Carlos Beltran has always been a darling to saber-slanted baseball nuts like me. He’s a tremendous slugger, has consistently posted above-average OBPs, played great defense in center field at his peak and is one of… Read more »
Arm Side Run
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are the most interesting team in baseball. You can argue with me on that point, and you might even win, but at this moment, that sure feels The Angels… Read more »
They used to call a coffin a Chicago overcoat. It might be time to call an off-season spending spree a New York Yankees rebuild. The Yankees kicked off what they hope will be a big offseason… Read more »
The reigning National League champions are planning an active defense of their crown. Rather than sit on their homegrown dynasty and hope it could sustain itself another year, the St. Louis Cardinals traded David Freese… Read more »
The Chicago Cubs announced the coaching staff that will surround new manager Rick Renteria in 2014 on Friday, and there are some very interesting names and job titles on the list. Brandon Hyde got the… Read more »
As a thought experiment, consider a world in which ballclubs get a choice. Every November, they receive a three-option menu. They can take $10 million from a central fund, to spend as they please. They… Read more »
There are too many layers to the trade that sent Ian Kinsler to the Detroit Tigers and Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers to write a single, coherent article in summary. Therefore, I’m breaking it… Read more »
There are too many layers to the trade that sent Ian Kinsler to the Detroit Tigers and Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers to write a single, coherent article in summary. Therefore, I’m breaking it… Read more »
There are too many layers to the trade that sent Ian Kinsler to the Detroit Tigers and Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers to write a single, coherent article in summary. Therefore, I’m breaking it… Read more »
There are too many layers to the trade that sent Ian Kinsler to the Detroit Tigers and Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers to write a single, coherent article in summary. Therefore, I’m breaking it… Read more »
In baseball, you get a million chances a year to do something right. A regular player comes to bat 600 times. An ace hurler faces 1,000 batters. A rangy shortstop touches the ball 800-plus times…. Read more »
Free-agent outfielder David Murphy is dead. Cleveland Indians outfielder David Murphy has taken his place. Murphy signed a two-year, $12-million contract with the Indians Tuesday, adding another solid, left-hitting outfielder to a team that never,… Read more »
On the eve of the 2013 season, Joe Sheehan drew a lot of snark for his prediction that the San Diego Padres would win the National League West. That division was home to the defending champion… Read more »
Advanced statistics have given us wonderful insight into the minutiae of baseball, the way the game really works. We know what every pitcher throws, and how often, and how hard, and in which counts. We… Read more »
Baseball’s Hot Stove activity tends to come in fits and starts. Roster deadlines, various meetings and the winter holidays punctuate the offseason in such a way that news tends to come, not in drips, but… Read more »
No team is off to a faster start in baseball’s annual autumnal free-agent free-for-all than Ruben Amaro’s free-wheeling Philadelphia Phillies. Carlos Ruiz got a three-year, $26-million deal Monday, six days after Marlon Byrd got $16… Read more »
It’s a strange balancing act, in modern baseball, to try to win every season without overreaching and losing the base of sustainability. Some teams have been methodical, aggressive and fortunate, and have built strong teams… Read more »
After the girl you fell in love with in middle school, but never even spoke to, came the girl you fell in love with in high school, but not deeply enough to keep you from… Read more »
Most of us will live our lives in relative anonymity. We’ll work hard, but change jobs more often than we imagine. We’ll have great work go unrecognized, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad ones…. Read more »
That the Atlanta Braves were desperate to escape Turner Field should not have surprised anyone. The Braves are one of baseball’s stodgiest, stingiest franchises, operating under strict budgets thanks to relatively uninterested corporate ownership. They… Read more »
I mention this every trade deadline and at the start of every Hot Stove season, but if you don’t talk to or read me, and haven’t noticed yet, Ken Rosenthal has the best connections for… Read more »
It’s stupid, but now that MLB’s Hot Stove season is heating up, this is the kind of junk we all have to read about: @JonHeymanCBS: could marlins/cubs execute a rare big-time prospect for big-time prospect… Read more »
With trade rumors surrounding Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (rumors which seem to lack much foundation, but rumors nonetheless), I thought you might be interested to know that 2014 marks the true beginning of the… Read more »
Baseball fans, and baseball teams, for that matter, overrate pitching. There’s no point in my leading this piece with any other thesis. I think the details of what is to come make for an interesting,… Read more »
The Minnesota Twins annoounced on Monday that long-time catcher and franchise player Joe Mauer will be their full-time first baseman beginning next season. The move has been proposed and debated for years, now, as a… Read more »
The offseason hasn’t really even begun yet, for most MLB teams, but the Cincinnati Reds are already having a weird offseason. It started when, seemingly the day after giving manager Dusty Baker a vote of… Read more »
The best free agent in baseball this winter is neither a first baseman nor a starting pitcher. That’s becoming a rare phenomenon. Robinson Cano, heretofore a New York Yankee, and the best second baseman in… Read more »
Sandy Alderson became general manager of the New York Mets in October 2010. The team had just completed a 79-83 season, and the shine was very much off their 2006 team’s apple. Whispers of financial trouble… Read more »
I have a theory about baseball right now: Every team is getting better. The league is making leaps and bounds forward in terms of total talent, and the level of play is rising faster than at… Read more »
Curtis Granderson received a qualifying offer (a one-year deal worth $14.1 million) from the New York Yankees Monday, ensuring that New York will receive a draft pick after the first round of the 2014 MLB… Read more »
