It Could Have Been Worse, Milwaukee

Opening day 2011 saw the Milwaukee Brewers suffer an improbable defeat, allowing four runs in the ninth inning – punctuated by a two-out, three-run game-winning home run by Ramon Hernandez – in a 7-6 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. A deflating loss? Yes. Crushing? No doubt. Frustrating? Of course. The worst loss in opening day […]

Clearing The Bases: Closers

The old axiom when it comes to relief pitchers, is never pay for saves.  I follow this mantra somewhat, especially in mixed leagues, but in NL or AL only leagues I want to have one solid closer.  I don’t like to spend a big part of my budget on more than one, but I want […]

Clearing The Bases: Starting Pitchers

Clearing The Bases                                                                                                                                          March 30, 2011 By George Kurtz Once again Starting Pitching is generally an area I will select later on in my drafts as I’m a big believer in loading up on hitting early on.   Sure I would love to have a top notch starter to anchor my staff, but I’m not willing […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL East – New York Yankees

NY Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira New York Yankees (2010 record: 95-67) The Yankees entered the off-season expecting to sign LHP Cliff Lee to a lucrative deal, but a funny thing happened on the way to the ballpark – the Philadelphia Phillies signed Lee out from under their nose at the eleventh hour. Hey, turn about […]

Wilhelmsen, Almonte Step Up, Give Indy Game 14 on Opening Day Rosters

     Erick Almonte’s unexpected jump onto the Milwaukee Brewers’ bench grabbed much of the Independent Baseball attention during spring training, but now that the reality of Opening Day is here the 32-year-old, who has not been in the major leagues since 2003, has to share the spotlight with a quartet of pitchers who also have […]

Spring Into Winter

The problem with starting the baseball season in March is that we haven’t had enough time to digest spring training.  Or at least, to write about it. I spent the final weekend of spring play in Arizona and caught games at Camelback Ranch – the home of the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL East – Tampa Bay Rays

CF BJ Upton Tampa Bay Rays (2010 record: 96-66) Everyone thinks the Rays will take a significant step backwards in 2011, but I am not so sure those people are right. Tampa is one of the best-run organizations in baseball, and I think they have the young horses needed to minimize the impact of the […]

Fearless forecast for 2011 flag chases

The first rule in making baseball predictions is to expect the unexpected. Don’t go with last year’s winners, popular favorites, or big-money ballclubs. Unless they deserve it, of course. Now that we’ve gotten past the obvious rules, there are the string of unknowns that can pop up anywhere during the course of a 162-game schedule, […]

The Day the 1994 Expos Came Back to Town

What do you get when you put Felipe Alou, Cliff Floyd, Marquis Grissom and Rondell White; Denis Boucher, Mel Rojas and John Wetteland; Pedro Martinez …and loveable former Expos mascot Youppi, in the same room, all at the same time? A class reunion of the 1994 Montreal Expos, that’s what; with the operative word being […]

Guaranteed 2011 AL East Predictions!

Led by a rejuvenated Manny Ramirez, Tampa Bay will lead the division at the all-star break.  On his return from the All-Star game in Phoenix, Manny will become rejuveniled and absent-mindedly enter Boston’s clubhouse when the Rays resume their season in Beantown on July 15th.  He’ll don a Red Sox uniform and shag balls in […]

Bill Hosie: Young Canadian Ballplayer Killed in WWII

Over the past ten years or so, I have scoured countless newspapers from the 1930s looking for references to ballplayers who were killed while serving with the armed forces during World War II. In addition to the 141 former professional players that I’ve uncovered I have found reference to hundreds of semi-pro, college and high […]

MLB, Meet South Dakota

South Dakota legislators are attempting to push through a new law that would protect student athletes from a growing national epidemic: concussions. The law would require athletes to go through a series of tests before reentering the game if they show even the slightest symptoms of a concussion. It would also require parents and coaches […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL East – Toronto Blue Jays

Blue Jays 3B Jose Bautista Toronto Blue Jays (2010 record: 85-77) The Blue Jays had the busiest off-season of any team in Major League Baseball. GM Alex Anthopoulos continued the re-structuring of the club – and its salary structure – in earnest… and, in the process, managed to rid his organization of the most untradeable […]

Major League Baseball And Major League Baseball Players Association Announce New Protocols On Concussions

New York, NY, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 … Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) announced today that they have adopted a series of protocols under its new joint policy regarding concussions, which will be in effect from Opening Day forward. On behalf of MLB and the MLBPA, a committee […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL East – Baltimore Orioles

Orioles RF Nick Markakis Baltimore Orioles (2010 record: 66-96) Two words: Buck Showalter. His hiring has meant instant credibility for a moribund franchise. He brought energy, intensity, knowledge and savvy to the baseball diamond and the clubhouse… and he directed the team to a 34-23 finish after his arrival in Charm City – the second-best […]

Final Cardinal Cuts

I’ve had a wonderful run of luck with my prognostications lately.  Seems like anytime I say X, Y actually happens and fairly quickly afterwards. Yesterday was another of those days, as Fernando Salas was sent to Memphis and Bryan Augenstein made the team.  I will admit that when the Cards plucked Augenstein from the waiver wire, I just […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL Central – Chicago White Sox

White Sox 1B Paul Konerko Chicago White Sox (2010 record: 88-74) The White Sox won 88 games last season and still didn’t get a sniff of the division title due to the success of the Minnesota Twins. During the off-season, GM Kenny Williams decided to re-shuffle the deck to play to his team’s strengths – […]

Turning the Corner in DC

The future for the Washington Nationals is about to arrive.  The major league team looks vastly improved from the ones that finished dead last among the 30 teams two years in a row.  But Baseball America’s new rankings put the Washington development pipeline at number 13 among MLB organizations.  That climb from the bottom may […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL Central – Minnesota Twins

