Overview

Behind one of the game’s better-looking rosters, the Braves have overcome a 9-14 April by winning nearly 70% of their games since. Turner Field has been a house of horrors for opposing teams, with the Braves winning nearly 80% of their games at home and outscoring their opponents by 51 runs (as opposed to a sub-.500 record on the road and only a +13 run differential). They are currently in first place.

Buy or Sell?

Undoubtedly the Braves’ record makes them candidates to acquire even more talent. They’re pretty much set at catcher with Brian McCann. At first base Troy Glaus has been a fantastic low-risk, high-reward signing (as has Eric Hinske) while Martin Prado is flashing power and on-base abilities along with being a human vuvuzela. The left side of the infield has a collective line of roughly .245/.367/.330, suggesting they can get on base, but can’t hit for power. It seems unlikely they add a new third baseman or shortstop, though.

The outfield definitely needs help. Nate McLouth is out after an outfield collision and Melky Cabrera is usually out when batting. Hinske and Jason Heyward are good, and Matt Diaz should return soon, but the Braves have had to turn to players like Brent Clevlen and Gregor Blanco to make ends meet. Someone like Luke Scott would fit in, as would David DeJesus, or hey, maybe Alex Gordon, which would give the Braves a Chipper Jones replacement for next year (if he does retire) and an outfielder this year.

Their pen is one of the three or four best in the game. The rotation features one elite starter in Tommy Hanson then a few guys closer to average. Kris Medlen has filled in admirably, but Jair Jurrjens should soon return from the disabled list which makes the unit stronger, even if it means Kenshin Kawakami sliding to the bullpen.

On The Farm

First base prospect Freddie Freeman and outfielder Jordan Schafer are the Braves’ hotter positional prospect names bound to rise in trade rumors. Pitching is the Braves’ oil, though, and they feature a number of intriguing and attractive arms. There’s Julio Teheran, a teenager with top of the rotation stuff but bullpen durability to date; Arodys Vizcaino, whom they acquired in the Javier Vazquez deal as well as Craig Kimbrel, Randall Delgado, and Ezekiel Spruill. Oh, and their top draft pick in 2008 is Mike Minor.

Budget

The Braves’ opening day payroll of ~84 million is their lowest since the 2000 season. Even last year they had a payroll over $95 million, which suggests an increase could be possible, particularly with the Bobby Cox’s ever-looming retirement occurring at season’s end.

We realize the post: Ubaldo’s Unimpressive Start, caused a bit of a stir in the comments section with many people agreeing and disagreeing to various degrees.

Because of the strong opinions on both sides of the argument, we’d like to invite those with particularly strong thoughts and analysis on Ubaldo Jimenez’s continued success to submit posts to our community blog.

We will publish the two most well thought out and detailed posts on the agreeing side and the disagreeing side in our Community Blog as well as our homepage, as long as we receive submissions that are up to the high Community Blog standards.

To begin submitting an article, click here.

I would also like to take a moment to remind people to please be courteous in the comments section. Ad hominem or any sort of personal attacks on people will not be tolerated, so please keep it civil. We would like to continue to keep our comments completely open.

The chart is insane but it barely breaks the surface on this game:

– A combined 104 plate appearances, along with 22 hits, 17 runs scored, 18 walks, and 20 strikeouts; all in 11 innings.

– 16 total pitchers used, only three of which pitched two or more innings.

– The game featured more runs in the 11th inning that it did in the first seven innings combined.

– Jorge Sosa with back-to-back-to-back walks to A) load the bases; and B) score two runs in the 11th inning. Sosa walked four batters and got two outs. Not a banner night for him.

– James Shields making his first career relief appearance on his throw day and thus allowing the Rays to avoid having a pitcher bat after Jeff Niemann’s fifth inning strikeout.

– Wade Davis (the Rays’ projected Tuesday starter) warming.

– Andy Sonnanstine making an emergency appearance after throwing more than 50 pitches on Friday night. He entered with a one run lead and runners on first and third with no outs. Somehow, someway, he struck out Brian Barden, Anibal Sanchez, and then got Dan Uggla to fly out.

– David Price (the Rays’ Sunday starter) missing the game after being hit in the groin with a warm-up toss in batting practice.

– The aforementioned Anibal Sanchez pinch hitting – only in the National League.

