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NL Central: Off-season so far

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Just as the San Diego Padres have made a splash in the NL West, it’s a team that was nowhere near contending in the NL Central in 2014 that has made the most noise in the off-season so far.

The Chicago Cubs have added a high-profile manager in Joe Maddon, a top-shelf free agent pitcher in Jon Lester, and some other useful players (Jason Hammel, Miguel Montero) to their batch of young players and generated a mountain of expectation for 2015.

However, history has shown that ‘winning the off-season’ doesn’t guarantee you will win much when the games come around. Although all teams start on 0-0 in a new campaign, that doesn’t mean the previous season counts for nothing. The Cubs have made eye-catching moves, but they did lose 89 games in 2014.

In contrast the reigning champions the St. Louis Cardinals haven’t made much of a splash, the main roster move being the trade for Jason Heyward in part in response to the tragic death of Oscar Taveras. Yet this was a team that won 90 games in 2014 and whilst players do get older (to state the obvious), this isn’t a roster chock-full with players in their mid-thirties that could all be about to get injured or have poor seasons.

The Pittsburgh Pirates also haven’t done a whole lot after finishing two games behind the Cards. Francisco Liriano has been re-signed and A.J. Burnett is on his way back after a year in Philadelphia, but otherwise the roster is essentially as it was in 2014 minus the not inconsiderable loss of catcher Russell Martin, who has joined the Toronto Blue Jays.

Putting the Milwaukee Brewers to one side (Adam Lind being the only addition to a middling 2014 team) and the Cincinnati Reds in the ‘ who knows’ box (traded away Mat Latos, but still have some quality players), that does create space for the Cubs to make a charge, emboldened by a wave of optimism and perhaps a couple of the young prospects dazzling in their first full year.

As things stand right now, the Cardinals and Pirates still lead the way without having made signings that clearly improve them from 2014. Some strong individual performances (Michael Wacha returning to health and form, for instance) would keep the Cubs at bay, yet so far it’s still possible that either one or both could fall back just enough to give Chicago a sniff.

Division Series done, Championship to come

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MlbPostseason2014The Division Series round of the 2014 postseason was brought to a close on Tuesday.

The San Francisco Giants’ closer Sergio Romo got the Washington Nationals’ Wilson Ramos to ground into an out to finish off a 3-1 series victory for the NL Wild Card winners.

It came a few hours after the St. Louis Cardinals completed their own 3-1 series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The National League Championship Series lineup was therefore set two days after the American League version with both the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals completing swift sweeps over the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels respectively.

As there were a potential 20 games to enjoy from the four best-of-five series, seeing it all wrapped up within just 14 was a tad disappointing. It’s the quickest that the division series round has been completed since the 13 games of 2009 and is the first time since then that there wasn’t at least one series that went the distance.

We were definitely spoiled by the four 3-2 thrillers in 2012.

Looking through the Division Series match-ups of recent years was a reminder that this year’s NLCS has a very familiar feel to it.

The Cardinals and Giants faced each other at the same stage in 2012 as San Francisco prevailed 4-3 on their way to a second World Series in three years. St. Louis had won the Fall Classic the previous year and have now made it to four consecutive NLCS appearances. Both teams know what it’s like to play in these pressure games and that could make it all the more difficult to split them.

Meanwhile it couldn’t be more different in the ALCS. Never mind a Championship Series, the Royals hadn’t been anywhere near a playoff game since 1985 before making their Wild Card bow a week ago. The Orioles were dumped out of the Division Series by the Yankees two years ago, but had last made the playoffs before that in1997.

In short, there’s is a series full of players on the big stage either for the first time or only the second. Based on the quick work the two teams made of their Division Series opponents, they are revelling in their new-found status.

So far the only Championship Series start times confirmed are from Friday and Saturday, as follows in BST:

Friday 10 October
01.07. KC at BAL (early hours of Saturday for us) *ESPN

Saturday 11 October
21.07. KC at BAL *BT Sport 2
01.07. SFG at STL *ESPN

At this stage of the postseason, there really is little to choose between the teams so predicting the winners is a guessing game. I had Baltimore and Washington as my World Series picks heading into Division Series, so I’ll stick with Baltimore and then San Francisco as the team who knocked out the Nationals.

