All Hail The Unit Early on, the divisional race looks to be between the Diamondbacks (21-10 as this is written) and the Dodgers (17-13, 3 1/2 games back). If there’s a dominant force that created this situation, his name is Randy Johnson, who is 7-0 with an ERA lower than Mickey Mantle‘s blood alcohol count….
LOSING WAYS “I come to the ballpark every day thinking we’re going to win. I don’t know what to say or how I feel. It’s hard. We’re here to win and we’re not doing a very good job of it.” — Terry Francona, Phillies manager “When you have a tough losing streak, I don’t know…
Yes, it’s quite possibly the dumbest headline ever, but it’s the best I could come up with to represent the opposite of "scars." Whereas yesterday we talked about the worst players on contending teams, today we’ll be talking about the people who deserve more playing time, the ones who are stuck riding benches six days…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Purchased the contract of RHP Eric Weaver from Edmonton; designated IF Keith Johnson for assignment. [5/2] Having Eric Weaver around gives Mike Scioscia the option to use a right-hander as the fifth starter instead of automatically going with Kent Mercker, at least notionally. The expectation that Tim Belcher isn’t too far from being…
The first week of May is still a bit early to be discussing anything in concrete terms. Sure, we can just about write off some teams (Detroit, Philadelphia) and make some early guesses as to who would look good at the top of a Rookie of the Year ballot (Rick Ankiel). For the most part,…
The upcoming end of the 20th century has inspired a great deal of reflection and list-making. Baseball fans have been subjected to Major League Baseball’s "All-Century Team" as well as Top 100 player Purchase Baseball Dynasties at amazon.com or bn.com lists from every publication this side of Good Housekeeping. From a team standpoint, there was…
Helped by another performance by Jose Lima‘s Traveling Home Run Circus, the Cubs’ Kerry Wood made a successful return last night. He threw 95 pitches in six innings, allowing a run on three hits and four walks, striking out four and mixing in a two-run bomb to boot, as the Cubs won 11-1. It was…
And You Thought the Big Story was Home Runs The National League single-season record for walks drawn was set by the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, who worked their opponents for 732 free passes. This season, no less than three NL teams are on pace to shatter that record through the end of April: the Astros (845-walk…
Peter Bergeron, the young Expos center fielder, has something as rarely seen in Quebec as a sweet-smelling separatist: good plate discipline. Baseball Prospectus 2000 projected him at .300/.376/.419 this year, but he’s hitting .227/.299/.241. I hope this is only an amazingly bad month, because Bergeron has shown thoughtout his minor-league career that he’s a hitting…
Tonight, Kerry Wood will make his first major-league appearance since Game 3 of the 1998 National League Division Series. Coincidentally, he will face the Houston Astros, the team that helped vault him to prominence by striking out 20 times against him on May 6, 1998. The start will cap a comeback from Tommy John surgery…
Well, so much for baseball’s tightest division. The NL Central was supposed to be a three-team race with the Reds, Cardinals and Astros all closer than Angelina Jolie and her brother. Instead, the Cardinals have shot out of the gate like Secretariat, while the Reds and Astros are desperately trying to right their ships while…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Claimed OF Scott Morgan off of waivers from the Indians and placed him on the 40-man roster; transferred OF Jeff DaVanon from the 15- to the 60-day DL. [4/28] Optioned RHP Lou Pote to Edmonton; recalled LHP Mike Holtz from Edmonton. [4/29] Placed RHP Jason Dickson on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 4/29…
Thursday’s column addressing the abundance of offense in baseball today inspired a significant amount of reader mail, most of it making salient points. I wanted to follow up on a couple of issues. A couple of people pointed out that I contradicted myself, claiming that there wasn’t enough evidence to say there was a "problem"…
While everyone was talking about Florida’s hot start–prior to their five-game losing streak–no one noticed that the Phillies were getting phlattened, to the tune of 7-16. The culprit? The Phillies are dead last in the National League with 82 runs scored. That’s an average of 3.6 runs a game, a number that seems respectable until…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Activated SS Gary DiSarcina from the DL; optioned IF Keith Johnson to Edmonton. [4/24] Activated RHP Elvin Nina from the DL and assigned him to Erie (Double-A). [4/25] Finally resurfacing after too much quality time in Calgary, Benji Gil managed to demonstrate that there’s still no reason to consider him to be more…
Baseball has suspended 16 players and fined nine as a result of the White Sox/Tigers brawls that marred Saturday’s game. Baseball Vice President Frank Robinson is quoted as saying, "Altercations like the one that took place in Chicago last week show a lack of sportsmanship. It sends the wrong message to our fans–particularly young people….