Should K-Rod finish 55 games – he has finished 34 so far this year – the Brewers will be on the hook for a whopping $17.5 million in 2012. Rodriguez has been among the elite relievers of the past decade and is still only 29 years old, but his shine has come off in recent seasons due to decline, injury and his notorious arrest after assaulting his father-in-law in 2010. K-Rod has merely been much closer to an average reliever rather than an elite since signing his heafty 3-year, $37 million contract with the Mets in 2008. $17.5 million would be financially crippling to a mid-market team such as the Brewers as they try to reload for 2012.

With the Brewers tied for first place at the halfway mark, this calculated dice-rolling continues a pattern we have seen from Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin since last offseason. After 2010, many experts speculated the Brewers would trade their star first baseman Prince Fielder – a free agent after 2011 – for club-controlled talent to create a window for contention a few years down the road. However, the Brewers front office identified current market trends that undervalued players one or two years away from free agency while the price of prospects had risen in recent years. Thus, the Brewers decided not to trade Fielder, mortgage the farm for star pitchers Zack Greinke and Shawn Marcum, and declared 2011 as the year the Brewers go all-in for the NL Central crown.

Axford has been an integral part of the Brewers success in 2011 and they will probably count on him in 2012 as well, but with the financial complications K-Rod brings with him to the team, Axford’s health and performance may be the most important asset to the Brewers success in the present and near future.

The Mets just had a solid week, winning road series against the Rockies and the Astros and moving over .500 on the road for the season – no small feat. And the Mets are playing well in all facets of the game.

The offense is clicking. With the exception of Jason Bay, who continues to struggle, the Mets have been getting great at-bats from many different contributors. Carlos Beltran had his first three-homer game of his career in Colorado, and fill-in Justin Turner stated his case for more playing time with a five-RBI game against the Astros.

The rotation is also improving. Mike Pelfrey is pitching better, and Jonathon Niese, Chris Capuano and Dillon Gee have all been solid.  The Mets just need to figure out how to get knuckleballer R.A. Dickey on track., which may be difficult since very few people know much about the knuckleball.

The bullpen has been terrific. Closer K-Rod (0.92 ERA) has been nearly flawless, Jason Isringhausen  (2.19 ERA) and Taylor Buchholz (1.66 ERA) have been steady set-up men and the rest of the crew have done well for the most part.

Through 40 games, the Mets are 19-21. With all the adversity and off-the-field distractions the team has dealt with, that’s an inspiring quarter of the season. Now it’s time for the Mets to get over the .500 hump and stay there.

There has been lots of talk about what the Mets will do with Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes. Well, if the team plays well enough, they can delay those conversations quite a while – possibly until the offseason.

This week, the Mets play the Marlins and Nationals, and then visit Yankee Stadium to play the Yankees. A 5-2 week would go a long way to send this team off to a surprising and uplifting season.

Thumb rhymes with dumb!

The brainless act has him out for the season for the team that has become the baseball version of The Hangover. Let’s see, Jose Reyes missed almost the first two months of the season, Jason Bay went on the dl while Carlos Beltran finally came off it. Jeff Franceour wants to be traded and Oliver Perez refuses to go to the minors.

Alex Cora was released and Ike Davis promoted. You need a calculator to count the number of starters. There have been only two suitably reliable players this year – David Wright and Johan Santana.  And the team probably still blames Willie Randolph. Sheesh!

This is a case study on what can happen to a team that spends hundreds of millions of dollars and still cannot win. The team needs to eradicate the bad chemistry and start over. As for K-Rod, will the fans boo him next year like so many have Milton Bradley? At least Bradley never assaulted a person close to this family. The Mets should rescind his contract and write a new one with a stronger character clause.

Players Who Would Be Stars.

Each year many players on teams that are bad or play in markets that are not New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Chicago are overlooked. These players would get much more rec if they performed in the aforementioned cities. Here then one person’s lineup of overlooked players:

Miguel Montero  c  Arizona Diamondbacks (.302/.366/.497)

Since coming off the DL, Montero has been so impressive that the club traded Chris Snyder with whom he shared the job with.

Billy Butler   1b  Kansas City Royals (.309/.378/.461)

Butler broke out last year leading the league in doubles and driving in 93 runs and hitting .301. This year the RBI are down but his numbers  at this point are comparable.