Let’s hope the Championship Series makes up for the brief Division stage with two contests going either six or the full seven games.

A Friday filled with Division Series drama

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MlbPostseason2014We are only a few days into the 2014 postseason, but it’s safe to say that when we look back over the offseason Friday’s bonanza of baseball will turn out to be one of the most memorable days from it.

It was the only day on the Division Series schedule in which we were guaranteed games from all four series – Monday could provide that too if the two American League series both go to a fourth game – and all four served up the sort of drama and excitement that playoff baseball is all about.

The MLB.com Game Recap videos combined provide a great way to spend 15 minutes re-living the action from the four Friday contests.

Detroit and Baltimore got the day underway with Game 2 of their series starting at 17.07 BST. The Orioles staged an incredible comeback to turn around a 5-1 deficit and to put themselves in the best possible position of a 2-0 series lead heading to Detroit.

The loss for Detroit highlighted the flaws of a team containing several outstanding players, yet having weak links in other parts of their roster despite it being put together at considerable expense. Although a home win for the Tigers in Game Three will put a completely different spin on the series, you would expect the Orioles to complete the job based on their regular season performance and the first two games of the series.

San Francisco and Washington went next and the Giants showed the World Series-winning magic of 2010 and 2012 may still be with them by grabbing the advantage by winning Game One.

One big change from those two title triumphs and this year is the introduction of the Video review challenge system. We saw the huge benefits of that in the third inning when the Giants’ Travis Ishikawa was called out on a close force-out play at second base only for the review process to prove that he was safe.

Ishikawa came around to score the opening run of the game two batters later and that’s exactly why replay is so important; getting potentially crucial calls right rather than relying on the hoary old tosh of ‘luck evening itself out’. Just as importantly, the umpire was able to come out of the game knowing that even though his professional pride may have taken a very slight dent by getting a tricky call wrong, the mistake didn’t cost the Giants and he didn’t have to deal with a bunch of reporters and irate fans.

Two other things stood out from the game for me. Firstly, there was the monumentally important bases-loaded strikeout by Hunter Strickland to end a Nationals threat in the sixth inning. Save-compiling closers apart, relief pitchers tend to fly under the radar until the playoffs come along. Strickland’s 100MPH punch-out pitch will certainly have gained him some attention last night.  Secondly, the Bryce Harper hype is something I’ve written about before, but even the naysayers have to admit that he has enormous talent. Mark down his gargantuan moonshot in the seventh inning – off Strickland, such is the hero/zero highwire act that relievers walk – as his first real playoff highlight.

Then came the ding-dong drama of the series opener between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Cards beat Clayton Kershaw in the playoffs yet again and whilst their fans will be desperate to take the next two games in as trouble-free a manner as possible, the rest of us can only look at all that happened in Game One and ask for four more of those, please.

It was a game that had everything, not least the sort of amped-up aggro that looks certain to turn the rest of the series into a passion-filled tussle that may well spill over from a figurative fight to a literal one.

In every best-of-five-game series, the home team that has lost Game One is desperate to win the next game rather than head to their opponent’s backyard in an 0-2 hole, yet it must carry even more weight here. The facts are simple: the Dodgers somehow lost after knocking out the Cardinals’ ace Adam Wainwright and handing a 6-1 lead to Kershaw to protect. If ever a team needed a win to wipe away the memories of yesterday with a win today, it’s these Dodgers.

A small crumb of comfort for the Dodgers is that they’re not yet in as big a hole as their cross-town rivals, the Los Angeles Angels.

After two games at home, they’ve now suffered two extra inning defeats to Kansas City as the completely spurious but always-attractive feeling of a ‘team of destiny’ really starts to take hold around the Royals.

Kauffman Stadium is going to be absolutely electric on Sunday night as Kansas City hosts their first postseason game since 1985. The Angels didn’t win 98 regular season games by chance and so a comeback cannot be counted out, yet they are going to need C.J. Wilson to find a quality start from somewhere after an inconsistent patch of form. Despite his nickname, ‘Big Game’ James Shields hasn’t been particularly impressive so far in his playoff appearances. Sunday night would be the perfect time for the Royals’ starting pitcher to live up to his billing.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: When the final day may not be the final day

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WHGB11The final day of the MLB regular season is always tinged with sadness.

