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On Saturday, Cameron Maybin agreed to a five-year, $25 million contract with the San Diego Padres. The deal will keep the 24-year-old in San Diego through at least his first free agent year.

It's been a long journey for the former first-round pick, who was drafted ahead of the likes of fellow outfielders Andrew McCutchen, Jay Bruce and Jacoby Ellsbury and was involved in trades for both a star (Miguel Cabrera) as well as two middle relievers (Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb). But now on his third team and fresh off his fifth season of Major League action, Maybin has found a home.

Maybin had the best season of his young career in 2011, posting a .265/.323 /.393 triple slash line and swiping a team-leading 40 bases. He also led the Padres in runs scored (82), total bases (203), and triples (8). He tied for the team lead in hits (136) and was tied for second in home runs (9). His 4.7 Wins Above Replacement ranked sixth among all center fielders last season and tied for sixth among Padres outfielders in the Wild Card era.

Despite the success, Maybin’s offensive numbers suffered from hitting in the cavernous Petco Park, which consistently ranks in the bottom-third of the Majors in home runs hit and runs scored according to ESPN’s Park Factors. He batted .231 at home last year compared to .294 on the road, and there was an even bigger discrepancy in his slugging percentage (.324 to .457).

But while his home park punishes his surface-level offensive numbers, it is that same home park that represents one of the reasons Maybin is so valuable to the Padres - centerfield defense. Few parks are as spacious in the outfield as Petco, and Maybin's ability to track down batted balls represented a significant portion of his value in 2011.

Baseball Info Solutions has worked to upgrade its defensive analysis, a re-tooling that will be unveiled in The Fielding Bible III. Suffice it to say, the adjusted defensive metrics suggest Maybin was one of the premier defensive players at his position in 2011 - he ranked tied for third in Defensive Runs Saved.

While Maybin's defensive value is evident and his offense progressed, the latter still has significant room for growth. Most notably, Maybin's issues with changeups provide a clear area for potential improvement.

Maybin chased almost 39 percent of soft pitches (changeups, sliders, curveballs) low and away out of the strike zone and had only two hits on 239 such pitches in 2011. That .038 BA ranked 131st out of 145 qualified hitters. Specific to the changeup, Maybin ranked among the bottom of the league in batting average, OPS and strikeout rate against that pitch over the last three seasons combined.

He did, however, improve against the changeup from 2010 to 2011 - he raised his batting average (.091 to .197) and his OPS (.182 to .505), while reducing his strikeout rate (46 percent to 27 percent). Maybin - and the Padres - hope the trend continues in 2012.

On Tuesday night, ESPN and Rawlings announced the Gold Glove Award winners for 2011. There were 18 players selected for Gold Gloves and nine of them were first-time winners. Here's a closer look at some notable selections this year:

National League
• St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina won his fourth consecutive Gold Glove. The last National League catcher to win four straight Gold Glove was Charles Johnson, from 1995 to 1998.

Video review by Baseball Info Solutions (BIS), a company that charts every pitch of every game, showed that Molina led the majors in blocks of pitches that were in the dirt with 657.

• The Los Angeles Dodgers outfield duo of Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier each won Gold Gloves, with Kemp netting his second and Ethier his first. They’re the first pair of outfield teammates to win Gold Glove Awards in the National League since Andruw Jones and Jeff Francoeur for the 2007 Braves. It’s also the first time Dodgers outfielders have won Gold Gloves in the same season.

• Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Placido Polanco became the second player to win Gold Gloves at multiple positions, joining Darin Erstad, who won as both an outfielder and first baseman. Polanco also won twice previously as a second baseman.

Polanco, in his second season at third base for the Phillies, saw his errors increase from five in 2010 to eight in 2011. However, a closer look at his defensive skills using advanced metrics shows that he actually made big strides in his defensive play this year.

Polanco finished second to San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval in defensive runs saved, a stat devised by sabermetricians Bill James and John Dewan that measures a third baseman’s ability to turn batted balls into outs and defend bunts.

Polanco really improved in turning grounders into outs. Specifically he was much better on balls hit into the areas where third basemen most frequently field balls and balls hit down the third-base line. According to the plus-minus system from BIS, Polanco went from saving five total bases on balls hit to those spots in 2010 to saving 23 bases this year.

American League
• Boston Red Sox centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury became the first Red Sox outfielder to win a Gold Glove Award since Ellis Burks in 1990. Like Polanco, Ellsbury made a significant statistical jump in his defensive performance from 2009 (his last healthy season) to 2011.

In 2009, he finished near the bottom among center fielders in defensive runs saved, which for outfielders measures their effectiveness at turning batted balls into outs and the value of his throwing arm as a baserunner deterrent. Ellsbury’s defense cost the Red Sox nine runs in 2009, but saved them six runs in 2011, tied for sixth-best in the American League.

• One of the more intriguing selections was in left field where Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon became the first Royals outfielder to win a Gold Glove Award since Jermaine Dye in 2000.

Gordon won on the strength of his major league-best 20 outfield assists, a Royals record and eight more than any other left fielder. However, Gordon’s win deprived New York Yankees leftfielder Brett Gardner of his first Gold Glove Award.

Gardner tied for the major-league lead in defensive runs saved, saving the Yankees 22 runs with his defense. Video review by scouts at BIS also showed Gardner leading all left fielders in “Good Fielding Plays,” which are similar to Web Gem nominees.

October is fast approaching and baseball fans are lamenting the lack of pennant races. But many of those teams with their tickets virtually punched for the postseason are facing a race to get some key contributors healthy.

Entering Friday’s action, there are nine teams either leading a race for a playoff spot or within five games of one of those spots.

Among those, the Boston Red Sox have had the most 2011 contributors hit the disabled list this season with 16.

The Red Sox have the depth and star power to overcome those losses to make a playoff berth likely.

The AL has six players with a WAR above six this season and the Red Sox have three of them: Jacoby Ellsbury (8.2), Dustin Pedroia (6.9) and Adrian Gonzalez (6.1). They went 12-2 without Jon Lester in July.

But things have been rough lately without Kevin Youkilis. The third baseman was placed on the 15-day DL on August 18 and has been undergoing tests on his sore left hip. Late reports out of Boston indicate that Youkilis has bursitis in the hip and could rejoin the team this weekend.

In the meantime the Sox have gone 11-11 and seen their wild card lead over the Tampa Bay Rays shrink from eight to five and a half after Friday’s loss.

Of course not all injuries are created equal.

For example, the Texas Rangers’ missed-games total this season is 636, within a dozen of the other more “injury-prone” teams like Boston, the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.

However, only 113 of those games have been missed by players ever named to an All-Star Game. The biggest suppliers of that 636 total are Scott Feldman (92 games), Tommy Hunter (82), Darren O’Day (60) and Eric Hurley (57).

The likely playoff team with the most combined games missed due to DL stints this season is the Philadelphia Phillies, which makes their MLB-best 93-48 record all the more impressive.

Pitching has been the source of both the team’s strength and injury woes so far. Consider how the Cy Young cases of Roy Halladay (MLB-best among pitchers 7.4 WAR) and Cliff Lee (5.9), along with the emergence of rookie Vance Worley, helped Philly go 62-36 without closer Brad Lidge and 31-16 without Roy Oswalt.

Nick Loucks and Kim Meyer contributed to this story.

The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees resume their rivalry, with a three-game series starting Tuesday at Fenway Park. The Red Sox are 10-2 against the Yankees this season. It’s the first time Boston has won at least 10 games in a season against the Yankees since 2004 (11-8).

Four of those 10 losses by the Yankees have come with CC Sabathia on the mound (Sabathia will take the ball in the opener on Tuesday). Sabathia is 0-4 with a 7.20 ERA against the Red Sox and 17-3 with a 2.40 ERA against everybody else this season.

Why has Sabathia struggled so much against the Red Sox this season?

Left-handed batters: Red Sox lefties – Carl Crawford, J.D. Drew, David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez - have hit .333 (16-48) with two home runs against Sabathia. All other teams’ left-handed batters have a .153 batting average with two home runs in 157 at-bats against Sabathia.

Falling behind: Sabathia fell behind more often and pitched in more hitters’ counts against the Red Sox (26 percent of batters faced) than against other teams (18 percent). As a result, he has had to rely on his fastball more often, which the Red Sox have crushed. All other teams have hit .264 against his heater, while the Red Sox batters hit .389 (21-54) in at-bats ending in the pitch.

