11/06/09 02:41 EST
To the Marlins, Jeremy Hermida’s 2009 disappointment rendered the outfielder an unaffordable luxury. To the Red Sox, Jeremy Hermida’s not-so-distant past meant that the outfielder represented an affordable lottery ticket with at least a chance to offer a tidy jackpot.
The 11th overall pick of the 2002 draft had stardom written all over his amateur and minor league careers. He showed an advanced approach at the plate, a precocious ability to control the strike zone and the potential for significant power.
Then, in 2007, he showed every indication that he could translate all of those traits to the major league level. As a 23-year-old, he won an everyday job with the Marlins by hitting .296 with a .369 OBP, .501 slugging mark, .870 OPS and 18 homers after a mid-May call-up.
To put those numbers in context, one need only look at the superstar-laden list of the 11 outfielders this decade with an OBP of at least .350 and an OPS of .800 or better by the time they turned 23
11/05/09 05:17 EST
Thus ends baseball’s first decade of the 21st century.
It was a decade that featured several great teams, but few great World Series. The Yankees hoisted the first and final championship trophies of the period from 2000-09. For most, they established themselves as the “team of the decade” thanks to two championships, two additional pennants, and nine playoff appearances in the 10-year stretch.
Both of the Yankees’ triumphs featured little more than the glimmer of drama. That was true for most of the World Series in the decade. There were some great storylines that impacted not just a year but generations, most notably the titles for the 2004 Red Sox and the 2005 championship for the White Sox.
But aside from a mesmerizing Fall Classic in 2001 when the Diamondbacks beat New York and, arguably, the Marlins’ shocking upset over the Yankees in 2003, few World Series were long enough and dramatic enough to stand out as truly great.
Nonetheless, that
11/03/09 07:40 EST
For the first time since 2003, the World Series is competitive.
It has been six years since the Series went at least six games. The storylines in recent years have been given little time to develop.
Recent Octobers have been dominated by tradition-rich franchises claiming their first titles in ages, starting with the Red Sox in ’04 (ending an 86-year drought), and followed by the White Sox (88 years), Cardinals (24 years), Red Sox and Phillies (28 years).
But the great and memorable tension of the season’s most important games was missing. The series proved too lopsided to make the details truly engrossing.
Now, for the first time since Josh Beckett, then with the Marlins, took the Yankee Stadium mound on three days' rest in Game 6 of the 2003 World Series and shoved the ball down the Yankees’ throats, this year’s World Series is offering the sort of drama to engage every baseball fan, regardless of his or her allegiance.
The Yankees’ decision
10/28/09 07:41 EST
When they were introduced more than 30 years ago, no one ever expected that Brad Mills and Terry Francona both one day would become major league managers. The reason was simple.
Around the time that the two were paired at the University of Arizona in 1978, when Mills transferred to the school from junior college, no one figured Francona to be the managerial type. He was a mischief-maker who is remembered by virtually all of his former teammates with the same word: “carefree.”
Francona was the one whose company teammates would seek when they were trying to break curfew. Mills — named the manager of the Astros on Tuesday, the culmination of a coaching career that included him managing 11 years in the minors and serving on big-league coaching staffs, most recently as Red Sox bench coach since 2004 — was another story.
“I think it was inevitable in my mind [that Mills became a manager],” said Jerry Kindall, who coached both Francona and Mills