ANAHEIM ANGELS Recalled LHP Juan Alvarez from Edmonton. [9/5] Juan Alvarez rejoins the mix for a left-handed reliever job in next year’s bullpen. While I think the Angels are best off with Mike Holtz and Bryan Ward, if Ward struggles, Alvarez can slip in. While none of this may sound that significant, how they perform…
Who has the best record in baseball? OK, the White Sox. Who has the biggest lead in any division? OK, the Cardinals. But do you know who has the second-best record and second-biggest lead? The San Francisco Giants. The mid-payroll, mid-talent, picked-in-the-middle-of-the-division San Francisco Giants are playing just shy of .600 ball and have just…
Previous articles in this series: Introduction Second Base Third Base Shortstop This is the fourth in a series of rankings of major-league defenders, highlighting the top ten and bottom five at each position. The ratings are a combination of Zone Rating, Range Factor and my best (and admittedly grossly flawed) assessment of the job they’re…
In keeping with a previous theme, what can the teams in the NL Central accomplish in the time remaining to them? St. Louis Cardinals The Cardinals have the next four weeks to sort out a few mission-critical issues if they want to help themselves going into the playoffs. First, they have to use the time…
(Peter Schoenke, President of RotoNewsDirect.com, provides a guest column this week that serves as a rebuttal to Keith Law’s two recent articles on revenue sharing.) We’re one week into the NFL season and football fans everywhere can get excited. Just about every fan at this point thinks their team can make the playoffs. So your…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Recalled 2B-R Justin Baughman and RHP Ben Weber from Edmonton; purchased the contract of LHP Bryan Ward from Edmonton; activated C-B Matt Walbeck from the DL. [9/1] No real surprises or issues here. Justin Baughman makes for a nifty pinch-runner, Ben Weber is one of a hundred guys who could end up being…
It’s fair to say that Pedro Martinez has locked up the American League Cy Young Award. I’d like to think of it as a small feather in our cap: at midseason, our informal poll gave all ten votes to Mr. Martinez, while many other polls gave some votes, even the award at that point, to…
A week ago, the American League wild-card chase looked like a six-team scramble, with none of the contenders emerging as a favorite. Now, however, we’re seeing some separation at both the top and the bottom of the standings. At the top of the list, the Cleveland Indians have won six of eight games and established…
PEDRO "A no-hitter is not what’s going to dictate what kind of pitcher I am. I think my career is more interesting than one game." — Pedro Martinez, Red Sox pitcher, on having his no-hitter broken in the ninth by John Flaherty "I want to remain professional. Sometimes, it becomes increasingly difficult when you’re given…
Many of you have seen the work of Jeff Hildebrand here at the Web site and in Baseball Prospectus 2000. Last night, he sent out this missive: OK, so the majors aren’t the only ones who can do some screwy things about playoffs. I just found out something really weird about the International League playoff…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Released 2B-R Trent Durrington. [8/29] Claimed RHP Ben Weber off of waivers from the Giants, and assigned him to Edmonton. [8/30] Trent Durrington should be headed for his home country to help represent Australia in the Olympics, a departure that created a free spot on the Angels’ 40-man roster. I don’t know if…
One of the things that I heard the Olympic Committee really wanted to get was "foot speed". I read that over and over, and it made me think that maybe they were going to go out of their way to get former major leaguers, like Vince Coleman, so they could steal some bases. They didn’t….
Yesterday’s column set a DP record for responses, and I want to thank everyone for the feedback. In the flood of responses, a few readers hit on the same two points, so I want to talk a little about them here. The first common thread was that I’d misinterpreted the actions of Andres Galarraga in…
Last Wednesday I wrote in detail about the Braves/Rockies game the previous night, the one that went 12 innings and ended with Brent Mayne as the winning pitcher. What I didn’t get much into was the circumstances that led up to Mayne’s appearance. But after last night’s fiasco in Tampa Bay, I want to take…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Purchased the contract of LHP Scott Karl from Lake Elsinore (A-ball); optioned LHP Juan Alvarez to Edmonton. [8/28] For as much as I think Scott Karl is on a downward slope and picking up steam, he’s still a better pitcher to have around than Ken Hill or Tim Belcher. Sure, the straight numbers…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Activated RHP Troy Percival from the DL; optioned RHP Brian Cooper to Edmonton. [8/26] Short-term, they look worse off because of the good job Shiggy Hasegawa had done as the closer, and because of Troy Percival’s grisly rate of blowing almost a quarter of his save opportunities. Percival’s loss of command has already…