It’s caused by the realisation that the daily delight of baseball that has been a constant for the last six months is about to reduce to a trickle of playoff games and then a long baseball-free winter.

The one thing you hope for on this day is that there is one last hurrah, a gripping pennant race to be decided that will have you flicking between games and getting caught up in the drama.

The high-water mark of recent times to judge any final day against came in 2011. Here’s how I summed it up at the time:

“It’s just gone seven a.m. and while I’m tired I know there is little chance that I will be able to fall asleep again any time soon.

My head is still spinning from the most incredible end to an MLB regular season you could imagine.  The lack of sleep isn’t helping with my futile attempt to take it all in, but even if I was wide awake, I would still be shaking my head with disbelief and wondering if this has really happened.

In the early hours of Thursday, the Tampa Bay Rays somehow snatched the American League Wild Card from the Boston Red Sox

…

It was 5.07 a.m. in the UK.  That’s not a very sociable hour to be cheering or screaming in frustration, but anyone following the action would have found it impossible not to let their emotions get the better of them.

The Rays were one strike away from losing in the ninth inning of their game.  The Red Sox were one strike away from winning their game.  Somehow it is the Rays that have ended up winning the AL Wild Card.

I can’t summon the energy or concentration required to think much about the postseason right now.  All I know is that it has got a lot to live up to”.

I can’t imagine anything could top that final day – or very long night as it turned out to be for us in the U.K. – however the 2014 final day is set up to potentially come some way close to it.

After the games on Saturday there are still three key postseason matters to be decided:

  1. Who out of the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates will win the NL Central, with the ‘loser’ heading to the NL Wild Card game to face the San Francisco Giants
  2. Who out of the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals will win the AL Central, with the ‘loser’ heading to the AL Wild Card game
  3. Who out of the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners will win the second AL Wild Card spot, with the winner facing the loser of the Tigers-Royals race, whilst the loser of the A’s-Mariners race seeing their playoff hopes dashed at the last.

If the results go the right way – or the wrong way depending on who you support – any or all of the three races could be tied after the teams have completed their 162 schedule meaning that a single 163 game decider will be needed.

In all three cases both results need to go the way of the chaser: them to win and their opponent to lose. And just to add to the drama, the key games today are all starting at different times.

In the National League Central race, the Pittsburgh Pirates begin their game against the Cincinnati Reds at 18.10. BST needing to win to keep their division title hopes alive. If they lose then the St. Louis Cardinals will be able to play their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, starting at 21.10., with the freedom that they’ve avoided the Wild Card ‘play-in’ game. If the Pirates have won their game, all the pressure suddenly sits on St. Louis’s shoulders needing to win their game to clinch the division and knowing a loss will lead to a nervy game 163.

It’s a similar scenario in the American League Central, only in this case it’s the current division leaders, the Tigers, who get underway first. They start their game against the Minnesota Twins at 18.08, one hour ahead of the first pitch between the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox.

As with the Cardinals’ scenario, if the Tigers win their game then the Royals’ result will be irrelevant and we would probably be in a situation (subject to the Tigers-Twins games going into extra innings) where the Tigers clinch the division while the Royals are still in mid-game. However if the Tigers miss their chance then it will be an anxious wait for them to see if the White Sox can do them a favour.

The same story could play out in the AL Wild Card race and that is the most tense of them all. At least in the other two races the ‘loser’ will have a Wild Card playoff place to soften the blow. There will be no such consolation prize for whoever misses out between the A’s and Mariners.

Oakland are in the ‘all we have to do is win’ spot and begin their game against the Texas Rangers at 20.05, with the Mariners starting their game against the LA Angels at 21.10. in the ‘we need the A’s to lose and for us to win’ spot.

The different start times mean that it’s possible all three cases will come to a calm conclusion as the evening progresses, with the first result in each deciding everything, yet you wouldn’t bet against the drama continuing right down to the wire.

It should be a great final day to the 2014 regular season, because there’s every chance that it will not be the final day of the regular season after all.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: The race is on

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WHGB11After close to thirty years spent languishing between false hope and no hope, fans of the Kansas City Royals have entered this September in an unfamiliar competitive position.

The unfamiliar encourages a sense of excitement but also trepidation.

However much Royals are trying to outwardly enjoy this season, inwardly there is bound to be a sense of foreboding. Good things don’t happen to their team. This isn’t really happening. It’s all about to come crushing down.

Watching Danny Duffy leave the mound at Yankee Stadium on Saturday after throwing a solitary pitch was the moment when those fears were realised.

Look beyond the largely irrelevant 8-11 win-loss record and you’ll see that Duffy has been excellent for Kansas City this season. It’s not just been the way Duffy has pitched but also that he’s finally broken through after years of promise since he was drafted back in the 2007 amateur draft.

He was one of a crop of young players that were hailed as the answer to the Royals’ many years in the doldrums and, up until now, like most of the rest he had failed to live up to the billing. This season, in deed and in the sense of hope, Duffy has personified the way that things have finally turned around for Kansas City.

Seeing him grimace in discomfort and exit early with a sore shoulder was the last thing the Royals needed, again both in terms of actual impact (losing him for the game and potentially the foreseeable future) and the demoralising effect this blow could have on the team.

Kansas City went on to lose that game against the Yankees 6-2 to compound their misery and yet there was a chink of light from Detroit where the Tigers failed to capitalise. Despite having their recently-acquired ace David Price on the mound – an addition thought at the time to hammer another nail into the Royals’ coffin – Detroit lost 5-4 to the surging San Francisco Giants, keeping Kansas City two games ahead at the top of the AL Central.

Duffy’s condition will be assessed further over the next few days to determine whether it was a mere blip or something that could see him miss extended time, potentially the rest of the season. If he is out for the year then he’ll be a big loss, yet maybe it won’t be a sign of things inevitably going wrong for the Royals and instead will show that this is destined to be the year playoff baseball returns to Kansas City, regardless of the obstacles that come their way.

The Royals’ emergence in the AL Central, where many – including myself – predicted another season of Detroit domination, is one of many great stories building to a crescendo this month.

Baltimore look set to win the AL East division for the first time since 1997, whilst in the AL Wild Card race the Seattle Mariners may just turn their offseason splurge on Robinson Cano into a first playoff appearance since 2001.

The Mariners are even catching up the Oakland A’s who looked certainties for a third consecutive AL West title before a startling collapse over the last month that has seen a rampant LA Angels team fly past to gain not only a lead in the division but the best win-loss record in the Majors.

The A’s were able to snatch a walk-off win on Saturday against the Houston Astros, turning around a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning, and that’s the sort of win that could spark an all-important change in fortune as we head into the last few weeks of the season. That’s what this A’s is clinging to, at least.

In the National League it’s been the Milwaukee Brewers playing the role of the A’s, plummeting from an unexpected stay at the top of the Central and seeing the St. Louis Cardinals resuming normal service at the summit. The Brew Crew have won only three of their past 16 games and now need to forget about what has gone. They are still firmly in the Wild Card race, a position they would have been delighted with if offered it before the season began, and need to somehow find a way to make that their mindset.

And as the regular season begins to wind down, the Philadelphia Phillies reminded us all on Monday that there’s something to play for every time you take the field. Their combined no-hitter was a rare enjoyable moment in what has been yet another poor season for a team that enjoyed so much success between 2007 and 2011.

The Texas Rangers are another team to quickly hit hard times after a recent run of excellent seasons. They were the first time to be eliminated from playoff contention this season and questions were already being asked about manager Ron Washington’s future before he stepped down for personal reasons on Friday. Wash had his game-management called into question at times, but there’s no doubt he was a manager that his players fought for and it’s one of the harsh realities of sport at the highest level that his time in charge will be remembered for the two World Series championships his time narrowly missed out on, rather than all of the other regular season success they had.

Offseason so far: NL Central

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Next up in our offseason round-up, we move onto the home of the National League champions.

St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals showed their strength in depth whilst making it to another World Series appearance last season and they look set to be strong contenders in the National League again this year.

They acted quickly in November to plug a hole in the infield by signing free agent Jhonny Peralta on a four-year contract (despite him recently serving a drug suspension) and made a trade with the Angels to sign Peter Bourjos in the knowledge that Carlos Beltran was likely to leave as a free agent (sure enough, he’s now a Yankee).

