One of the nice things I’m seeing this spring is the lack of nonsense about how only a small handful of teams have a chance to win the playoffs. Maybe I’m just tuning it out, but it certainly seems like last year the bleating about competitive imbalance peaked, and this year it’s been reduced to…
The type of salary cap that is likely to be proposed by management in upcoming labor negotiations is probably a bad idea. But two recent articles at the Baseball Prospectus Web site overstate the case against salary caps in general. One can immediately dismiss some arguments as irrelevant. Derek Zumsteg complains that salary-cap rules can…
“What we have is a 28-year-old, very athletic guy with two Gold Gloves under his belt. When you’re 28 years old and you’ve played five seasons in the big leagues, most players have shown you what they are.”
–Dave Littlefield, Pirates GM, on signing infielder Pokey Reese
STEERING THE SHIP, ONLY NOT "I know during the controversy in Boston there were people saying that ‘Bud wants his pals in there.’ That wasn’t true. That franchise is so critical. And I knew that in the hands of John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino, you were putting it in the hands of people…
Well, whaddaya know? There are Angels fans.
Before Tuesday, I thought they were a myth, some kind of Disney creation that didn’t really exist. Turns out, there are actually people who care about this team, and they have some pretty strong feelings about their chances this year.
Well, whaddaya know? There are Angels fans. Before Tuesday, I thought they were a myth, some kind of Disney creation that didn’t really exist. Turns out, there are actually people who care about this team, and they have some pretty strong feelings about their chances this year. They’re wrong, but they’re devoted. Not unlike Scientologists….
Dave Littlefield had an opportunity to make an immediate impact after being hired as the Pirates’ general manager last June. He could have traded Jason Kendall and Brian Giles to contending teams for a bushel of top prospects and started a new era in Pittsburgh baseball.
Dave Littlefield had an opportunity to make an immediate impact after being hired as the Pirates’ general manager last June. He could have traded Jason Kendall and Brian Giles to contending teams for a bushel of top prospects and started a new era in Pittsburgh baseball. He didn’t do that, of course, and now the…
Sometime towards the end of production on Baseball Prospectus 2002, a regular correspondent dropped me an e-mail:
Who won the 2001 DiSar Awards?
Sometime towards the end of production on Baseball Prospectus 2002, a regular correspondent dropped me an e-mail: Who won the 2001 DiSar Awards? Now, seeing as the DiSars are generally wrapped up around the All-Star break, I figured I must have announced the winners some time last summer. I jumped into our archives…and was horrified…
One of the things I’m really looking forward to this year is the American League West. The two best teams in baseball played here last season, and both the A’s and Mariners can be expected to break 90 wins in 2002. Add in the much-improved Texas Rangers, and there’s the potential for a three-team race among very good teams that will provide suspense even with the wild card guaranteeing two of them spots in the postseason.
I want to start this by thanking everyone who showed up Saturday afternoon for the first SoCal Pizza Feed. It was a great thrill to meet so many BP supporters, and I hope all of you enjoyed it as much as Dave and I did. — I’ve been spending a lot of time writing about…
I want to start this by thanking everyone who showed up Saturday afternoon for the first SoCal Pizza Feed. It was a great thrill to meet so many BP supporters, and I hope all of you enjoyed it as much as Dave and I did. — I’ve been spending a lot of time writing about…
Allard Baird has been an all-too-frequent target of my wrath since this column started several months ago, and he’s deserved it. While Baird has shown a greater willingness to gamble and to entertain new ideas than his predecessor, Herk Robinson, the bottom line is that in less than two years as general manager, Baird has…
Sunday, February 25, 2001. That was the day the Toronto Blue Jays were eliminated from the 2001 American League race. In my mind, anyway. That day I was online reading the Toronto Sun and came across this tidbit courtesy of new Blue Jays’ skipper Buck Martinez: "We don’t give a damn, we’re a team of…
Many people have written to me about the article comparing the Japanese leagues to the American majors. Before looking at DTs of Japanese players, I’d like to address a few points common to many of those e-mails: Confusion over statistics. The statistic used in the article was Equivalent Average, not batting average. EqA values may…