Coming out of the All-Star break, baseball fans are being treated to some great series that are setting the scene for a tremendously entertaining stretch run. Although neither of the first two games between the… Read more »
At age 30, Robinson Cano is on the cusp of free agency, and about to get paid the big bucks. I absolutely could not care any less who his agent is, and won’t get into… Read more »
Amid heavy rumors that Matt Garza will be dealt sometime later this week, I think it’s high time we take a moment to truly evaluate the asset in motion. Fans all over baseball (especially Cubs… Read more »
At their best, sports are unscripted movies. Society can experience rich, complex, interwoven plots that reward their investment of emotion, time and money. There are clear protagonists and antagonists, although the roles are never concrete,… Read more »
Justin Verlander won the MVP and the Cy Young Award in the same season in 2011. Miguel Cabrera won the first Triple Crown in 45 years in 2012. In 2013, Max Scherzer began the season… Read more »
In general, it’s a bad idea to throw money at the problem of buying your wife or girlfriend a birthday, Christmas or anniversary gift. Sure, a diamond might be pretty, and a vacation might be… Read more »
No team in the NL West is much good this season. The Arizona Diamondbacks have taken a slim lead into the All-Star break, but their margin over .500 is all one-run wins and home-field advantage…. Read more »
I wrote a few weeks ago about the Twins, and how they have apparently used hard take signals and a drilling in of patience and working counts to wring some value out of bad hitters,… Read more »
Three anecdotes: Several weeks ago, watching Joe Buck and Tim McCarver call a game on Fox, I got all worked up–apoplectic, really–as McCarver dismissed and derided the high fives some player got after flying out… Read more »
As the All-Star break looms, trading season reaches full throttle. Matt Garza could be something other than a Chicago Cub by the weekend. Buyers and sellers are deciding whether to be buyers or sellers, and… Read more »
Don’t Label Me! A very good Matt Garza article on FanGraphs Wednesday ended up leading to a lively Twitter debate that I think is worth fleshing out without character limits in place. I’ll try not… Read more »
The Chicago White Sox are currently among the five worst American League offenses since integration. Let that sink in. Baseball Prospectus has the most useful and readily readable holistic offensive metric available for historical analysis…. Read more »
Before you mock me for the following, please remember that I’m telling you this free of obligation. No one reads my blog, and I’m not sure I published my picks, anyway. I am accepting responsibility… Read more »
In a 5-3 loss to the Miami Marlins Wednesday night, the Minnesota Twins sent 39 batters to the plate. Only six of them swung at the first pitch. The Marlins, in a game they won, threw… Read more »
When my Cubs are rebuilding, as they have been the past few seasons, it becomes hard to invest too much emotion or excitement into their games at about this time of year. It slowly becomes… Read more »
I’ve watched a fair amount of Minnesota Twins second baseman (nee shortstop) Brian Dozier lately. It’s a frustrating, somewhat uneven experience, but for the first time since I first saw him last summer, it’s hard… Read more »
In the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates have had the platoon advantage in a smaller percentage of their plate appearances than all but three teams, a mere 49 percent of the time. Their lineup is… Read more »
The Los Angeles Angels lead the American League by wide margins in times reaching base on error; double plays grounded into; productive outs, as recorded by Elias Sports Bureau; and infield hits. They hit more… Read more »
Starlin Castro got the night off Tuesday in Milwaukee, marking the first Chicago Cubs game of the post-Jim Hendry era in which Castro was not the starting shortstop. His streak of consecutive games without a… Read more »
Not On Target Target Field, while extremely pleasing in terms of architectural aesthetics, is not my favorite place to take in a game. I’m finding, with each new visit, some unpleasant downsides. The contrivances and… Read more »
A few thoughts on just another imperfect day: The Indians and Blue Jays played Opening Day in Toronto yesterday, and although Cleveland won, I came away wondering what Terry Francona is up to with that… Read more »
I was glued to my phone as the At-Bat Lite app (don’t judge me) slowly brought me news of Yu Darvish last night. It was a marvel to watch, even if I wasn’t actually watching…. Read more »
Now that teams outside of Texas have kicked off, more quick notes: Long plate appearances should be a statistic. I might be found embarrassingly incorrect, but it seems to me that certain batters, while able… Read more »
The narrative history of Kevin Towers’ first three years as GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks is going to be fascinating, one way or another. Since the moment he arrived in the desert, he has put… Read more »
A few scattered thoughts now that baseball is back: What a tour de force by Bo Porter. In his debut as an MLB manager, he did two good things that maybe three or four other… Read more »
Sometimes, I really want to float an idle thought or 12 about baseball as they occur to me, but don’t want to hack the idea into pieces for Twitter consumption. So I’m just going to… Read more »
I’m so sick and tired of PEDs, Alex Rodriguez, national baseball columnists and Twitter snark, I’m ready to kill a cat, stuff it in a box and nail the damn thing shut. Or stab my… Read more »
Justin Upton has some of baseball’s most dramatic home/away splits over the past several seasons, so when the Arizona Diamondbacks dealt him to the Atlanta Braves last week, some analysts raised concerns about how Upton… Read more »
The following is from p. 449-450 of The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract: Lee May had a younger brother, Carlos, who also played in the majors. Carlos got 80% of the talent in the family;… Read more »
Michael Bourn is STILL a free agent, which has been a source of some annoyance for me of late, but which today I am counting as a small victory. The intrigue surrounding his predicament is… Read more »
