Minnesotans for Major League Baseball member Thomas Lang weighed in on last week’s The Imbalance Sheet by pointing me to that committee’s report on the Twins’ stadium situation: "The Twins’ claims that they can’t compete without a new stadium were obviously fraudulent before this year…" I object both to your conclusion and particularly strongly to…
While sporadically entering data for a follow up column on the Walk Gap, the following arrived in my inbox. Suffice to say Mike Rice does more justice to the topic than I can, so I’ll turn it today’s column over to him: I read your article on the "Walk Gap" last week and decided to…
This week’s tour takes us through the Mariners’ and Astros’ farm systems. Seattle Mariners: Early-Season Organizational Review Ichiro Suzuki isn’t the only reason the Mariners are this season’s Story. In 1998, they lost Randy Johnson. Before last season, they lost Ken Griffey Jr. Over the winter, it was Alex Rodriguez. And yet the Ms have…
I was hoping you would do a take on the drag bunt by Ben Davis that broke up Curt Schilling’s perfect game. Dave Campbell seems to feel that since the NL West is close, it was acceptable. I’m torn; I understand the point of the game is to win, but Curt Schilling, probably more than…
BARRY "To talk about it on May 21 is ridiculous. I could be hit by a truck tomorrow, then what? ‘He was on his way, but, damn, he got hit by a truck.’" — Barry Bonds, Giants outfielder, on his chances of breaking the single-season home-run record "We held Bonds to two home runs. That’s…
First off, I need to apologize to Brewer fans, to the state of Wisconsin, to anyone who has ever eaten cheese or watched more than two episodes of "Laverne & Shirley." Thursday, I mentioned that San Diego was the only place where I’d witnessed tailgating at a baseball game. When the article was posted, Chris…
A few months back, I was a guest on a radio program, and the topic of conversation was "the problem of baseball economics." This topic quite naturally came about because the evil Alex Rodriguez had decided to sign a mammoth contract to spend the next decade in Arlington, Tex. Terms like "competitive imbalance" and "small…
Yes, I know I promised more on the "walk gap," but that’s going to have to wait a couple of days. I’ll be able to do the legwork over the weekend and have more on the topic Monday. What I want to write about today is the baseball team I’ll be watching in a few…
Sometimes, readers make this job much easier. Here’s an email from Cris Enestvedt, regarding the stadium situation in Minnesota. You should be covering the MN situation if you’re into seeing owners get stiff-armed. A few years ago a referendum in St Paul went down 58% to 42%, but in this session a couple of new…
This week’s question was sent in by Andrea Trento: We all saw Barry Bonds’s ridiculous weekend, but lost in his home-run barrage has been the fact that he has seven singles so far this year. That’s 22 home runs, 10 doubles, and seven singles. His isolated slugging is .593, thanks to an .898 slugging percentage…
One of the things we’re always yammering about is control of the strike zone. We evaluate players based on their on-base percentage and walk rate and pitchers by their strikeout-to-walk ratio. We emphasize–some would say overemphasize–plate discipline for hitters and control for pitchers when we talk about minor leaguers, and often tout players for no…
Before getting into this week’s column, I would like to make a pair of comments regarding last week’s feature on the amazing Ichiro Suzuki: I stated that, assuming Ichiro could continue to get hits in 95% of his games, that his chances of fashioning a 57-game hitting streak were extremely high. I did not mean…
Yes, I know I promised more on the "walk gap," but that’s going to have to wait a couple of days. I’ll be able to do the legwork over the weekend and have more on the topic Monday. What I want to write about today is the baseball team I’ll be watching in a few…