Stats

The Toronto Blue Jays finished the 2010 season 85-77, earning them fourth place in the AL East, arguably the toughest division in the league. One of the major highlights of the Blue Jays' season was their power at the plate. The Blue Jays led MLB with 257 home runs in 2010, surpassing their previous record of 244 by the 2000 Blue Jays team.

The MLB winter meetings have a lot of fans glued to their technology of choice. Twitter, ESPN, XM Radio, the Internet in general are all being utilized to absorb every nugget of info on the dealings going on in Orlando. 

So, lying in bed last night, with my headphones on pumping MLB Network Radio into my ears and my smart phone in my hand to comb tweets, I was made aware of the Red Sox stunning signing of Carl Crawford almost as soon as it happened. 

An important and long overdue message was sent to the baseball world the other day when Felix Hernandez, a 13-game winner, was announced as the winner of the 2010 Cy Young award over CC Sabathia, a 21-game winner.

Miracles happen, especially in sports. 

After a decade of futility the Tampa Bay Rays stunned the baseball world by winning the AL pennant in 2008, the organization’s first ever winning season.

The following year the Mariners, a preseason footnote in the AL West, won 85 games under GM Jack Zduriencik’s inaugural season. 

As a New York Yankees fan it is easy to get to know the players in the American League.

Due to geographical circumstances and interleague play, I have learned more about some of the teams in the National League, like the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Over the past few seasons, the San Francisco Giants have not come to the Bronx and have not factored in the postseason.

With the bubbly still flowing onto the carpet in the visitors’ locker room and the Giants reveling in the franchise’s first National League pennant in eight years, I thought it would be interesting to press the rewind button and review how exactly general manager Brian Sabean (pictured) put Team Torture together.

As the 2010 season comes to a close, all eyes are now on post-season play.  As pundits debate which team has a chance to go all the way, they will be able to use a boatload of data from the regular 162-game season.  Two series in particular drew my attention, the Cincinnati vs Philadelphia and the New York vs Minnesota games.  Both of these series feature teams from the Eastern and Central divisions of their respective leagues.  In both cases, the central team lost, badly.  I thought to myself if it was possible that these teams were overrated, after all, the centra

As a Giants fan and writer, I just can't get over what Buster Olney said on Bill Simmons' MLB Playoff Podcast, which I listened to yesterday.

Basically, I came away with four things:

1.) The Tampa Bay Rays have the best GM in baseball (probably true).

2.) The Red Sox are hurting in terms of the money they owe to contracts next year (true, but unnecessary considering the Red Sox aren't in the playoffs).

Last night's postseason no-hitter by Phillies ace Roy Halladay kind of gets us thinking that maybe people are right when they say that this is the year of the pitcher.  This stands as the sixth no-hitter of the year,  including two perfect games.

There have even been more than just no-hitters and perfect games.  There have been near no-hitters, one-hitters, complete game shutouts, things like that.  Here I am going to recognize some of the games in this season that have hinted that this year may truly be the "year of the pitcher".

With Roy Halladay becoming the fourth pitcher in baseball history to throw two no-hitters in the same season, I thought it would be interesting to see how his playoff no-hitter compared to his perfect game on May 29 against the Florida Marlins.

Here is the tail of the tape: