Opinion

Over the course of a 162 game season, there are bound to be ups and downs. Some nights will be good, and some nights will be bad. For the Mets, 2010 was truly that roller coaster. At the end of April the Mets had a 9-1 home stand that had fans being reminded of the glorious year of 2006. However, as the season progressed mediocrity became their greatest enemy as fans waited on the edge of their seats for another major run that would never come to fruition.

The Tampa Bay Rays took home their second division title in just the past three seasons last week with a Yankees loss to the Red Sox.

This came after not making the playoffs in their first 10 years of existence.

They did so with great draft strategies and good systematic development of talent to create big-league-ready ball players.

Three things are a given in this offseason. First, Omar Vizquel will be a free agent and has only a year or two left in the tank. Second, the Indians need a third baseman for one year, and badly. Third, career-shortstop Vizquel spent last year at third base for the Chicago White Sox and wasn't too bad there.

So, wouldn't it make sense to bring back one of Cleveland's finest from the glory years of the '90s?

In the eyes of the Philadelphia Phillies, as good as Cliff Lee is, Roy Halladay would always trump him. On the first day of the 2010 MLB playoffs, “Doc” did that.

At last season’s trade deadline, the Phillies strongly pursued Halladay. The asking price was too high, so they “settled” on Lee.

Yesterday afternoon, as Roy Halladay was preparing for yesterday's NLDS opener, Cliff Lee was putting the finishing touches on another brilliant postseason pitching performance. 

Lee dominated the AL's most potent offense, striking out 10 Tampa Bay Rays batters while holding them to one run to give the Texas Rangers their first playoff win in 14 years. 

Cliff Lee opened up the ALDS yesterday for the Texas Rangers in Tampa Bay as they faced off the Rays in Game 1. Lee was matched up against Tampa’s ace, David Price. It was set to be an epic pitching duel, but Lee completely dominated leading the Rangers to a 5-1 victory.

Baseball traditionalists never cede the high ground. From the supremacy of Babe Ruth to the joy of day baseball, there are many who just refuse to acknowledge the times when the modern game evolves far beyond the reaches of "Baseball's Golden Age."

Such entrenchment is nearly always myopic, and nowhere more so than in the recent insistence that Don Larsen, who threw a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, performed a greater feat than Roy Halladay, who threw the second-ever no-hitter in playoff history Wednesday.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Eric Hinske is a career .254 hitter who never batted .280, never slugged 25 home runs, never scored 100 runs, and never drove in 85 runs.

Making matters worse, all of his career highs in those categories came in his rookie season, possibly showing he peaked too early.

Stats aside, he couldn’t be more valuable to teams hoping to contend.

Roy Halladay and Don Larsen are two pitchers who couldn’t be more different, but after Halladay tossed his no-hitter against last night, the two will forever be linked.

What does a baseball manager who starts off his career with a new organization by drawing the publicized rage of a legendary organization’s most prolific shortstop do to recover his image?

What does a future Hall of Fame baseball player near the end of his career do to recover his image after going through a messy divorce at home and a nasty public spat with the new manager?