Six Weeks of Contenders

I LOVE this time of year.  I love everything about it. 

Two days from now is the start of six weeks of contenders.  A time when every team has promise, every team is in first place and every team is a playoff contender.  Free Agent signings in the offseason, trades, players that are going to "rebound", players coming off injury are going to "return to form" and the blind ignorance of being a die hard fan that make us all believe that our team is going to the playoffs this year. 

It's when the Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training.  Arguably the best day of the year.  I remember in Vermont throwing a baseball on the frozen road in February with my brother because it was the only place that wasn't covered in snow and if the ball went off the road it would bounce down the road and we could still find it.  When Pitchers and Catchers reported, we went outside in the freezing cold to throw a baseball.  Why?  Because it was "Baseball Season", the greatest sport in America has awoken from it's wintery slumber and it was time to fall in love with the game all over again.

In Arizona it's a little different.  The weather is already great and possibly perfect every single day.  It's warming back up and the grass on the baseball diamonds are perfectly green.  Noah and I when we first moved here used to just walk onto the San Francisco Giants practice fields (which were 100x nicer than any baseball diamond either of us had EVER played on) and we would play homerun derby with our friends.  You don't realize how nice that grass is until you run down a long drive to left center, almost hoping it was a little out of your reach so you would be forced to lay out on that grass.  It's simply perfect.  Nowaday's the fields are a little more restricted and you can't just play on them but you can sit there in the park and just watch the guys practice on the four fields.  Running bases, throwing drills, hitting drills.  Their facilities are amazing but watching the process for all the guys is really entertaining for a true baseball fan.  Families sit out there with their kids watching the "pros" (who are really just invitees and minor league rookies at this point) and to them it's the greatest thing in the world.  Just as it should be.

Spring Training isn't just the promise of a winning season.  I'm a Diamondbacks fan, thru and thru at this point.  Grew up LOVING the Yankees when Don Mattingly was the MAN, Danny Tartabul was racking in dingers and they didn't make the playoffs ever.  But now after living in Arizona for ten years the Diamondbacks are my hometeam.  Horrible as they are they are promising and I'm really excited to see what each of their new players can do.  On paper they are better but are they really?  They are until April 2nd when the season starts but until that day I'm going to watch them day in and day out.  I'm going to read every single article in the paper, on the internet and on the back of a magazine.  Who's doing well, who's getting shelled, who's making the team, and who's getting the red tape in their locker.  It's the greatest thing about Spring Training.  It's not just a bunch of games to practice or to go get a beer under the sun.  These games all mean something to these guys that are not locked in.  Every pitch is potentially their last and every at bat could be their last shot at making it to "The Show."  When you think of it in those terms the stakes are a lot higher for the guys and a lot more exciting to watch it develop. 

I'm still looking forward to the 82 degree sunny days in March at the new Diamondbacks complex sitting on the perfect green grass drinking a $9 American beer watching an American game eating an American hot dog.  Few things in life to me are better than that but doing that while watching my team under an unbrella of promise playoffs? I'll take that all day long, even if it only lasts until April 2nd...

Can the Yankees compete with the Phillies or Red Sox Rotation?

CC
Hughes
Burnett
... Pettitte??
...Nova??

Versus:
Beckett
Lester
Dice K
Buchholz
Lackey

Or the Phillies new Rotation of:
Halladay
Lee
Oswalt
Hamels
Blanton/Kendrick

Of course the Maddux/Smoltz/Avery/Leibhardt didn't exactly cover the walls with Championships but Lee going to the Phillies and a healthy Red Sox rotation is pretty dangerous.  Red Sox are also close to signing Bobby Jenks as their new closer.  Does that mean Pap's is going elsewhere in a trade?  They still have Daniel Bard too...

Not saying the Yankees are lost without Lee but banking on Andy Pettitte to come back to MAYBE pitch 20 starts is not exactly matching the Phillies/Giants/Red Sox in pitching.  They do still have Rivera though. 

Read a few things on Bleacher Report that the Yankees could possibly go after a David Price/Clay Kershaw type person in the league using Jesus Montero as trade chips.  That would be interesting...

Side Note:  Check out the career stats of the 2011 rotation for the Phillies.  I think people overlook how good they are after Halladay and Lee, the "Superstars."  Oswalt is still wicked good and so is Hamels even if he had a so-so year in '09. 

Halladay, Lee, Oswalt and Hamels are ALL 200 IP, 200K guys that could easily win 20 games each if they stay healthy.  Ridiculous.  Amazing what a switch to a good offense will do for a pitchers stats and "W" colomn...

