A Couple Days Off Last month’s All-Star break was a high point for baseball, peaking with the pre-game ceremony that honored, among others, Red Sox legend Ted Williams. And while 64 players were appointed to the teams in Boston that night, for many others, the break was a chance to rest, see family and friends,…
Second-Half Prospectus It’s not the runaway we saw last year, but the order of the teams is the same. By the end of the year, it’s likely the Blue Jays will have caught and passed the Red Sox, snagging the wild card slot. New York Yankees (52-34, division leader) It’s not easy to play .600…
Second-Half Prospectus At midseason, the 1999 NL East looks a lot like the 1998 version. The Braves have a comfortable cushion over the Mets, the Phillies are hanging around with no real chance of winning the division, and the Expos and Marlins are…uh…anybody know what the Expos and Marlins are doing? A look at what…
"Tuesday? Oh, I Guess I’ll Go Fishing…" 60 players will divide 18 innings and, if recent history is any indication, about six hits among them during Tuesday night’s All-Star Game in Boston. With the brouhahas over players being snubbed or backing out already fading, let’s take a look at a handful of guys who were,…
Are the Phillies for Real? For the second straight June, the Philadelphia Phillies find themselves on the brink of wild-card contention, just a game and a half behind the Cubs and Giants. As has been the case in most NL seasons since the wild card’s debut, this "race" pits a handful of .530 teams battling…
Something Just Isn’t Wright Jaret Wright avoided a suspension in the aftermath of the May 22nd brawl at Jacobs Field. The right-hander, with a five-game suspension already on his record this year, drew only a fine from the league office. More curious is AL president Gene Budig’s request for an audience with Wright, to discuss…
The Chase for… .500? Yes, it’s early, but given the attention Larry Walker and Sean Casey are getting for having batting averages around .400, it’s probably not unreasonable to mention that John Olerud’s OBP is .505. In 1998, Mark McGwire spent a few weeks around the magic mark, and in 1994, Frank Thomas ran a…
Old Folks… Some of the biggest news in the division is being made by guys who had pretty good seasons during the Cold War. And nobody has been hotter in May than Tampa Bay’s Fred McGriff. McGriff, who posted a .284/.371/.443 in 1998, was written off by most analysts. His age, declining power and long-gone…
MillerWatch The Orioles continue to shock people who think the correlation between payroll and performance is absolute. This old, slow, defensively stagnant team has the worst record in baseball, and that’s not too far from its actual level of ability. Ray Miller is not going to make the next road trip with this Oriole team,…
BALTIMORE ORIOLES (1998: 785 runs allowed, 7th in AL) Rotation Mike Mussina, R Scott Erickson, R Juan Guzman, R Sidney Ponson, R Doug Linton, R Bullpen Mike Timlin, R Heathcliff Slocumb, R Mike Fetters, R Ricky Bones, R Arthur Rhodes, L Jesse Orosco, L Alternatives Scott Kamieniecki, R (DL) Jason Johnson, R Rocky Coppinger, R…
BALTIMORE ORIOLES (1998: 817 runs, .276 Equivalent Average) Starters (with projected Equivalent Average) C Charles Johnson .256 1B Will Clark .281 2B Delino DeShields .266 3B Cal Ripken Jr. .234 SS Mike Bordick .226 LF B.J. Surhoff .265 CF Brady Anderson .276 RF Albert Belle .308 DH Harold Baines .267 Bench/Alternatives: DH Chris Hoiles .278,…
BALTIMORE ORIOLES First baseman Calvin Pickering is a Sam Horn hit-alike who absolutely crushed a bomb in an intrasquad game Monday. Unfortunately, he has Sam Horn’s chance at the first base job after the O’s signing of Will Clark. He could end up getting some DH at-bats, particularly in the second half, by which time…
BALTIMORE ORIOLES While OF Albert Belle gets most of the attention as the Orioles open camp, and can be expected to put up a typical .300/.380/.570 season, pay attention to catcher Charles Johnson, acquired from the Dodgers via the Mets for Armando Benitez. Johnson had a terrible 1998, falling off both at the plate and…
With spring training shifting into second gear this week with the arrival of position players, Baseball Prospectus will start looking carefully at the 1999 season. Over the next two weeks, we’ll bring you our take on who is going to have breakout seasons, and who is more likely to be found in the breakdown lane….
OFFENSE Yankees Chuck Knoblauch, 2B .265/.361/.405 .272 EQA Derek Jeter, SS .324/.384/.481 .301 EQA Paul O’Neill, RF .317/.372/.510 .304 EQA Bernie Williams, CF .339/.422/.575 .332 EQA Tino Martinez, 1B .281/.355/.505 .292 EQA Chili Davis, DH .291/.373/.447 .281 EQA Jorge Posada, C .268/.350/.475 .280 EQA Shane Spencer, LF .373/.411/.910 .388 EQA Scott Brosius, 3B .300/.371/.472 .287…
OFFENSE Yankees Chuck Knoblauch 2B Derek Jeter SS Paul O’Neill RF Bernie Williams CF Tino Martinez 1B Chili Davis or Tim Raines DH Darryl Strawberry LF Jorge Posada C Scott Brosius 3B Rangers Tom Goodwin CF Mark McLemore 2B Will Clark 1B Juan Gonzalez RF Rusty Greer LF Pudge Rodriguez C Lee Stevens or Mike…