Not fooled by his slider: The Red Sox have laid off his slider, swinging at 43 percent of those pitches overall and chasing 30 percent of them out of the zone. The rest of the league has swung at 52 percent of his sliders with a chase rate of 45 percent.

On the other side of the rivalry, Dustin Pedroia has excelled against the Yankees this season.

Pedroia, a career .313 hitter against the Yankees, is batting .439 with 10 RBI and nine walks in 11 games against them in 2011. He’s cooled off after the first two series, however. In the first seven games, he was 13-for-24 (.542), but is just 5-for-17 (.294) over the last five games in the series.

With the Red Sox prevailing 10-4 in this afternoon’s matchup against the Yankees, Boston and New York are once again tied atop the AL East standings. However, the season series has hardly been even, as the Red Sox have won nine of the first 11 matchups, outscoring the Yankees 72-44.

CC Sabathia brought a 0-3 record and 6.16 ERA into the game and both those numbers got worse, as he allowed seven earned runs in the loss.

Sabathia is the first Yankee pitcher to lose four games in a single season to the Red Sox since Pat Dobson went 1-4 in 1975. He also became the first Yankee pitcher in the Live Ball Era to allow six-or-more earned runs in three straight starts vs Boston.

Red Sox lefties teed off on Sabathia, going 5-for-11, including a three-run homer by Jacoby Ellsbury and a double by Carl Crawford. The five hits by lefty batters matches the second-most Sabathia has allowed in his career.

Ellsbury now has 19 home runs this season, one shy of matching his total in 349 career games entering 2011. Ellsbury finished with six RBI, the most runs driven in by a Red Sox leadoff batter since Ellis Burks had seven RBI on June 10, 1987 against the Orioles.

Crawford went 4-for-4 with three runs scored for his fourth four-hit game this season. Three of the four hits came off the lefty Sabathia. Entering Saturday, Crawford had just three hits in his last 24 at-bats versus lefties.

On the west coast...

The Phillies beat the Giants 2-1, as they extended their win streak to nine games and sent the Giants to their eighth loss in their last nine games.

Cole Hamels tossed his ninth career complete game and second one this season for the victory. Hamels threw first-pitch strikes to 28 of 32 batters, including 22 straight between the second and eighth innings.

Hamels continued his dominance with his changeup. The Giants went 2-for-17 in at-bats ending in the pitch, and chased 13 changeups out of the zone. Opponents are now hitting .125 against his changepiece this season, the fourth-best mark among starters.

Both the Phillies and Giants made significant trades at the deadline, with the Phillies acquiring Hunter Pence and the Giants getting Carlos Beltran, but the teams have gone in different directions since making the moves.

The Phillies are 8-0 with Pence in the lineup, and Pence is hitting .382 with two homers and seven RBI during this stretch. The Giants are 2-8 since Beltran joined the team, and Beltran is batting .244 with a .366 slugging percentage in his first 10 games with the Giants.

The story of the season has been Red Sox domination. It's the difference in the AL East race. With the Yankees traveling to Fenway Park to take on the Red Sox, it's time to break down how the season series has gone so far.

Here are some highlights about the head-to-head series:

• The Yankees will be trying to snap a seven-game losing streak in the series. That’s tied for the third-longest losing streak for the Yankees in the rivalry, behind only a nine-game streak from 2008-09 and a 17-game streak from 1911-12.

• The Yankee starters have struggled, with a 8.18 ERA in the nine games. The losers in the eight losses were mostly the pitchers upon whom they usually rely: Bartolo Colon (twice), CC Sabathia (3 times), Freddy Garcia (twice), A.J. Burnett (once).

• Sabathia is 0-3 with a 6.16 ERA vs the Red Sox this year (he’s 15-2 vs everyone else). In 2010, he was 1-0 with a 3.96 ERA, and in 2009, he was 3-1 with a 2.22 ERA.

• However, the Red Sox pitchers have held them to a .208 batting average with runners in scoring position. In three of the games, they failed to get a hit with runners in scoring position (0-3 on April 10, 0-10 on May 14, 0-7 on June 9), and in another game they got just one hit (1-7 on May 13).

• The Red Sox shut down the Yankee lefties (and when their switch-hitters hit lefty). Red Sox pitchers held Yankees left-handed batters to a .207 BA.