Jeff Keppinger 2b Houston Astros (.285/.348/.395)

Keppinger’s numbers are All-Star worthy this year. But on a team going nowhere there was no chance he would have been selected (that went to Michael Bourn) even if he deserved it over Omar Infante and Bourn.

Juan Uribe  ss San Francisco Giants (.258/.319/.440)

This veteran’s bat has been an important part of an otherwise weak hitting team. No, his average is not good (.258) but his power (15/65) and SLG (.440) are worthy enough to make this team.

Casey McGehee  3b Milwaukee Brewers (.284/.344/.469)

Placed in the recycle bin by the Cubs, McGehee was a cheap no risk pickup by the Brewers that worked out. Most wondered if he could play up to his 2009 numbers when he just missed out on Rookie of the Year and so far he has proven he can.  Perhaps as a testament of his stature, he  is 100% owned in the ESPN Fantasy Baseball leagues.

Shin-Soo Choo    of   Cleveland Indians (.290/.386/.467)

One of the better bargains around, Choo has had a stint on the dl but when healthy is good enough to bat third in the lineup.

Carlos Gonzalez of Colorado Rockies  (.321/.352/.569)

Perhaps the most productive hitter not to have been an All-Star this year, Gonzalez leads the Rockies in every offensive category except on-base pct.

Delmon Young of Minnesota Twins (.316/.347/.511)

Young has finally figured it out. One of the reasons the Twins are still competing in their division without Justin Morneau is because Young leads the team in RBI with 84.

Mat Latos   RHP    San Diego Padres   (12-5/2.32/ .99)

The “experts” like Roy Halladay or Ubaldo Jimenes but Latos is having a Cy Young Award year on the best staff in baseball. His omission off the All-Star team is a prime example of being overlooked for other players who are in bigger markets. He is a victim of the “Left Coast bias.”

Jaime Garcia LHP  St Louis Cardinals  (10-5 /2.71 /1.31)

Still considered a rookie, Garcia has claimed the number 3 position in the Cardinals rotation behind Carpenter and Wainwright and has not disappointed. He will not win the Rookie of the Year because of the plethora of prime rookies in the league this  year.

Rafael Soriano Closer  Tampa Bay Rays (34 saves/1.74/.84)

A trade made with little fanfare over the offseason, the Rays pickup of Soriano to be their closer has in many ways been the reason for the team’s run for the pennant this year. One wonders why the Braves gave up on him.

Coming off yet another regular season collapse in 2008 the New York Mets are looking to bounce back in 2009.  Trying to shake the monkey that is Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard off their backs and finally live up to their potential and hype.  Following their most recent regular season collapse the Mets took action in the offseason and made some key additions to their roster that could finally get them over the hump barring another catastrophe.

Back in October, the Mets first re-signed GM Omar Minaya to a three year contract extension as well as locked in on Jerry Manual for a two year agreement with a club option for 2011.

The biggest concern the Mets faced coming into the offseason was their bullpen or lack thereof. The Mets sat down with the “Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn from Major League, as well as Chet “Rocket” Steadman and Henry Rowengartner from Rookie of the Year, no contract agreements could be reached. Instead the Mets settled and signed “K-Rod” Francisco Rodriguez to a three year deal as well as acquired J.J. Putz from Seattle. Obviously I jest about Vaughn, Steadman and 12 year old Rowengartner, and although it would have been humorous to watch, K-Rod and Putz are much better additions. With the addition of K-Rod and Putz in the bullpen, the Mets may just have what it takes to prevent another catastrophic meltdown this year.

Other notable offseason moves included the Mets resigning John Maine to a one year deal as well as the always hot and cold Oliver Perez to another three year headache.  The Mets also exercised their 2009 club option on Cronus, father of time, AKA Carlos Delgado.  Delgado got off to a very slow start last year and I would expect the same from him again. I personally do not see him putting up the same kind of hot streak as last year. I see him rounding out at .260 25 HR and 90 RBI.

One other hot topic around New York this offseason involving the Mets was an offseason non move for Manny Ramirez. As you all know Manny is finally a Dodger again, but there were rumors floating around all offseason involving his possible move to the Amazins’.

