Kuzul

With just over a month of the Major League Baseball season behind us, it is time to take a little bit of a step back and see what has been happening. Are there trends that are beginning to develop? Have they been surprising? I would contend that there are five things that have been especially prevalent this season. Some of them are team accomplishments while others are individual, and some of them are incredibly positive while others are not so hot. That being said, all of these trends can turn around. This season is young, but keep your eyes on these tendencies.Begin Slideshow

Over the winter, I know that general managers were agonizing over one important decision: Do we bring him back, or do we let him go? When contracts run out, teams have to decide whether or not they should bring back their stars. A few good years doesn’t necessarily guarantee a few more years of success, but if that star has some more time left, it is naturally a good idea to bring him back. For the purposes of this article, let’s focus on the first problem. What players have taken a step back this season? Again, just because you were a major star in the past does not necessarily guarantee continued success. Any statistics used are from Baseball-Reference.com.Begin Slideshow

Pitchers and catchers are just about ready to report for spring training, but there are still some important free agents on the market. Even though they might not be frantic, I am sure that the remaining players are looking for a favorable contract in an ideal location. Time is running out though, so some of these men will need to perhaps take one-year contracts, hope for a big year and try to cash in on a bigger deal next year. However, the point remains that these short-term contract offers have to come from somewhere. Let's try to predict where each of the top 10 remaining free agents will finally land.Begin Slideshow

Free-agent center fielder Angel Pagan was expected to return to the San Francisco Giants. After all, they just won a World Series, and Pagan played a significant role on that team. However, according to Buster Olney of ESPN, the Giants are not sure that they want to give him as long of a contract as he wants. Of course, these two parties could easily resolve this problem, but if it does not work out, the Philadelphia Phillies need to make a move and sweep up Pagan for their void in center field. The typical argument against Pagan joining the Philadelphia Phillies is his age. He is 31 years old, and the Phillies have one of the oldest teams in baseball. Many people would argue that they need to look at a younger option like B.J. Upton. However, this argument is somewhat flawed. Relying only on age to judge a player ...

While all of the talk in Philadelphia has been centered around how the Phillies can get BJ Upton into the outfield, the team might be better off looking at Angel Pagan at a more predictable, and consequently better, option for 2013. It seems as if the San Francisco Giants want to bring Pagan back, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, so this might be a hard fight to win. He just won the World Series, and that is a difficult situation to leave. However, Pagan himself has never come out on the record as far as I know as to his intentions for next season. Perhaps he wants to try somewhere different. If that is the case, the Philadelphia Phillies need to seriously consider adding Pagan to the lineup. First, he will serve a purpose similar to what Shane Victorino did when he was in Philadelphia. He hit for ...

The Los Angeles Dodgers are taking the free agent market seriously. Jayson Stark of ESPN reported Tuesday that the Dodgers are looking at top shelf starting pitchers Zack Greinke, Hiroki Kuroda and Anibal Sanchez. While each of these three pitchers would obviously help the Dodgers, it is difficult to tell if this is really the best use of all of the money that new ownership is going to be pumping into the franchise. First, as Jayson Stark also mentioned, the Dodgers have a veteran group of starting pitchers. Clayton Kershaw obviously leads the way as a potential Cy Young candidate every season. Chad Billingsley and Josh Beckett should provide plenty of support as well. In fact, if Beckett is able to rebound from an incredibly frustrating 2012, he should be more than support. In 2011, he went 13-7 with a very low 2.89 ERA. The reason that I designated that ...

Dan Haren was on the verge of being traded to the Chicago Cubs on Friday night for a package that would have sent at least Carlos Marmol to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. However, since that transaction fell through, Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com is reporting that the Angels declined their team option on Haren, and he will indeed become a free agent this winter. According to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto has not ruled out talking to Haren on a new contract. With all this in mind, is it possible that Haren will return to the Angels next season? On one hand, last season was definitely below average for the now 32-year-old right-hander. He went 12-13 with a 4.33 ERA. He posted his highest WHIP, lowest win total, tied for the highest loss total and ...

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim must have been frustrated with the way that this season turned out. However, it is shaping up to be another busy winter in the City of Angels. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports is reporting that the Angels are looking at potential trades for both Dan Haren and Ervin Santana. On one hand, it definitely makes sense to try to trade these two athletes. In 2012, Haren only managed to go 12-13 with a 4.33 ERA while Santana was a touch below that at 9-13 with a 5.16 ERA. If the Angels want to try to climb back on top of the division next season, they will obviously need more production out of their starting rotation than these two men demonstrated last year. However, could that production come out of Haren and Santana themselves? Haren has been a reliable starting pitcher throughout his entire career ...

Alex Rodriguez could have easily been one of the most talked about stories of the winter, but it is apparently a little bit too early to start talking yet and there may not be any reason to be talking at all. According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, no teams have called the New York Yankees to talk about their talented, yet vastly overpaid third baseman. Rodriguez is still owed a total of $114 million through 2017 according to Cot's Contracts, so it is going to be difficult to find a team willing to take on that kind of deal. To put it in perspective, in 2012, only eight teams had total team payrolls over $114 million. Of course, Rodriguez is not going to earn that all in one year, but it is an interesting perspective nonetheless. If Rodriguez were still producing at the MVP level that we have seen ...

The entire baseball season is important, but when the season is almost over, there seems to be a special intensity.  Even though a loss in April matters as much as a loss in September, it doesn’t feel that way. Most of that reaction probably comes from the fact that every loss is viewed under a microscope in September.  We all know that one game can send a team home for the winter or usher them into a playoff run. With this type of tension in mind, here are power rankings based solely upon the month of September.  It doesn’t matter how well each team played during the rest of the season. We care about results in the clutch.  I will provide their records from September for your reference.Begin Slideshow