• Yankees were shut out twice in nine games; they have been shut out just three times otherwise.

Notable Yankees mediocrity:

• Nick Swisher .188, 8 K
• Brett Gardner .167, double and triple
• Mark Teixeira .121 (4-33), 11 K, 0 XBH

Notable Red Sox standouts:

• Dustin Pedroia: .500 (15-30), 4 doubles, 8 walks
• Jacoby Ellsbury .371, 3 SB, 4 doubles
• David Ortiz .324, 3 HR, 4 doubles, 9 RBI

• We should note that Pedroia was the AL Player of the Month for July. He led the Majors with 46 hits, the most hits for a Red Sox player during July of any season since 1939, when 3 future Hall of Famers each collected more: Bobby Doerr (52), Ted Williams (48) and Jimmie Foxx (47) (Elias). Pedroia also led Major Leaguers in total bases (81), tied for first in runs (27) and extra-base hits (18), and posted the second-best AVG in the ML at .411 (112 AB).

Derek Jeter: Return to Form?

• Derek Jeter has picked it up after getting his 3,000th hit on July 9. Jeter has four career five-hit games and two of them have come within the last four weeks. His numbers since July 10 are more in line with his career numbers.

The Setup Men: David Robertson and Daniel Bard

• David Robertson has better numbers vs opposite-handed batters (LHB) than same-handed batters (RHB) this year. His .169 BA vs LHB is fourth-best among AL RHP (min. 75 batters faced), while his 43 K vs LHB are the most among RHP relievers.

• He has yet to allow a run on the road in 20 appearances (21 1/3 IP).

• He has yet to allow a HR in 42 1/3 IP (most IP of any AL reliever who hasn’t allowed a HR yet this season).

• Opponents are 1-12 (.083) with 10 K with the bases loaded.

• Daniel Bard has been more effective vs righties this season. His .117 opponent BA vs RHB is the lowest among AL pitchers (min. 75 batters faced).

• Prior to allowing three runs in his last outing on August 1, Bard had made 25 straight scoreless appearances (since May 27), spanning 26 1/3 IP. During the streak, opponents hit .125 vs him, and RHB were 3-40 (.075).

• It was the most consecutive scoreless outings in Red Sox history. It was the longest streak of scoreless IP in a single season by a Red Sox pitcher since Bob Stanley had a 27-inning streak in 1980.

• Yankees are 1-14 (.071) against him this season.

• His opponent BA w/RISP of .133 is fifth-best in AL (min. 50 batters faced).

• He’s pitched on zero days rest 18 times, tied for the most in the AL.

The Tampa Bay Rays host the Boston Red Sox on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Josh Beckett has had a very successful season, and when you boil it down to his performance against division rivals, it gets even better.

In seven starts against American League East opponents, Beckett is 6-0 with a 1.88 ERA. In his three starts against the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, he's 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA. His only start against Tampa Bay this season was a one-hit shutout. (No pitcher has ever thrown two shutouts in the same season against the Rays.)

Beckett's success has been well-rounded this season, no matter what pitch he throws. The opponent batting average against three of his four main pitches (fastball, cutter, changeup) ranks in the top seven in the American League among starting pitchers. His curveball currently ranks ninth.

The pitch-by-pitch dominance has translated into overall dominance. What's left out is how economical Beckett's been. He ranks in the top four in ERA, opponent BA and WHIP, but throws only 97.7 pitches per outing, well down the MLB leaderboard.

When Beckett has gotten in trouble, he's done a great job of stranding runners. He leads the AL in left on base percentage, stranding 82.2 percent of the runners he's allowed on base.

Beckett's 2.27 ERA at the All-Star break was his best pre-break ERA of his career -- by far. In 2009, he posted a 3.35 ERA before the break for his previous best mark.

While Beckett's been lights out against division opponents, it's Boston's power surge that's helped it move to the top of the AL East. Since June 30, the Red Sox are 11-2, averaging 6.7 runs per game. In those 13 games they've hit 27 home runs, including four from Jacoby Ellsbury.

The American League leader in stolen bases, Ellsbury has 10 home runs from the leadoff spot in the order -- only Ian Kinsler (15) has more among AL leadoff hitters. Ellsbury is one of three Red Sox who rank in the top six in the American League in most wins above replacement this season.

