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…
John Sickels is my favorite baseball writer. He writes a regular column for ESPN.com, pens the annual STATS Minor League Scouting Notebook, and produces an outstanding semi-weekly e-mail newsletter focusing on the minor leagues. Sickels’s newsletter, launched this season, is insightful, entertaining, and packed with interesting and relevant information. It’s a great read for all…
I was ready to write a 6-4-3 this week that gave Cam Bonifay as fond a farewell as possible, focusing on his tremendous deal that brought Brian Giles to the Pirates in exchange for Ricardo Rincon. It was an absolutely masterful deal, one that could have been the cornerstone for a very successful franchise. Mr….
BYE BYE BONIFAY "When we are ready to make the announcement, we’ll announce it." — Cam Bonifay, Pirates GM, on Derek Bell’s return from the DL "To Derek’s credit, he’s given us every effort. He works hard. He does everything he’s asked to do. He just needs to get healthy. People will say the Derek…
One of the more unlikely record-holders in baseball history is Bobby Thigpen, whose single-season mark of 57 saves, set in 1990, has never been seriously challenged. The record has the scent of a accident all over it; the White Sox closer shattered the previous record of 46 saves, set by the Yankees‘ Dave Righetti in…
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OK, so the mistake I made was not reiterating my position on the All-Star voting, and simply including a pointer to last year’s article. Lazy mistake. Here’s the relevant quote: Regardless of how you define the term, though, it seems obvious that this is what the All-Star Game is about: seeing the best players in…
ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT "Teams not hitting are the teams not walking. All great hitters wait for their pitch to come to them–Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, [Barry] Larkin. That’s why Larkin always hits .300 and why he always hits well in the clutch." — Bob Boone, Reds manager "I think the main…
I’m a little amazed at the gap between the two leagues right now. I think if you put together a list of the top 50 players in the game, some inordinate percentage of them would be in the NL. This is tempered somewhat by the AL having the two best players in baseball in Pedro…