– Hanley Ramirez hustling out of the box to get a double, then overrunning second and pulling his hamstring, causing him to leave the game and be replaced by Brian Barden defensively.

– Just a horrid display out of Jason Bartlett. Along with one of the worst plate appearances you’ll ever see with the bases loaded, he also flubbed a defensive play and messed up a slide within a span of three innings. Naturally, Reid Brignac, who had been solid defensively all night long, had issues with a routine grounder after replacing Bartlett at short.

– The Marlins batting out of order, which voided a leadoff walk, and lead to Fredi Gonzalez’s ejection.

– Not only did more than 20,000 supposedly attend this game, but most of them had vuvuzuelas which confirms that Jeffrey Loria hates baseball, freedom, and sanity alike.

– Do yourself a favor and run ten laps around your house while imagining a pack of invisible bees chasing you. Then read the play log. You still won’t come close to the natural level of tension experienced, but it’s about as close as you can get artificially.

Enter the name Jim Leyland into your mind’s version of Google, then hit search – or “I’m feeling lucky” if you’re feeling lucky. What comes to mind is probably a variety of descriptive terms. “Old” “short” “chain smoker” “mustache” “old school” and so on. All of which are accurate. Leyland was born about three years and a week to the day of the Japanese’s attack on Pearl Harbor. He stands all of six feet tall. He does seem to enjoy a cigar or three on a daily basis. And yes, his mustache enjoys a few puffs too. Leyland’s appearance is everything that Hollywood would seek in casting an old-timey baseball manager.

But the word “progressive”? Sure, it might pop up; much in the way that searching for any female name will return a link or two to some obscure and random adult entertainment video or website. Yet, when speaking to the Washington and Detroit media staffs about Ivan Rodriguez and his impact on the Nationals, Leyland sounded less like a man born before the invention of bar codes, bikinis, and microwaves and more like someone born after the creation of Baseball Primer. Take this notable quotable from Adam Kilgore’s Nationals Journal for example:

“Take all that clubhouse [stuff] and all that, throw it out the window. Every writer in the country has been writing about that [nonsense] for years. Chemistry don’t mean [anything]. He’s up here because he’s good. That don’t mean [a hill of beans]. They got good chemistry because their team is improved, they got a real good team, they got guys knocking in runs, they got a catcher hitting .336, they got a phenom pitcher they just brought up. That’s why they’re happy.”

This isn’t some kind of victory worthy of a collective “Huzzah!” from the anti-chemistry crowd because one could just as easily find a quote from an opposing manager who suggests chemistry is vital for winning. Chemistry is like the baseball version of the chicken/egg argument. The only reasons I’m sharing the quotes are 1) Kilgore’s profanity edits are fantastic; and 2) how amusing it is to see someone who doesn’t buy into chemistry turn around and reference batting average and pitcher wins as the statistics of value.

Troy Tulowitzki seemed destined for a well-deserved first All-Star game selection this season, with a stellar 132 wRC+ combining with his solid defense at SS setting him on pace for his third 5.0+ WAR season in four years. His season will be temporarily derailed, however, as a broken wrist looks to place Tulowitzki on the DL for the next six to eight weeks

This is a huge blow to a Rockies team which sits only four games out of the NL West race. Their +44 run difference is only 10 behind the Giants and Padres and 32 runs ahead of the Dodgers. Given the talent on that team, including Ubaldo Jimenez, Tulowitzki, and others, the Rockies were certainly in position to make a run. However, without Tulowitzki, the starting infield will probably contain Melvin Mora (proj. .291 wOBA) and Clint Barmes (.283), both of whom are probably 1.0 WAR players at best and possibly at replacement level or below.

The Rockies were projected as .520-.540 team with Tulowitzki entering the season. Without him, they fall to a .485-.505 true talent team. As the Rockies will likely play somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 games in the period that he’s gone, the loss could cost the Rockies around 2 wins. In an ultra-competitive NL West, that’s not something the Rockies can afford – they need to look for a replacement.

The SS trade market isn’t terribly hot at the moment, but that may not be an issue for the Rockies, thanks to the versatility of their infielders. Ian Stewart is capable, albeit not great, at both second and third. Clint Barmes can play a Craig Counsell or Nick Punto type super-infielder role, playing at 2B, 3B, or SS. That means that the Rockies could add to any of their non-1B infield positions in order to replace Tulowitzki in the short term.

