistently battled with the Cardinals for supremacy in National League Central. Now, Berkman will try to help the Cardinals reclaim the Central division crown.

It's no surprise that the Chicago Cubs are looking for an everyday starter at 1st base, especially after they lost Derrek Lee in a trade.

They also lost Micah Hoffpauir after he signed with the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan. Hoffpauir was the front runner for the starting job.

But also adding to this, the Cubs have not won a World Series in over 100 years, making them more desperate to acquire a dependable bat.

There are many candidates for the job, with a good free agent market at 1st base this offseason. But here are the closest possibilities.

The Yankees have been waiting a long time for Lance Berkman to do something. Actually, they've been waiting for him do to anything.

For those who did not have the pleasure of watching Game Two of the ALDS between the Yankees and Twins, one of the biggest story lines was a controversial call in the seventh inning. With one out, two strikes, and Jorge Posada on first base, Carl Pavano threw a tailing fastball on the inside of the plate for what "should have" been strike three.

The Yankees beat the Twins 5-2 last night and the play that everyone seems to be talking about is the Lance Berkman at-bat in the the seventh that ended up being an RBI double.

It’s become an infamous play because it looked like Carl Pavano had him struck out just the pitch before. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was ejected following the double.

Let’s take a look at the Pitch Fx graph via Brooks Baseball: