Comparing the Cliff Lee Hauls

Two weeks and three starts ago, the Texas Rangers swooped into the mix and pulled off a trade with the Seattle Mariners for starting pitcher Cliff Lee – easily the most coveted pitcher available this season. Despite the weeks of rumors, there was little said about the likelihood of Texas being able to make a […]

Exciting Times In Cardinal Nation

You know things are going good when a late-inning win to extend a lengthy winning streak is the second most talked about story today. Let’s take the game first, though, before we get into the trade rumor that popped up last night.  We’ve talked about it before, but one of the great things about this winning streak […]

Just How Good is Pedro Martinez?

It does appear at this point that Pedro Martinez is probably retired so this may be a good time to ask: Just how good was Pedro and does he have the numbers to justify induction into the Hall of Fame? Of course, this question is related to the broader question of whether there is an […]

Con una basta (One run is enough)

Los juegos que se deciden con marcador 1-0 guardan una intensidad emocional, tras cada jugada que crece a través de los innings, el esfuerzo de los lanzadores es más notorio y en cada jugada al campo reverbera la posibilidad de que alguna marfilada pueda estropear la magia de los pitchers.

Cardinals Continue To Roll

What’s been the most encouraging thing during this current Cardinal winning streak is that they keep winning in different ways.  The first couple of games, they slugged.  They’ve had good pitching performances.  They’ve had comebacks.  They’ve beaten pitchers that normally give them fits. Everything save the comebacks came into play last night.  OK, they didn’t really […]

Are Innings Limits Here to Stay?

If Hamlet had been a modern general manager in Major League Baseball instead of the tragic heir to the Danish throne, the doomed Dane would have morosely uncovered the reports on his young talented pitchers and mournfully deliberated: “To cap or not to cap, that is the question.” Innings limits have become ubiquitous as front […]

Touring The Bases With…Randy Jones

Former major league hurler Randy Jones spent only 10 years in the bigs and lost more games than he won, going 100-123 for the San Diego Padres and New York Mets, but for two magical seasons, he was among the best pitchers in the game.  After leading the National League in losses with 22 in […]

Another Brick in the Wall

Is Strasburg’s looming debut next Tuesday more important for the future of the Nationals, or Roy Oswalt’s admission on Tuesday of this week, that he would accept a trade to Washington? The two are inextricably linked.  Oswalt’s view that there are good things going on in Washington redounds to the excitement Strasburg is generating, but […]

Fun Facts about the 19 (no, 20) Perfect Games in MLB History

A while back I completed a project of chronicling most of major league baseball’s perfect games. What fun is that if you can’t make out a list of trivia about the games? So yes, the following list (updated to include Braden’s feat, and Halladay’s) is trivial—but then, much of life is trivia, and sometimes trivia […]

Dousing the Flames

My, have the one-time accessories known as pitchers evolved. You see, when baseball began, pitchers served as a launching pad for batters’ rockets. Standing 50 feet from their counterpart, only a few moments snuck by before their rockets went up, up and away on contact. As recently as 1980, relievers milled around in the shadows. […]

Their Reputation Preceeds Them

You know that going into San Diego, it’s going to be a tough place to score runs.  The park is designed for pitching and the Padres usually take advantage of that with some pretty solid pitchers.  Last night was a textbook example of that. Even though Adam Wainwright deserved so much better, striking out 12 […]

Minor Happenings: Santana Continues To Destroy AAA

“Minor Happenings” is a weekly column which covers the important developments and news in the Indians farm system. While most of the information in this report is from my own research and through interviews I have conducted with organizational personnel, some information in this report is collected and summarized from the various news outlets that […]

That Night, They Were Men

Recently I was showing the photo album of my bar mitzvah to some long-lost cousins who only vaguely remembered attending it. Even with the help of the photos, I don’t remember all that much about it myself. I do know that it was the last time I ever spoke–much less chanted–in Hebrew. I ate, danced, […]

The 21st Century Hall of Famers

Here is an interesting question.  How many of the “great baseball players” of modern times have fans of the game been able to see during the 21st century (since 2001)?  Let’s first take a look at this question for position players and then for pitchers. The Position Players At the end of the 2009 season, […]

Minor Happenings: Bo Knows Baseball

“Minor Happenings” is a weekly column which covers the important developments and news in the Indians farm system. While most of the information in this report is from my own research and through interviews I have conducted with organizational personnel, some information in this report is collected and summarized from the various news outlets that […]

Whatever happened to finish what you start?

