Is Tim Hudson as good as Roy Halladay?

First off, you wont find a bigger Halladay fan than me.  The only jersey I wear during baseball season is his.  I think he's the best in the game right now.  I think a lot of people would tend to agree with me on that too.  If we were to name some more top of the line starting pitchers, we'd be talking, in no particular order, Lincecum, King Felix, Sabathia, Oswalt, Lee, Wainwright, Lester.  The usual bunch.  Not often does anyone mention Tim Hudson.

I recently got my first baseball preview book of the year and was shocked at the numbers though.

Games - Halladay 346, Hudson 345
Games Started - Hudson 344, Halladay 320
Wins - Halladay 169, Hudson 165
Losses - Halladay 86, Hudson 87
IP - Halladay 2297.1, Hudson 2288.1
ERA - Halladay 3.32, Hudson 3.42
WHIP - Halladay 1.18, Hudson 1.25
BAA - Hudson .250, Halladay .254
Hits Allowed - Hudson 2147, Halladay 2228
HR Allowed - Hudson 184, Halladay 196

If anything, there's a shit load of value available on Hudson.  Numbers that are just as good as Halladay's....but no pub for it!

What are your MLB playoff predictions?

We're a week away from baseball starting up, let's get a thread filled with everyone's projections for the season & see who can get the closest at season's end - who will make the playoffs?  Win eh World Series?  Try and get the Award winners right too if you'd like...don't need to give reasoning if you choose not to.

My Predictions:
AL East Champ - New York
AL Central Champ - Chicago
AL West Champ - Seattle
AL Wildcard - Tampa Bay
AL Champion - Chicago

NL East Champ - Philadelphia
NL Central Champ - St. Louis
NL West Champ - Arizona
NL Wildcard - Los Angeles
NL Champion - Philadelphia

World Series Champion - Philadelphia

AL MVP - Derek Jeter
NL MVP - Albert Pujols
AL Cy Young - Jake Peavy
NL Cy Young - Roy Halladay
AL Rookie of the Year - Brian Matusz
NL Rookie of the Year - Alcides Escobar
AL Manager of the Year - Don Wakamatsu
NL Manager of the Year - A.J. Hinch

Seattle Mariners to win World Series (+1600)

I'm slowly going through each team as I get ready for the Season and I love the odds on Seattle coming out of nowhere.  The pitching staff in Seattle is the best in the American League.  Let's look at last year's numbers:

1st in ERA in AL, 3.87 Lowest amount of relief appearances in the Majors, 413 1st in Intentional Walks in the Majors, 13 1st in Opposing Average in AL, .247 1st in Hits Allowed, 1359 1st in Runs Allowed, 692 1st in Earned Runs Allowed, 625

Less hits, less intentional walks, less runs - if you have a decent offense, that should me a lot of wins.  But all of these fantastic numbers should go even lower with the addition of Cliff Lee.  A nasty 1-2 punch in the rotation.  Ryan Rowland-Smith should continue impressing in the rotation.  David Aardsma seems to have found a grove in the closer role and Mark Lowe has become quite durabe as the setup man.  The addition of hard throwing Brandon League should improve the bullpen in situational relief appearances.  Ian Snell was a solid 5-2 with a 4.20 ERA after coming over from Pittsburgh.

Flipping to the offense, I love thew new look.  Chone Figgins will make a fantastic first two men in the order with the best leadoff man in baseball, Ichiro.  This team was tied with the White Sox for the lowest batting average in the American League at .258.  Keep in mind though that was also the Phillies' batting average last season.  T... [More]

If I were General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays

First we'd have to go over our roster, right now the team looks like this....   C - Rod Barajas 1B - Lyle Overbay 2B - Aaron Hill, Joe Inglett SS - Marco Scutaro, John McDonald 3B - Scott Rolen LF - Adam Lind CF - Vernon Wells RF - Alex Rios DH - Travis Snider   SP - Roy Halladay, Jesse Litsch, Dustin McGowan (May), Casey Janssen RP - B.J. Ryan, Scott Downs, Jeremy Accardo, Jesse Carlson, Brian Tallet, Brandon League, Jason Frasor, Shawn Camp   The backup catcher is going to come from within so we don't need to worry there.  An upgrade at first base would be a good idea so I'd make it known that I would trade Lyle Overbay and be willing to pay the majority of his salary to get rid of him.   Aaron Hill, who was brought through the system as a shortstop, would be told to prepare to move back.  That would let Joe Inglett continue to start at second base and Scott Rolen at third.  Joe McDonald would be my late inning defensive replacement & Marco Scutaro would be my fill in for players to have the day off.   The outfield looks great right now but we could use another bat.  I would look at the possibility of seeing if Adam Lind or Travis Snider could take over at first base once Lyle Overbay is shipped out of town.  That would open up an outfield or DH spot for a solid bat.   We need at least 1 Free Agent starter and could fill McGowan's spot till May from within.  But two free agent starters woul... [More]

Where are the major names going to sign?

For those of us that didn't have a rooting interest in the playoffs, the time we've been waiting for is finally here.  Time for players to opt out, declare free agency, be traded & change the landscape for the 2009 season.  Let's go over some of the names expected out there....   A.J. Burnett Apparently he'll decide by Monday whether to opt out or not.  I didn't think it woudl take this long - I figured he'd opt out at the first possible chance.  Not a chance he remains in Toronto but J.P. Ricciardi will probably toss 3 years & $45 million at him or 4 years & $54 million.  He'll decline both.  I see Burnett wearing pinstripes next year.  The Yankees will make yet another pin headed decision by giving him 5 years & 16+ million a season.  Then he'll injure his pinky or get a hangnail and miss 2 months.  Have fun New York.  Don't worry though, he'll have a fantastic season in his contract year.   C.C. Sabathia The Yankees' #1 target in the offseason and I'm positive he'll turn them down.  We're talking about a guy who just built a luxurious dream home in California.  Possibly in Los Angeles, but I'm not certain.  I see both LA clubs making the pursue but C.C. has made it known he'd like to swing the bat & I expect him to be wearing Dodger Blue next year.   Prince ... [More]

The Greatest Baseball Player of All-Time

It's an argument that everyone has an opinion.  From the beginning of baseball lore with Ty Cobb right up to the current day, with stars like Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds.  But is there any way to make an educated answer to the question, who is the greatest of all-time?   After a lot of reading online of various lists, from the sporting news to ESPN to the stat book itself, I have compiled five players who are featured at or near the top in all of these lists.  I'm going to go player by player to make a case for them, then tell you my opinion at the end.   Pete Rose Pete is the greatest pure hitter in baseball history.  A mind boggling 4,256 hits in just over 3,500 games.  Rose was selected to the all-star game seventeen times.  A three time world series champion.  He was the NL's Rookie of the Year in 1963, the NL's Most Valuable Player in 1973, and the World Series MVP in 1975.  He shares the record for the longest hitting streak in the National League, a whopping 44 games.  He hit above .300 in fifteen of his twenty four major league seasons and finished as a career .303 hitter.  He holds seventeen different baseball records.  Sure he's got that black cloud over his head because of the gambling problems that have followed him since then but when it came to playing the game, Charlie Hustle was one of the best.   Stan Musial Stan The Man was one of the original hotshots of baseball.  A ... [More]