November 7
Washington Post
columnist Tracee Hamilton
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Getting hammered in his second Arizona Fall League start may have been the best thing that ever happened to Stephen Strasburg. The No. 1 pick of the 2009 draft and the linchpin of the Plan got beat like a drum on Oct. 22, giving up eight runs and seven hits in 2 2/3 innings. His ERA before the game: 0.00. His ERA after the game: 23.62. "He took it personal," said Paul Menhart, the pitching coach at Class A Potomac and the Nationals' representative on the Phoenix Desert Dogs. "I don't think he liked that very much. You hate to ever see anybody give up that many runs, but I believe it got his focus where he needed it to be. He's had an unbelievable bulldog attitude ever since." Indeed, ..."
November 6
Toronto Star
columnist Richard Griffin
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It was great news for Major League Baseball growing the sport internationally in a season that began with Version 2 of the World Baseball Classic, but the selection of Japanese DH Hideki Matsui as MVP of the World Series was wrong. The real most valuable player, the biggest influence on the outcome, was closer Mariano Rivera. Matsui is strictly a designated hitter who could not play in the field because of his wonky knees. Therefore, in the three Series games at Philadelphia, at a time when it was turning around and the Yankees grabbed history by the throat, winning the first two games to go up 3-1, Matsui was a pinch-hitter, missing Game 4 entirely. Meanwhile, Rivera appeared in four of ..."
November 6
Miami Herald
columnist Linda Robertson
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Alex Rodriguez began the year in shame. He stammered, red-eyed and red-faced, as he gave his forced confession to using steroids in 2001-2003. His teammates listened with arms crossed, looking none too sympathetic. A-Rod was ripped as A-Fraud in Joe Torre's book. The tabloids continued to find him a treasure trove of juicy news on his divorce and romantic entanglements. Then there was the hip surgery. It looked to be another difficult year for Rodriguez, another year of trying too hard to be the best, to be accepted as a Yankee and to overcome his unlovable image. Look how it turned out. Not with another choke in the playoffs but with a World Series title, the 27th in Yankees' history, the ..."
November 6
Philadelphia Daily News
columnist Frank Seravalli
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Huddled up inside the enclosed Ritz-Carlton of bullpens in leftfield at Yankee Stadium, the Phillies' relievers would have stayed there all night - protected from the cold, harsh, pressure-cooker environment - if they could. Given their struggles this season and this World Series, the quiet bullpen was a sort-of shielding bubble. In Game 6 - with the season on the line for the second game in a row - that bubble popped early. Like a window that bursts inside a pressurized cabin, when J.A. Happ opened the door to the outside world at Yankee Stadium to warm up in just the third inning, the gaping hole sucked everyone out with him. In all, the Phillies used five relief pitchers to try to stop ..."
November 6
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
columnist Mark Bradley
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I'm just throwing it out there, OK? So don't all scream at once. (If you do choose to scream, please take turns.) So here goes: With the re-signing of Tim Hudson, the Braves have six starting pitchers under contract for 2010. The baseball truism holds that a team can never have too much pitching, but this one just might. The obvious solution would be to make Kenshin Kawakami a reliever, except for a couple of things: He makes too much money (around $8 million) to slot into middle relief and he generates too many baserunners to close. So …. what about this? Tommy Hanson as closer. I know, I know. Would any organization in its right mind redeploy its best pitching prospect in a generation so ..."
November 6
New York Times
columnist William C. Rhoden
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Jimmy Rollins stood in the middle of the losing clubhouse early Thursday morning, speaking with reporters and putting the best face possible on the Philadelphia Phillies' four-games-to-two World Series loss to the Yankees. "They were the better team this series," he said. "Do I think we're the better team? I really do. They showed a lot of heart. A lot of grit. We drilled a couple of guys, no one backed down and they executed." Rollins, the Phillies' shortstop, set the tone before the Series when he predicted that the Phillies would beat the Yankees in five or six games. After the Yankees won Game 6, Derek Jeter told some reporters that Rollins's prediction had served as motivation."