More from Joe O’Rourke can be found at Bloggle Heads! which he co-founded.

As one can expect, there are the normal aspects of a season ending program such as the season in review and some of the post season events that had made news. Included in the team by team sections along with the rosters of the Rays and Phillies was a day by day journal of the events of the season that led these two teams to the series.

Surprisingly, most of the program (probably the three quarters of it) has very little to do specifically with the teams who were in the Series, making it even more interesting to baseball fans across the country.

There is truly something for all fans as Red Sox fans could spend time reading the interview with crazy closer Jonathan Papelbon and Royals fans can feel that their team is truly supported during an interview with actor Paul Rudd.

There are many writers in the program that many casual baseball fans have heard of such as Jayson Stark of ESPN.com and George F. Will, an author of many baseball books. During one section, Stark and another columnist named Bob Kalpisch debate which moment is the greatest in World Series history. (Stark points to game seven of the 1960 World Series when Bill Mazeroski homered and led the Pirates to the title and Kapisch points to Bob Gibson’s homerun in game one of the 1988 Series.)

There are also a few satirical stories written to peak those interests. One of these stories compares Francisco Rodriguez to Bobby Thigpen. (Rodriguez broke Thigpen’s record for most saves in a single season in 2008.) One of the comparisons is how each of the players used breaking balls. Rodriguez is said to use breaking balls as his, “go-to pitch,” while Thigpen uses it as his “favorite lover room activity.”

As one might imagine, history is abound during the program as many of the most famous games in World Series history are chronicled. Steve Krasner has a very interesting article entitled “Once in a Lifetime” about the 1918 World Series when the Cubs and Red Sox met in the Series. Krasner looks into the contrast in times as both teams were World Series regulars during this time and after that year, each team entered a nearly century long draught without a title (For the Cubs, it could be more than a century.).

While history no doubt has its place in the program, there is no doubt that much of the focus is on the incredible 2008 season. Jodie Jordan lays out the ten most dominant players in the league as voted by players, coaches and managers with Josh Hamilton finishing first while Pete Williams features the Rays in an attempt to explain the success of the young club.

Another ESPN writer, Jerry Crasnick, has a piece in the program about what it takes to have one of the greatest pitching seasons of all time. Featured in the article are Pedro Martines, Sandy Koufax and Ron Guidry (among others). All of whom, it could be said, experienced a good deal of success on the Major League level.

Their behind the scenes look at members of different organizations provided an interesting look into how baseball teams work behind the scenes. Since they did not only focus on the major members of the front office, the reader is able to better understand the idea that a Major League Baseball team is basically like any other big time business when it is operating off the field.

As one might imagine, there are many pages dedicated to an explanation of the brand new MLB Network. During this piece, the readers learn what thought has gone into the different programming that is going to be offered in a nearly obvious attempt by MLB to try to make the fans believe that they are not creating the network to make some more money.

Overall, the magazine was full of interesting content and boasted some of the best action pictures a baseball fan can ever hope to see. Even compared to last year’s program (which was also filled with great information) this is a step up in terms of the breadth of topics covered throughout the program.

The Grade: 4.75/5

Bill Jordan is a contributor to BaseballReflections.com. He can be reached by e-mail at BillJordaniv@yahoo.com.

The Angels no doubt have the blue print for making the playoffs memorized. The only problem is that in the past few seasons, when they get there, they are unable to get out of the Divisional round where they were the victim of the Boston Red Sox this season in just four games. General manager Tony Reagins has to be frustrated with the recent lack of success in the post season because it seems like he has all of the pieces for a deep October run during the season. With the Angels leading the major leagues with 100 wins in 2008, it seemed like they were at least destined for the ALCS, but the Sox had too much October experience for them to take down. The team received the most nation-wide press during the season for the record breaking performance of closer Francisco Rodriguez. K-Rod, who is currently a free agent, broke the major league record with 62 saves. Obviously, to win 100 games, the team was doing things right in all aspects of the game. The interesting thing will be to see how they decide to fine tune an already deep team this off season.

