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Major league baseball is so deep in quality starting pitching that you could probably make the case for nine or 10 different combinations as the best pair going right now. Here are my top five: 1. Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma, Mariners Thi...

Maybe Don Mattingly is a good manager. Maybe he's a bad manager. Maybe, like his mentor Joe Torre, he's just four jobs away from the job that will turn him into a Hall of Famer. (The headline in the New York Daily News when the Yankees hired Torre: "...

Quick reactions off Tuesday's games ... Andrew McCutchen did this in the 12th inning to give the Pirates a big win over the Brewers. The Pirates are 22-17 -- the same record as the Braves, a team that has received much more attention than Pitts...

Dear Mr. Harvey and Mr. Miller, Don't forget about me. Sincerely, Clayton Kershaw * * * * The amazing thing about Clayton Kershaw is that he delivers the goods nearly every time out. No lows, few bad outings, just consistent exce...

Sunday's day of aces turned more into a game of Crazy Eights -- there were some crooked numbers put up against several of baseball's top pitchers and none of the anticipated showdowns materialized into a pitcher's duel. One of the disappointing ma...

It's not an easy way to begin defense of your World Series title, facing the best pitcher in the National League and having to beat the Dodgers on a day Sandy Koufax threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Clayton Kershaw dominated the Giants with a...

Earlier, the SweetSpot bloggers overwhelmingly supported Mike Trout for AL MVP and Justin Verlander for the AL Cy Young Award. Let's see how the predictions line up in the NL. MOST VALUABLE PLAYER For the second straight, the SweetSpot bloggers s...

Dodgers fans: Quit reading now. This article is going to be painful. Here's the deal: The Dodgers could be awesome. Of course they could. They have the best pitcher in the National League in Clayton Kershaw, and the guy who probably should have wo...

Justin Verlander, Prince Fielder, Clayton Kershaw and Mike Trout aren't on the United States roster, and their absence means a lot of fans don't care about the World Baseball Classic -- certainly not enough to spend a Friday evening in early March wa...

No, the World Baseball Classic isn't the World Series or the World Cup, and it doesn't really prove which country has the best baseball talent. But it's a fun event, the players participating want to win, and there are fans across the globe -- mostly...

2012 in review Record: 86-76 (86-76 Pythagorean) 637 runs scored (13th in NL) 597 runs allowed (3rd in NL) Big Offseason Moves Made free-agent starter Zack Greinke the highest-paid pitcher in the game. Signed Korean left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu. R...

The other day, Jim Bowden wrote about the monster free agent class following the 2014 season that right now includes Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez and Clayton Kershaw. However, while Verlander ($20 million each of the next two seasons) and He...

The World Baseball Classic provisional rosters will be announced later this week and news is starting to slip out on who Joe Torre will be naming to the roster. Giancarlo Stanton has committed to playing for Team USA, but Mike Trout will not, instead...

Keith Law unveils his top 25 players under the age of 25 list on Thursday and the top two pitchers are Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg. Can't disagree there, although the most surprising aspect is that Kershaw has already won a Cy Young Award a...

Last weekend, I presented the top 10 teams in my personal power rankings. That was before the Blue Jays officially acquired R.A. Dickey, so I updated my top 10 after that trade, and, to spur on more debate, now present the rest of my rankings. Agree ...

Two pitchers. You may be able to figure out who they are without too much work: Both pitchers are Justin Verlander. The top line is from his 2011 Cy Young and MVP campaign; the second line is 2012. There is very little difference in the seasons,...