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Labor Day is the traditional final pole, the turn to the finish, and October. This holiday there are few compelling races save the relentless pursuit of the Texas Rangers by the Angels, but there is one December 2009 day that has led to three of the most surprising leaders at the pole.If you believed on March 30 that on Sept. 5 the Arizona Diamondbacks would have walked out of San Fransisco havin bc football schedule g won two out of three and holding a deserved seven-game lead in the National League West (their run differential is plus-43, the Giants' is minus-27), you are Kirk Gibson. Did you think the Tigers would have the biggest lead in the American League? Or that the Yankees would be two up in the loss column with CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia as their three leading winners?Which brings us to bc football schedule the General Managers Meetings in Chicago in mid-November 2009. The Yankees were looking to get younger and more athletic and for a way to move Johnny Damon out of the outfield. The Tigers were trying to find young, power arms. The Diamondbacks knew that Brandon Webb's career was in jeopardy and were trying to find affordable starting pitchers.Arizona GM Josh Byrnes talked briefly to the Yankees' bc football schedule Brian Cashman, and when he got home he was told that the Tigers' Dave Dombrowski might have interest in working on a three-way deal. They put several pieces on their boards through Thanksgiving and into December, and when they got to Indianapolis for the Winter Meetings, they were able to fit the pieces.The Yankees got who they wanted, Curtis Granderson, and sent Ian Kennedy to Arizona and Phil Co bc football schedule ke and Austin Jackson to Detroit. The Tigers moved Edwin Jackson to Arizona and got hard-throwing Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth from the D-backs. "It was one of those rare situations where everyone got what he was looking for," Byrnes recalls. "Things don't work like this very often," says Cashman.Twenty-one months later, all three teams are in September and appear headed to the postseason.Gra bc football schedule nderson, with the tutelage of hitting coach Kevin Long, has developed into a star in New York, with his 125 runs, 38 homers, 107 RBIs, 68 extra-base hits and .951 OPS. He is a perfect player for Yankee Stadium's right-field porch."Curtis is such a rare person," says manager Joe Girardi. "Everything is positive, energetic. He's a great person, a great player."In Scherzer, the Tigers got their No. 2 bc football schedule power starter to put behind Justin Verlander and in front of Rick Porcello. Jackson hasn't yet hit consistently; his .326 on-base percentage can improve and he can push his OPS past the .723 point, but he is an extraordinary athlete and intrepid defender who is among the best center fielders in the league, a necessity for Comerica. Coke and Schlereth are left-handed power relievers and give Jim L bc football schedule eyland the flexibility he loves.Cashman always liked Kennedy, a former first-rounder. But he had fallen behind Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain on the Broadway Star Search, developed an aneurysm beneath his armpit and was beginning to be labeled a disappointment. Byrnes and the D-backs still liked him, and when the deal was made they hoped that Kennedy would be a consistent big league starter and bc football schedule that Jackson would not only provide badly needed innings with Kennedy behind Dan Haren, but that he could be a useful trade chip in time.Kennedy last season was better than many realized, buried on an under-performing team with a bad bullpen. He was 9-10 with a 3.80 ERA, but the 163 hits and 168-70 strikeout-walk numbers in 194 innings were indicators that he could win in a division of huge ballpa bc football schedule rks (three Arizona outfielders are in the top dozen in outfielder UZR, for what it's worth).Byrnes was dismissed in June, and two of his remaining assistants, Jerry DiPoto and Peter Woodfork, traded Jackson to the White Sox at the July Trade Deadline for Daniel Hudson. Thirteen months later and a Kevin Towers bullpen-remaking later, Kennedy and Hudson are 33-13 after beating Tim Lincecum and Ryan bc football schedule Vogelsong this weekend, and their combined 288 2/3 innings are the highest combined total in the National League outside of Roy Halladay's and Cliff Lee's 297 1/3 for the Phillies. "What's interesting about Kennedy is that at 26 his velocity is improving," says one scout. "He can pitch, he changes speeds, but recently he's been up at 93 [mph] and sometimes 94. He's very good."Arizona always had mo bc football schedule re talent than it appeared after the September 2008 collapse in Mannywood. Justin Upton was an emerging star, the aforementioned outfield defense was there, as was Stephen Drew and Miguel Montero, and Paul Goldschmidt was on the way. And now as Josh Collmenter has given them double-figure wins, Wade Miley is offering an October alternative in the rotation.One of Dombrowski's attributes as an execu bc football schedule tive is to delegate authority to skilled assistants like Al Avila and David Chadd. Much is made of their payroll, but at the time of the Draft there was a review of the 2005-10 Drafts -- Chadd's time in Detroit after leaving Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester in Boston -- and in that time the Tigers were third in the Majors in position players drafted and brought to the big leagues with 12 (St. Louis w bc football schedule as first with 15). They were also tied for second in pitchers with 14, one behind, yes, Arizona. Combining position players and pitchers, the Tigers were tied with the Cardinals for the Major League lead with 26.So acquiring Kennedy and Jackson -- and hence, Hudson -- lengthened the Arizona pitching. The deal deepened the Tigers inventory. Granderson turned out to be the right person at the right bc football schedule place at the right time.Freeze-frame the races at the Labor Day pole. The trade worked. bc football schedule
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