Facing the Red Sox will be Jeff Niemann, who is 3-0 in four starts since coming off the disabled list. (He was 1-4 in six starts with a 5.75 ERA before going on the DL with a back injury.)

However, Niemann has had his share of struggles at home this season. His home ERA is more than two runs greater than his road ERA (5.53 versus 3.46), and he's allowing opponents to hit .325 at Tropicana Field.

Since scoring 14 runs on June 20 against the San Diego Padres, the Boston Red Sox have scored a total of 14 runs in their last six games. (Tuesday was the seventh time this season that Boston's been shut out.)

Perhaps that's one reason the Red Sox will start David Ortiz at first base on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies (7 ET on ESPN.)

The downturn in offense has coincided with a trip National League ballparks and the loss the designated hitter. With Ortiz out, the Red Sox have had to shorten their lineup. Ortiz primarily was batting fifth in the lineup, but in their last four games -- all in National League ballparks -- the Red Sox have been batting J.D. Drew and Darnell McDonald in the five-spot. The two have combined to go 3-for-16 (.188) in those games, including 0-for-11 with men on base. This season, Ortiz is batting .312 with eight home runs with runners on base.

The Red Sox are not only losing out in the fifth spot in the order, but are also not getting any offense from their pitchers. Boston is one of five American League teams that has yet to get a hit from a pitcher. In National League parks, the Sox' No. 9 hitters are 1-for-14 (OF Josh Reddick had a pinch-hit single). Their No. 9 hitters were batting .258 entering their National League road trip.

Matchups to Watch:
• Placido Polanco is 4-for-23 against John Lackey, but with only one strikeout and one home run. That means his Batting Average On Balls in Play against Lackey is .143 (3-for-21). Polanco's career BABIP is .312.

• Ryan Howard is 0-for-4 in his career against Jonathan Papelbon with three strikeouts, and each came on a 3-2 count. His other out was a flyout, also with a two-strike count (0-2)

• Leadoff hitters in an inning is 9-for-30 (.300 BA) vs Bard this season. Everyone else is 13-for-98 (.133 BA)

• Should Terry Francona consider giving Jacoby Ellsbury a day off? Ellsbury is 2-for-20 in his last 5 games, but on BABIP, he's struck out only once. He's 1-for-his-last 18 when putting the ball into the field of play.

On May 11, the Boston Red Sox lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, falling to 17-20. With their win vs Toronto Saturday, they are now an MLB-best 21-6 since that loss. The Red Sox are in the midst of a season-high eight game win streak thanks to an offensive explosion.

They tallied a season-best 16 runs in their latest victory over the Blue Jays and have scored five or more runs in each of the wins during the streak. That streak of eight straight wins with five runs scored in each game is the longest in the majors this season.

It's the longest such streak by the Red Sox since they did it in 10 straight games in 2006. Since 1980 Boston has done so only one other time, when they had a 10 game streak during the 1995 season.

As a team the Red Sox are batting .319 with a .530 slugging percentage during the streak. They have 100 hits over this stretch, 40 of which have been extra-base hits.

At the forefront of this offensive explosion has been David Ortiz who hit his 16th home run of the season on Saturday (June 11). That is the earliest he has hit his 16th home run since 2006, when he went on to hit 54 home runs.

Ortiz is one of three Red Sox regulars hitting .400 or better during the win streak joining Jacoby Ellsbury (.450 batting average) and Adrian Gonzalez (.406). Gonzalez, with an RBI on Saturday, has now driven in a run in each of his last eight games, the longest streak of his career.

Elsewhere around the diamond:

• Despite a loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jose Reyes (2-for-4) of the New York Mets notched his MLB-leading 32nd multi-hit game this season in just 61 games played. Reyes is the only player in franchise history with 30 or more multi-hit games in the teams first 64 games played of a season.

It's still early but if Reyes can keep up this pace, according to Elias he would be the first player since Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937 to finish a season with multiple hits in more than half of his games (minimum: 100 games played).

• Tim Lincecum allowed a career-high seven earned runs in four innings pitched in the San Francisco Giants loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

How bad of a day was it for Lincecum? Game score, a metric devised by Bill James, measures a pitcher's single-game performance based on on IP, runs, hits, strikeouts and walks. The average score is around 50 and most games are between 0-100. According to this metric, Lincecum's performance was the worst of his career.