Perhaps the cheapest would be to call on Akinori Iwamura, recently designated for assignment by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Moving Clint Barmes to SS, where he’s about as good a defender historically as at 2B, would increase Barmes’s value slightly. He’s probably a below average player, as his defense at 2B isn’t great (career -6.0 UZR) and his projected wOBA is at .320. That’s still an improvement over Mora and would at the very least improve the Rockies’ bench, even though it likely wouldn’t pick up more than one win over the time that Tulowitzki is out.

If this tweet from Jon Paul Morosi about Kelly Johnson hitting the trade market is true, he may be a perfect target for the Rockies. He’s finally hitting like the various projection systems expected him to this year, with a wRC+ of 136. His projected wOBA is .371, well above that of Barmes and Melvin Mora, making him a useful piece even after Tulowitzki returns. However, given that Johnson plays for the division rival Diamondbacks and has a year of team control left, the price may be too high.

The best move for the Rockies seems to be to acquire a second baseman, as they are weak at 2B even with Tulowitzki, but there are some interesting shortstops on the market. Specifically, Ryan Theriot of the Cubs and Stephen Drew, also of the D’Backs, could draw some interest from Colorado. At this stage in the season, though, it’s hard to say which teams will be selling. As we creep closer to the trade deadline and teams fall out of the race, the Rockies may find the perfect suitor from out of left field.

Regardless, the Rockies need to shore up their infield whether it’s with a quick fix like Iwamura or a more expensive solution like Johnson. The Rockies are a very talented team, and in a division where seemingly anything can happen, four games is no large deficit. However, the season isn’t getting any longer, and they can’t afford to lose much ground over the time that Tulowitzki misses. If Dan O’Dowd can find the right quick fix and keep the Rockies within striking distance, the Rockies could be able to compete for the division title or Wild Card come September. Still, without their star shortstop and already facing a four game deficit, the team’s margin for error is small.

Oakland first baseman Daric Barton is having a nice season under the radar, hitting for a .360 wOBA (.283/.390/.418) and playing good defense. It’s not a superstar performance, and a good OBP with little power and fielding, especially at first base, aren’t going to get him a lot of national publicity, but it is valuable nonetheless.

Something about Barton’s 2010 has caught the eye of someone outside of Oakland, however: his nine sacrifice bunts. It begins with this article by Susan Slusser, in which not only were Barton’s bunts discussed, but praised, as it turns out he’s doing it “on his own.” It is part of a typical “prospect finally living up his potential’ piece for a local paper, but it was Joe Posnanski who declared this excitement over Barton’s (praised, if uncommanded) bunts The Day Moneyball Died. Rob Neyer offered a half-hearted defense of Oakland General Manager Billy Beane’s seeming acquiescence to this tactic as perhaps Beane wanting to “zag” when everyone else was “zigging.”

I have no idea what is going on, or even if it is significant. Maybe Barton is engaging in a little game theory, given that he hasn’t shown a great deal of power yet, and is trying to get the infielders to further play in against him. That is a bald speculation, however, and Barton is not much of a groundball hitter (which bodes well for his future power potential, of course). And while sacrifice attempts sometimes increase run expectancy during a plate appearance, it looks like Barton is “succeeding” far too often for that to be the plan.

Perhaps Barton has taken on some other wisdom from sabermetrics and is actually in situations where a bunt increases win probability (WPA) and/or run expectancy based on the base/out state (RE24). Well, FanGraphs has the tools to find out, so we’ll go to the play-by-play logs.

April 11 vs. the Angels, Barton bunted twice. The first time was in the first inning with one and one out. The WPA for the plate appearance was -0.017 and the RE24 was -0.22. The second time was in the eighth inning, in a near-identical situation: Rajai Davis got on first, stole second, and Barton bunted. Barton’s WPA was -0.010, the RE24 was again -0.22.

April 17 vs. the Orioles, Barton again bunted Rajai Davis over from second to third. WPA: -.010, RE24: -0.19.

April 30 vs. Blue Jays, Barton advances Cliff Pennington to third with a bunt with no one out. WPA: -0.15, RE24: -0.19.

May 15 vs. Angels, Barton again bunts Pennington from second to third with none out in the first innging. WPA: -0.17, RE24: -0.22.