Twins slugger Justin Morneau The Minnesota Twins are coming off back-to-back AL Central division championships. They are looking to become the first club to win the division title in three consecutive years since they pulled off the feat in the 2002-04 seasons. If they are able to do so, it would tie for the second-longest […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL Central – Detroit Tigers

Tigers 1B Miguel Cabrera Detroit Tigers (2010 record: 81-81) The Detroit Tigers finished the 2009 season tied for first place in the AL Central (86-76) after having relinquished a seven-game lead to the Minnesota Twins during the last four weeks of the season. They then lost a one-game playoff in The Metrodome in 12 innings, […]

Quiet and Steady as She Goes

The Nationals traded Nyjer Morgan for Cutter Dykstra and during the wee hours. The move was no surprise to anyone, but some had opined that the Nationals would take almost anything to get rid of the distractions surrounding Morgan. Dystra is not “almost anything,” but he knows a little bit about distractions. Anyone who has […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL Central – Kansas City Royals

Royals Designated Hitter Billy Butler Kansas City Royals (2010 record: 67-95) Kansas City is one more year away from beginning their slow, inexorable climb up the standings. While Royals fans have heard similar promises for years, their patience is finally (mercifully) about to pay off. GM Dayton Moore and his front office staff have developed […]

A Good Luck Charm for Casey Stengel

If it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings; the New York Yankees incredible run of 5 consecutive world championships didn’t start until an attractive soprano named Lucy Monroe sang the National Anthem. From 1949 – 1953, it was her wont to step to the microphone and perform her polished rendition of  “The Star Spangled […]

Una actitud de altos kilates (The best attitude)

Los sucesos del 09 de marzo de 2011 en el primer inning de un juego entre los Bravos de Atlanta y los Cardenales de San Luis, hicieron que mi memoria tratara de nivelar el momento difícil de conocer que Luis Salazar había recibido un pelotazo descomunal en la cara, cuando un batazo de Brian McCann se estrelló entre su nariz y su ojo izquierdo mientras veía el juego parado desde el dugout.

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL Central – Cleveland Indians

Indians CF Grady Sizemore Cleveland Indians (2010 record: 69-93) If there is little reason to buy a ticket in Houston, there is even less reason to buy a ticket in Cleveland. The Indians did very little this winter in terms of improving the roster… and since everyone else in the division is as good or […]

Clearing The Bases: Designated Hitters

Most players who are playing full-time at designated hitter this season we have discussed at other positions, so for this column, we will make it short and sweet, and only discuss the DHs that we haven’t gone over at any other point in this series of columns.  The problem with selecting someone who is a […]

Due To Darkness

The 1922 World Series featured a rematch of the previous year’s championship series between the New York Giants and New York Yankees. The series also included one of the most controversial calls in World Series history, up to that point, in game two of the series. The entire series was being held at the Polo […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL West – Texas Rangers

  Rangers LF Josh Hamilton Texas Rangers (2010 record: 90-72) The Texas Rangers won their first American League pennant, but eventually lost the World Series to the San Francisco Giants. Their drive to the Fall Classic was spurred by an MVP season from LF Josh Hamilton, a Rookie-of-the-Year campaign from closer Neftali Feliz, and all-star […]

“Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers” by Dan Raley

WELL-DONE HISTORY OF BYGONE SEATTLE BASEBALL ERA As someone who used to literally sit at my grandfather’s knee listening to his stories of the old Seattle Rainiers and the Pacific Coast League, I became quite familiar with names of people who built baseball in Seattle in the years from 1938 onward.  Grandpa was the head […]

COMMUNITY PLAYING TIME FORECASTS

Tom M. Tango at the The Book Blog is requesting fans to fill out playing time estimates for the team they follow closely.   In the past, these fan generated playing time forecasts have proven to be better than the ‘expert’ forecasts and better than ‘automated’ forecast systems. If you want to participate, the link is: […]

2010 Was Not the “Year of the Pitcher”

Last summer I posted a blog titled “Not Yet the Year of the Pitcher,” in which I reported on being interviewed by a Bloomberg News reporter who wanted to know why people were calling 2010 the “Year of the Pitcher.”  I disagreed, saying that a half-season was not conclusive. The two pitchers he cited as […]

2011 MLB Pre-Season Preview: AL West – Oakland Athletics

Athletics staff ace, Brett Anderson Oakland Athletics (2010 record: 81-81) The Oakland Athletics finished last season with a .500 record after three consecutive losing seasons. They were able to do so thanks largely to an excellent young rotation, a good bullpen and a solid defense. Little of what they accomplished was owing to their offense […]

Deviating from the Past

Every baseball ranking—even those based on statistics—is biased in some way. It’s what makes practically every list debatable. For instance, take a list as fundamental as “hit leaders.” As a counting stat, a player’s hit total is impacted by his place in the batting order as well as his lineup’s offensive strength, two factors that […]

“Gorgeous George,” a Beauty

Doling out compliments is not one of the first qualities that springs to mind when one thinks of Ty Cobb. Yet Cobb went way beyond that when he lauded George Sisler. Cobb called Sisler the “œnearest thing to a perfect ballplayer.” (5, Sizzler). Cobb didn’t exude praise, so there had to be a reason for […]

Can you buy wins in baseball?

New York Rangers – New York Islanders = $32,265,000 Los Angeles Lakers – Sacramento Kings = $47,539,063 New York Yankees – Pittsburg Pirates = $171,390,389 Above are three simple equations showing the range of team salaries in the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball respectively. Clearly, Major League Baseball takes […]

Next Page »