Today’s Trivia: On Monday, the Los Angeles Angels' Jered Weaver looks to become the first American League pitcher since Zack Greinke in 2009 to win each of his first six starts. Who was the last American League pitcher to lose each of his first six starts in a season?

Weaver is off to one of the hottest starts in the American League, but there are several others who are not:

• The New York Yankees' Brett Gardner is hitting .140, which ranks last among 187 qualifying hitters. He’s 0-for-21 with 10 strikeouts on at-bats ending in an off-speed pitch.

• Gardner’s teammate Nick Swisher is 4-for-43 (.093) against right-handed pitches, a year after hitting a career-best .285 with 25 home runs against them.

• As a member of the Washington Nationals last season, Adam Dunn hit .314 with 24 home runs on at-bats ending in a fastball. In his first season in the American League, Dunn’s hitting .067 with two hits in 30 at-bats.

• The Chicago White Sox's Alex Rios is hitless in his last 20 at-bats, and has seen his batting average drop to .160. Last season, on pitches down the middle, Rios hit .392. This season? 1-for-12 (.083).

• The Angels Vernon Wells is 1-for-29 (.034) with two strikes in the count.

• Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury already has struck out looking 11 times this season, tied for the most in the majors.

• The Oakland Athletics' Daric Barton is 0-for-19 this season on pitches located up in the strike zone or above the strike zone. Last season, he hit .315 (34-108) on those pitches.

• With a 29.4 swing percent, Cleveland Indians catcher Carlos Santana has been swinging at fewer pitches than anyone else in the league. (He was at 38.7 last season.) But the bigger discrepancy is his swing percent at pitches in the strike zone. Last season it was 61.9. In 2011, it’s just 47.2, fifth lowest in the majors.

Sunday was Derek Jeter’s first four-hit game before the month of May since April 9, 2001, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Jeter now has 36 four-hit games in his career, tied for third among Yankees in the Live Ball era (since 1920). Lou Gehrig has the most with 53 followed by Earle Combs’ 37.

Staying with the Yankees, A.J. Burnett is 8-0 in the month of April as a member of the Yankees, and 18-24 after April. The Yankees will be facing Phil Humber tonight at Yankee Stadium. Opponents are hitting just .061 (2-33) against Humber’s off-speed pitches this season.

Trivia Answer: In 2007, Jered’s brother Jeff Weaver was 0-6 after six starts for the Seattle Mariners.

Where have all the great centerfielders gone?

A cursory look at the basic stats tell us that there are no elite offensive talents currently in the major leagues at that position. No player who spent half his time in center field last season and qualified for the batting title managed to hit .300.

That’s the first time that’s happened in the live-ball era (1920).

Baseball-Reference.com tells us that since 1920, there have been 173 players who spent half their time toiling in center field and had an OPS+ of at least 140. Every decade from the 1920s to the 1990s featured at least 17 individual seasons reaching that number. In the 2000s, there were 11 seasons combined and five of them were by Jim Edmonds alone. The last centerfielder to accomplish it was Carlos Beltran in 2006.

To the right is a chart of the recent annual OPS averages for major-league centerfielders. Notice especially the steady decline in the AL.

We should consider this in context with other positions since offense has depressed overall in that time span. Still, the offensive profile of the centerfielder has changed.

It’s very possible that defense has become more of a priority in front offices across the baseball landscape. Taking a glance at the American League West alone and you’ll see Peter Bourjos in Anaheim (15 Defensive Runs Saved in 2010), Franklin Gutierrez in Seattle (14), Coco Crisp in Oakland (9) and Julio Borbon in Texas (7). These players are light on offense and decidedly heavy on defense.

Looking more broadly with a defensive metric from Baseball Info Solutions, 2010 was a banner year for defense at this glamour position. The combined Defensive Runs Saved by all centerfielders that played at least 700 innings was +109. That's the high-water mark for a position that has become decidedly more defensive-oriented in the last decade.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Currently, there are nine teams that have players in their age-25 season or younger manning centerfield. And that’s not even counting players like Jacoby Ellsbury, Drew Stubbs, Chris Young and B.J. Upton.

