Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.
Looking Forward ...
Controversy? What controversy? We won't know officially until Saturday afternoon if backup Yankees catcher Jose Molina is once again paired with scheduled Game 2 starter A.J. Burnett, though it seems highly likely that Molina will once again get the nod.
Manager Joe Girardi told reporters before Game 1 that the pairing "worked pretty well last time," about as strong a hint as he could give that it will be an encore for Molina.
ST. LOUIS -- All those walk-off homers in the regular season earned Andre Ethier a nice reputation as a clutch producer, but so far in the postseason he is earning a new, even more important one.
"He's the new Mr. October," Dodgers catcher Russell Martin said of Ethier. "He's been clutch for us all season, down the stretch. I don't know how many big hits he's gotten for us. But he's right in his element."
It truly was one of the more magical endings to a baseball playoff game we've ever seen, a game that can't be described any better than a Hollywood ending in which the hero miraculously manages to fight off an entire army with one gun and six bullets to save the girl.
In the movies, we never get to see the loser's epilogue. The NLDS between the Dodgers and Cardinals leaves its Hollywood atmosphere and shifts to St. Louis this weekend, where we'll find out if the Cards can bounce back from a game in which both Matt Holliday and the entire roster took a collective line drive to the groin.
While some people around Major League Baseball are losing their jobs for failing to win games, others around the league are being rewarded for their success. The Los Angeles Dodgers are getting ready to make their third appearance in the postseason in the last four years, and it looks like the man who is in charge of putting the team together is about to be rewarded for it.
There's word out of Los Angeles that the team has begun negotiating with general manager Ned Colletti about signing a long-term contract extension with the team. Colletti is currently working under a deal that includes a mutual option for 2010, and now the Dodgers would like that to last a bit longer.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
What a fantasy season it has been for Prince Fielder. Of course, we must thrown the "fantasy" before season, as I'm sure Fielder pictured himself squarely in the middle of a playoff race when looking ahead to September 21st earlier in the season, but his owners must be pleased by their second-round pick's production. Fielder launched his 40th homer of the season Sunday, making this year the second (2007) in which he's reached the 40-HR mark. His average is still trucking along near .300 (currently at .299), which is a pleasant surprise, and his 128 RBIs tie with Albert Pujols' total as the best mark in baseball.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
While it was just one game, Cole Hamels sure looked like he was back in vintage form.
The Phillies ace, who is rocking a 4.52 ERA and 1.34 WHIP this season, threw eight shutout innings in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, striking out seven batters in all. Hamels actually has been better than his ERA and WHIP indicate, as he now has 126 Ks versus just 33 BBs this season. I'll take that K/BB ratio from my pitcher any day, as nine times out of ten, the ERA and WHIP will be sparkling.
Unfortunately for Hamels, the ninth inning ended up being the most dramatic frame of the game.
Kansas City Royals pitcher Zach Greinke started the season and could virtually do no wrong. He won his first six starts and by the end of May he was 8-1 through 11 starts with a tiny 1.10 ERA. That's exactly when you should have traded him, at the highest point of his yearly value. I only say this with the benefit of hindsight. It's easy to look back and decide which moves should have been made.
Since the beginning of June, Greinke has made 14 starts and has a record of 3-7. His ERA has ballooned to 2.44. His earned run average is still great, he's top-five in the league, but he's losing half of his starts. How's that happening with such a great ERA?
New Studs on the Block takes a look at players ready to make the leap from "possibly productive fantasy player" to "must-have fantasy stud." This is not a "you've never heard of this dude, but ... " series -- these should be names you already know.
When Andre Ethier came into the league as a bright-eyed, bushy tailed 24-year-old, people knew he was going to hit major league pitching. He was a second-round pick who made consistent contact, always sported a high average and drove home runs. One thing he didn't really appear to have, though, was big-time home run power.
In less than four major league seasons, Ethier has progressively blossomed into a legitimate power hitter.
Let's start with his 7.2 innings of work on the mound. Wolf gave up three earned runs and five hits. But he struck out an amazing ten batters while walking none. And this isn't the first good outing for Wolf in a while. In fact, quite the opposite.
If you take out the four earned run game on August 6th against Atlanta, you have to go all the way back to June 24th to find another day where Wolf didn't provide the Dodgers with a quality start. Nine of his last ten outings have been quality starts and he's sporting a 3.13 ERA over that time. He only has four wins to show for it, but that sounds like a run support issue and not a dig on Wolf.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
The Nationals of all teams are the hottest club in baseball. They've won five straight games, scoring no fewer than five runs in each of their six games in August. Mike MacDougal recorded saves in four of those five wins, but the real hero in Washington is Ryan Zimmerman.
Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.
ST. LOUIS -- All those walk-off homers in the regular season earned 
While some people around Major League 
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Kansas City Royals pitcher 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