November 4
Denver Post
columnist Patrick Saunders
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Neil Devlin, The Post's mop- topped preps sports editor, grew up near Philly. He's the kind of passionate East Coast baseball fan who wears his heart on his sleeve, and on his head. I have rarely seen Devlin without his red Phillies cap. This morning, Devlin is no doubt on edge, wondering how his beloved Phillies can possibly take two games in the Bronx and win the World Series after being down 3-1. Well, Mr. Devlin, I dug hard for you - scrambling, lying to myself a little, crossing my fingers and throwing common sense to the wind - to come up with 10 reasons why your Phillies can pull it off: 1. Five teams have come back from a 3-1 hole in a seven-game series: 1985 Royals, 1979 ..."
November 4
Boston Globe
columnist Dan Shaughnessy
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Six years later, he is back in new Yankee Stadium, still pitching for the honor of Red Sox Nation. Pedro Martinez gets the ball in Game 6 tonight of the World Series, and he is the only thing standing between the Evil Empire and its 27th world championship. In his role as Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher, Pedro knows he is carrying the colors for Sox fans around the world - just as he did in 2003 when Grady Little left him on the mound too long in the ancient ballpark across the street."
November 4
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
columnist Bob Wolfley
"
"The Bill James Handbook 2010," which was published this month, carries some statistical nuggets about some of the Milwaukee Brewers regulars. For example: • Ryan Braun was judged the best base-running leftfielder in baseball, according to James' metric for that skill. "Most people will tell you we should have (Tampa Bay's) Carl Crawford in left field ahead of Ryan Braun. . . . (But) we don't do this on reputation," James writes. James reports Braun went from first to third on a single 15 of 41 times; scored from first on a double 7 of 9 times; moved up 26 bases on wild pitches, passed balls, balks, sacrifice flies and defensive indifference; grounded into seven double plays in 136 ..."
November 4
Dallas Morning News
columnist Kevin Sherrington
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In the summer of 1988, Bobby Witt threw nine consecutive complete games after a brief exile to the minor leagues, prompting speculation as to what brand of exorcism took place in Oklahoma City and whether the rest of the staff should be on the next bus up I-35. Ferguson Jenkins, Hall of Famer, earned most of the credit for Witt's revival. So much so, in fact, that it irritated Bobby Valentine. "What exactly did Fergie tell him," the Rangers' manager asked, "that we didn't?" Maybe it wasn't what Jenkins told Witt, I remember thinking, as much as who he was and how he said it. The vignette comes to mind as the Rangers prepare to hire a hitting coach for the first time in 15 years. ..."
November 3
Toronto Star
columnist Richard Griffin
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Standing on the brink of elimination, the world champion Philadelphia Phillies came out with their ace on the mound and their guns blazing, beating the New York Yankees 8-6 Monday night to send the World Series back to the Bronx for Game 6. Despite leading by six runs heading into the eighth inning, the Phillies just managed to hang on, thanks to a another ragged bullpen performance. But as manager Charlie Manuel said on Sunday, "We're still breathing." Nursing a three-run lead with three outs to go, right-hander Ryan Madson came on to close it out in place of struggling Brad Lidge. Madson allowed the first two batters to reach base before Derek Jeter grounded into a double play and Mark ..."
November 3
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
columnist Jennifer Floyd Engel
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The World Series ended Monday, or maybe Philly delayed what feels inevitable and dragged this "Fall Classic" into Wednesday and NYC. Does it really matter? I, like most inhabitants of fly-over states, have trouble feigning interest, much less watching. We are talking baseball in November, a month most often associated with Thanksgiving and puffy ski jackets and college football rivalry games. And we're talking another N.Y. Yankees championship to further annoy matters. What did NYY exactly do worthy of fawning? This is not the little guy overcoming odds, or a team slowly building via a vibrant farm system, or even a long-suffering franchise buying itself a championship. This is a monopoly, ..."