New Look for the Astros in August

The month of August represents a turning point in the future performance of the Astros. Gone are Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn and Jeff Keppinger to be replaced by several promising rookies this year and some promising prospects in the years to come. So far, it has worked well. Three players promoted from AA Corpus Christi […]

You Can Bank on It

In 1967, Louis Armstrong recorded “What a Wonderful World.” Do you think Armstrong naturally believed that about everything? Most likely not, but he made a decision to view life with optimism. While Armstrong dazzled the jazz circuit, Ernie Banks shared a similar view on the baseball diamond. “Let’s play two,” Banks said. A combination of […]

Catching up with Bob Zupcic

The first professional athlete I ever met was Ted Williams, when I was about 9 years old. The experience was extremely disappointing, given how profane and cranky Williams turned out to be, even to a little kid like myself. The second professional athlete I met was Bob Zupcic, when I was about 12 or 13 […]

The Illumination of Jose Bautista

I can’t say for certain what it was, but sometime in early September, 2009, something seemed to click for Jose Bautista that hadn’t before. Prior to that time Bautista was at best an average utility man who was rapidly approaching 30 years of age. Drafted in the 20th round of the 2000 draft, he also […]

All Phillies…All the Time — What’s on Second?

Having previously answered the burning question, “who’s on first?” the time has come to address, “what’s on second?” The answer, unlike that given by Bud Abbott, is simple… an all-time Hall of Famer and the current best second baseman in baseball. Oh sure, there are others worth mentioning; Tony Taylor (backwards, Ynot Rolyat), Juan Samuel, […]

The No. 8 Most Quotable Figure in Baseball History

There are few nicknames in all of sports better than Mr. October. The very nature of the moniker keeps Reginald Martinez Jackson in the conversation of the best Big Game performers, and his status in the lexicon of Great Yankees is assured. Coming out of Arizona State, Reggie was drafted 2nd overall by the Kansas […]

19 to 21…Jose?

Volume 9, #15 Jose Bautista has become such a big name in baseball that, before every game, everyone in the park stands up and asks in unison how he was following the ball in BP. “Jose, can you see…?” Alright, so that’s a lousy joke. The more important issue is, what’s up with Jose Bautista, […]

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 […]

AL East Positional Analysis And Ranking: Right Field

I am in the midst of a series examining the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position are being ranked in relation to their peers within the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks in comparison […]

Seamheads.com Boasts Most Comprehensive Ballparks Database on the Internet

We at Seamheads.com are proud to announce the launch of the new Seamheads.com Ballparks Database, created by Seamheads.com co-founder Kevin Johnson and designed for the Internet by Dan Hirsch, fellow Seamhead and founder of TheBaseballGauge.com. This database has been a long time coming and something Kevin and I have wanted to implement since the earliest […]

The Favorite Toy and…Tony Conigliaro

Since I went with all-time greats, Babe Ruth and Grover Cleveland Alexander, in my first two articles in this series, I figured I’d shift gears and go with a should-have-been great in Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro whose potentially brilliant career was derailed on August 18, 1967 when he was struck in the face by […]

Pride v. Power

Since 1901, only nine shortstops, age 37 or above, hit over .270 in a season. Derek Jeter will qualify to be the 10th player in that category next season, and the Yankees are well aware of that. Sure, if you are going to bet on someone entering that group – that happens to include six Hall […]

Any Fish’ll Bite If You Got Good Bait

The Nationals continue to make notable progress in building their minor league organization.  Rated consistently in the bottom tier since the move from Montreal in 2005, the system is on the rise, but an acid test awaits. GM Mike Rizzo wants to trade for a starting pitcher. The rumor mill has the Nationals looking at […]

Bill James’ World Series Predictor Goes With…

More than 25 years ago, Bill James introduced a prediction system that picked the World Series winner with 70% accuracy. He wrote about the system for Inside Sports magazine in 1982, then expounded on it in his 1984 Baseball Abstract. He developed the system in 1972 and it accurately predicted the World Series winner at […]

The Last Game in Town

Sept. 30, 1971. Seventy years and 10,851 games into the story of American League baseball in the nation’s capital, the Senators, 38 games out of first place on the last day of the season, faced the Yankees in the final game in franchise history. The teams had split the first two games of the series […]

They Are Two Stepping in Texas

There is dancing in Texas tonight.  The Texas Rangers played the best two teams in the American League and beat them both in convincing fashion to win the first American League Championship for the franchise after fifty years of frustration.  The anticipation of history in the making gave drama to a game that was decided […]

Shouldn’t 1987 Raise Eyebrows Too?

There has been an increased raising of eyebrows when looking at or comparing statistics of players in the “steroid era,” which began in the early 1990s. Look no further than Mark McGwire to see how these allegations have hurt one’s Hall of Fame chances. We’ll get another example of this in the upcoming election as […]

Brownsten finding his way

Cory Brownsten is right where he belongs. The Lockport, New York native will board an airplane with his destination set for Orlando, Florida – home of the Atlanta Braves training complex. He will spend the next few weeks in the MLB fall instructional league and prepare for the 2011 baseball season.