Since 2000, the only centerfielder to manage an OPS+ of 160 over the course of an entire season is Edmonds. In the VERY early-goings this season, Baseball-Reference shows us there are four centerfielders doing that now, three of whom are still in their 20s (Matt Kemp, Colby Rasmus and Upton).

They may not be names like Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle or even Kirby Puckett but it does offer some hope for future greatness.

--Contributions made by Mark Simon, Jeff Bennett and Justin Havens

In the span of two days, the Florida Marlins parted ways with the two primary pieces they received in the 2007 trade for Miguel Cabrera.

Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin were considered elite prospects at the time of the trade, but neither developed into legitimate contributors.

Miller has failed to blossom since being selected with the sixth pick in the 2006 MLB Draft -- ahead of pitchers Clayton Kershaw (seventh) and Tim Lincecum (10th). On Friday, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox for minor league reliever Dustin Richardson.

On Saturday, Maybin was dealt to the San Diego Padres, for pitchers Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica. Both will help with the Marlins stated desire to improve the bullpen, but this is a disappointing end to Maybin’s tenure in South Florida. The Detroit Tigers drafted Maybin in 2005, ahead of notable outfielders Andrew McCutchen, Jay Bruce, Jacoby Ellsbury and Colby Rasmus.

With Miller and Maybin gone, two questions remain: How did the Cabrera trade end up working for the Marlins, and, what can the Red Sox and Padres expect out of their acquisitions?

According to Fangraphs.com’s Wins Above Replacement, the Marlins experienced a “loss” of 8.5 WAR on this trade. Cabrera has accounted for all of the positive contributions among the players the Marlins traded, but he’s been an MVP-caliber player during his tenure with the Tigers.

So what can be expected from Miller and Maybin? Neither player has produced at the Major League level, with Miller’s erratic command and Maybin’s strikeout issues and contact ability. Miller has faltered, even after return trips to the minors. Maybin has shown the ability to dominate at the minor-league level, but has seen his holes exploited in the big leagues.

Maybin did not accumulate enough plate appearances to qualify, but if he had his swing-and-miss percentage at balls inside the strike zone (82.1 pct) would have ranked 11th worst in the majors last season. A majority of the players with worse marks in that category are power hitters like Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn and Mark Reynolds.

Maybin’s issues with making contact is what holds him back from developing into the star many people projected him to be. He has a career .306/.393/.478 line in 1,793 career minor-league plate appearances, including a .340/.415/.525 mark in 2010. He struck out in just 18.5 percent of his minor-league plate appearances last season.

Maybin will be just 24 years old next April, giving him plenty of time to carve out a productive career. But the difference between him being a Quadruple-A specimen and a legitimate Major Leaguer will likely come down to his ability to reduce his strikeouts and improve his contact rate with his new club.

In the San Francisco Bay Area fans describe Giants baseball as "torture". The Giants picked up their sixth win this postseason Wednesday; this time by a narrow 6-5 margin. That is San Francisco's fifth one-run win this postseason. They finished tied for second in the National League with 28 one-run wins during the regular season. Who led the NL? The Phillies with 29.

After going 6-16 during the NLDS against the Braves, Buster Posey was mired in a 1-11 slump through the first 3 games of the NLCS. He picked a good time to break out. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Buster Posey is just the fifth rookie to have four hits and two RBIs in a postseason game. The others are Jacoby Ellsbury (2007 Red Sox), Miguel Cabrera (2003 Marlins), Joe Garagiola (1946 Cardinals) and Freddie Lindstrom (1924 Giants).
Pablo Sandoval came up with a key 2-run double for the Giants. Last season that wouldn't have surprised many, but this season Sandoval hit .208 with runners in scoring position. That was the 3rd-worst among NL hitters with at least 100 AB with RISP. He was 0-1 in the postseason entering Game 4. He had just 2 hits in his last 12 at-bats with RISP to end the regular season.

From the Elias Sports Bureau: Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner was lifted with a 2-1 lead with two outs in the top of the fifth inning, and then in the bottom of the inning, Phillies starter Joe Blanton was removed from the game with two out and Philadelphia holding a 4-3 lead. That marked the first time in major league history that both starting pitchers were lifted from a postseason game one out away from being eligible for a victory.

This is the third time the San Francisco Giants have been up 3-1 in a Best-of-7 LCS. The two previous times (1989 against the Cubs and 2002 against the Cardinals), they closed out the series in five games. As for the Phillies, they are down 3-1 for the fifth time in franchise history. They've won Game 5 twice (2009 World Series, 1993 World Series), but they have never won a series when down 3-1.

