The Great Imbalancer went away, conducting some major business transactions of his own, but he’s back because he’s needed. The lies and filth of MLB ownership are starting to build like dot-com resumes in a recruiter’s inbox. The latest is a real classic: John Henry, new owner of the Florida Marlins and perhaps holder of…
The American League Rookie of the Year Award has been considered a foregone conclusion since about early May, thanks to the hot starts of the Mariners and their first-year sensation, Ichiro Suzuki. Should it be, though? Here are the performances of Ichiro and the Indians’ C.C. Sabathia: AVG OBP SLG PA SB/CS EqA RARP Rank…
YES, SARGE "Early in his career, Sammy [Sosa] was very similar. He wanted to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but he wouldn’t get a good pitch. That’s just a matter of not waiting long enough. But he was aggressive. That was his mind-set. If you look at Sammy now, he’s a much more…
"I have this strange feeling of…deja-vu…" "I have this strange feeling of…deja-vu…" "I have this strange feeling of…deja-vu…" Only on "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" could this happen. Or maybe at Wrigley Field, where the worries about Kerry Wood‘s health are constant. Two weeks ago, ominous creaking sounds began to emanate from Wood’s right shoulder. At…
Two weeks ago, I asked readers to put themselves in the shoes of the management of the Kansas City Royals, turn back the clock to about a week before the Jermaine Dye trade, and come up with suggestions on how to best run the franchise. Last week, I did my best to share the flavor…
My previous column on reaching-base-via-error rates for batters generated the most responses yet in the short life of this column, which I think warrants a follow-up column responding to some of the reader mail on the topic. By far the most common point made by readers was that I neglected to consider handedness when I…
There’s a segment of informed, intelligent baseball fans who would prefer that performance analysts spend less time criticizing the management of MLB teams. The notion that "they may know things we don’t" is popular in some circles, and is used as a defense for decisions that we, as informed outsiders, find bizarre or even infuriating….
I wrote something similar to what follows a year ago, but I think it’s a concept worth repeating. Over the last week or so, I’ve managed to up the flow into my inbox by about 50%. I did this by, in no particular order, making a lousy choice of lead in a column with political…
THE DEBATE CONTINUES The Dowd investigation was both sloppy and biased against Rose, and it doesn’t come all that close to proving what it claims to prove. Yes, someone was betting on baseball games. But it easily could have been Paul Janzsen, Rose’s chief accuser making the bets for himself rather than for Rose. Perhaps…
Yesterday’s article on Wrigley Field, in which I pointed out that Wrigley has not been a great hitters’ park for the past two seasons, generated some e-mail questions about park effects. I get a handful of these whenever I mention that this park or that park is good or bad for run scoring, but I’ve…
Last week, I wrote an article for ESPN.com about the Cy Young race in the National League. The article focused on the three popular contenders, and concluded that Randy Johnson was the favorite, ahead of Curt Schilling and Greg Maddux. The only other pitcher mentioned was the Cardinals’ Darryl Kile. The mail I’ve received on…
WOULD ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME SMELL HALF AS SWEET? "I’ve been accused of everything. But I’ve never been accused of being a cocaine dealer and a drug seller before. All I can tell you is, you’d better have credible evidence if you’re gonna write that kind of stuff." —Pete Rose, in a Jayson Stark…
Andy Pratt is a young left-handed starter in an organization that’s in desperate need of big-league pitching help. Pratt pitched well in middle-A and high-A ball in 1999 and 2000, posting ERAs under 3.00 with very good peripheral numbers, including a 195 to 42 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 164 1/3 innings. He struggled in making the…