A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the media uprising concerning the number of home runs being hit. At the time, there was a growing clamor that "something" had to be done, with the two most-common remedies bandied about being altering the baseball and raising the mound. What I believed, and still do, was…
First things first: my well-intentioned tribute at the end of yesterday’s column went horribly awry when I mixed in the wrong Robert. It was public-address announcer Bob Sheppard who the Yankees honored with a plaque in Monument Park on Sunday. Robert Merrill is well known as well, and also closely associated with the Yankees: he…
One of the best things about writing this column is the feedback I get from its readers. Since Baseball Prospectus debuted in 1996, it’s been lucky to have a loyal and knowledgeable following. It’s no stretch to say that the e-mail I receive on any one day contains more salient points than an entire year…
Yes, it’s quite possibly the dumbest headline ever, but it’s the best I could come up with to represent the opposite of "scars." Whereas yesterday we talked about the worst players on contending teams, today we’ll be talking about the people who deserve more playing time, the ones who are stuck riding benches six days…
The first week of May is still a bit early to be discussing anything in concrete terms. Sure, we can just about write off some teams (Detroit, Philadelphia) and make some early guesses as to who would look good at the top of a Rookie of the Year ballot (Rick Ankiel). For the most part,…
Helped by another performance by Jose Lima‘s Traveling Home Run Circus, the Cubs’ Kerry Wood made a successful return last night. He threw 95 pitches in six innings, allowing a run on three hits and four walks, striking out four and mixing in a two-run bomb to boot, as the Cubs won 11-1. It was…
Tonight, Kerry Wood will make his first major-league appearance since Game 3 of the 1998 National League Division Series. Coincidentally, he will face the Houston Astros, the team that helped vault him to prominence by striking out 20 times against him on May 6, 1998. The start will cap a comeback from Tommy John surgery…
Thursday’s column addressing the abundance of offense in baseball today inspired a significant amount of reader mail, most of it making salient points. I wanted to follow up on a couple of issues. A couple of people pointed out that I contradicted myself, claiming that there wasn’t enough evidence to say there was a "problem"…
It seems much of the mainstream media is up in arms over the continued surge in offense. It’s just three weeks into the season, and we’re hearing about how the ball needs to be changed, the mound needs to be raised, the bats need to be checked, the hitters need to be tested…pretty much everything…
Periodically, I’ll be taking a look at the 30 teams as a whole and ranking them based on where they stand at that moment in time. These rankings will be based primarily on the the team’s truest indicator of actual ability–runs scored and allowed–but will also take into account other factors. Take these rankings with…
Yesterday, I talked about the long winning streaks assembled by the Braves and Mets. The Mets stretched theirs to eight games Monday by beating the Dodgers 1-0, while the Braves had the day off. But even with that success, neither team is the best story in the division. The best story in the division is…
No sooner did I finish reading an e-mail Friday night from Paul Covert, with an excellent analysis of the relative chances of Ryan Klesko and Orlando Cabrera, than Klesko drew his first walk of the season and effectively ended the inaugural DiSar Awards competition. Benji Gil‘s Cinderella run at Jacque Jones had ended earlier that…
Your friendly neighborhood columnist had one too many Cadbury Creme Eggs–thank god these things are seasonal–while watching Randy Johnson, so he’ll send you into the weekend with whatever random things pop into his head: A number of you have written in to let me know that Jacque Jones walked twice on Tuesday night. Jones’s first…
For your enjoyment, here are two pitching performances: Pitcher A: 4 IP, 2.25 ERA Pitcher B: 5 1/3 IP, 11.81 ERA Sure, it’s a small sample size, so maybe it doesn’t mean that much. Let’s look at a larger sample: Pitcher A: 73 IP, 5.47 ERA Pitcher B: 147 1/3 IP, 5.62 ERA Hmmm…not much…
News and notes from the division’s affiliates: Baltimore: Two pitching prospects who had poor springs on and off the field are going in opposite directions at Triple-A Rochester. Jason Johnson is trying to reclaim is spot in the Birds’ rotation, allowing just runs in his first three starts. With neither Jose Mercedes nor Calvin Maduro…
With last night’s dismantling of the Rangers, the Yankees have won seven straight games. Five of those wins have been over the Texas Rangers, who really have to be considering the merits of the National League, or the Mexican League, or the League of Nations–hell, any league that doesn’t include the Yankees–at this point. The…