Some people are up in arms over Scott Boras’s comment, made during an ESPN.com chat session, that he has talked with Cardinals’ GM Walt Jocketty about Rick Ankiel‘s pitch counts. The idea that an agent–The Evil One, no less–would have a say in how a player is used in a game is anathema to many…
The Muser Extension The Kansas City Royals gave manager Tony Muser a two-year contract extension last week. Judging from the reaction of the many passionate Royals fans I’ve heard from, the team’s chances of reaching the postseason any time this decade officially expired with the move. That may be overstating the situation, but when a…
ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS Placed RF/1B Travis Lee on the 15-day DL (strained groin); purchased the contract of OF Turner Ward from Tucson. [5/25] Placed RHP Todd Stottlemyre on the 15-day DL (sore elbow); recalled RHP Vicente Padilla from Tucson. [5/30] Placed 1B Erubiel Durazo on the 15-day DL (torn cartilage – wrist); recalled 2B Craig Counsell…
Here’s the rest of my ballot. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about possible changes baseball can make to stop the surge in triple plays. When they’re this common, they become cheap and they lose their luster. A special baseball moment is now just another part of the highlights package. Even Tony Womack can be a part of…
Wrigley Field You know, you’re absolutely right when you said that the Cubs should have been punished because of the lax security around the bullpen, which could have prevented the brawl. You’re right the Cubs shouldn’t allow their fans to get hammered beyond comprehension (maybe instituting a "No Beer after the Seventh Inning" rule at…
The Yankees and Red Sox played a great series last weekend. And while there are 159 other games in the season, those three had the kind of drama that baseball lives on: a long-standing rivalry, bred in neighborhoods, handed down from parent to child like a family heirloom, nursed by patriots in foreign cities. This…
I promised to take you through my All-Star ballot, so here goes. Note that I’m not doing this by league, but by position. Infield today, catcher and outfield tomorrow, and no doubt a lot of nasty reader e-mail Friday. Remember the standard: the player who I consider to be the best in the league at…
Of Hits and Misses Bobby Bonds set the all-time single-season record for strikeouts with 189 in 1970, and his mark has weathered repeated challenges since. Mike Schmidt, Pete Incaviglia, Rob Deer and Cecil Fielder all struck out at least 180 times in a season. Bonds’s record has survived despite rampant whiff inflation throughout baseball in…
The Series–and you know what I’m talking about: The Series–is over. Throughout the New York/Boston media axis, sportswriters are returning to their blissful slumber, and as we enter the month of June, the New York Yankees find themselves in unfamiliar territory: second place. It’s really fairly incredible that a three-game series in late May can…
The Dodger Bullpen One of the problems Davey Johnson had in his first year as the Dodger manager was a lack of bench options, especially left-handed ones. Over the winter, Kevin Malone worked to get him more balance, trading away Eric Young and Raul Mondesi while bringing Shawn Green and F.P. Santangelo. Along with increased…
Two weeks ago, at the Angels/Orioles game in Anaheim, I filled out my All-Star ballot. Two, to be exact. When I was younger, I used to fill out as many as I could before the sixth inning, when the ushers at Yankee Stadium–back when they had ushers–would come around and collect them. There were "favorites"…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Outrighted RHP Brett Hinchliffe to Edmonton; recalled RHP Seth Etherton from Edmonton. [5/25] Seth Etherton tops off what’s beginning to look like the Angels’ rotation for their next contender: him, Jarrod Washburn, Scott Schoeneweis and Brian Cooper. Etherton, nabbed out of USC in the first round of the 1998 draft, throws harder than…
The American League held an early-season barnburner over the weekend as the teams battling for the leads in the East and Central divisions went head-to-head. The series in New York got most of the attention, thanks in part to two of the games showing up on national television. The Red Sox took two of three…
One of the great things about baseball is that no matter how many games you’ve seen, there’s always the chance that you’ll see something you’ve never seen before. What’s true at the game level is equally true at the seasonal level: each season, there is that delicious possibility that some team will do something–or have…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Placed RHP Mark Petkovsek on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 5/17 (virus). [5/22] Recalled RHP Brian Cooper from Edmonton. [5/23] So far, the rotation is safe from Ken Hill and Tim Belcher; they both need more time to recuperate from their injuries. In some ways, bringing Brian Cooper up for the fourth spot…
We’re probably long past the issue of whether or not the pennant races were corrupted by the introduction of divisional play in 1969. We’re also beyond questioning whether they were harmed by the strike, lockout or industry-wide flight from having a postseason in 1994. So let’s bury the past and move on to the latest…