However, this mornings article was quite fascinating. It was all about the idea of an "Ace" and how dominant this has been in the 'Bigs lately.They used the following examples: Doc Halladay, CC Sabathia, Tim Lincecum(hes a weed head, see below), and Cliff Lee. Those four guys might be the best four in baseball, all of whom (ironically enough) are dominating where it matters- the Post Season.
What can we take away from that? Well, easy. The Steroid era is over, and in turn, so are the homerun blasts by Bonds and Sosa. Teams are wisely investing their money into arms, not bats.
The league wide batting average dropped for the second consecutive year, to .257 from .262
Run scoring was down 5% and homerun total fell 8.5%
That surely means a lot. Let's look at the Cardinals. Spent top dollars retaining Pujols, signing Rasmus, and signing Holliday. Sure, they put up monster numbers, but its pitching, man, pitching that does the trick.
When it comes to October, you can't just have one ace anymore. The Phillies had their ace set two years ago with Cole Hamels. Dude dropped into the third spot behind Doc Halladay and Roy Oswalt. 3 great pitchers that could be an ace on any other team. Yankees- CC is a boss and Pettitte is a lock, especially in the post season. They went out and got Javy to try to bolster the rotation, but he sucks. That being said, Hughes better step up as that number 3 or were gonna be in trouble. Reds- they have Edison Volquez and that's it. Looking like an early exit for them. Giants- Lincecum and Cain. Those two can pitch.
Notice the common trend. Baseball is more about pitching now than it has ever been. In the regular season we saw two perfect games (would have been 3 if Gallaraga didn't get robbed), three no hitters, and the upcoming Strasburg and Chapman.
Get ready for some good baseball.
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