Although most major teams head to spring training with enough players to fill two 25-man rosters, if all goes according to Hoyle, the winnowing of players the following six weeks is mainly a formality. This is as it should be, since personnel decisions shouldn’t be based on 45 at-bats or 15 innings pitched. Inevitably, however,…
A few years ago, in his Guide to Baseball Managers, Bill James suggested it might be a good idea to include job-specific data on the backs of baseball cards for managers, as a way of increasing our understanding of what managers do. The Stats Major League Handbook has, for some years, included charts of what…
With a nod to the thousands of fantasy players who will be attending auctions or drafts this weekend, here’s a short list of longshot breakout candidates–"sleepers," if you must–from the AL East. Calvin Maduro, Orioles — Maduro was an Oriole prospect in the mid-1990s before being traded to the Phillies in 1996. He floundered in…