David Freese went to the Angels in that trade, Chris Carpenter has retired and Edward Mujica has signed with the Red Sox, but the losses will be balanced out by their farm system products, with full seasons from Michael Wacha and Kolten Wong in prospect.

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates finally made it back into the playoffs last year, which was a source of great joy in Pittsburgh. However, that shouldn’t be an end in itself and Buccos fans will be disappointed that so far this offseason their team has failed to build on the promise of 2013.

The biggest unknown is A.J. Burnett, who was terrific for the Pirates last year but may well decide to retire (there’s no definitive word on that as yet). They’ve brought in Edinson Volquez on a one-year contract but shouldn’t be too optimistic he’ll bounce back the way that Francisco Liriano did in 2013.

The only other Major League addition made so far has been signing back-up catcher Chris Stewart from the Yankees, after Jack Buck moved on to the Mariners.  With late-season pick-ups Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau also leaving as free agents, there’s certainly plenty of room for improvement in the period up to Opening Day.

Cincinnati Reds

The Reds are in a similar position to the Pirates: a fan base hoping for positive moves and being left underwhelmed.

The main concern for their 2014 prospects will be found in the lead-off spot. Shin-Soo Choo proved to be a fantastic one-year addition from the previous offseason, but now that he has signed a seven-year deal with the Rangers, the Reds look like leaning on young speedster Billy Hamilton. Choo was instrumental in the Red’s offence last year in getting on base and whilst Hamilton will put up large stolen base numbers, there are doubts as to whether he will get on base enough to be a Major League regular, never mind getting close to Choo’s .423 mark of last season.

Brayan Pena has joined the catching crew with Ryan Hanigan moving on to the Rays and Skip Schumaker will be their new utility man, but new manager Bryan Price is probably hoping his Front Office will give him a bit more help before the season starts.

Milwaukee Brewers

The most newsworthy name on the Brewers’ lineup this season will be that of Ryan Braun, the ex-MVP who is trying to rebuild his career with the team following a shameful drug suspension after previous vehement denials.

There’s not much chance of other matters putting his return into the shade as it’s been a quiet offseason in Milwaukee, with the most notable move being their decision to trade away useful outfielder Norichika Aoki to the Royals for pitcher Will Smith. Corey Hart, out for all of 2013 with a knee injury, has left the team to join Seattle, whilst Mark Reynolds has been added to the Brewers’ roster recently in the hope of adding some power to the lineup.

Chicago Cubs

The north-siders are still in something of a holding pattern as their rebuilding process continues to gradually add a group of impressive young talent to the Major League roster over the next couple of seasons.

They have added a few players with Major League experience in closer Jose Veras, Ryan Roberts and Justin Ruggiano this offseason, but the big news may still be to come. The Cubs reportedly are making a big push to sign Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka we may find out at the end of this week which team has come out on top in the race to sign him.

It could be difficult to tempt him to join a rebuilding project ahead of the dollars on offer from the Dodgers and Yankees, but it’s good to see the Cubs trying to add a player of his calibre and he would certainly be a nice joining present for new manager Rick Renteria.

Rounding the Bases: The Drugs Don’t Work?

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The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft once sang “now the drugs don’t work, they just make things worse”.

Whether the drugs that condemned Jhonny Peralta to a 50-game suspension in this past season actually worked in the sense of significantly enhancing his performances is up for debate.

One of the problems with the issue of so-called ‘performance-enhancing drugs’ is that no one, not even the people taking them, can accurately determine what effect they had (although if the substance is banned, the act of taking it regardless of any benefit may well deserve punishment).

So Peralta’s story doesn’t help us with validating or dismissing the first part of Ashcroft’s statement, but the St. Louis Cardinals’ decision last week to give him a four-year, $53m contract presents a strong case against the claim that they “make things worse”.

The contract has provoked a considerable amount of debate, not least due to relief pitchers Brad Ziegler and David Aardsma taking to Twitter to point out that it doesn’t do much for the awareness campaign to discourage drug use.

