IMPRESSIVE DEBUTS "I felt pretty good throughout the game. As I was going into the ninth inning, I was not nervous." —Hideo Nomo, Red Sox pitcher, on throwing a no-hitter in his first Red Sox start "I wasn’t looking for anything. I was just trying to see the ball and hit it." —Manny Ramirez, Red…
By far, the most common question showing up in my mailbox this week–during those periods when I’ve actually had access to my e-mail, thank you, Time Warner–concerns Red Sox third baseman Shea Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand, who did not make the cut for Baseball Prospectus 2001, did make the Sox roster thanks to a .423 batting average…
Two weeks ago, the Cincinnati Reds undid perhaps the best part of last July’s trade in which they sent a broken-down Denny Neagle to the Yankees for four prospects, one of which was erstwhile college football star Drew Henson. Henson’s situation illustrates a problem far more important for competitive balance than disparities in the free-agent…
Two days into the Alex Rodriguez era in Texas, and already some people have gone completely insane. In two games, Rodriguez is 3-for-8, all singles, with no walks and four strikeouts. He’s stolen a base and made an error, and had an embarrassing moment or two in Sunday’s game in Puerto Rico. One way to…
Baseball Prospectus 2001 contains Wilton projections for more than 800 hitters. Last week at ESPN.com, we took a look at what Wilton projected for the major categories, noting that the system projects a Triple Crown for Alex Rodriguez and an RBI record for Todd Helton. Now that Opening Day rosters have been set, let’s take…
Our long national nightmare is over. What a difference a year makes, particularly if you’re Mike Hampton. Kicking off the 2000 season in Tokyo with the Mets, Hampton was wilder than Drew Barrymore at 12, walking seven hitters, falling behind a bunch more and barely pitching into the sixth inning. Cut to yesterday, and Hampton…
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Now that we’ve released this season’s Top 40 Prospects list, we’re evaluating our list from a year ago to see what we can learn. As we did last season, we will compare our ranking of each player with the ranking given to them by two premier publications,…
[I’d like to note that the April 1 Week In Quotes was an April Fool’s joke and entirely made up. We now return to actual quotes, already in progress] CAREER EXTENSIONS "This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey." —Rickey Henderson, Padres outfielder, in a message left on the answering machine of Padres general manager…
The season has started! The season has started! OK, I’m a complete geek, but how can you help but be excited if you’re a baseball nut? Yesterday’s opener was the appetizer, and today brings about a half-schedule of games (including seven on TV in my area). Without further ado, here are my NL predictions. Unlike…
National League East JeffBower ClayDavenport JeffHildebrand GaryHuckabay RanyJazayerli ChrisKahrl KeithLaw AtlantaBraves 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 New YorkMets 2 2 2 3 2 1 3 FloridaMarlins 3 4 3 2 4 4 4 MontrealExpos 4 5 5 4 3 3 2 PhiladelphiaPhillies 5 3 4 5 5 5 5 MatOlkin DavePease JoeSheehan MichaelWolverton…
REPEAT OFFENDER "As an organization, we’ve always been big supporters of Mark Quinn, but both Dee Brown and Raul Ibanez had great camps and we needed to make room. By trading for Jason Isringhausen and Frank Menechino, we now have the best bullpen in the league and a veteran utility player who can provide offense…
American League East JeffBower ClayDavenport JeffHildebrand GaryHuckabay RanyJazayerli ChrisKahrl KeithLaw New YorkYankees 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 BostonRed Sox 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 TorontoBlue Jays 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Tampa BayDevil Rays 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 BaltimoreOrioles 5 5 5 5 5 5 5…
Sorry about yesterday, folks: technical difficulties kept this from getting up. Look for my NL predictions Saturday. The American League looks to be a little less interesting than the NL this year. The gap between the league’s best teams and the next tier down is fairly significant, and there are more AL teams with no…