I'm Back...And So Is Baseball

Well, after taking a two and a half month break (a break I did not plan on taking) I am trying to get back into the flow of things in the spirit of pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training.

In the news: Chien-Ming Wang, the former New York Yankee ace, reportedly signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Washington Nationals.

The deal caps what has been a very active off-season for the Nats. The team made headlines in December by picking up veteran backstop Ivan Rodriguez and signing him to a two-year, $6 million deal.

They also managed to land starting pitcher Jason Marquis and closer Matt Capps.

Perhaps the aggressive winter and heavy spending (relatively speaking) will pay off if Washington can finally find its way out of the National League East basement.

Time to catch up: As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, all you have to do is scroll down to my previous post to realize that I pretty much took the winter off when it came to updating America's Baby.

I am sure even the casual baseball fan is aware of the major signings that have gone down since early December. But, just in case you have been living under a rock, they are as follows:

Roy Halladay to the Phillies: Phillie fans got a Cy Young Award winning Christmas present this December. Philadelphia was able to pull off a three way trade with the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners bringing 32-year-old ace Roy Halladay to the City of Brotherly Love, while shipping Cliff Lee off to pitch for the Mariners.

Arguably the game's best starting pitcher (although Mr. Santana still has my vote when he's healthy), Halladay has a career record of 148-76 with a 3.43 ERA and 1,495 strikeouts over 11 major league seasons. He has never pitched in a playoff game.

Meanwhile, Cliff Lee, or the "odd man out", has a Cy Young award of his own. Not to mention that he pitched to a 4-0 record with a 1.56 ERA with the Phillies during the 2009 postseason.

The Mets Add A Big Bat: After what seemed like an eternity of going back-and-forth, all-star left fielder Jason Bay finally signed with the New York Mets in late December.

The deal is worth $66 million over four years with a vesting option for a fifth.

Many had been speculating as to whether or not Bay would land with the Mets or opt to return to his former team, the Boston Red Sox. But after a medical dispute put the Sox and Bay at odds with each other, it seemed that the Mets were the best (or only) option.

Bay managed to set career highs in big flies and runs driven in with 36 and 119 in 2009, respectively.

Boston Gets A New Ace: Much like Phillie fans, Red Sox fans received an early Christmas present this year when John Lackey, the top free-agent pitcher on the market this past off-season, signed with Boston for five years at $82.5 million on December 16th.

Since winning the clinching game of the 2002 World Series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (then just Anaheim Angels) in his rookie season, the 31-year-old Lackey has blossomed into one of the game's best starting pitchers.

Regarded as a true "gamer", Lackey went 11-8 with a 3.83 ERA while missing some time due to injury in 2009.

He also managed to earn his 100th career victory during the season.

Holliday Back For More: The last of this off-season's "big three" free-agents to go was outfielder Matt Holliday. However, unlike Bay and Lackey, Holliday returned to the team he was with in 2009 (at least for half of 2009).

Holliday hit .353 with 13 home runs and 55 runs batted in for the St. Louis Cardinals after being dealt from the Oakland Athletics in late July. He hit .313 with 24 homers and 109 driven in overall.

At the beginning of the off-season Holliday's agent Scott Boras made it clear that his client was only going to sign with a team for "Mark Teixeira" money ($180 million over eight years).

Well, Holliday didn't quite get Teixeira money, but he did manage to garner a pretty hefty contract worth $120 million over seven years.

In addition, signing with St. Louis gives Holliday the opportunity to be a part of what could be the most dangerous offensive duo in sports, as he will bat behind arguably the best hitter in the game in Albert Pujols.

Keep checking back for more posts, as I will be keeping the blog updated regularly again now that spring training is officially under way!

Red Sox Tying Up The Loose Ends

The Boston Red Sox made a few moves today to ensure that most of their 2009 roster stays intact for 2010.

According to MLB.com, Boston has picked up catcher Victor Martinez's $7.1 million club option for 2010.

Martinez hit .303 with 23 home runs and 108 driven in over the entire 2009 season, while hitting .336 with eight homers and 41 runs batted in after being traded to the Red Sox at the July trade deadline.

This was the Red Sox first order of business coming into the offseason. Martinez has been a consistent player for the better part of seven major league seasons now.

While his defense is not great by any stretch, his bat will more than make up for it batting in the number three spot of the Boston order.

The soon-to-be 31-year-old may prove to be even more valuable if the decline in production that we saw from David Ortiz in 2009 continues to steepen in 2010.

