Archives › Matthew Pouliot

Given all of the indications that the team had no plans to offer free agent Rich Harden arbitration this winter, the Cubs must have been feeling confident about their 2010 rotation. Big-money pitchers Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly and Ryan Dempster were set to lead the way, with rookie surprise Randy Wells and summer acquisition Tom…

The Phillies managed to score four runs in six innings against a fully rested Andy Pettitte in Game 3 of the World Series on Saturday. Given that he’ll be working on short rest tonight, it seems doubtful that they’ll be shut down entirely. Pettitte hadn’t even started on four days’ rest since Sept. 5. His…

Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura is headed to Pittsburgh, says the St. Petersburg Times and several other sources. According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, right-hander Jesse Chavez will be the return when the deal is announced, something that might not happen until after the World Series concludes. The Rays are expected to surrender a second player…

The Yankees confirmed Tuesday that Andy Pettitte would take the mound on short rest and start Game 6 against the Phillies and Pedro Martinez on Wednesday. It was obvious the Bombers would go that route from the moment that A.J. Burnett was chosen to start Game 5. If Chad Gaudin was going to pitch, it…

When the showdown against the Yankees began, it looked like Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth were the Phillies poised to make postseason history. Howard matched a record by driving in runs in eight straight games to begin the postseason. Werth, meanwhile, hit five homers in nine games against the Rockies and Dodgers. In the World…

World Series Game 5 live chat

It was the obvious issue when GM Ruben Amaro opted for Raul Ibanez over Pat Burrell last winter: the Phillies would have big problems against left-handed pitching with so much of their power coming from the left side. It turned out to be a non-factor during the regular season. Ibanez, who went into the year…

It was fun while it lasted. Lidge opened the postseason with five straight scoreless appearances. He put together that kind of streak just once during the regular season, when he saved five in a row from May 26-June 1. Of course, he finished the regular season 0-8 with 11 blown saves and a 7.21 ERA.…

It seems like the story has been repeated several times this year. Cole Hamels came out firing again Saturday, keeping the Yankees hitless through three innings. The only one of the first 11 hitters to reach did so on a HBP. And then it all fell apart, too quickly for Charlie Manuel to do much…

The Giants could have gone out and picked up Felipe Lopez or Ronnie Belliard to fill a colossal hole at second base at midseason, but they guessed wrong and picked Freddy Sanchez. They may well have lost the NL West in the process. Not that they deserved to have things turn out so badly. Sanchez…

How exactly do we weigh opportunity? Andy Pettitte has been far from an ace while finishing with ERAs over 4.00 each of the last four seasons, yet he keeps winning 14 games every year and is now up to 229 victories for his career. That comes with being an above average starter for very good…

Manager Charlie Manuel announced Friday that Joe Blanton would start Game 4 for the Phillies on Sunday, essentially setting his rotation for the rest of October. The guess going in was that the Phillies would try to get away with using Cliff Lee in Games 1, 4 and 7. Blanton still figured to start Game…

So, now we know just how the Yankees have decided to address that middle-relief problem; they’re going to bypass it completely. A.J. Burnett struck out nine over seven innings and Mariano Rivera pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings Thursday as the Yankees won 3-1 to send the World Series to Philadelphia deadlocked at one game…

World Series Game 2 live blog/chat

Check back at 8 pm EDT, as I’ll be hosting a live chat during Game 2 of the World Series.

Jorge Posada’s absence was expected with Jose Molina having caught A.J. Burnett in each of the right-hander’s three previous postseason starts, but Yankees manager Joe Girardi made the surprising decision Thursday to remove Nick Swisher from the starting lineup for Game 2 of the World Series and replace him with Jerry Hairston Jr. in right…

The winner of Game 1 has prevailed in each of the last six World Series It’s a streak that started when the Marlins upset the Yankees in six games in 2003. But the truth is that none of the series since have been close. In fact, three were sweeps and the other two ended in…

*Cliff Lee needs to work deep into the game in order to match CC Sabathia. The Phillies will likely have to rely a great deal on their pen during Games 2 and 3, so it’s important that Lee provide them with at least seven strong innings. The chances of Chad Durbin, Chan Ho Park and…

Except for that provided by some brutal umpiring, it’s so far been a postseason without a whole lot of drama. We’ve yet to see a decisive game in any of the six series to date. In fact, those series have lasted a total of 24 games, just four more than the possible minimum. So, it’s…

Thanks in large part to the flood of talent brought in though the Erik Bedard trade, things are certainly looking up for the Orioles. Matt Wieters is going to be a superstar behind the plate, the Nolan Reimold-Adam Jones-Nick Markakis outfield should be plenty productive and is under complete control through 2013 and Brian Matusz…

The Rays assured themselves of entering 2010 with a fourth outfielder by re-signing free agent Gabe Kapler to a one-year, $1.05 million contract on Tuesday, but it’s still a mystery just who he’ll be playing behind next year. Kapler’s role in 2009 was to start over Gabe Gross in right field against lefties. The platoon…

After what was surely an exhaustive search, Paul Beeston, the Jays’ interim president and CEO, was given permanent title to his offices on Tuesday. Beeston conducted all of the interviews as he searched for his replacements, but he evidently never found anyone as qualified as himself. While former Jays GM Pat Gillick and Nats president…

The Angels made the right calls a year ago in declining to ante up for Mark Teixeira and turning instead to Kendry Morales and Bobby Abreu to round out their lineup. Factoring into the decision was that GM Tony Reagins knew Teixeira’s $20 million salary would make it very difficult to keep the team together…

How is .270 with 14 homers and 63 RBI more valuable than 13-6 with a 3.94 ERA or 6-3 with 26 saves and a 1.84 ERA? I don’t even want to get into the more complicated statistics, because the voters clearly aren’t. But Gordon Beckham has now won AL top rookie honors from The Sporting…

The Yankees didn’t overpower them. Just once in the series did the Bombers really come out to play and turn a game into a rout. No, the Yankees were the better team going in and should have won this series anyway, but the Angels served it up on a platter. Most notable were the eight…