Holes to Fill

Depending on what the team decides to do with their own free agent outfielders, they will probably have to look for some talent in that area. There doesn’t seem to be any talent at the AAA level that would be ready to come up to compete for an outfield position just yet, so that probably means they will have to bring in at least one player for a corner outfield position (probably left field) that wasn’t on the team last season. The Angels may have an upper hand in this area because many teams are going to be looking for corner outfielders this off season (perhaps the biggest position besides pitchers), but the Halos have shown that they are willing to spend money to get talent, evidenced by their sixth ranked $119.2 million payroll last season. Adding another arm to the starting rotation wouldn’t hurt either. While their pitching was one of the best in the majors last season, some depth at this spot has never hurt anyone. It currently looks like they are probably not going to resign K-Rod unless he is willing to take some sort of home town discount. This would mean that the Angels will have the position of closer open. Spending on closers (and other relievers) on the open market is always risky business as they often have one good year and one off year due to their usage. Due to this fact, the team may try to fill the closer roll internally as they have a few arms they believe may be able to take the spot.

Free Agents

At the beginning of the off season, the Angels had eight players who could have entered free agency including outfielders Vladimir Guerrero, Garret Anderson and Jaun Rivera, pitchers Rodriguez, John Lackey and Jon Garland and first baseman Mark Teixeira. The Angels have already made the decisions on some of these players as they have picked up the 2009 club options for Guerrero and Lackey, while also declining the option on Anderson. Due to this fact, it is almost a lock that Anderson will not be back for this Los Angeles team next season (leaving the hole in left field mentioned earlier). Teixeira is no doubt their number one in house priority this off season. A lot of what they do during the rest of the off season will depend on whether or not they are able to work out a deal with the first baseman who they acquired at the trade deadline. The team has made some serious bids to free agent pitcher CC Sabathia and since he seems to want to play on the west coast, they have a serious shot of landing him (written pre-signing with the Yankees).

The Outlook

It is very realistic to see the Angels repeating as division winners once again, especially if they are able to land Teixeira and Sabathia in the off season. Whether these two players would give them the push that they have recently been lacking in the post season is yet to be seen (especially due to the fact that Sabathia has been less than stellar during the past two post seasons with the Indians and Brewers). Manager Mike Scioscia is probably one of the more respectable managers in the game at this point and has shown that he knows how to handle having a lot of big egos on his team during the 162 game season.

The Halos will probably look for takers for outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. during the off season, which would open up yet another spot in the outfield. Even though Matthews is a quality player and has three years left on his current deal, he has not been able to get along with the team’s management since coming to Anaheim as a free agent two seasons ago and all of this makes him expandable at the right price. If they are able to pick-up some extra offense this off season, they could realistically improve on their runs scored ranking which was tenth in 2008 at 765. With all of the fire power the team has, it’s some what surprising that it was not higher than that, although it did receive a jump at mid-season when Teixeira was acquired from the Braves. Part of that low scoring total could have been the fact that they really didn’t need to score a whole lot because their starting pitching was so stellar throughout the season with Lackey and youngster Ervin Santana both making bids for the Cy Young Award. Winning 100 games is a tough thing to do, and even tougher to repeat, but if the Angels are willing to spend the money to land the free agents they seem to be eying this off season, having a goal of exceeding 100 regular season wins would not seem out of the ordinary.

Bill Jordan is a contributing writer to BaseballReflections.com and can be reached by e-mail at billjordaniv@yahoo.com.

The Indians have surprisingly become one of the teams that are vying for some of the major free agent closers in the game and claim to have an upper hand on that position because they are willing to offer a multi-year contract.

They are most notably seriously in the discussion for Trevor Hoffman, the former San Diego Padre reliever who holds the record for most all time saves.

The Indians confirmed they have already spoken with Hoffman’s agent, Rick Thurman and are working on their specific offer to the closer.

It is most likely that no one will offer Hoffman more than a two year deal because of his age, and this makes the Indians believe they have a real shot at signing him.

Other closers in the free agent market include Francisco Rodriguez, Brian Fuentes and Kerry Wood, who all are seeking multi-year contracts of at least three years.

Realistically, the Tribe may be able to cater to Fuentes or Wood, but probably do not have any shot at K-Rod, especially after his record breaking season.

