Stats

This is a new series I'm starting where I'm going to go around baseball and choose one top prospect from each organization and I'll profile them. Hope you enjoy the series and this one about Phillies' prospect Antonio Bastardo.

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Bastardo was born in the Dominican Republic on September 21, 1985.

He was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies and was sent to the Lakewood BlueClaws after going undrafted in the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft

What better way to celebrate the 22-4 drubbing of the New York Yankees on April 18th, 2009? How about 14 random facts about the game? Significance of 14? Well that would be the number of the runs the Indians scored in the second inning.

Hold on.. I think they just scored again.

Did David Wells leave after Thursday's game? How about any of the other Yankee greats? I think the Bombers need some backup.

The Minnesota Twins fans and organization were thrilled to make the addition of Joe Crede to their team. 

The offensive threat at third base is what the team has been looking for since the days of Corey Koskie.  Currently Crede is hitting with a .154 batting average with only 1 RBI off a home run he hit against his former team, the Chicago White Sox on Friday. 

Toronto Blue Jays:

Don't look now but the Toronto Blue Jays are 6-2 and leading the revamped American League Eastern division. My first Bleacher Report article outlined this possibility when upon the re-hiring of former manager Cito Gaston on June 20, 2008 the team proceeded to finish last season on a 51-37 clip.

First off I want to go on record and say that I am a Red Sox fan and yet this touched me in such a big way.

The death of Nick Adenhart is something that should touch everyone that is a fan of baseball, a fan of sports in gerneral, it is so big that it should affect everyone.

Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel reminded everyone that his club’s opening day loss was just one game. So did Yankees skipper Joe Girardi after dropping his own first stanza to the O’s. And at least one of Girardi’s own superstars knows full well that an auspicious start to the season can’t hold a candle to a spectacular finish.

Quite a conversion. Switching from catcher to pitcher in 2006, Motte has shown all the talent needed to be an everyday MLB player. But does Jason Motte possess the mindset of an everyday closer?

Motte showed his arsenal during his short 12-game stint last season, posting a .82 ERA and well over a strikeout an inning.

He has a fastball that can touch 100 MPH, a fantastic slider and a decent curveball. Seems to be more than enough for a dominant closer.

The most important number to consider when analyzing the Mets' signing of Gary Sheffield is $400,000. The amount the Mets will pay Sheffield for his services. This is a low-risk, high-reward signing.

Worst case scenario, it doesn’t work out; the Mets cut him and bring Nick Evans back to the big club. Sheffield goes home and collects paychecks from both the Mets and the Tigers while the price of the Italian sausage at CitiField goes up 50 cents.

As much as I love the Italian sausage, I won't be distraught if things with Sheff don’t work out.

Now, I think it’s time to put some of these projections into play across the entire National League East, to give a better feel for just what the Phillies may—or may not—be up against in the NL’s toughest division this year.

To keep things consolidated, I’ll be using PECOTA Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) projections, as provided by Baseball Prospectus.

Starting Rotation

This list was made after extensive research into the stats I believed to be the most important when it came to pitchers. I took a list of close to 200 candidates and looked at their career totals in Wins, ERA, WHIP, Saves, and Strikeouts. I then ranked each player in each of those categories. After that I looked at what they averaged in those stats per year. This ensures that we are looking at quality along with quantity. Next I weighted each stat accordingly, because lets face it, a save isn't as important as a win.