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick wrote an excellent article summing up the various parts to the debate and it’s sure to be a topic of conversation again this offseason (when Nelson Cruz comes off the free agent market, for example) and in future winters too.

The Cardinals have had to mount a defence of their decision to sign Peralta, although the questioning will soon disappear if he’s a success on the field for the Red Birds. When it comes down to it, that’s what fans really care about. The current drug-testing programme leaves a first-time offender in Peralta’s situation with a 50-game suspension and once he’s served it there’s no reason for a team to penalise him. He was a good fit for the Cardinals’ offseason plan and they knew if they didn’t sign him to a four-year deal, someone else was going to instead.

The only way to increase the deterrent, and to reduce the obvious embarrassment of someone getting caught in the drug-testing programme and then soon after walking off with a multi-million dollar deal, is to introduce longer suspensions of at least one year.

Crasnick’s article notes that there’s a feeling among many players that there are different scales of drug-programme contraventions and that banning someone for a whole year for a minor transgression would be unjust. Aligning that position with harsher penalties may be difficult, but you suspect that Peralta’s contract may be a catalyst for further discussions on the matter.

Hall of Fame

The current dilemmas for Front Offices on awarding contracts to those labelled as ‘drug cheats’ is nothing compared to the problems caused by ‘suspected drug cheats’ on the Hall of Fame process.

Last year’s voting, in which no candidates were elected, was a miserable experience and the memories came flooding back when the 2014 ballot was announced. It includes a whole host of some of the biggest stars from the last 20 years or so, in fact so many that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s rule that a ballot can only contain a maximum of ten players seems greatly restrictive this time around.

That’s probably not going to be reflected in the voting results though as voters grapple with the candidacies of players that were part of the so-called steroid era. Due to the lack of testing during this period, whether someone was a user or not really comes down to suspicion in most cases.

Pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine are on the ballot for the first time and it’s expected that they will be (rightly) elected, yet is it fair that they make it to Cooperstown whilst others (Jeff Bagwell being a prime example) are left in limbo on the basis of innuendo and suspicion based on no proof whatsoever?

The only fair way to treat the group is to disregard those suspicions and approach each player’s case for what it is; however the obvious problem with that is it may well lead to drug-users being voted in. The Hall of Fame is not exactly the Hall of Saints as it is, so perhaps that’s something that just has to be accepted.

We’ll find out what the voters think on 8 January.

Rounding the Bases: Deals being made

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One week ago I stated that we may be waiting a few weeks before the MLB Hot Stove started to heat up and teams began making significant roster additions.

It turned out that this past week was in fact quite a busy one, with several free agent signings being completed and one major trade.

Fielder and Kinsler swap teams

At breakfast time on Thursday morning I was tucking into a bowl of porridge and enjoying watching the highlights of Day One of the first Ashes Test on Sky Sports News (enjoy the good times while they last, comes to mind) when I noticed that an MLB news item was about to scroll across the bottom of the screen. I expected it to be news of a minor free agent signing, but instead was taken aback to read that the Texas Rangers had swung a trade to acquire first baseman Prince Fielder from the Detroit Tigers for second baseman Ian Kinsler.

Just two years ago, the Tigers caused a major shock by coming out of nowhere and signing Fielder to a nine-year, $214m contract. Despite having a disappointing 2013 season, Fielder appeared to be set to stay in Detroit for years to come and yet all of a sudden the long-term commitment between player and team had been broken.

At first glance it looks to be a trade that should benefit both teams handsomely, not just in the player each team has required but the knock-on effects for their respective rosters.

The Tigers can now move Miguel Cabrera over to first base, where his limited fielding skills are better suited, and create an opening for their best prospect, third baseman Nick Castellanos. Kinsler will add a combination of some power and speed to the lineup and moving the majority of Fielder’s hefty contract (the Tigers have given the Rangers $30m as part of the deal to cover some of the remaining $168m) gives them some financial flexibility potentially to add another player or two or to add to the pot for a contract extension for Max Scherzer and, down the line, Miguel Cabrera.

As for the Rangers, they were desperate to make a big move after suffering late season heartbreak in the last two seasons. Acquiring a premium slugger is a statement of intent and moving to the homer-friendly confines of Rangers Ballpark should suit Fielder down to the ground. Moving Kinsler also frees up some space for the Rangers to let top prospect Jurickson Profar settle in at second base.

