NYaT Roundtable: Top Storylines/Memories of the 2010 Regular Season

With the 2010 season in the books, I decided to ask the NYaT writers what were their favorite moments/memories from this regular season were and here's what we came up with:

Strasburg made lasting impressions (Canadian Press)

Andrew:
1) Armando Galarraga and James Joyce. In a year of perfection on the mound, this near perfection may be my greatest memory. The incident, the backlash, the apologies, and the way everyone handled it in the end may make this one stick in my mind longer than Roy Halladay or Dallas "Get Off My Mound" Braden
2) Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman. This could also be represented by Buster Posey, Neftali Feliz, Austin Jackson, Jason Heyward or anyone else we listed for the NL Rookie of the Year race. It was a great year for young arms (who threw absolute gas), prospects making impacts and big debuts--though the Strasburg injury taught us all that the highs are as great as the lows with baseball prospects at times.
3) Saying good-bye. How about this to sweep away my childhood? Ken Griffey, Jr. retired, Bobby Cox and Cito Gaston hung it up as well and George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard died--the last two contributing to a very emotional All-Star Game as Derek Jeter stepped to the batters box to lead-off the game.

Jay:
1) Stephen Strasburg (7 IP, 2 ER, 14 K, 0 BB) wows baseball universe in MLB debut
2) 5 no-hitters, including 2 perfect games within a 20-day span
3) Troy Tulowitzki's unbelievable September (.303/.366/.754, 15 HR, 40 RBI, 30 R)

Ben P:
1) The San Diego Padres Big Year- Coming into the year, the Padres probably had one of the weakest teams on paper. Behind some very good young pitching, they finish just one game out of the wild card and 2 games out of the division, proving that you can still get it done with a tiny payroll.
2) Stephen Strasburg -When healthy, Strasburg more than lived up to the hype. His stuff and command were about as good as anyone else in baseball. His injury is bad news for Washington fans, as well as the MLB.

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The 3-Year Anniversary of the Kei Igawa Waiver Claim

Exactly 3 years ago to the day (and to the hour and minute), Kei Igawa was awarded to the San Diego Padres in a waiver claim. The Yankees had still not given up on Igawa at the time but this seemed like a great opportunity to dump a mistake and move on. Igawa had fallen out of favor in the Bronx after a 2-3 season with a 6.79 ERA in 12 appearances and looked like he would be a much better option in the National League. But the Yankees decided to keep him four days later and hope for the best in 2008. It ends up that was too much to hope for. From Buster Olney on that day:

Kei Igawa has been a huge failure for the Yankees (NYT)

The Yankees withdrew Kei Igawa from trade waivers before Tuesday's 2 p.m. ET deadline, ending conversations between the teams about a deal involving the left-handed pitcher

The Padres were awarded the waiver claim to Igawa on Friday, and at that point, there were three possible resolutions -- the Yankees could have simply handed the pitcher (and what is left of his five-year, $20 million contract) to the Padres; the Padres and Yankees could have worked out a trade, which they talked about in July and continued to discuss over the weekend; or the Yankees had the option of withdrawing Igawa from waivers. The Yankees chose the latter option, in the hopes of rebuilding Igawa for the 2008 season.

Sigh. Even MLBTradeRumors' Tim Dierkes was "disappointed" at the time. And he had the foresight to see the Yankees had no room for Igawa at the Major League level anyways. Igawa pitched a little better in his last two appearances of 2007 and got into two games in 2008, giving up 6 earned runs in the process. He was then sent to the minors where he's stayed to this date. Igawa is still signed through 2011, but even after being setting the record for most wins in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre history, Igawa was bumped from the Triple A rotation until recently.

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Do They Get Credit For A No Hitter?

Arizona and San Diego just finished an 18-inning marathon. The most amazing part of the contest: The Padres were held hitless through nine extra innings by four relievers. Their only baserunners in extras came on three walks. So the Diamondbacks' relievers threw a 3 walk, 9 inning, no hitter in extra innings. Not too bad, right? But this was after the Diamondbacks relievers gave up a 5 run lead in the 9th inning! So much for the importance of set-up men and closers, right?

And the guy with the game-tying 3-run homerun in the 9th? That would be David Eckstein, who had NO homeruns in 2009 before today and who has 32 homeruns in his career, and, according to Baseball-Reference, he had only ONE game-tying homerun before today. And his only other game-tying homerun was the first homerun he ever hit in the major leagues (off of Tim Hudson in 2001) over 8 years ago!

At least we can take solace that one of the relievers who pitched well in extras for Arizona was our man, Clay Zavada

But this game certainly proved that every time you go to the ballpark, you'll probably see something really unique and interesting. This was no difference. They got to see two games of innings (18) for the price of one game. Though I do wonder how many people stayed to see the end; the game took 5 hours and 45 minutes.