I guess I’m supposed to be more excited. As many of you know, I was born and raised in New York City, and while I have lived in Southern California for more than ten years–picking up a degree, a wife and an aversion to wind-chill factors along the way–I’ve never let go of my affection…
A few random notes from the LCSs: Tony LaRussa’s decision to use Darryl Kile on three days’ rest has opened him to some criticism. I don’t think this was LaRussa’s best performance, but I can’t argue with that decision. Kile threw fewer than 90 pitches in Game One and LaRussa’s pitching was a mess with…
Over at ESPN.com there’s a piece on the greatest World Series games since 1975, as chosen by the BP staff. The piece has generated a lot of e-mail, and I want to address some of the issues raised. As a general rule, a game is the sum of its parts. In the same way that…
One of the longest-lived cliches about sports coverage is the second-guess. The longer I do this, the more I dislike sitting in front of my computer and criticizing the moves of people who are very accomplished in their chosen field. Not because the criticism is undeserved, but because I feel like it doesn’t add anything…
The Red Sox, a symbol of frustration, ineptitude and the cynicism of New England’s finest, are for sale. The Jean R. Yawkey Trust has controlled 53% of the team since Jean Yawkey died in 1992, and the team has been in the Yawkey family since 1933. John Harrington, a Yawkey family advisor and the closest…
Every year at around this time, the staff of Baseball Prospectus likes to engage in a complete exercise in futility. I’m not talking about Somersizing, resolving to balance the checkbook for the rest of the year or attempting to teach Derek Zumsteg the wonders of laying off the curve ball. What we end up doing…
Last night, the Mariner bullpen continued to pitch like something out of a W.P. Kinsella novel, getting the last seven outs of a 2-0 win in Game One of the ALCS. For the third straight game, they backed up a great start, this time by Seattle’s Freddy Garcia. Garcia had a great fastball all night;…
Previous articles in this series: Introduction Second Base Third Base Shortstop Left Field This is the fifth 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 mammothly flawed) assessment of the…
The Mets weren’t supposed to get past the Giants, and everyone sort of had the Braves set as the default option to always keep the western world safe from a subway series. Praise be to the power of the unexpected, as two teams built to win this year managed to upset the favorites and tackle…
PLAYOFF SWEEPS "I can’t tell you exactly what he said. It’s a secret we have to keep under the sheets. I guess it was a moment of truth. He wanted to shore things up and make sure I was comfortable." — Mike Cameron, Mariners outfielder "I told him the Nasdaq was down 113 points and…
Last week’s assertion that Armando Rios getting thrown out at third base in the tenth inning of NLCS Game Two wasn’t such a big deal generated a flood of e-mail, even more than Gary Huckabay’s famous "I Love You, Britney" piece from late 1998. (Sadly, she never responded; Gary still can’t listen to "Sometimes" without…
A rematch of what remains the only good thing to come out of the new playoff format, 1995’s Yankee/Mariner series. No Joey Cora this time, so we’re unlikely to see anyone go from home to first by way of Redmond. Lineups (AVG/OBP/SLG/Equivalent Average) (Ed. Note: For players who played for multiple teams, their EqA only…
OK, as an A’s fan I now have to swallow the same advice I’ve been offering to grieving White Sox fans for the last couple of days: this year is just the first of many steps in what ought to be a great decade for both teams, and whatever gets accomplished, it will be valuable…
Now that Davey Johnson’s pink slip has surfaced from a long lurk in the Dodgers’ interoffice mail, there are five managers out of work. Within the next couple of weeks, we’ll probably see Jimy Williams and Jim Fregosi join the list. While it makes for nifty trivia that no manager was fired in-season, the firings…
Just what is it about the Mets that they play these amazing postseason games? They played two of these against the Diamondbacks in the Division Series last year, then three more against the Braves in the NLCS. They were also in the middle of The Greatest Postseason Ever, 1986, which included maybe the best LCS…
Below is my ballot for this year’s Internet Baseball Awards. I’m not going to get too deeply into explaining the choices, but I will provide a general description of my rationale in putting together each ballot. If you’d like to vote in the IBAs, go to the page here at Baseball Prospectus and cast your…