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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Showalter Ups the Ante in the AL East

In a recent interview on the Seamheads Podcast Network’s Outa the Parkway, Tim Donner of Radio America talked about Buck Showalter’s intensity, how he wore out his welcome quickly in the three previous managerial gigs that define his career.  Showalter’s fire and competitiveness are on display once again in an article on ESPN and in […]

1980 AL Cy Young Race Revisited

Mike Norris celebrates his 56th birthday on March 19. He was the runner-up for the 1980 Cy Young Award in which he and Baltimore starter Steve Stone compiled career years, but did he deserve to win the award? Player Background Mike Norris was a 1st round pick by Oakland in the 1973 draft and made his debut […]

Fantasy Baseball Outlook: Top Five (Starting) Pitching Prospects For 2011

Tampa Bay’s Jeremy Hellickson is targeted for stardom. By the end of 2012 he will slide into the #2 spot in the rotation to create a dynamic duo, along with David Price. In articles such as this, many websites give readers a list of the best overall prospects at a given position, but the intention […]

AL East Positional Analysis And Ranking: Second Base

During the course of the next two weeks, I’ll examine the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the American League East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position will be ranked in relation to their peers within the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks […]

AL East Positional Analysis And Ranking: First Base

Over the next two weeks, I’ll examine the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position will be ranked in relation to their peers within the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks in comparison to the […]

AL East Positional Analysis And Ranking: Catcher

Over the next two weeks, I’ll examine the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position will be ranked in relation to their peers withing the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks in comparison to the […]

2011 MLB Power Rankings, The Ides of January Edition (Part I, #21-#30)

  With most of the top free agents now signed and teams starting to take shape as we approach spring training, I thought I would share my pre-pre-season pespective on the relative strengths (and weaknesses) of all 30 major league teams. I have broken the article down into three installments, and will publish one of […]

The Day the World Met the Ryan Express

Nolan Ryan was far from the perfect pitcher. He walked the most batters in baseball history (2,795), 52% more than the next highest total belonging to Steve Carlton (1,833). He lost the most games of any pitcher (292) except for Cy Young (316) and Pud Galvin (310), two players who peaked in the 1800s. He […]

MLB Team Snapshots

The Beautiful Mind level insanity around the AL Previews formula I’ve been tinkering with and referred to in these two posts should (hopefully) be done today. In an effort to not let the homework slow down our production, we thought it would be fun to take another stroll around the Major Leagues and see what each […]

Lazzari’s Baseball Roundup 3

Great quote by WDRC-FM’s Mike Stevens last week following the Red Sox 14-5 loss to Tampa Bay–a game where Daisuke Matsuzaka gave up EIGHT earned runs in just over four innings: “Dice-K was serving up more meat than the Golden Arches.”……….TRIVIA QUESTION: The 1987 Baltimore Orioles–who finished sixth in the AL East under Cal Ripken, […]

Bottoming Out in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor

They should bottle Showalter’s elixir and sell it outside Camden Yarks.  The Baltimore Orioles are showing signs of life in response to their new manager’s tonic after flat-lining for more than half of the 2010 season. The Orioles’ record since Showalter stepped into the dugout is 17 – 10.  That is a .630 winning percentage […]

A Trip To Last a Lifetime

In a little less than a year and a half, January 2012, to be exact, I’ll be 50 years old. Sometime around then, too, Fenway Park will turn 100. It’s strange that with all our accumulated years we’d never before had the chance to meet- until last week, that is.    While living my whole life […]

Gibbons Makes Another Statement for Indy Leagues

Jay Gibbons has struck another harmonious chord for Independent Baseball with his splashy re-entrance into the major leagues with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  A longtime Baltimore Orioles outfielder (2001-2007), the left-handed Gibbons erged from a brush with being named in the infamous Mitchell Report to start cleansing his reputation with the Long Island (NY) Ducks […]

Roy Firestone to Appear on Seamheads Podcast

Join Steve Lenox and Mike Lynch on “What’s On Second: The Seamheads.com Radio Hour” every Monday from 9:00-10:00 PM Eastern as they discuss the goings on in Major and Minor League Baseball. This week’s guests are Roy Firestone, a seven-time Emmy Award-winning and seven-time cable ACE Award-winning host, interviewer, narrator, writer, and producer. As the […]

