The Many List of Three’s 

Your probably asking yourself, why the List of Three’s? There are so many digits better then this prime number. Well the answer is simple. Three is a symbolic number in my life to date. It represents the time my alarm clock goes off every morning, the amount of outs in every inning in a baseball game, the number of strikes to record an out, and my personal favorite, the number of bowls of cereal I ingest every morning. Raisin Bran if your wondering.

Let’s get to it, The premise of this is simple, in no particular order I will pose a provocative question or statement, and follow it up with three answers.

Three "what was that" statements during "Mark McGwire coming clean" series of interviews.
1- "I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years, and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too."
2- "The names I don't remember, but I did injectables….I preferred the orals. The steroids I took were on a very low dosage."
3- "Steroids did not help me, in any way, hit homeruns.  I truly believe I was given the gifts from the Man Upstairs of being a home run hitter, ever since ... birth…There's not a pill or an injection that's going to give me, going to give any player the hand-eye coordination to hit a baseball,"

Three statements I would love to share with Mark McGwire after hearing his set of interviews:

1- Everyone and their mothers know that steroids do not help you recover from injuries.  That is what HGH is for, ask Andy Pettitte.  Every study about kinesiology plainly proves that steroids builds the body so rapidly that injuries often occur.  Especially injuries to the extremities. Hmmm.  Obviously McGwire didn’t go to his biology classes while attending college.

2- Mr. McGuire, your telling me that you ingested pills, and took inject able steroids and HGH for almost ten years and you don’t remember the names?  Ten years?  You would think to check the bottle from time to time

3- If steroids didn't help him any, what the hell was he taking them for? Of course steroids helped him.

My biggest problem with the cavalcade of interviews was miraculously Mark was able to cry, on cue in every single one of them.  The charade is up, do me one favor, during spring training stay out of Alberts way.  He actually has the talent from the Man Upstairs.

Three Biggest Free Agent Impacts:
1- John Lackey
2- Chone Figgins
3- Randy Wolf

John Lackeys signing shifts the balance of power back to the Red Soxs in the East, while Figgins will impact the entire West. Chone's departure from Anaheim leaves them vacant at leadoff, and will restructure the entire Seattle offense, impacting the middle of the order drastically. Wolfs signing with the Brewers can be the missing link in a rotation that has been ineffective since the departure of Sabathia. Replacing Sheets with Wolf in the rotation will help give the Brewers the stability they need to compete with the Cardinals this season.


Three Worst Off Season Signings:
1- Jason Bay
2- Hideki Matsui
3- Nick Johnson

Not only were the Mets pressured into making an off season splash, but they went against what they had been saying all along. We have a 20 million dollar budget this off-season. Opps, blew that away. Just Look at these 3 stats for Bay, compare them to holliday, then to the league, then tell me I’m wrong.
-Strike Outs
-Doubles
-Average
Factor in what Cardinals Paid for Holliday, and it all adds up to a lot of head aches. I would say that Mets should of paid extra money for Holliday, but he would never of agreed to hit at Citi Field. Ex. David Wright



Three Third Place Teams that can and will win their division this year:
1- Seattle
2- San Francisco
3- Milwaukee

Think all three teams have a very realistic chance of winning their division. Seattle and San Francisco both have strong rotations, and young talent in the field. With Braun and Fielder improving and a rebound from Corey Hart imminent. I would not be surprised to see the Brewers wearing their sunglasses at night this postseason.

Now With a fantasy Twist...

Three players who had MONSTER postseason and severely underperformed next season.
1- Carlos Beltran
2- BJ Upton
3- Cliff Lee

I know that only one occurred in the 2009 post season, but be aware of Cliff Lee. The previous two on the list all had an ADP somewhere in the first two rounds in fantasy drafts. Lee suitors will have to think about taking him in the same vicinity this year. Going back to the American League, shaky closer situation in Seattle. I’m Just saying.

Three Monumental Busts LAST season that will have a major impact this year:
1- Chris Davis
2- Francisco Liriano
3- Jimmy Rollins

I don’t even want to Add Jose Reyes into the equation to upset some of the readers. Its like bringing up Valtrex to someone with Herpes, its just not a good situation. Great now some of you are going to have an outbreak….. My apologies.
Chris Davis is to good a player not to break out. Pressing at the beginning of the season hurt him. He will strike out, but last years average was an anomaly. He was extremely unlucky, and if he can increase his contact rate just a tad. Look for Big Things.



Three Players who started, or almost started out on Teams you would never guess:

1- Johan Santana- Houston Astros left him unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft.
2- Hanley Ramirez- Boston Red Soxs traded him to acquire Josh Beckett
3- Mark Teixeira- Boston Red Soxs. Teixeira was originally chosen in the ninth round of the Major League Draft by the Boston Red Sox. Teixeira chose not to sign with the Red Sox, however, opting instead to play college baseball for Georgia Tech.


One Number THREE hitter who is Completely Undervalued, and can lead AL in RBI:
1- Jose Lopez

I know that all the other lists involved three names, but Jose stands alone here. This number three hitter has been disrespected, over looked and under hyped the last two seasons. Did you know the only second baseman last year with more RBI was Chase Utley. Three reasons everyone knows Jose Lopez name by years end?

1-Everyone knows Ichiro lead off for Seattle last two season, but who batted second? Names aren’t important, but the OBP of under .300, out of the number two slot the last two years combined is. His 90+ RBI total can only increase with a better number two hitter. Insert Chone Figgins

2- Imagine his statistics if they had a real Number 4 Hitter to hit behind him?

3- Jose Lopez can easily end the season as the third rated second baseman behind Utley and Kinsler.