Bill James wrote, some time ago, that the Hall of Fame can’t really honor players any more–it can only insult them. I don’t believe that’s true; ballplayers already in don’t care too much who gets honored after them, and anyone who gets in is generally pretty damn happy to be there. But what can happen…
The Era of Offense has not barred scrubs from the party. The last eight years are not only remarkable for 70 homers and 400 total bases and league ERAs approaching 5.00. The little guys have gotten in the act as well, putting together some of the greatest September callups and fluke seasons of all time….
In my years of following baseball, I’ve formed the impression that starters who pitch in the All-Star Game tend to be a little off in their first start after the midsummer classic. This year, while watching SportsCenter highlights of Al Leiter getting shellacked, I decided to look a little more deeply to see if my…
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…
ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS Activated 3B Matt Williams and 1B Erubiel Durazo from the DL; placed IF Danny Klassen on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 7/8 (toe); optioned OF Rob Ryan to Tucson. [7/13] Recalled RHP Nelson Figueroa from Tucson; optioned 1B/OF Travis Lee to Tucson. [7/16] Perhaps nothing reflects the immediate needs of the Snakes more…
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…
This is the second in a series of rankings of major-league defenders, highlighting the top ten and bottom five at each position. The ratings are a combination of Zone Rating, Range Factor and my best (and admittedly grossly flawed) assessment of the job they’re doing. The Top 1. Troy Glaus, Anaheim. Glaus is ridiculously athletic…
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…
On Friday, Major League Baseball’s Blue Ribbon Panel of Certified Outside Experts released its report on competitive balance in baseball, issuing a list of recommendations on how to prevent the gap between extremely-rich teams and less-extremely-rich teams from getting bigger. The four-man group, which had access to all of the sport’s financial data, didn’t say…
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…
ATLANTA BRAVES Acquired RHP Andy Ashby from the Phillies for LHPs Bruce Chen and Jimmy Osting. [7/12] Laugh if you’re a disinterested bystander or a Mets fan, and cry if you care about the Braves. I don’t know who deserves more venom: John Schuerholz for doing something this stupid, or the talking heads who are…
"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…
BRUISINGS "I wasn’t nervous at all. I just couldn’t locate my fastball or make adjustments on it." — Ed Yarnall, Reds pitcher, on retiring just two of the ten batters he faced July 6 "It was a rough start coming back. I couldn’t keep the ball down and threw a few pitches I shouldn’t have….
At the midway point of the season, BP’s staff sees four awards as runaways and two as crapshoots. Here’s a look at our panel’s voting for the big six honors. AL MVP (5-3-1, first place in parentheses) Alex Rodriguez 46 (8) Pedro Martinez 15 (2) Jason Giambi 9 Ivan Rodriguez 9 Carlos Delgado 5 Edgar…
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…