Andy Etchebarren Succeeds With His Type of Player

Defense carried the day for Andy Etchebarren during his 15-year major league career, which included six seasons when he either was the No. 1 catcher or shared the backstop load when Baltimore Orioles teams made the postseason.  So it should be no surprise his York (PA) Revolution, already assured of a playoff berth in his […]

Something Rotten in the State of Maryland

Mike Rizzo traded Matt Capps and Cristian Guzman for prospects and kept Adam Dunn.  His team and his fans are both happy and the team is playing hungry again.  Andy MacPhail failed to move Luke Scott or Ty Wiggington but hired Buck Showalter to make sense of it all.  Still, something in Baltimore just doesn’t […]

Touring the Bases With…Milt Wilcox

Milt Wilcox, a righthanded hurler from Hawaii, was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the second round of the 1968 amateur draft, a draft that included Tim Foli, Thurman Munson, Bobby Valentine, Greg Luzinski, Gary Matthews, and Bill Buckner.  Coming straight out of high school, Wilcox began his career in the Rookie League before moving […]

Have-Nots Would Benefit From Realignment

It’s a known fact that attendance at the Toronto Blue Jays’ home games has been dwindling for some years, even more so in the last couple of years. Many reasons have been brought up to try to explain the situation but one thing is clear: lots of fans have lost any hope of watching a […]

MLB perpetrates All-Star fiasco

“Vote early and vote often.” In the biggest electoral fraud since the 2000 presidential election, Major League Baseball and its 30 teams are telling fans to choose All-Star Game lineups by voting up to 25 times. They can do it on the internet or at the ballpark. It really doesn’t matter. The Yankees even show […]

A Humorous Look at Recent Baseball News

The Indians were expecting close to 35,000 fans to attend Sunday’s game against the Nationals, the team’s highest attendance since Opening Day. I think it’s great that so many Indians fans are excited about seeing highly touted prospect Carlos Santana play. Hear he plays a mean guitar.  Or maybe they are excited about the rejuvenated […]

The All-Time Yankees (a draft book chapter)

Who would be selected for a mythical All-Time Yankees dream team roster? Who would be the starters and who the backups? Who gets snubbed, not quite good enough to make the squad? And how have other authors, as well as fan surveys and the like, answered this fun question throughout the years?

Cuban Relaxation

Cuba and Puerto Rico are never as close as when Pudge and Livan Hernandez are Nationals battery mates.  Rockies’ manager Jim Tracy said watching the two seasoned pros, “It’s like they are playing catch in the park.”  They are two of the most senior players in the game and still two of the most fun […]

Sweet or Oh So Sour

Black and white. Cut and dry. Or, in the case of aspiring baseball players from San Pedro de Macorís, red and blue. There is a wide disparity between those who reach the high levels of professional baseball and those who do not. That’s the setting we are exploring in Mark Kurlansky’s new book, “The Eastern […]

Touring the Bases With…Ed Herrmann

The grandson of pitcher Marty Herrmann, Ed, a catcher, debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1967, then spent 11 years in the majors before ending his career with Montreal in 1978 as Gary Carter’s backup.  In 1972, Herrmann caught all 49 of Wilbur Woods’ starts, the most for a battery since 1884 when Sam […]

Bo Belinsky-Livin’ the Life

Perhaps no one got more mileage from a mediocre career than Bo Belinsky. Winning 28 games while losing 51 over an eight-year period (1962-1970) hardly qualifies one for baseball notoriety, even with a no-hitter. It was in his fourth big league appearance that the legend of Robert Belinsky of New York, New York began. On […]

Milo: I’ll stay active through 2012

Milo Hamilton, whose big-league broadcast career started with the 1953 St. Louis Browns, plans to stay on the air for three more seasons. The venerable voice of the Houston Astros wants the chance to broadcast from the newest ballparks, including Yankee Stadium this June and Minnesota’s Target Field — depending on future interleague games that […]

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