May 23 vs. Giants, eighth inning, none out, Barton sacrifices Rajai Davis from first to second in a 1-0 game. WPA: -0.007, RE24 -0.21.

May 26 vs. Orioles, Barton moves Davis over to second with a first inning, no out bunt. WPA: -0.019, RE24: -0.23.

May 28 vs. Tigers, Barton bunts Davis from second to third with none out. WPA: -0.015, RE24: -0.19.

June 11 vs. Giants, Barton bunts Mark Ellis from second to third with none out in the first inning. WPA: -.013, RE24: -0.16.

From the standpoint of straight up run expectancy based on base/out states (RE24), all of these bunts are obviously bad ideas. Of course, it is well known that in certain game states sacrifice bunts can increase win expectancy, and the point of the game is to win, after all. Yet in not a single case did Barton make the right decision. The first inning bunts with none out are especially atrocious, of course. I realize there is a chance for a sacrifice fly when moving a runner from second to third, but it’s pretty funny when it’s Rajai Davis — there’s a guy who need the extra help getting home on a single!

But even late in the close game of May 23, with the As up 1-0 on the Giants, when one might think adding “just one” in the eighth could be a good idea, the WPA for Barton’s sacrifice was negative (if ever so slightly) at -0.007. So even the “best” of Barton’s bunts was a bad idea.

Daric Barton is helping the As this season at the plate and in the field. Maybe he’s playing games with the infielders. But while some might hail his play as the Right Way and a lack of selfishness for a good young hitter, the primary thing he’s been sacrificing (against his intentions) is Oakland’s chances to win games.

On this Father’s Day Weekend, One Night Only wants to know: is Steve Garvey your Padre?

Friday, June 18
Behold: Gavin Floyd (NERD: 7) at Stephen Strasburg (10), 7:05pm ET
• On account of he’s as yet to top the 20 IP mark, Strasburg doesn’t show up on the proprietary NERD spreadsheet yet. But were he to, he’d probably break the frig out of it. His xFIP (1.55), swinging-strike rate (15.3%), and fastball velocity (97.8 mph) are all multiple standard deviations from the mean. And also, he’s only 21. So, boom goes that particular brand of dynamite, I guess. Nor should Gavin Floyd’s contribution to this game be overlooked entirely. Despite sporting a 5.64 ERA, his xFIP is a considerably tidier 3.99.

If You Can Handle It: Johnny Cueto (8) at Cliff Lee (10), 10:10pm ET
• Lee is one of only five pitchers — along with Josh Johnson, Francisco Liriano, Roy Halladay, and Tim Wakefield — currently sporting a perfect NERD score. He does it just by having an h-o-t xFIP and throwing strikes. Cueto gets there by a pretty different route: his age (24) and fastball velocity (93.3 mph). Cueto’s four-seamer also has a 11.8% whiff rate. Pretty good.

What to Make Of: Dontrelle Willis (0) at Armando Galarraga (3), 7:05pm ET
• To what degree does Galarraga’s very famous and mostly perfect game affect our desire to watch him after the fact? Certainly, the start right after a historical game is worth a look. But the fact remains: he’s still Armando Galarraga. He doesn’t really get swing-and-misses, he’s got a lifetime 4.78 xFIP (4.92 through 33.2 IP this year), and he not gonna throw another perfect game.

Saturday, June 19
Behold: Vicente Padilla (9) at Tim Wakefield (10), 4:10pm ET
• Padilla’s elevated score is a result of there being no point deduction for having a giant, fat head. That and he has an xFIP of 3.95 versus an ERA of 6.65. It’s also worth noting that this weekend marks Manny Ramirez‘ return to the scene of at least some of his crimes. Fun drinking game: take a shot every time Joe Buck either (a) waxes moralistic about “players these days” or (b) subtly suggests that football is better than baseball. You’re gonna get wasted, believe me!

Also Consider: Zack Greinke (7) at Kris Medlen (7), 7:10pm ET
• It’s like a Zen koan: is the pleasure of watching Zack Greinke worth the pain of watching the Kansas City offense (or defense, for that matter)? With Kris Medlen pitching, it might be. The young Atlantan has two pitches that are a joy to watch. First, there’s his two-seamer, which hella tails. Second — and perhaps most impressively — there’s his changepiece. Medlen gets whiffs on 28% of his change-ups, compared to a league-average of just 15% on the same pitch.

