Whereas C.J. Wilson pitched his way back into a starting gig while in the Texas bullpen, Colby Lewis had to work out the kinks in a different country after failing to stick in the major leagues. Lewis nearly doubled his career major-league innings total as the Rangers’ third-best starter this year and brought that success with him into the postseason, where he has thrown 18 2/3 innings with an ERA of just 1.45. With the Rangers down two games to none in the World Series against the Giants, Lewis will need to throw another quality start tonight to keep Texas afloat.

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It seems improbable that C.J. Wilson is starting Game Two of the 2010 World Series for the Rangers tonight against the Giants. That is not a slight against Wilson, who is a talented pitcher, but the number of relievers who became successful starters is not a high one. Wilson used to be a starting pitching prospect before a shift to the bullpen, and he kept the deep repertoire from his days as a starter—that is one reason why we should not have been surprised that, even early on, Wilson was able to make an impact in Texas' rotation.

Saying Jose Bautista's 2010 season came from out of nowhere is an assertion worthy of understatement of the year. Bautista has 43 homers and is slugging .620 for the Blue Jays with an Isolated Power almost as lofty as the batting average of league-leader Josh Hamilton. Prior to 2010, Bautista had a career line of .238/.329/.400 over 2,038 plate appearances, with 59 homers. That's a homer every 30 at-bats, whereas this year he's going deep once every 11 at-bats.

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It's been a rough month for childhood favorites of mine, as not only Nomar Garciaparra retired, but Brian Giles, easily the player I was most irrationally obsessed with during the early part of the decade, also called it a career. How many of you have a cat named Brian Giles at your parents' house? Didn't think so. Giles had a very underrated career, one that fell from the spotlight it almost reached upon being traded to San Diego and the park that crushes hitters' dreams. He won't have the counting stats for a Hall of Fame career, but Giles had quite the career.

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As sports fans, there are moments you have where time freezes: you remember where you were, who you were with and what happened with clarity like that it happened yesterday. It's a concept that may seem silly to those who have never invested themselves fully into a team or sport, but given where you are reading this, chances are good you are aware of this phenomenon. If any of you are Red Sox fans--especially younger ones—then July 31, 2004 could house one of those moments.

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Tom Glavine was not the only player to announce his retirement last week, as Frank Thomas, the Big Hurt, also said his goodbyes to playing. Like Glavine, Thomas missed out on the 2009 season, so his announcement was not a surprise either, but it's still sad to see him part from the game.

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It's easy to forget just how great Tom Glavine was. He spent much of his career as the No. 2 starter on his team, and numerous younger fans have more memories of Glavine's time with the New York Mets than his incredible run with the Atlanta Braves during the '90s. The fact that he has been gone from the game for a year, never making it onto a major-league mound during the 2009 season (and making only 13 starts in 2008) has not helped matters, either, as his retirement seemed more like a foregone conclusion than an impactful and surprising announcement. Regardless, Glavine's contributions on the field are worth celebrating, as he is one of the most successful pitchers of his generation, as well as one of the top left-handers in the game's history.

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It is a credit to the quality of the respective careers of Pedro Martinez and Andy Pettitte that tonight's World Series matchup, in a time well past each pitcher's prime, still elicits such excitement and potential. Pettitte has been a great pitcher through much of his career, but his numbers look like those of an amateur next to Pedro, who has been one of the best pitchers to take the mound in baseball's modern era. Much of Pedro's dominance is in the past though, and the two hurlers stand on more equal footing these days-though as Pedro's Game Two start showed us, he's still got a trick or two up his sleeve, even against one of the most talented offenses in the league.

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The Phillies' bullpen, which was so important to their championship run in 2008, has been a source of woe for much of 2009. It was expected that, as a unit, the pen would regress, given their tremendous collective performance in 2008. Even with that in mind, things got a bit out of hand this year. They dropped from 15.251 WXRL and the second spot in the majors to 18^th and just 6.804; rather than a bullpen full of options that seemed to do everything right, Charlie Manuel was reduced to picking from a few pitchers that still seemed to be able to rack up outs with regularity. Ryan Madson was one of those pitchers, as he led the team in appearances and WXRL while pitching in more high leverage situations than Brad Lidge, who was the team's closer for much of the year. The Phillies need Madson to be in top form for this series with the Yankees, where the differences in the pen could spell disaster-after all, you can't throw Cliff Lee out there every game.

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Nick Swisher was a valuable member of the division-winning Yankees during the regular season. He has not been a valuable member of the now World Series-bound Bombers though, thanks to a line of .083/.083/.167 against the lowly Twins in the Division Series and a .152/.292/.150 showing against the Angels in the Championship round. Anyone is capable of two bad weeks, though (or a whole month, given the way playoff scheduling works these days), and with the Phillies and Yankees evenly matched in many ways, having Swisher at his best would be a big boost to the boys from the Bronx.

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This is not the first time there has been a Robinson Cano Player Profile at Baseball Prospectus. Given the team we are talking about, consider this the Empire Strikes Back edition of Player Profile; we'll continue the story started a few years back, and take a look at Cano during his peak when the tale was at its most interesting point. I won't be discussing the time he had to cut open his Tauntaun on the ice planet Hoth in order to warm up his bat, though, because some things are better left to the imagination.

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Everyone knew the Angels planned on using Kendry Morales at first base to replace Mark Teixeira this year, but the number of people who thought it would be a good move was much, much lower. Morales had put up great numbers in the minors, and was highly regarded when he first came to the United States from Cuba, but his talent had not translated into major league production. But finally given his opportunity to play every day this year, he came around, turning in one of the Angels' most productive seasons. How did Morales get to that point, and what does his future hold for him?

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