Game 4 of the 2012 NLDS was a taut, tied affair headed into the bottom of the ninth inning. Each team had managed only a single run. The Washington Nationals had the home-field advantage, ever… Read more »
Arm Side Run
The Washington Nationals re-signed first baseman Adam LaRoche to a two-year, $24-million contract Tuesday, solidifying the only fluid positional situation they had left headed into 2013. Barring injuries, their Opening Day lineup will feature Denard… Read more »
Because aren’t most of the ones submitted by the BBWAA just like that? Barry Bonds Roger Clemens Sammy Sosa Mike Piazza Tim Raines Craig Biggio Curt Schilling Larry Walker Jeff Bagwell Edgar Martinez Yes, I… Read more »
Matt Garza, Phil Hughes and Tim Lincecum are not, strictly speaking, similar pitchers. One is a two-time Cy Young Award winner, but has bizarre mechanics and struggled mightily in 2012. One has drifted between the… Read more »
When the Hot Stove season began, rumors hit the baseball world that Kyle Lohse was going to angle for the same kind of money C.J. Wilson got as the top free-agent pitcher of the 2011-12 offseason…. Read more »
On Saturday, separate rumors popped up that linked the San Diego Padres to (on the one hand) Justin Upton of the Arizona Diamondbacks and (on the other hand) Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins. One… Read more »
I prefer organized, flowing pieces, with fully-fledged ideas that lead naturally into one another. I also prefer not having a head cold. You can’t always get what you want. These are the baseball things I’m… Read more »
Giancarlo Stanton remains under the thumb of Jeffrey Loria and the Miami Marlins for four more MLB seasons, if they choose to keep him. He has 93 home runs in two and a half big-league… Read more »
No heavy baseball content today. Back with that tomorrow. For now, enjoy, and delight in the fact that baseball (unlike the other major pro sports) is both unpredictable enough to allow any team to have… Read more »
The Kansas City Royals traded Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery and Patrick Leonard to the Tampa Bay Rays for James Shields and Wade Davis in mid-December. It was a bold stroke and a tipping… Read more »
All baseball players age differently. Some of the most important research sabermetric thinkers have churned out over the past 25 years have been about which skills age most and least gracefully; which peak at which… Read more »
The Milwaukee Brewers have stolen all the Washington Nationals’ left-handed relievers. After the Nationals non-tendered Tom Gorzelanny last month, Milwaukee signed him to a two-year deal. On Friday, after weeks during which Washington seemed the… Read more »
Last season, the Detroit Tigers reached the World Series despite deep flaws and probably the sixth- or seventh-best roster in the American League. They used Delmon Young for part of the season in left field… Read more »
J.J. Hardy played 158 games for the 2012 Baltimore Orioles, who won 93 games. He played sparkling defense, as usual, and clubbed 22 home runs. His on-base percentage, though, was .282. Gross, right? That sound… Read more »
It took Odysseus 10 years to get home from Troy, and by the time he did, even his relentlessly faithful wife had nearly given up on him. His house was in ruin, his fortune was… Read more »
The Tampa Bay Rays are maybe the premier model for the sustained success of a very small-market team in MLB today, and they got there with Wall Street maneuvering by smart, urbane men. Jonah Keri… Read more »
I am a firm believer that, when it comes to free-agent draft-pick compensation, teams worry too much. They sweat the small stuff. Draft picks are so undefined, so fraught with posssibility, that often, executives seem… Read more »
The Arizona Diamondbacks signed Cody Ross to a three-year deal Saturday, adding him to a roster that now features some six or seven viable big-league outfielders. Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers said that when the deal… Read more »
If you don’t subscribe to Bill James Online, get on it. It sets you back just three bucks a month, and although James doesn’t write articles as often as you dream he will, what he… Read more »
With Christmas come and gone and so much movement having already happened this Hot Stove season in MLB, the four most prominent remaining free agents are Michael Bourn, Adam LaRoche, Kyle Lohse and Rafael Soriano…. Read more »
Ned Colletti is the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the suddenly gluttonous, indiscriminate player-acquisition machine that is taking over Major League Baseball. Skip Schumaker just became Colletti’s newest play thing. This is bad… Read more »
The Chicago Cubs elected not to tender contracts to Ian Stewart, Jaye Chapman or Zach Putnam Friday, making all three free agents and clearing three slots on the team’s 40-man roster headed into next week’s… Read more »
Pitchers are more malleable than positional talent. Every MLB scouting director, GM and minor-league manager has a dozen names in his head at any given time, guys he wants to get his hands on. Some… Read more »
Mark Reynolds took one for a team full of players just like him prior to the 2011 season. New Arizona Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers dealt Reynolds as part of an effort to correct the 2010… Read more »
The Atlanta Braves don’t often undervalue their major-league assets. When they decided to trade Tommy Hanson to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Friday for Jordan Walden, it was a fairly stinging indictment of Hanson’s… Read more »
Of the six or seven major potential prizes in MLB free agency this winter, B.J. Upton probably presents the most uncertainty. That statement is more loaded than it seems, too. Upton plays the outfield. He’s a… Read more »
Darwin Barney played 156 games at second base for the 2012 Chicago Cubs, took the plate 588 times, and had a .299 on-base percentage. Of his 37 extra-base hits, only seven cleared the fence. He… Read more »
The Miami Marlins traded five players to the Toronto Blue Jays Tuesday, in a 12-player blockbuster highlighted by Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle. In making the deal, Miami unburdened itself of $160 million or so… Read more »
Miguel Cabrera took home the 2012 American League MVP award Thursday, edging out Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout. Cabrera’s Detroit Tigers made the playoffs. Cabrera won the Triple Crown by leading the league in… Read more »
I considered a long and winding opus, an essay that considers the mega deal between Alex Anthopoulos’s Toronto Blue Jays and the Miami Marlins existentially and socially, as well as in on-field terms. It fizzled… Read more »