I Don’t Care, I’m Still Watching: Colby Lewis (5) at Brian Moehler (0)
• Colby Lewis is in my heart and he’s in my soul. Also, he’s probably gonna be my breath should I grow old. So, back off.

Sunday, June 20
Speed Round!
• This marks, I think, the fourth or fifth consecutive time that Roy Halladay and Josh Johnson have pitched on the same day. Two of those were against each other, and they were excellent games both times. Today the former faces Carl Pavano (6) at 1:35pm ET, while the latter takes on David Price (6) at 1:10pm ET. In re Tampa, do you wanna guess who’s the team-leader in OBP, or do you want me to tell you? How about you guess.

• Ian Kennedy (5) and Max Scherzer (8) were involved in a three-way over the winter. Oh snap! (Note: this bullet is brought to you by the 18- to 34-year-old male demographic.)

• More will be made of Johan Santana (4) at CC Sabathia (7) than is probably right.

• What sort of bonus does a major league debut deserve? How about the second and third starts for the same pitcher? Do we give 3, 2, and then 1 extra point? In any case, today is Brad Lincoln’s third career start. That may or may not appeal to you. Two things that are more appealing, probably, are Justin Masterson (8) and all of Pittsburgh’s youth — including the recently promoted Pedro Alvarez.

• Felipe Paulino is alternately devestating and terrible. Either way, if you like to see ball go fast, he’s your dude. He’ll be throwing fastpieces at 96 mph against C.J. Wilson &co. at 2:05pm ET.

With the Phillies struggling in third place this yer after back-to-back National League Championships, GM Ruben Amaro has been toying around with an old idea:

Pedro Martinez appears to have his sights set on a repeat of 2009, when he joined the Phillies midseason and wound up starting two games for them in the World Series.

…”Pitching is always the issue. Everybody is always looking for the same thing,” Amaro said. “Again, a lot of it depends on how Happ progresses. And we’ve got to get (setup reliever Ryan) Madson back. I like our chances when both of those guys are back.”

…”I don’t know how much he’s been throwing, but what he did here last year, he was great for this team and helped (the Phillies) out a lot,” said Phils catcher Brian Schneider, who caught the righty with the Mets. “I loved working with Petey. But we have enough stuff going on right now that we’re just concentrating on the pitchers that are already here.”

While the Phillies may say they are happy with the pitchers they’ve got on board, I don’t see why they would be. Here are the members of the Phils rotation with their current and rest of season FIPs courtesy of ZiPS:

Roy Halladay: 2.67/2.93
Cole Hamels: 4.55/3.78
Joe Blanton: 5.83/4.30
Jamie Moyer: 4.98/4.83
Kyle Kendrick: 4.81/4.74
J.A. Happ: 4.48 (10 innings)/4.71

There is currently not one starter on the Phillies not named Roy Halladay who has a better FIP than any Mets starting pitcher. Joe Blanton’s projection for the rest of the year seems generous given his awful pitching, and Cole Hamels has suffered from a nasty combination of homeritis and a career low K/BB.

But what can Pedro Martinez offer the Phillies? Not much, really. He put up a 4.28 FIP last year, but is another year older and hasn’t pitched yet this entire season. Keeping that in mind, here’s what the prognosticators said before the start of the 2010 campaign:

Bill James: 3.67 FIP
CHONE: 4.75 FIP
Marcel: 4.65 FIP
ZiPS: 4.17 FIP

The algorithm at Bill James’ site must be messed up, because it has Pedro with a 8.90 K/9, even though his last two years were 7.46 and 7.18 (and, again, he’s 38 years old and bound to be rusty). Pedro would most likely sit around the ~4.50 FIP area, which would basically give the Phillies someone a tick better than Kyle Kendrick. Martinez’s ceiling isn’t that high, but his rock bottom can be pretty bad.

Pedro Martinez may give the Phillies an extra 0.5 WAR at best, but he’s unlikely to be the tipping point in the Phillies’ race to make the playoffs. Right now Philadelphia needs Ryan Howard and Chase Utley to right themselves, as the offense has been putrid of late. If the Phillies are going to trade for any starting pitcher, Cliff Lee may be the one guy who can put them above and beyond every team in the National League. They’d be so good I couldn’t imagine anyone ever passing up the opportunity to go Halladay-Lee-Hamels in the starting rotation. Oh, wait…

As of last night, we have officially had a changing of the guard. After setting up camp at the top of the WAR leaderboards for most of the season, Justin Morneau has finally been displaced. Now it’s Robinson Cano leading all of Major League Baseball with +4.0 wins of value added, as the Yankees second baseman is carrying his teammates.

