On the same day that Theo Epstein was introduced in Chicago, Ben Cherington was introduced in Boston as the new Red Sox GM. In his press conference, he dropped a startling bit of news: pitcher John Lackey, who has struggled during his two year tenure with the Red Sox, would require Tommy John surgery. Based […]

Both of the 2011 league champions made moves in July and August to fortify their teams. The Cardinals brought in shortstop Rafael Furcal, and a cadre of pitchers, including Edwin Jackson, Mark Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, and Arthur Rhodes. As for the Rangers, they focused on their bullpen, bringing in Koji Uehara, Mike Gonzalez, and Mike […]

Derek Holland threw 8 1/3 shutout innings, and Mike Napoli hit a three run homer as the Rangers beat the Cardinals 4-0 to even their World Series matchup at two games apiece. The big story of the game was Holland, who was dominant. He only allowed two hits, both to Lance Berkman, and walked two […]

Albert Pujols hit three 400+ foot homers and drove in six runs in five hits to carry the Cardinals to a 16-7 win over the Rangers. St Louis takes a two games to one lead in the series. After his struggles over the first two games of the series, some were calling Pujols a choker […]

I have been bred to irrationally despise the Marlins as a Braves fan. They just bother me. Thus, their collapse into a really bad 2011 season made me smile a little bit. Chaos seems to reign around this team, with Edwin Rodriguez stepping down as manager midseason, Logan Morrison being demoted to AAA and the […]

Ah, the New York Mets. They went into the 2011 season with the spectre of the Wilpons involvement in the Bernie Madoff scandal hovering over them, and with new management in GM Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins, it was really expected to be a reset year for the Mets. There wasn’t much of a […]

The Nationals have been a “team on the rise” for a few years now, with young stars like Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, and Jordan Zimmermann making up a solid core in the always tough NL East. 2011 was Washington’s best year since 2005, as they won 80 games and finished third in the division behind […]

The 2011 Atlanta Braves season went pretty well for five months, as they were the consensus second best team in the National League, behind only their division rivals in Philadelphia. And then, the calendar turned to September. The team had an eight and a half game lead on the Cardinals in the wild card race […]

It was expected to be a year where the Phillies would contend for a world championship. And to an extent, the season was a total success. The team won a franchise record 102 games, the four aces (later pared to three as Roy Oswalt battled injury problems) were lights out for a majority of the […]

Allen Craig had a pinch hit, go ahead single in the sixth inning, and the Cardinals bullpen threw three innings of shutout ball, as St Louis defeated Texas 3-2 to take a 1-0 lead in the World Series. Craig came up with two on in the sixth, pinch hitting for Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter, who […]

We have a minor controversy in Dallas today, as the MLB has denied the Rangers request to have Dirk Nowitzki of the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks throw out the first pitch of one of the World Series games in Dallas this weekend. The Rangers have had a shorter history than some of the other MLB […]

Previous Series The Rangers defeated the Rays three games to one in the ALDS, and knocked off the Tigers four games to two in the ALCS. The Cardinals upset the top-seeded Phillies three games to two in the NLDS, and defeated the Brewers four games to two in the NLCS. Schedule Game one: October 19th, […]

This season for the Rangers, Alexi Ogando was one of their four best starters. He was tied for third in fWAR among the rotation (3.6 in a rotation low 169 innings). His strikeout and homer rates each ranked third among the starters, and he had the lowest walk rate. But when it came time to […]

Cardinals defeat Brewers, four games to two. Key stat: the highest innings pitched total in a start for a Cardinals starter was five innings by Chris Carpenter in game three. Top hitters (Cardinals): David Freese only played in 97 games during the regular season, but in his six games in the NLCS, he was a […]