This year’s American League Cy Young Award may be the easiest award of the major season long accomplishment awards to decide. When one pitcher, with little run support, blows everyone else out of the water, the choice is pretty clear.

1. Cliff Lee, Cleveland Indians

Winning 22 games is impressive, but doing it for a team that did not have a chance of making the playoffs basically from June, is even more incredible. Lee not only led the league in wins, he was also first with a 2.54 ERA. After considering that this feat comes after a season when he was demoted to AAA and then not even added to the Tribe’s postseason roster, the story just grows. Whatever was wrong with the left hander last year, has not come back to haunt him this season as he has been in every game he has pitched. Even the few games he did end up losing, were more because of lack of run support than anything on his part. Lee should without a doubt become the second Indian in a row, after CC Sabathia last season; to win this award after the Tribe went more than 30 years without being able to claim a Cy Young worthy pitcher. Tribe fans just hope they will be seeing a lot more of Lee than they will of Sabathia.

2. Roy Halladay, Toronto Blue Jays

In many seasons, Halladay’s numbers may be good enough for him to win his second Cy Young, but with Lee throwing so well, 19 wins and a 2.81 ERA just doesn’t cut it. He does currently have 31 more strikeouts than Lee, but he also has nine more losses too.

3. Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston Red Sox

The import from Japan some how flew under the radar this season despite being dominant throughout. His 18-2 record is the second best winning percentage in the league and is tied for the third highest win total. He also ranks second in the league in ERA with a 2.80, but has had great run protection nearly all season. If he keeps up this performance in the playoffs, Red Sox fans will be very pleased.

4. Ervin Santana, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

After the first three Cy Young contenders, the statistics really drop off. Santana had an impressive season, especially for a 25 year-old. He was fifth in the league with a 3.25 ERA and sixth in wins with 16. He also posted 209 strikeouts, but had six losses on a team with a great offense.

5. Mike Mussina, New York Yankees

After being left out of the starting pitcher conversation by Hank Steinbrenner at the beginning of the year, Mussina was supposed to be the afterthought of the Yankees staff. He proved to be anything but with a 19 win season where he had a 3.47 ERA, both ranking him in the top ten. The 39 year-old had nine losses for the Yankees, and if the ERA were a little lower, he would be as well.

6. Francisco Rodriguez, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Something has to be said for someone who saves 61 games. He shouldn’t get serious Cy Young consideration, but he should be on the list. The 2.31 ERA isn’t shabby either.

7. A.J. Burnett, Toronto Blue Jays

He has 18 wins to tie him for third best in the league, but a 4.18 ERA just isn’t good enough to garner serious consideration even if he does have 220 strikeouts.

8. John Danks, Chicago White Sox

Danks currently carries the fourth best ERA in the league at 3.20, but he has just 11 wins compared to eight losses. Some of that can be attributed to low run support, but at 23 years of age, the future looks bright.

AL Cy Young 2008

Pete’s Excellent Analysis

In my opinion, with Lee leading in all but two of the categories listed in my chart (only pitchers with 16 wins qualified), he’s the hands down leader. It should be unanimous!

After him, it’s a toss up between Francisco Rodriguez, Ervin Santana & Roy Halladay, but I would give the edge to K-Rod due to his record setting save total and his low ERA.

Next, I would pick Halladay (despite the 1 point differential shown in my chart) due to his complete games in an age where this is a lost art. I will admit that he probably won’t get many second place votes due to his 11 losses.

That leaves Santana fourth.

Daisuke Matsuzaka would be fifth on my list and I’m a Sox fan! His walk total prevented him from having a Cliff Lee type of year in my opinion and would have kept his pitches down and gotten him deeper into games. If he can improve in this area, I expect him to give Halladay a run for his money for complete games in 2009.

Here, I am as surprised as anyone. In my sixth spot is the Yankee’s Mike “Moose” Mussina. Even with weaker stuff, he can still pound the strike zone and get people out.

On our seventh pick, Bill and I see eye to eye again with Burnett and for the same reasons. His strikeout totals might make some put him ahead of Mussina though.

Unlike Bill, I wouldn’t even put Danks on the list with only 11 wins, but all of his other numbers are comparable. In his place, I included Joe Saunders and after him, Gavin Floyd, who I kept expecting to fall apart in the second half.