Offensively, not much has changed with Cano, as the surge in his numbers is basically tied to a higher than usual BABIP (.382) and his extra base hits flying over the wall instead of bouncing off of it. Last year, 36.7 percent of his hits were of the extra base variety, and he’s at 36 percent this year – the distribution of those XBH, however, have tilted toward home runs. It’s hard to say that either of those spikes represent a significant improvement, and not surprisingly, the ZIPS rest-of-season projection suspects that Cano will hit at basically his 2009 level for the rest of the year.

There exist other numbers, however, that suggest Cano has indeed turned himself into a better over all player. The big strides he has made have not been at the plate, but rather in the field. I saw Cano play quite a bit in 2002 when he was assigned to low-A Greensboro, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that he was a defensive disaster. His footwork was laughably bad, and while he showed athleticism, there were just no fundamentals that suggested he was even on the path to becoming a big league middle infielder.

He wasn’t much better by the time he got to the majors, in 2005, as he posted a -21.2 UZR in his rookie year. Despite hitting well for a second baseman, he gave back nearly all of his value by failing to convert outs behind his pitchers. Again, I figured it was only a matter of time until Cano was shifted to the outfield, where his athleticism could play well and his inability to react quickly would be of less importance.

To his credit though, Cano has put in a tremendous amount of work, turning himself into a competent defender. No, he’ll never win a gold glove, but his +2.3 UZR to date this season is no longer the kind of shocking number that makes people question the system itself. While a couple of months of UZR data isn’t large enough to make any conclusions, his UZR since the 2006 season is just -12.4, or about -3 runs per year.

Cano probably won’t continue to have 40 percent of his extra base hits fly over the wall, nor will he be able to keep his BABIP at .382. He can, however, continue to play a decent enough second base, and he should take pride in that fact, because he got there through sheer hard work. Even when the offensive numbers inevitably regress a bit, Cano will still be one of the game’s best second baseman, and that’s a testament to just how far he’s come as a player.

The College World Series begins on Saturday with the nation’s final eight teams playing a double elimination tournament for a spot in the best-of-three finals. The teams are split into two brackets, and over two posts, I’ll preview each bracket.

Bracket 1: TCU, Florida State, Florida, UCLA.

Texas Christian: Dominated their hosted regional by beating each team (Lamar, Arizona and Baylor), outscoring their opponents 36-8 on the weekend. In the Super Regional, TCU stunned Texas in Austin, holding the Longhorns to one run in games one and three.

How They Got Here

Highest Drafted Player: Bryan Holaday, C, Detroit Tigers, 193rd overall.

Best Prospect: Matt Purke, LHP, So.

Florida State: Undeterred despite traveling to Connecticut for their regional, Florida State went 3-0 to sweep the regional, twice beating Oregon by two runs to reach the next round. They hosted Vanderbilt last weekend and won in three games, despite being outscored 20-18 by the Commodores.

Highest Drafted Player: John Gast, LHP, St. Louis Cardinals, 199th overall.

How They Got Here

Best Prospect: James Ramsey, of, So. or Sean Gilmartin, lhp, So.

Florida: The Gators are a perfect 5-0 in the postseason, and have yet to allow an opponent to score more than three runs. Over those five games, the Gators have scored a total of 43 runs.

Highest Drafted Player: Kevin Chapman, LHP, Kansas City Royals, 119th overall.

How They Got Here

Best Prospect: Preston Tucker, 1B, So.

UCLA: The Bruins faced no easy road getting here, but swept a regional in the mix for Regional of Death: LSU, UC Irvine, and Kent State. In the Super Regional, they came back numerous times against Cal State Fullerton, most notably scoring seven times in innings 8-10 to win Game Two 11-7.

How they got here

Highest Drafted Player: Rob Rasmussen, LHP, Florida Marlins, 73rd overall.

Best Prospect: Gerrit Cole, RHP, So.

After the jump, I wax free-form about how this bracket might go.
Read the rest of this entry »