Angels and Cardinals

The Rangers’ AL West rivals the Los Angeles Angels also completed a trade this week, acquiring third baseman David Freese from the St. Louis Cardinals for centre fielder Peter Bourjos, with a couple of young prospects thrown into the deal too.

Freese will forever be a hometown hero in St. Louis for his 2011 World Series heroics, yet it looks like a good time for him to move on to a new challenge with the Angels. The Cardinals will probably move their infield players around so that Matt Carpenter shifts over to third base and Kolten Wong moves into second base full-time, potentially with former Detroit Tiger Jhonny Peralta joining the team as their new shortstop if the rumours from Saturday night are accurate. Bourjos, if he can stay fit and on the field, will be a better option in centrefield than the disappointing John Jay for the Cards, whilst Mike Trout will no longer be moved aside to the Angels’ left field and will instead be the number one centre fielder.

Pitchers getting paid

David Freese should be a good addition for the Angels, but their most pressing need over the offseason is to bolster their pitching corps. Another opening in the rotation has been created by Jason Vargas departing as a free agent as he agreed a four-year, $32m contract with the Kansas City Royals.

The signing was met by a fairly lukewarm response. In part this was because of the Royals rumours swirling in the hour before it was announced:

A “major-baseball announcement” immediately created visions for some of Carlos Beltran donning the ‘KC’ cap once again, so when the reality was a player you can neatly file under the words ‘solid’ and ‘dependable’ there was bound to be some disappointment.

Giving a four-year contract to a less-than-spectacular player also raised a few eyebrows, yet $8m per year for a good starting pitcher looks like being a good deal for the Royals on the current pitching market.

The San Francisco Giants spent $23m this week to sign 38-year old Tim Hudson on a two-year contract (£137k per week). Hudson’s 2013 season was ended by a horrible freak accident when the Mets’ Eric Young accidentally landed on the pitcher’s right ankle as he was covering first base. The Giants are confident that Hudson will come back from his fractured ankle as good as new and if he does then he should help the team in their attempt to get back to the postseason and to win a third World Series in five years.

Elsewhere in the NL West, the San Diego Padres have also signed a pitcher whose 2013 was impacted by injury. Josh Johnson has spent most of his career so far battling the tag of being an ace when not injured. Recently he’s spent more time injured than being an ace but the Padres have little to lose in signing him to a one-year contract worth $8m and, with Petco Park being a great place for a pitcher to ply his trade, it’s also a good setting for Johnson to have a good year and then earn a more lucrative contract in a year’s time.

Another veteran for the Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies played at the Veterans Stadium for 33 seasons before moving to Citizens Bank Park in 2004. The team’s General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr has done a good job in recent years of honouring their old home by building rosters dominated by veterans and, just a week after signing 36-year-old Marlon Byrd to a two-year contract, he added another this week with the re-signing of catcher Carlos Ruiz.

Ruiz has spent his whole Major League career with the Phillies and even when his contract ran out at the end of the 2013 season, there always seemed a very good chance that he would carry on with the club.

Amaro’s decision to hand the 35-year-old a three-year contract worth a guaranteed $26m (annual salaries of $8.5m – approximately £101k per week – with a $500k 2017 buyout fee) made sure of that and immediately led to the GM’s thought processes (or more precisely lack of) being questioned.

Giving a three-year contract to a 35-year-old catcher isn’t ideal, but Ruiz is a good all-round player, not spectacular at anything but solid enough at the plate and behind it, at a position where merely being good carries plenty of value. Additionally the risk involved is mitigated slightly by the Phillies’ familiarity with him, from how he fits into the group as a personality to a detailed knowledge of his fitness.

And finally …

The Phillies kept hold of their catcher, but it looks like the Atlanta Braves have lost theirs. Brian McCann has been with the Braves for his entire professional career and his nine-season Major League run with the team always looked likely to come to an end this offseason when he became a free agent. Sure enough, late on Saturday night it was being reported that he has agreed a five-year, $85m contract (just over £200k per week) with the New York Yankees.