HALLADAY:

Pitching Stats: Next Stats >> SEASON TEAM W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV SVO IP H R ER HR HBP BB SO 1998     Toronto Blue Jays 1 0 1.93 2 2 1 0 0 --- 14.0 9 4 3 2 0 2 13 1999     Toronto Blue Jays 8 7 3.92 36 18 1 1 1 1 149.1 156 76 65 19 4 79 82 2000     Toronto Blue Jays 4 7 10.64 19 13 0 0 0 0 67.2 107 87 80 14 2 42 44 2001     Toronto Blue Jays 5 3 3.16 17 16 1 1 0 0 105.1 97 41 37 3 1 25 96 2002     Toronto Blue Jays 19 7 2.93 34 34 2 1 0 0 239.1 223 93 78 10 7 62 168 2003     Toronto Blue Jays 22 7 3.25 36 36 9 2 0 0 266.0 253 111 96 26 9 32 204 2004     Toronto Blue Jays 8 8 4.20 21 21 1 1 0 0 133.0 140 66 62 13 1 39 95 2005     Toronto Blue Jays 12 4 2.41 19 19 5 2 0 0 141.2 118 39 38 11 7 18 108 2006     Toronto Blue Jays 16 5 3.19 32 32 4 0 0 0 220.0 208 82 78 19 5 34 132 2007     Toronto Blue Jays 16 7 3.71 31 31 7 1 0 0 225.1 232 101 93 15 3 48 139 2008     Toronto Blue Jays 20 11 2.78 34 33 9 2 0 0 246.0 220 88 76 18 12 39 206 2009     Toronto Blue Jays 17 10 2.79 32 32 9 4 0 0 239.0 234 82 74 22 5 35 208 2010     Philadelphia Phillies 21 10 2.44 33 33 9 4 0 0 250.2 231 74 68 24 6 30 219 Career Totals 169 86 3.32 346 320 58 19 1 --- 2297.1 2228 944 848 196 62 485 1714 LEE: Pitching Stats: Next Stats >> SEASON TEAM W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV SVO IP H R ER HR HBP BB SO 2002     Cleveland Indians 0 1 1.74 2 2 0 0 0 0 10.1 6 2 2 0 0 8 6 2003     Cleveland Indians 3 3 3.61 9 9 0 0 0 0 52.1 41 28 21 7 2 20 44 2004     Cleveland Indians 14 8 5.43 33 33 0 0 0 0 179.0 188 113 108 30 11 81 161 2005     Cleveland Indians 18 5 3.79 32 32 1 0 0 0 202.0 194 91 85 22 0 52 143 2006     Cleveland Indians 14 11 4.40 33 33 1 0 0 0 200.2 224 114 98 29 8 58 129 2007     Cleveland Indians 5 8 6.29 20 16 1 0 0 0 97.1 112 73 68 17 7 36 66 2008     Cleveland Indians 22 3 2.54 31 31 4 2 0 0 223.1 214 68 63 12 5 34 170 2009     Cleveland Indians 7 9 3.14 22 22 3 1 0 0 152.0 165 53 53 10 3 33 107 2009     Philadelphia Phillies 7 4 3.39 12 12 3 1 0 0 79.2 80 35 30 7 2 10 74 2010     Seattle Mariners 8 3 2.34 13 13 5 1 0 0 103.2 92 31 27 5 0 6 89 2010     Texas Rangers 4 6 3.98 15 15 2 0 0 0 108.2 103 53 48 11 1 12 96 Career Totals 102 61 3.85 222 218 20 5 0 0 1409.0 1419 661 603 150 39 350 1085

OSWALT:

Pitching Stats: Next Stats >> SEASON TEAM W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV SVO IP H R ER HR HBP BB SO 2001     Houston Astros 14 3 2.73 28 20 3 1 0 0 141.2 126 48 43 13 6 24 144 2002     Houston Astros 19 9 3.01 35 34 0 0 0 0 233.0 215 86 78 17 5 62 208 2003     Houston Astros 10 5 2.97 21 21 0 0 0 0 127.1 116 48 42 15 5 29 108 2004     Houston Astros 20 10 3.49 36 35 2 2 0 0 237.0 233 100 92 17 11 62 206 2005     Houston Astros 20 12 2.94 35 35 4 1 0 0 241.2 243 85 79 18 8 48 184 2006     Houston Astros 15 8 2.98 33 32 2 0 0 0 220.2 220 76 73 18 6 38 166 2007     Houston Astros 14 7 3.18 33 32 1 0 0 0 212.0 221 80 75 14 7 60 154 2008     Houston Astros 17 10 3.54 32 32 3 2 0 0 208.2 199 89 82 23 10 47 165 2009     Houston Astros 8 6 4.12 30 30 3 0 0 0 181.1 183 83 83 19 8 42 138 2010     Philadelphia Phillies 7 1 1.74 13 12 1 1 0 0 82.2 53 18 16 6 3 21 73 2010     Houston Astros 6 12 3.42 20 20 1 1 0 0 129.0 109 52 49 13 2 34 120 Career Totals 150 83 3.18 316 303 20 8 0 0 2015.0 1918 765 712 173 71 467 1666 HAMELS:

Pitching Stats:																		Next Stats >>
	SEASON		TEAM		W		L		ERA		G		GS		CG		SHO		SV		SVO		IP		H		R		ER		HR		HBP		BB		SO
	2006		Philadelphia Phillies		9		8		4.08		23		23		0		0		0		0		132.1		117		66		60		19		3		48		145
	2007		Philadelphia Phillies		15		5		3.39		28		28		2		0		0		0		183.1		163		72		69		25		3		43		177
	2008		Philadelphia Phillies		14		10		3.09		33		33		2		2		0		0		227.1		193		89		78		28		1		53		196
	2009		Philadelphia Phillies		10		11		4.32		32		32		2		2		0		0		193.2		206		95		93		24		5		43		168
	2010		Philadelphia Phillies		12		11		3.06		33		33		1		0		0		0		208.2		185		74		71		26		8		61		211
	Career Totals				60	45	3.53	149	149	7	4	0	0	945.1	864	396	371	122	20	248	897