The 2011 World Series Champions better in 2012?

Can the St. Louis Cardinals be better in 2012? As crazy as it sounds, I think they may have improved as a team, even with the loss of Albert Pujols to the Los Angeles Angels. As well as losing future hall of famer Albert Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinals lost the legend, Tony La Russa. You'd think they'd be completely destroyed? Wrong. The Cardinals managed to sign extensions with Lance Berkman and Chris Carpenter and re-sign Rafael Furcal but more importantly they will still have their core from 2011 for 2012 - Matt Carpenter, David Freese, Skip Schumaker, Allen Craig, Matt Holliday, Adam Wainwright, and Yadier Molina.

To make up for the loss of Albert Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinals added outfielder Carlos Beltrán who is a .283 carrer hitter which is nothing compared to Albert Pujols' . 328 carrer average. It's still an improvement to the lineup for 2012 since Beltrán had a .328 batting average and 7 homers last year in 44 games at the pitching park of the San Fransico Giants.

Who will replace Tony La Russa though? Well Mike Matheny of course. Sound famaliar? Didn't think so. Mike Matheny will have a tough rookie season as a manager defending the World Series Title. Mike Matheny is a former back catcher for the Cardinals. I think he will bring a new attitude and good energy to the club house.

Another reason why the Cardinals could be better in 2013 is because of their division. The Milwaukee Brewers have lost Prince Fielder just like the Cardinals have lost Albert Pujols so this year I think that the Brewers will not be as big competition for the Cardinals. I feel the Cardinals will take first place in their division this season with the Milwaukee Brewers battling with the Cincinnati Reds for second. The Cardinals are revamped and have tones of confidence coming of last season. I wouldn't be surprised if they make another run at the World Series. In 2013, we'll find out if the Cards can take off and fly high. Follow @BaseballBo

Is Baseball Too Slow?

Slow is a word that many people who don't like baseball use to describe the sport. Is it fair for them to say that? Yes. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion but MLB games average around 3 hours, so you could call the MLB the tortoise and other sports the hare. Other sports such as hockey, basketball, and football are much faster while baseball games tend to be slow and ponderous. Slow and steady may win the race, but fast and speedy wins the excitment. In what way could we make baseball games faster so they become more exciting?

I've heard many concepts in finding a solution to speeding up the game of baseball. One of them is the batters and stepping out of the batters box after every pitch. Now I have never asked anyone from the MLB how valuable the act of stepping out of the batter's box is to refocus yourself, think about the next pitch, take a deep breath, and step back in the batter's box. I imagine they would say it's pretty important but it all adds up to making the game a whole lot slower and at times it can be taken to extremes. Let's do some math to see how much time this could take up. There is 9 batters on each team and each batter gets up to bat 4 times. Lets say the average is 5 pitches thrown to each batter and inbetween each of those 5 pitches he steps out of the batters box for 6 seconds. That would be 9x4x5x6 which would equal 1080 seconds. !080 seconds for one team, but theres two teams in a gem so that would be 1080 x 2. That's 2160 seconds which is equivalent to 36 minutes. 36 minutes of a batter just standing around. That is more than half a football or basketball game. Now I've heard a few people say and write about just completely getting rid of the rule so the batter will not be able to leave the batters box. I can't wrap my head around that. The batter not being able to leave the batter box? But that or shortening the time he has outside of the batters box seems like the only option to cut down or elminate the 18 minutes of batters standing around.

There are some other options I've heard about aswell but the one that has come up a lot and the option I like the most is limiting the amount of mound visits by a catcher in a game. Catchers visiting the mound slows down the game immensly. I've looked for stats on how many times the catcher visits the mound and how long he stays there, but I've had no luck. It's just shocking how many times you see catchers running to the mound and how long they stay there. It is necessary to visit the mound, don't get me wrong, but multiple times in innings, tremendous amounts of times in games for a substantial amount of time is unesscary and ultimatley makes the game move more slowly which makes it less enjoyable for the fans. This rule should be imposed where there is a limited amount of times the catcher can visit the mound in a game. It will make the game move faster.

Believe me, I love baseball, but research needs to be done into exploring ways to make the game move faster whether it is eliminating or shortening the time a batter has to leave the batters box inbetween pitches or imposing a limit on how many times the cathcer can visit the mound. Something has to be done to make the game move a little bit faster to make it more exciting and better for the fans. Follow @BaseballBo

The Fresh Prince... of Detroit?

According to reports, Prince Fielder has signed a 9-year deal worth $214 million dollars with the Detroit Tigers. What does this represent? It represents that anything can happen because most of the people I know and listen to, including me, was either saying Texas or Washington. In my previous blog post about Prince Fielder, I said that I'm leaning towards Texas as Prince Fielder's choice, but like I said in the end, you never know.

Why Detroit though? Well first off, Prince was looking for a long term deal which they offered. Aswell Detroit has a very attractive division and lineup that would flirt with anyone wanting to get to the World Series. You have Justin Verlander-2011 MVP, Miguel Cabrera, Austin Jackson, and a whole lot more outstanding players. The AL Central doesn't really have to much competition at the moment, I mean in my opinion the Detroit Tigers are the clear favorites to win the division especially with the addition of Prince Fielder. Also Miller Park is not to much different from Comerica park in run statistcs (with Comerica being #9 and Miller Park being #10 on MLB Parks Runs List). This shows that Prince is moving to a park were he can hit just as well as last year.