For some reason, I can’t get Joe Girardi’s comments about possibly pulling C.C. Sabathia in the late innings of his start against Tampa Bay on Saturday, April 10 with a no-hitter intact because of his rising pitch count out of my head.  I understand that high pitch counts, especially early on in the season, can […]

Dark Horse Comes Galloping Up the Stretch

The Cardinals had a pretty eventful weekend, even with their Sunday game being rained out.  More data points for decisions were made and one possible move was revealed.  Spring training is so much fun, isn’t it? The biggest news of the weekend was likely the announcement that Adam Ottovino is in the running for a […]

How to Get Your Phillies Phix

Hardcore Phillies Phan? Looking to take your Phandom to a new level? Want to be the Phillies Guru at work? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions then the Maple Street Press 2010 Phillies Annual is a must have. The kind people at MSP provided me with a complimentary copy of their publication […]

Garcia Makes a Statement

Even though the Cardinals lost to the Nationals yesterday, they were able to take something away from it.  Jaime Garcia isn’t interested in Memphis. Garcia struck out seven batters in three innings, allowing no runs and just one hit and a walk.  Of  course, you adjust that for competition, since the Nationals aren’t known for […]

Rambling on About My Glory Days – Greatness Comes in Big and Little Sizes

I usually get these questions from my students “Who did you play for?” or “What position did you play?” Adults usually follow up with “Who was the best pitcher you ever faced?” and “Who was the best player you ever played with or against?” I assume all former major league players get the same questions. […]

Johan Santana: Su rutina entre juegos (Johan Santana: His routine between games)

Uno de los grandes misterios del béisbol para los aficionados y quizás también para muchos analistas profesionales y aún para los rivales tiene que ver con la secuencia de actividades que asume cada pitcher luego de realizar una apertura. Muchos hablan de que la relación con el catcher es determinante, otros que el manager influye […]

The Game That Brought Me Home

Last night, I watched the first inning of the greatest baseball game I never saw. That’s all, just the first inning. The rest of the game can wait, because it was the baseball equivalent of the proverbial 40-pound bag of Oreos. You wouldn’t want to devour it as soon as you open it, and you […]

Still Just Spring Training

At least there was a reason. Brad Penny was one of the most intriguing names brought into St. Louis during the offseason.  A lot of us were interested to see what this guy, who had been a very successful pitcher in the past, could do with Dave Duncan’s tutelage.  So seeing the results yesterday would […]

Let’s Play Some Ball

I check the weather forecast and it’s supposed to be in the sixties this weekend.  I can see the sun coming up earlier and earlier and staying up later and later.  Those might be signs, but the real indicator that spring is returning comes today, as the Cardinals take on another MLB team.  Baseball games […]

When Charlie Keller Tried to Come Back

In the spring of 1947, the Yankees’ Charlie Keller was at his peak as a power hitter. Now 30 years old, he’d long ago mastered the kind of left-handed swing New York management had envisioned when they signed Keller off the University of Maryland campus; he was the consummate pull-hitter, routinely muscling the ball into […]

A Proper Frame for Stephen Strasburg

Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson left southern California in 1907 a shy young man who was uncertain why the Washington Senators thought he was going to be a star. Manager Cantillon had heard from scouts the kid was a unique talent-77 straight scoreless innings, 166 strikeouts in eleven games. Now, a century later, another […]

Questions, Answers and Tigers…

I was recently asked to give my two cents about the upcoming Tigers season.  Being one to never turn down an opportunity to speak my mind (well, lets be honest it’s not like people have to ask, I just do it) here are some of my opinions, thoughts and quandries about the upcoming 2010 season… […]

It’s Like Being There

Maybe it’s just me, but with the coverage we are getting from Jupiter, it’s almost like being there.  After a session reading all this stuff in front of my computer, I’m bitterly disappointed to go outside to 30 degree weather.  Let’s bring on the spring already! Last night Andrew from Pitchers Hit Eighth and I […]

Talk and Action

As everyone knows by now, the pitchers, the catchers and other assorted players and Cardinal brass showed up in Jupiter yesterday. The hitting coach dwarfed them all. Mark McGwire came to camp yesterday and, as he often does, stole the spotlight.  This time, in my mind, it was in a positive way, as he talked […]

The Top 40 Pitchers of the 20th Century

Bill James’ WIN SHARES system is the ultimate baseball statistic currently available to judge exactly how good a season a player had. That is the view of Dr. Michael Hoban -retired mathematics professor and serious baseball analyst. And that is why the professor has used WIN SHARES in his new book to create a new […]

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