Juan Uribe's sacrifice fly was the fourth game-ending postseason RBI in franchise history and the first since Kenny Lofton in the 2002 NLCS. Fred Merkle is the only other Giant with a walk-off sac fly (Game 5 of the 1911 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics).

The last time the Phillies lost a postseason game by walk-off was in one of the most dramatic games in history -- Game 6 of the 1993 World Series. Joe Carter hit a home run off Mitch Williams to win the game and the series.

Welcome to the debut of the TMI Power Poll. Each week a panel of 8 from the ESPN Stats & Info group will tackle a different topic and rank the top ten players/teams/items in that category. But we encourage you to get involved. Let us know why we're wrong, where we got it right and suggest future topics.

Since it is Opening Day (for most teams anyway), we lead off with the top 10 leadoff hitters. Corny? Absolutely, but it is an interesting topic for sure.

What makes a good leadoff hitter? It used to be that most would say a nice batting average and a lot of stolen bases would do the trick. Those numbers are definitely still relevant, but there are so many ways to look at things nowadays. Runs created, pitches seen, extra bases taken… Imagine the possibilities.

The majority of our panel was aboard the Ichiro bandwagon. Not much to dislike when it comes to the Mariners leadoff hitter – Ichiro has been a model of consistency. In each of his nine MLB seasons, he has at least 200 hits, 25 steals, a .300 BA and a .350 OBP. Last season Ichiro slugged a career high .465 and grounded into just 1 double play.

All that and much more were considered… You know our number one, so here's the rest of our best leadoff hitters (first-place votes in parentheses):Others receiving votes: Julio Borbon, Juan Pierre, Grady Sizemore, Alfonso Soriano, Ian Kinsler, Skip Schumaker, Stephen Drew, Kosuke Fukudome, David DeJesus, Marco Scutaro, Andrew McCutchen and Dexter Fowler.

The Oakland Athletics, and their GM Billy Beane, could be considered one of the biggest reasons that there are hundreds of blogs like this one on the internet right now. They're all about the hunt to find big production where there is perceived low value. While other clubs may have caught up to Oakland's "moneyball-ness" in recent seasons, it doesn't mean that Oakland can't unearth more gems as they try to get back to the postseason for the first time since 2006. This year, One2Watch4 could be Ryan Sweeney.

Sweeney is a hulking 6-foot-4 player who has been a regular starting outfielder for Oakland each of the last two seasons. Well, more hulking in stature than production. Of the 71 outfielders with 900+ PA over the last two seasons, Sweeney ranks 64th in slug pct and 66th in isolated power behind such non-sluggers like Denard Span and Jacoby Ellsbury. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Sweeney’s OPS+ the last two seasons have been 99 and 100. That’s as average as you can get.

So why keep even keep this guy around? If he’s so average, why not just give one of you minor leaguers a shot in the bigs? Turns out, Sweeney is really good at some other things besides pure power.

Despite not having the natural ability to power balls out of stadiums, Sweeney consistently finds a way to get on base. Fangraphs.com shows that Sweeney is above average at making contact and his line-drive percentage has been on the rise as a major leaguer. His OBP has consistently hovered around .350 over the last two seasons in an A’s uniform, and those are key characteristics of a money “Moneyball player”.

After returning from the DL from a sprained knee on June 18 last season, Sweeney’s splits were .324/.371/.464. Impressively, he got even better as the season went on without the benefit of Matt Holliday in the lineup after July 23. In 57 Holliday-less game, he had an .866 OPS and was entrusted with the 3-spot in the batting order down the stretch as Oakland went 35-33 in that span.

And because of his defensive prowess, Sweeney will get plenty of chances to stay in the lineup. According to data compiled by Baseball Info Solutions, Sweeney rated not far behind Ichiro Suzuki defensively among right fielders. That sampling is based on only 600 innings worth of data (Sweeney also rated among the outfield Web Gem leaders in 2009), and thus bears watching to see if he's legitimately of that caliber.

Sweeney won’t be the sexiest name you see when perusing box scores this season, but he’ll be one to keep an eye on as Oakland tries to get back to winning a majority of its baseball games.