Before Prince Fielder was signed, Victor Martinez got injured. With a .303 batting average, Martinez is hard to replace, and to get someone better? Unthinkable. The Tigers managed to do that picking up Fielder for healthy load of money. There is no doubt that the Tigers look great this year and will be talked about with teams such as the Yankees, Angels, and Rangers for the AL title. He is a great addition to the team filling a void that almost looked irreplacable. We'll get to see this season unfold for Prince and see if he can become "The Fresh Prince of Detroit". Follow @BaseballBo

Yu Darvish signs with Texas - 6-year $60 million dollar contract - Will he succeed?

Yu Darvish. The Japanese pitching sensation. Over a five year carrer in Japan with the Nippon Ham Fighters he posted a 1.72 ERA and has a 76-28 Win-Loss record. There is no question this kid is something special and Texas must have realized that today, signing him to a 6-year $60 million dollar contract. The question is though, will Texas get there "bang for your buck?" or will Yu Darvish struggle with the change like so many other Japanese players who made there way to the MLB. Sure there are a lot of Japanese players who are doing great in the MLB such as Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsu, or Daisuke Matsuzaka just to name a few. But let me asure you there is a fare amount of Japanese players who were expected to prosper in the MLB but ended up struggling. Some examples could be Satoru Komiyama who had an ERA of 5.61 in a season with the Mets or Kazuo Matsui who made 23 errors with the Mets in 2004 and has jumped around from team to team until calling it quits with his final game being May 8th 2010. So it makes you think; will Yu Darvish prevail or will he fall short of expectations like so many other Japanese super stars? Well Yu Darvish has posted a 1.72 ERA over his five-year carrer in Japan where as Satoru Komiyama posted a 3.59 ERA over his 12 year carrer in Japan. This shows that Yu Darvish has performed better in Japan so I think the question people should be asking is, Yu Darvish has put up insane ERA's that are better than these former Japanese stars who came over and did not succeed so can why is he being compared to them? Follow @BaseballBo

The MLB All-Star game and its World Series incentive

The MLB All-Star game. A game where the best players from the AL division team up to face the best players from the NL division. The MLB All-Star game happens once a season and it's great because you get to see most of the elite players all playing together. That being said, there is one thing that bugs me about it. It's the rule that whatever divsion wins the MLB All-Star game (NL or AL), the winning team from that division will have home field advantage in the World Series. On a scale of 1-10, that makes 0 sense to me. I'm not saying the All-Star game is not competitive, but it's not like they are going all out. It's basically a small slap in the face to the regular season record for teams. You guys are probably thinking right now "Oh well it's not a big deal", well say that to Texas. Texas had a better regular season record than St. Louis but who got home field advantage because the NL won the All-Star game that year? St. Louis. Now I'm not saying that St. Louis wouldn't have won if they didn't get homefield advantage, all I'm saying is that it could've affected the outcome. The MLB should have a serious look into this rule and hopefully employ something like the NHL has, whoever has the better regualr season record gets home ice (home field) advatnage. The MLB All-Star game in my opinion is not as competitive as an all out regular season game. The AL and NL players go out, have some fun, hit some homers and then go back to regular season play the next week. This rule should absolutelty be changed to whoever has the better regular season record gets homefield advantage. It makes the regular season a little more competitive but most of all, it makes sense. Follow @BaseballBo

Where will Prince Fielder go?

There are many options for Prince Fielder, but where do you think he will go? From Radio, Podcasts, Blogs, etc... There are two main options: Texas or Washington. There are also fans in Seattle, Miami, and Milwaukee who believe that they are still in the running for Prince Fielder, and don't get me wrong they might be, but according to all the sources Texas and Washington are the two top options. What do I think? I think that people are still forgetting that Milwaukee is where Prince Fielder has played his whole MLB carrer. The Milwaukee Brewers went to the National League Divison Series in 2008 and just last year, 2011, they won the National League Central. The Milwaukee Brewers are a good team and have great characters and players such as Nyjer Morgan, Ryan Braun, Zack Greinke, Shaun Marcum, John Axford, etc... I'm not talking from experience, but it must be hard to leave the place where you have played your whole MLB carrer and where you have accomplished so much. So all of that makes me still think that Milwaukee is an option. Being a baseball player is a carrer, its your job, so money is a huge factor. Thats where Texas and Washington come in.

I'll first start of with Washington. Washington is probably offering a lot of money and they are going to be a good team and a big threat in the NL East this year. With newly acquired players, such as Gio Gonzalez, it is an attractive option for free agents such as Prince Fielder. If they were to get it, that division would be absolutely stacked. You have Philadelphia (I could probably leave it at that but I won't) who has Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and newly aqquired Jonathan Papelbon, you have the Miami Marlins who have made huge offseason signings acquiring Jo-Jo Reyes and Heath Bell, you have Atlanta who could very well still compete in this divison and you also have the New York Mets on top of that. The division is already an enormously competitive divison, and if Prince Fielder signs with the Washington Nationals, it will become that much more competitive.

How about Texas? Texas already looks like a team that could have another World Series run. What if they were to get Prince Fielder? Then you'd have players such as Mike Napoli or Nelson Cruz hitting at the bottom of your lineup? That's just crazy! The team is stacked right now and is also trying to sign Japanese pitching star, Yu Darvish, and now they are having meetings with Prince Fielder. Those two sigings would really help them get back to the World Series and if they got them both, Pujols and the Angels might be shaking in there boots.

In my opinon, there are three options: Texas, Washington, and Milwaukee. If someone asked me to pick the team I think he will go to, I'd pick Texas because that team is very good with an extremely legitimate shot at going to the World Series again. That being said, I think the race for signing Prince Fielder is still wide upon and I wouldn't count anyone out, including Seattle, because in all honesty, you never know. Follow @BaseballBo