IBWAA Selects No One In 2012 Hall Of Fame Vote

The alternative Baseball Hall of Fame vote came up a little different than the Official Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). The official group for Cooperstown election came back with only one inductee—lifelong Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin. I would like to congratulate Mr. Larkin as well on a stellar career that I was able […]

A Brief Dissection of the 2012 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

First off, congratulations are in order for the Baseball Hall of Fames’ newest member, Barry Larkin. His selection today caps off an excellent 19 year major league career that was spent exclusively with the Cincinnati Reds. With 86.4% of the votes, Larkin was the only player on this year’s ballot to garner the necessary 75% […]

Rating the 2012 Hall of Fame Candidates Based on Win Shares

One of the first items of business in baseball each year is the announcement of players elected to the Hall of Fame.  This leads to lots of speculation and a little analysis prior to the announcement which is scheduled forJanuary 9, 2012. Many systems exist for evaluating player performance.  One such system, the Win Shares […]

World Series 2011 Observations

The 2011 World Series will be remembered as a great one despite an anti-climactic Game 7.  Before that there were 4 nail-biters plus Albert Pujols epic game and an unforgettable game 6. If ever there was a team of destiny, it’s the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals. Future regular season and World Series comebacks will be […]

The 2011 HOF Ballot – How Many REAL Hall of Famers?

The BBWAA 2011 Hall of Fame Ballot contains the names of thirty-three players that the baseball writers may vote for if they feel they belong in the Hall of Fame.  Of the thirty-three players, I view sixteen position players and four pitchers as “serious candidates.”  They are mentioned below. As we all know, the writers […]

Just How Good is Jim Thome?

Jim Thome recently passed Mark McGwire for the #9 spot on the all-time home run list with 584 round trippers.  So, an obvious question arises: Just how good is Jim Thome?  Or, better yet, does his career really reflect Hall of Fame numbers? The answer is Yes.  At the end of the 2009 season, Jim […]

Break Up the Astros

The Houston Astros finished the month of July with 4 straight wins, outscoring the opposition 25-2.  It was the first winning month for the Club with a record of 13-11.  Most of the credit goes to the pitchers with the starters compiling a 2.54 ERA, the best in the league for the month.  Brett Myers […]

What Ever Happened to the 2005 Houston Astros?

In the last week, Eric Bruntlett was released by the Washington Nationals, Jason Lane was released by the Florida Marlins, Adam Everett was designated for assignment by the Detroit Tigers and Mike Lamb was designated for assignment by the Marlins.  All four were members of the 2005 Houston Astros team that won the National League […]