As for Boston's captain, and other catcher, the Red Sox declined Jason Varitek's $5 million club option for 2010 today. Varitek still has a $3 million option of his own with the team. However, it may take some heavy thinking on the 37-year-old's part as to whether or not he wants to be a backup to Martinez , play somewhere else as a starter, or call it a career.

Varitek, whose offensive production has suffered mightily over the past two seasons, batted .209 with 14 home runs in 106 games during 2009.

Boston also resigned knuckle-baller Tim Wakefield to a two-year contract this afternoon.

The financial details of the deal have not yet been released, however WEEI.com has reported that it could be worth $7 million over the two years.

With these loose ends out of the way, the Red Sox can now go after bigger fish on the market.

Currently, their star left-fielder Jason Bay is expected to test the free agent market and the Red Sox have made it no secret that they want him to be in left field again this Opening Day.

Also, with the Seattle Mariners making it clear that they really have not interest in dealing their ace Felix Hernandez, Boston may now be seriously turning its attention towards acquiring Roy Halladay via trade.

The AL Cy Young Picture

As the regular season starts to wind down, postseason match-ups are not the only topic debated by both the experts and the fans. Who will receive what award starts to become a very heavily discussed matter around this time of year.

Today we turn to the American League Cy Young award.

This year's race can easily be narrowed down to just a handful of candidates. However, once you have your finalists picked, the task of separating the best becomes quite tricky.

The Favorites

Zack Greinke - Kansas City Royals
15-8, 2.08 ERA, 229 SO

Zack Greinke solidified his reputation as one of the American League's elite pitchers in 2009. He has always shown the ability to be a solid pitcher, but no one had expected him to be this good.

On a team which is now 25 games under .500, Greinke is on pace for 16 wins. He should also finish up the year around the 250 mark in strikeouts and he currently leads the league with his microscopic 2.08 ERA.

In addition, he managed to pitch six complete games.

The 25-year-old Greinke is a great story as well, as his stellar season has come just two years after he had to take time off from the game to battle his social anxiety syndrome and bout with depression.

Felix Hernandez - Seattle Mariners
16-5, 2.45 ERA, 196 SO

This would not be the first time that the young Seattle ace garnered positive attention, but it would be his first time receiving Cy Young type of attention.

Some of the experts believe that Hernandez actually has the advantage over Greinke due to a higher win total and a tougher division. In my opinion, those may not be the best reasons to take "King Felix", as he is affectionatly called by the Mariner faithful, over Greinke. However, if Hernandez was to win the award, it would be hard to argue against it.

2009 has certainly been Hernandez's best year, as he has set career highs in almost every major statistical category.

He ranks at least within the American League's top four in wins, earned run average, and strikeouts while logging well over 200 innings.

Perhaps With A Strong Finish...

CC Sabathia - New York Yankees
18-7, 3.31 ERA, 186 SO

Already 2007's AL Cy Young winner, Sabathia did not disappoint during the first season of his seven year, $161 million contract. The New York Yankees made it clear that Sabathia's responsiblity was to be a true ace of the staff and Sabathia did just that.

He currently leads the major leagues in wins with 18 and managed to pitch his way into at least the seventh inning during almost evey start, something not consistently done in this day and age.

While the Cy Young may be out of reach for this year, New York can at least be assured that they got a solid return on investment after CC's 2009 performance.

Justin Verlander - Detroit Tigers
16-9, 3.44 ERA, 245 SO

After a brutal 2008 (11-17, 4.84 ERA, 163 SO), Verlander returned back to form this year.

The Detroit ace leads the American League in strikeouts and has pitched three complete games.

If Verlander doesn't manage to take the Cy Young home with him this year, he can at least look forward to getting some consideration for the American League Comeback Player of the Year.

The Long Shot

Roy Halladay - Toronto Blue Jays
15-10, 3.01 ERA, 193 SO

Remember this guy?

It seems that after having a first half in which people could not stop talking about him (10-3, 2.85 ERA), Halladay cooled off a bit in the second half of the season (5-7, 3.21 ERA); particularly after numerous trade talks involving him kept popping up around the trade deadline.

Nevertheless, Halladay's end-of-season numbers should look very good, as they always do.

Despite Toronto's sub-par offense, Halladay managed to rack up 15 wins, while going the complete distance seven times.

Perhaps the Blue Jays will finally put an end to the 32-year-old Halladay's misery this offseason and finally ship him off to an actual contender. It would be awesome to see this guy go to work in the playoffs, don't you think?