Even though a strike date has now been set, the MLBPA’s decision to postpone setting a strike date earlier this week suggests that unlike in 1994, the owners and players are at least speaking the same language. The biggest, and probably only, stumbling block to an agreement is the parties’ split over revenue sharing and…
I spent almost all of yesterday on the phone with a wide range of people with various connections to the CBA negotiations. I can’t really put a coherent picture together of exactly where things are headed, but from what I heard yesterday, that puts me right in line with everyone else. Instead of trying to…
ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
Placed INF-L Craig Counsell on the 15-day DL (neck), retroactive to 8/9; activated C-R Damian Miller from the DL. [8/14]
Craig Counsell is sort of the Snakes’ de facto utility infielder, playing regularly but splitting his time between second, third and short. However, with the Paycheck Twins–Matt Williams and Jay Bell–both back off of the DL, and with Junior Spivey holding down second while Tony Womack keeps getting starts at short, the Snakes can afford to be without Counsell for a couple of weeks while his neck heals up. The way things are going, their lead in the NL West seems more likely to go to ten games before Labor Day than come down to five or less, especially with six of their next nine coming against the Cubs.
There never seems to be enough left-handed pitching to go around in the majors and to progress through the playoffs, having a quality portsider is almost mandatory. While the Oakland Athletics (Barry Zito and Mark Mulder) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (Kaz Ishii and Odalis Perez) are blessed with two quality southpaws, other clubs scrounge…
Baseball has an obligation to do revenue sharing the right way. According to Mike Jones’ market-size research, Kansas City is the smallest market with a major-league team. Jones pegs it as the 39th-largest market in the country, based largely on information from Nielsen. Using the latest data from the Census Bureau (which operates one of…
Yesterday, the executive council of the MLBPA declined to set a strike date, choosing instead to continue on in good faith, with the hopes that no strike date would be required, and a settlement could be reached. Speculation is that an agreement could come as early as the end of this week, and the specter…
The five-man rotation is a failure. I don’t mean to be overly dramatic here. I’m not trying to frame ‘failure’ in a pejorative sense, the way we might describe Tony Muser, or airport security pre-9/11, or Bud Selig’s ceaseless efforts to acquire a human soul. I use the term "failure" in a purely literal sense….
My first exposure to Bill James was in 1988, via his last Baseball Abstract. My friend Eddie Kneafsey lent it to me that summer. It remains my favorite Abstract, my favorite James book, really. It wasn’t just the ideas, but the writing style, the humor, and the love for baseball evident throughout the work. I read it and re-read it, finally giving it back to Eddie only because he was headed to Providence College that fall.
People complain that it’s unfair to some teams chasing the wild card. Perhaps, but with “natural rivalries” and bizarre interleague schedules, fairness has already been tossed out the window.
For the third straight year, the two best players in the American League–and the two best candidates for AL MVP–are the same guys: Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi. They lead the league in RARP and VORP, and it’s not all that close.
Off the top of my head, I can’t remember a three-year period in which the MVP argument–the real one, not the media-looking-for-the-best-story one–came down to the same two players each time. I’m leaning toward Rodriguez, the best player in the league, right now, but I don’t think it’s a lock just yet. The respective positions of the Yankees and Rangers are not a factor in my decision-making.
The unbalanced schedule rules. People complain that it’s unfair to some teams chasing the wild card. Perhaps, but with "natural rivalries" and bizarre interleague schedules, fairness has already been tossed out the window. At least divisional play can make for great matchups, unlike, say, the thrilling mid-week sweep of the Brewers by the A’s in…
Before the Chuck Finley deal, the Cardinals had only one hitting prospect. Now they have none.