A lot has happened in Major League Baseball since the last Hanging Curve, including an injury to a future Hall of Famer (Mariano Rivera), the benching of another (Albert Pujols) and a career-week for a slugger (Josh Hamilton) on a path that could lead to Cooperstown.
If the Jays front office thinks they can form a starting rotation worthy of contending in the East in the next couple seasons, there is no reason to believe that they will not make a run at Prince Fielder.
Ryan Braun and Troy Tulowitzki talked to RealGM about LeBron James and starting their own big three.
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Over the next few weeks as the NCAA Tournament and Spring Training dominate the month of March, we have combined the two for our own March Madness, which will determine who the readers of RealGM will select in the second edition of our 'Be The GM' series.
Though there are many different potential answers, the question is simple; If you were to start a MLB franchise from scratch and had the option to pick any player in the world, who would you pick?
The Mets and Phillies have been annually battling for the NL East division crown and there is clearly no love lost between the two clubs. Central to the rivalry are two of the best left-handed pitchers in the game.
Johan Santana, LHP, New York Mets
Other players considered from the Mets: David Wright, Jose Reyes
Why he's a franchise player: Leaving both Wright and Reyes off this list was extremely difficult and even though they're younger everyday players, leaving off the best pitcher of his generation who is just now turning 30 would be a mistake.
Santana spent his first four seasons in a dual role and since becoming a full time starter in 2004, no other pitcher with at least 700 innings has a better ERA than his 2.82. He also leads in strikeouts and is tied with Roy Oswalt for the lead in wins with 86.
He is almost equally effective against lefties as he is against righties.
When it comes to ERA+, no pitcher since 2004 is even close to him and Santana trails just Lefty Grove on the all-time list amongst lefties (6th overall), ahead of Randy Johnson (3rd) and Sandy Koufax (8th).
Cole Hamels, LHP, Philadelphia Phillies
Other players considered from: Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard
Why he's a franchise player: Similar to the situation with the Mets, the Phillies have some incredible players that were passed on by me in favor of Hamels. But unlike the Mets, the deciding factor was age, as Hamels is still just 25.
He has a career ERA of 3.43 and is coming off an MVP performance in the World Series and a season in which he had a 3.09 ERA while striking out 196 batters in 227.3 innings.
Hamels is sixth in ERA+ since coming into the MLB in 2006 and somehow he has been able to tame Citizen's Bank Park with a career 3.29 ERA, which is better than his road mark of 3.56.