Boston clinch at home

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The Red Sox Nation includes more than a few members on those shores and their Thursday morning breakfast must have tasted good, basking in their team’s World Series triumph secured just a few hours before.

It was not quite the Game Six that neutrals wanted. The Cardinals were unable to rally to take the series to the full seven games and we didn’t get a dramatic clinching effort by the Red Sox. Instead it was a fairly comfortable 6-1 victory for Boston to wrap up the series with a game to spare.

The jubilant scenes marked a complete turnaround from the team’s ugly late-season collapse of 2011 and the season-long misery that was 2012.

As the Red Sox stumbled to a 69-93 record, bottom of the AL East and ending the season on an eight-game losing streak, the great bond between the city and their baseball team had become strained.

This was not the Boston team that had made them so proud in recent years. The games on the field didn’t bring much joy and the games off the field, Bobby Valentine’s hiring and firing etc, were either infuriating, embarrassing or a combination of the two.

Things needed to change and they did, quickly and completely. The 2012 93-loss Red Sox became the team with the joint-best record in the Majors (97-65) in 2013.

The St. Louis Cardinals were the team they tied on 97 wins. Mike Matheny’s men had a tremendous season and will look back on 2013 with plenty to be proud of and with plenty of reason to be optimistic for 2014.  However, the offence just couldn’t get going against the Red Sox’s pitching and, considering the thunder coming from David Ortiz’s bat and the timely contributions from others, they couldn’t turn their NL Championship into a third World Series in eight years.

Instead, the Red Sox have transformed from being the team that couldn’t win a World Series to one that has captured three titles in their last nine seasons.

And with this one being the first one clinched at Fenway Park, it was a case of three time’s a charm in Boston.

Game Four goes Wong for Cardinals

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Game Four of the 2013 World Series gave us another stunning ending.

After Game Three ended on an obstruction call, Game Four was concluded by Cardinals pinch-runner Kolten Wong being picked off from first base.

Apologising for the pun, Wong committed a cardinal sin, like a batsman in cricket being run out for failing to ground his bat.

Being picked off in any situation is a mistake; having it happen with two outs in the ninth inning of a World Series game makes it infinitely worse and considering the game situation it was a shocking error.

The Cardinals trailed 4-2, so there was not a significant amount to be gained in Wong inching out a good lead at first base to either steal a base or get around to third base on a single.  That was particularly the case considering Carlos Beltran was at the plate, arguably St. Louis’s best hitter. The look of disbelief on Beltran’s face as he slowly walked back to the dugout said it all.

Wong’s mistake created the opportunity, but we shouldn’t overlook the lightning-quick work of pitcher Koji Uehara and first baseman Mike Napoli in taking advantage. Based on Boston’s luck throwing the ball around so far this series, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see Uehara’s throw skip off down the right-field line, allowing Wong to sprint around to third base with the St. Louis crowd suddenly sensing a Boston meltdown.

There was no hesitation on Uehara’s part, no thought that errant throws had cost his team recently and it might be safer not to risk anything. He had the confidence that he would make a good throw and got his reward.

The pick-off allowed Jonny Gomes to be the hairy hero for the Red Sox. The bearded-wonder was a late addition to the Boston lineup following an injury to Shane Victorino and he took his chance by clouting a three-run homer in the sixth inning.

It was a poor pitch by reliever Seth Maness, the sort that probably had him shouting ‘oh no’ (or words to that effect) to himself as soon as it left his hand, but a mistake pitch only counts for the offence if the man at the plate takes full advantage.

Gomes certainly did that and in doing so gave a pumped-up Red Sox team a decisive advantage in the game and potentially a decisive advantage in the series.

There’s a big difference between the series being tied 2-2 and the Cardinals holding a 3-1 lead with a potential series-clinching Game Five at Busch Stadium. You would perhaps make the Red Sox marginal favourites with two of the potential three remaining games taking place in Boston; however there is little to choose between the two teams and it’s not mere fence-sitting to conclude that the series could still go either way.

The only thing we should expect is the unexpected. ESPN’s report of Game Four states that prior to these last two games, none of the previous 1,404 postseason games in MLB history had ended on either an obstruction call or a pick-off.

I can’t wait to see what new ending the Cardinals and Red Sox will conjure up for Game Five.