Davenport Translations: ERA BA OBP SLG International League 4.38 .266 .335 .416 According to Clay Davenport’s Translations, the International League has the highest degree of difficulty of all the minor leagues. The Pacific Coast League is well known for high-scoring games and skewed statistics, but the IL is neutral, favoring neither batters nor pitchers. Its…
Part One Part Two The five teams who train on the Gulf Coast of Florida south of Tampa Bay are, from north to south, the Pirates in Bradenton, the Reds in Sarasota, the Rangers in Port Charlotte, and the Red Sox and Twins, both in Fort Myers (with different stadiums). Wednesday, I headed all the…
The big story Thursday came out of Jupiter, Fla., where the Montreal Expos walked three consecutive times. That’s an amazing feat for a team routinely near the bottom of the league in walks drawn, and an encouraging sign for those of us who expect the Expos to make at least some noise in the NL…
(Ed. note: On the heels of Derek Zumsteg’s jaunt through Arizona, Jeff Hildebrand is making his way around Florida. He’ll be filing periodic reports during his trip.) Part One One of the reasons teams have trained in Florida for years is because there isn’t much in the way of consistent, heavy rain to disrupt the…
Czar Bud has issued a gag order on his fellow owners, and despite Selig’s relative lack of power, the owners have so far decided to abide by the edict and clam up. The taboo subject? The impending labor talks and possible work stoppage that currently loom over the 2002 season. Many fans are no doubt…
With his options nearly exhausted and the chance that he would forever remain three walks shy of the all-time record growing larger by the day, Rickey Henderson accepted an offer from the Padres for $300,000, payable if he makes the team. What’s unusual is that the deal contains none of the playing-time-driven incentives you typically…
Part One Part Two Now that we’ve released this season’s Top 40 Prospects list, it is time to return to a tradition we started last season, to objectively evaluate our list from a year ago and see what we can learn. As we did last season, we will compare our ranking of each player with…
(Ed. note: On the heels of Derek Zumsteg’s jaunt through Arizona, Jeff Hildebrand is making his way around Florida. He’ll be filing periodic reports during his trip.) The Tampa/St. Petersburg area is home to four Grapefruit League sites. The Yankees play in Tampa proper. On the other side of the bay, the Rays play their…
PITCH THROUGH THE PAIN "If you’re a young guy trying to make the ball club and you go ahead and see a doctor, that’s not a good sign. You either want to play or you don’t. —Oscar Acosta, Cubs pitching coach, on reliever Will Ohman‘s complaints of shoulder stiffness returning from his injury "I think…
Third base might be the most interesting position on the field this spring. Last year it was Kevin Elster. This year, the Dodgers dusted Mark Lewis off and handed him a contract and a shot at a position where they’re way short on contributing talent. Of course, that’s where the similarities end. The Dodgers have…
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have done a lot of things right this winter, from not spending millions on additional veteran mediocrities to turning nominal closer Roberto Hernandez into a great young hitter who has already been locked up into his arbitration years (Ben Grieve). But they could be on the verge of making a…
What follows is not, in any way, shape or form, demonstrative evidence of anything. It’s just interesting, worth sharing and discussing, and doesn’t really mean diddlysquat. Yet. The big story this spring on the field is the effort to reestablish the strike zone as it was originally designed. The short, elongated rectangle of recent years…