Astros Come to Life in August

In the final month of the Astros forgettable 2009 season, the Astros inexplicably swept the National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies in a 4 game series in Houston.  The 2010 schedule also included a 4-game series with the Phillies, this time in Philadelphia in August.  The result was the same as the Astros brought their brooms […]

Atlantic League Player of Year Likely Out for Year

      The Long Island Ducks could not stand much bad news as they cling to any hope of making the Atlantic League playoffs.       Then, it happened.       Last year’s league Player of the Year and the Ducks’ Mr. Everything since he landed on the scene in late 2006, the versatile Ray Navarrete injured his […]

Touring The Bases With…John Castino

John Castino was selected co-rookie of the year (with Toronto’s Alfredo Griffin) in the American League for 1979 after batting .285 with eight triples. Due to the tie, the voting process (and point system) was changed in 1980. Castino hit .302 in 1980 and led the American League in triples in 1981, but back problems […]

Sigh-Inducing

Just when you start to believe in this team, to think that they’ve finally found that gas pedal on the team car, they stomp on the brakes.  A four game winning streak to get into first place?  Let’s follow that up with three losses against sub-.500 teams!  I feel like I’m a driving instructor. Of course, […]

The Kaline: Establishing a Mendoza Line For Hall of Famers

Introduction The purpose of this study is to establish a Mendoza Line for Hall of Fame hitters. After looking at the lifetime statistics of current Hall of Famers, Al Kaline began to stand out from the crowd. His .297 batting average, 3,007 hits, and 399 home runs seemed to be benchmarks for elite hitters. This […]

Taking the Challenge, Both Harper and the Nationals

Bryce Harper’s new teammates challenged the young man to fish or cut bait in the days before the August 16 signing deadline.  Stephen Strasburg said, “If he doesn’t want to play here, we don’t want him here.”   Ryan Zimmerman was almost as skeptical, saying in effect that he saw more maturity and character in […]

Lancaster Loses League Home Run Leader Jason Perry

Lancaster took it on the chin four times in five meetings with the Atlantic League’s hottest team, Bridgeport, this week, but that is only the start of the potential problems facing the Barnstormers, who cling to a two-game lead in the Freedom Division race. They have to figure out a way to replace league home […]

Never count out the Red Sox

Here is the lineup the Red Sox used on Wednesday: Ellsbury CF, Scutaro SS, Ortiz DH, Martinez C, Drew RF, Beltre 3B, Lowell 1B, Kalish LF, Hall 2B If that lineup seems a little bit out of the ordinary, you are right. However, abnormal batting orders have not been out of the ordinary for the […]

Just How Good were Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens?

Here is the short answer.  According to the numbers alone, Barry Bonds had the #2 best career of any position player of the modern era (behind only Babe Ruth) and Roger Clemens is the greatest right-handed pitcher of the period (since 1920).  And yet neither of these great players may make it into the Hall […]

Batting Leader Steve Moss Is Loving Life in Bridgeport

It has been nearly 30 years since Reggie Smith last terrorized major league pitchers with an often lethal bat which made him one of the all-time great switch-hitters.  He helped get Boston to a World Series and the Los Angeles Dodgers to three more while hitting 314 regular-season home runs and topping 1,000 in both […]

Player survey: Who is the most overrated player in baseball?

187 Major League players were surveyed to answer the question: who is the most overrated player in baseball? Keep in mind that when determining whether a player is overrated or not, evaluation is not the sole factor; public opinion also needs to be weighed in. As determined by the players, here are the top five […]

Touring The Bases With…Ken Henderson

“The press started to build me up pretty heavily, and the thing that they used to write quite often was that I was the next Willie Mays, which I don’t think was the right thing to do. I don’t care if a player is black or white, it doesn’t make any difference, there was nobody […]

Cards Soar In Foreign Land

You know, when the discussion of launching pad stadiums comes up, I never think of Toronto’s Rogers Center.  Wrigley, Coors, even the old Atlanta stadium that started the nickname.  However, if last night is any indication, Rogers Center is right up there with the rest of them. The Cardinals played the long ball better, smashing […]

A Cardinal Weekend

The Cardinals had a good weekend against the Brewers, though it could have been better.  Their slipup last night on ESPN’s game of the week dropped them back into a tie for first.  I go over this series and the Reds series in my weekly column, but let’s take a look at them here as […]

The Game That Changed Baseball History

I don’t have to tell you what happened last night. Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game–according to the rules of baseball–but umpire Jim Joyce’s failure to apply Rule 6.05(j) [a batter is out if “after he hits a fair ball, he or first base is tagged before he touches first base”] on the 27th out […]

Are the Astros Really This Bad?

Anyone who saw the first two games of the Cincinnati series last week and the Washington game on Monday would obviously answer yes. The Astros are on a pace to lose 108 games this year after never having lost 100 in their 48-year history. After getting in a hole with an 8-14 record in April, […]

Brownsten Setting His Sights

Memorial Day will find Cory Brownsten waiting on the NCAA. After finishing the season 38-18, Brownsten and his University of Pittsburgh Panther teammates fell short of earning an automatic berth to the Regionals of College World Series. The Panthers will have to wait and see if their resume is enough to earn an at-large bid […]

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