As I mentioned the other day, 16 teams made moves before the trade deadline to improve their chances in 2000. Of course, that means 14 others didn’t, 14 teams that haven’t had much success this season. Still, amidst the wreckage of a 65-97 campaign can often be found the pieces of next year’s playoff contender….
After the disappointing trade deadline of 1999, at which more trades didn’t happen than did and the biggest name to change addresses was probably Juan Guzman, the events of the past four days serve as a reminder of what an exciting deadline period can feel like. It was a non-stop adrenaline rush for seamheads, with…
Yesterday’s article on pitcher stress inspired a lot of great responses, more than I can possibly cover here. The main thrust of many of them, though, is a point I want to emphasize: we actually don’t know what kind of stress an individual pitcher feels in an individual situation. What we were measuring was innings…
Watching the clips of yet another great Pedro Martinez performance in yet another close game got me thinking about the relative stress levels of pitchers. It certainly seems that Martinez has pitched in an inordinate number of close games this season, which means that most of his innings have been fairly high-stress, at least in…
Some things you know, and some you don’t know: Since joining the rotation at the end of May, the Devil Rays’ Albie Lopez has been one of the best starters in the American League. After last night’s performance against the Tigers, Lopez has gone at least five innings in all of his 11 starts. His…
In a dramatic turnaround, the Cincinnati Reds signed All-Star shortstop Barry Larkin to a three-year extension on Sunday, just days after completing a trade–which Larkin vetoed–that would have sent him to the New York Mets. As mentioned Friday, signing Larkin is not the kind of move we would typically endorse, given Larkin’s advanced age, 36,…
So many topics, so little time… It’s hard to argue with the suspension Carl Everett received. There is a lot of silliness on each extreme, with apologists at one end and executioners at the other. Everett lost control and in an effort to intimidate, did the thing you can’t do, which is make contact with…
After we posted the results of our informal mid-season awards poll last week, we got a number of responses that looked like this: OK…who does the voting for your MVP award? NL: Name the player who leads the league in OBP and slugging (and obviously OPS), whose team is in first place and who leads…
As teams separate themselves into contenders and Cubs, organizations with little hope for 2000 and quality minor leaguers will have the opportunity to showcase their cheap, young talent. Between now and the middle of September, a number of players are going to arrive in–or in some cases, return to–the major leagues, many of them to…
We’re in Year Eight of major-league baseball in Denver, which means we’re approaching a point when we should have enough data to start determining what type of baseball, and what type of player, is best-suited to winning at altitude. We’ve seen a few different ideas implemented so far, as the Rockies have moved through flyball…
As we did with the NL second-half preview, we’ll start in the Central division. I’ll reiterate what I said in the most recent AL Central Notebook: the Indians are not going to catch the White Sox, but they are going to narrow the gap. Each team played to an extreme in the first half, the…
When we looked back at the first-half performances, we led with the American League, so we’ll start this segment with the National. I’ll start with the easiest call: the Cardinals are going to win the NL Central. Even if Mark McGwire‘s knee injury restricts his playing time, there is no team in the division capable…
"Stop the presses," has such a quaint sound these days, what with newspapers and magazines mostly produced digitally and Web publishing allowing changes up to the second of–and even after–publication of an article. But yesterday’s big trades made today’s column–a look at the NL in the second half–obsolete before it ever made it off my…
Well, I suppose the bright side is that I know people are reading: "It was my understanding that Girardi is an All-Star replacing Piazza b/c 1) Hundley turned them down due to family concerns & 2) Javy Lopez had already skipped the country on his vacation plans. Girardi was just the best of a bad…
Just an idle thought before we get back to our look at some notable first-half performances…is it possible that interleague play has made it easier for players to skip or be held out of the All-Star Game? The midsummer classic isn’t the only chance to see some of those special matchups anymore, and perhaps the…
Mondays are pretty lousy, but a Monday with no baseball games? Yick…stop the day, I want to get off. Then again, this Wednesday will be worse; no games, and no sports page/Internet site full of Sunday boxscores to pore over, reliving the previous day’s ballgames. Sure, there will be lots of All-Star coverage, but how…