Praising another important figure in the history of African-Americans in baseball.
After a relatively quiet offseason, Wednesday the Washington Nationals traded fan-favorite RHP Tyler Clippard to the Oakland Athletics for shortstop Yunel Escobar. Oakland acquired Escobar a few days ago in the Ben Zobrist trade with… Read more »
The Atlanta Braves traded Evan Gattis to the Houston Astros Wednesday, receiving three prospects and sending a suspect minor-league pitcher to complete the transaction. In another NL East-AL West swap, Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane… Read more »
The 17-year-old lefty was clocked at 92 miles per hour and he threw five no-hitters for his Blanchard High School team in Oklahoma. Nolan Ryan threw seven no-nos during his major league career. Obviously high school isn’t MLB, but that’s still a pretty nice stat to have at the disposal of the guys sitting around the draft board looking at your name. At this point in the story, when the name of a legendary Hall of Famer has been dropped, what could go wrong?
Before I began living the luxurious life of a Banished to the Pen writer, I used to test video games. I worked on and off on contracts for Sony and Electronic Arts. During my stints… Read more »
The Braves get a nice haul for The White Bear
Protecting the world from nuclear waste, and Alex Presley.
Episode 13: TIE Fighter The Style: We’re back to almost no banter. While both co-hosts have loosened up and the show is increasingly free-flowing, they remain committed to a format that demands brevity. I continue to… Read more »
This week’s featured autograph is a 1991 Topps Stadium Club Jimmy Key. This is absolutely one of my favorite sets to get autographed. I have completed about 16% of this set for my personal collection,… Read more »
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I’ve just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you to stop what you’re doing and listen. Offense is down in… Read more »
Sometimes, when I’m driving to work in the morning, I wonder what and how Kris Bryant is doing. Is he sitting in traffic on the way to work, too? Is it hard to drive a… Read more »
Jackie Bradley might yet turn out to be an odd man out in the Boston Red Sox outfield. The Sox traded Yoenis Cespedes in December, but they still have Hanley Ramirez, Rusney Castillo, Shane Victorino,… Read more »
Two lefties get in some work on the podcast, as senior staffers Mikey Poley and Matthew Trueblood join Ryan Sullivan to talk about the Zobrist trade, and catch up on the hot stove.
As first reported last week by Ken Rosenthal and Paul Morosi of Fox Sports, the St. Louis Cardinals are currently exploring options to add depth to their pitching staff. They don’t appear to be aiming low. So far they have been name-dropped in trades for Cole Hamels and David Price and called a potential bidder in the Max Scherzer sweepstakes. James Shields’s name was briefly thrown around as well.
The trade deadline has come and gone, and the Orioles have not traded Manny Machado or Dylan Bundy. Now we all have to live with ourselves. Episode 11: Train Crossing The Style: Ben and Sam share… Read more »
Max Scherzer is a hell of a pitcher, and he’s worth a whole bunch of money. He’s been waiting out the off-season thus far, in the way that Boras clients tend to, seemingly holding out… Read more »
The Oakland Athletics acquired Ben Zobrist and Yunel Escobar from the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, sending in return John Jaso, top Oakland prospect Daniel Robertson, left-hitting minor-league outfielder Boog Powell and cash. I wrote… Read more »
26 of the top fantasy first basemen for 2015
Continuing the revolving door of the A’s offseason, the A’s have made a big move to prove that the rebuilding plan is happening right now, and isn’t a long term move. To that point, they have traded John Jaso, Daniel Robertson, and Boog Powell (Herschel “Boog”, not John “Boog” of yesteryear) for Ben Zobrist and Yunel Escobar. First, let’s talk about the players coming in.
Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics value the future; they just don’t think about it the same way you do. That’s what I’m coming to understand about the team, as Beane radically reshapes a roster… Read more »
Clayton Kershaw won the NL MVP last year. There are many who feel that a pitcher should not be eligible for the MVP, since they only play in about 32 games and position players play… Read more »
Sometime this fall, I nearly posted an article cleverly entitled, “Does Bat Speed Help One Bat Against Speed?” It was to be an exploration of Javier Baez’s struggles in his first Major League stint. Honestly,… Read more »
The run-up to the trade deadline brings the guys to life. In these two shows, Effectively Wild turns its first corner, of many. Episode 9: Homer and Marge It’s Monday, and Ben is back after… Read more »
In Part 3 of the Time Capsule: Cards From the ‘80s & ‘90s series we were introduced to Randy McCament’s 1990 Upper Deck baseball card and marveled how wonderful it was when the card manufacturer didn’t seem to care whether their subject knew his picture was being taken.
The 2015 MLB Hall of Fame class has been announced and John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and Craig Biggio will join the 211 players currently enshrined in the Hall. As with any Hall of… Read more »
It’s official, Randy Johnson is a first ballot Hall of Famer! Over his twenty-two year career the lanky lefty amassed more than 300 wins, five Cy Young Awards (including four straight with the Venomous Snakes!), and more black… Read more »
There has been a lot of hype about the new MLBAM StatCast system, a player-tracking/raw data machine. With all of this new data will come a need for more data analysis, and most likely, a… Read more »
Between 2002 and 2013, ten franchises have made it to the World Series only to come up empty. Each installment of this column will look at one of those franchises to see what has happened in the seasons following their World Series loss. Today’s column features the Philadelphia Phillies.
Amid that wild, wacky flurry of activity that turned over baseball in early and mid-December, the Los Angeles Dodgers remade their infield, swapping out Dee Gordon for Howie Kendrick at second base and trading for… Read more »
I’m always a little bit behind the crowd when it comes to the early pair of annual publications that brighten baseball’s offseason, because I wait and ask for them as Christmas gifts. This year, I… Read more »
