Torii Hunter

o, Markakis, and Ichiro.

And the top spot goes to...

1-Anaheim Angels: RF-Vladimir Guerrero, CF-Torii Hunter, LF-Bobby Abreu

Clearly this is a veteran group, dare I say "old"? 

Continue reading "MLB's Top Five Outfields"

ng away Johan Santana the Twins have a better record than the Mets?  Not to mention, they lost Torii Hunter to free agency and missed Francisco Liriano for more than half the season.  Like the Rays, and to some extent the White Sox, the Twins have ridden their young starting pitching to an improbable run at a playoff spot.  Similar to the Angels, the Twins play a smart, mistake-free brand of baseball, and their .312 team batting average with runners in scoring position has helped, too.  They probably don't have the experience and durability on the pitching staff to keep up with the White Sox for the long haul, but they could make a run at the Wild Card (they're only 2.5 games back) and will surely be in the race until the end.

Continue reading "Seven Runs: Too Little, Too Early"

ednesday.  With the score tied 2-2 in the seventh, Juan Rivera homered to left center, scoring Torii Hunter, to take a 4-2 lead.  The Los Angeles bullpen held off Texas until the ninth and manager Mike Scioscia brought in K-Rod, who is having a fantastic season.  Ramon Vazquez led off with a walk, but Rodriguez struck out Ian Kinsler and got Frank Catalanotto to ground out, moving Vazquez to second with two outs.  The red-hot Michael Young stepped up to the plate and singled to left, scoring Vazquez to make it 4-3.  K-Rod fell behind Josh Hamilton 3-1, but threw an unexpected curveball on the fifth pitch of the at-bat.  Hamilton must have been ready for it because he blasted it into the right field stands to win the game 5-4 in walk-off fashion.  It was Hamilton's 20th home run of the year, and he leads the majors with 91 RBI.  The blown save was only K-Rod's third of the season, and he rebounded the next day to pick up his major league-leading 36th save of the year.

Continue reading "Mets Go For Seven Straight Tonight at Shea"

season, I’ll take a look at the American League West.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Will Torii Hunter be able to provide another big bat to help Vladimir Guerrero carry the load?

Last season the Angels were fourth in runs scored in the American Leauge but 10th in total bases and 12th in home runs. They have done an amazing job since Mike Scioscia has been running the team of getting on base and doing the little things to score runs: they hit and run, steal bases and take the extra base whenever possible. There inability to strike quickly manifested itself in the playoffs against the Red Sox last year when they were unable to come of with the quick strikes to score runs in bunches and keep up with a high powered offense that was firing on all cylinders. If Vlad Guerrero wasn’t able to come up with that hit, then no one would. Garret Anderson showed some pop in the last couple months of the season, but injuries are clearly beginning to take their toll on him and even when he is in the lineup, he is not nearly as dangerous as he once was.

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: American League West"