On the final day of the 2000 season, Tampa Bay General Manager Chuck LaMar called manager Larry Rothschild into his office, or so the story goes. LaMar was all set to fire Rothschild, but a twinge of conscience overcame him after his manager sat down, and, as in a scene from a bad movie, he…
About three years ago, ESPN.com baseball columnist Rob Neyer told me he was planning to start his own Web site, one on which he could write about things that didn’t fit into his ESPN.com column. One of those things was our Kansas City Royals, which tended to occupy more space in his column than a…
The Arizona Diamondbacks are keeping it simple. Their philosophy of winning is not at all complicated. It isn’t predicated on some strange brand of aggressive baserunning, or a managerial zeal for sound fundamentals, or the ticking-time-bomb brand of big-inning baseball practiced by the Oakland A’s. No, the Diamondbacks’ theory on winning is this: hand the…
How important is Game 1? Statistically speaking, what are the odds that a team that lost Game 1 of a best-of-seven–in this case, the Yankees–can come back to take the series? To examine the issue, let’s simplify the question. Instead of looking at a best-of-seven, let’s start with a best-of-three series, like the one played…
I’ll never forget where I was ten years ago this Monday. It was not the kind of earth-shattering, life-changing moment that would forever alter the world in which we live, like the moment I heard about the Challenger disaster, or watching the horrors unfold six weeks ago. But like the first time I saw my…
All across America, people are incredulous that the New York Yankees have a date with the Seattle Mariners, while the Oakland A’s have a date with their golf pros. Everywhere you look, people are at a loss to explain what happened. How could the Oakland A’s, who many picked to go all the way, let…
We are a jaded society. The entertainment industry drowns us in hyperbole and excess, to the point where magazines devote their cover story to the outfits worn by celebrities to an award show. The sports industry is nearly as guilty, or haven’t you noticed that college players are being touted for the Heisman trophy in…
Many of you are aware of a column that I write in conjunction with ESPN.com columnist Rob Neyer. While "Rob & Rany on the Royals" is, at its heart, a discussion of the affairs of that fallen franchise, our comments frequently touch upon all major-league teams. I recently made the following point about the Royals’…
For this week’s column, I can either excoriate Allard Baird in print for the hundredth time, or I can open the ol’ mailbag. And since my lawyer friends insist that "battery" covers written as well as verbal threats, I’ll let reader Greg Godowsky defuse a touchy situation with his question: I don’t know if this…
Sean Burroughs is not content with being one of the best hitting prospects in all of baseball. He also wants to make his mark in the field of sabermetrics. In an interview with David Schoenfield, ESPN.com editor and one of the most underrated members of the sabermetric revolution, Burroughs gave a novel answer as to…
Is the American League still the hitters’ league? It may seem that the Junior Circuit has always been the league of inflated offense, as a result of–take your pick–weaker pitching, cozier ballparks, weaker pitching, smaller strike zones, and weaker pitching. That’s not the case. Prior to the installation of the DH in 1973, the two…
The Florida Marlins are trying to do the unthinkable. They’re doing their best to prove that yes, you can have too much pitching. Or, at the very least, too much young pitching. Dave Dombrowski, who has a nose for young pitching unlike any other GM today, has assembled a collection of young aces-in-training that is…
I think we all owe Oscar Acosta an apology. You might recall that back in spring training, Acosta created a huge stir in the Cubs’ spring training camp by questioning the manhood of some of the Cubs’ young pitchers, particularly Will Ohman and Carlos Zambrano. At the time, we all thought Acosta was nuts. It…
Before getting into this week’s column, I would like to make a pair of comments regarding last week’s feature on the amazing Ichiro Suzuki: I stated that, assuming Ichiro could continue to get hits in 95% of his games, that his chances of fashioning a 57-game hitting streak were extremely high. I did not mean…
Yesterday, Joe Sheehan wrote about the talents of Ichiro Suzuki. Today, I want to talk about how those talents have translated into some truly historic performances. Let’s start with one of Jayson Stark’s favorite facts, that Ichiro has already had a 15-game hitting streak and now has an active 21-game hitting streak, both in the…
When trying to come up with inspiration for the first Doctoring the Numbers segment of the new season, there is no better place to be than at the ballpark. I discovered this when I took in a matinee at Comerica Park last Thursday on a muggy Detroit afternoon. The Tigers had just deflated their crowd…