Yeah, But You Should See Their Outfielders Despite 25 World Championships, the New York Yankees have usually gotten by with mediocre shortstops. Phil Rizzuto is in the Hall of Fame, but only partly on merit, and he was the Yankees’ only great shortstop. Until now. Derek Jeter‘s power is his weak link in comparison to…
Roy White has been the Triple-A batting coach for the Oakland Athletics since 1999. He came over from the New York Yankees, where he was a scout, international scout and the organizational outfield coach. He played 15 seasons in the majors, all with the Yankees from 1965 through 1979, never getting much recognition despite being…
It hasn’t been as bad as recent Aprils, but fantasy baseball players have taken their share of hits this month. Most recently, Bartolo Colon‘s rib cage tear has landed him on the DL for a couple of weeks. He joins Kevin Brown, Rusty Greer, Damion Easley and Brian Jordan as prominent fantasy contributors who, well,…
To quote a commercial I saw far too often this weekend: "Too much good stuff." That was baseball the past few days, one of those weekends that had all the variety and all the storylines that keep fans coming back year after year. The biggest story was in Minnesota, of all places, where Cal Ripken…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Released RHP Tom Candiotti. [4/1] Purchased the contracts of LHP Kent Mercker and SS Benji Gil. [4/2] Activated LHP Jarrod Washburn from the 15-day DL and optioned him to Edmonton. [4/9] Optioned RHP Mike Fyhrie to Edmonton; placed SS Gary DiSarcina on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 4/9 (bruised thumb); activated RHP Ramon…
The new Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco is a lovely place to watch a baseball game, interesting and quirky, if lacking in the history that only time will help it accumulate. In all the media coverage of the new ballyard, though, what doesn’t come across is just how goofy the park is. Pac Bell…
It happens every year: some team sprints out of the gate like Ban Johnson on a ‘roid rage, and the media hordes trample one another trying to grab hold of the bandwagon before Tax Day. When it’s a team like the Cardinals, who were already a trendy pick to make the playoffs before the season…
It’s tough for me to believe that there will be a runaway winner in the division this year. The Diamondbacks, so good last season, still feature an old offense that may not play up to last year’s standards. The Dodgers, despite quite a bit of individual talent, sport the worst pitching staff I’ve seen in…
Consistent Relief John Wetteland‘s name has been dropped from discussions of the game’s best closers, but his consistency in the most capricious role in baseball is still the standard for the new generation of relief aces. Wetteland has amassed 25 or more saves for eight straight seasons, and his low season of 25 saves came…
Scary. That’s the only word to describe the imaginations of the Baseball Prospectus readership. When we announced Big Exciting Contest #3, "Pick the player you will not have on your fantasy team," we certainly had no idea we’d see the kind of responses we did. So, a couple rounds of therapy and some shock treatment…
Over the past few days, we’ve been treated to the annual sight of watching baseball players play the game dressed like skiers, as a cold snap ripped through cities like Cincinnati, Chicago and Milwaukee. I was born and raised in the Northeast, and while my playing career ended a long time ago, I can still…
The Red Sox have started the season slowly, squeezing a four-game losing streak between two Pedro Martinez starts. I’ve seen both games, and I’m pretty much convinced that he’s the dominant player–not just pitcher, but player–in the game today, and I encourage anyone with the opportunity to see him perform in person to do so….
Ray Ratto has been one of the finest sports writers in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years, first with the San Francisco Chronicle and more recently with the Examiner. The rest of the country got their first taste of Ray’s work in the late, lamented National. In addition to his local work, Ratto…
OPENING DAY, TAKE TWO “I think today was huge. It’s a really big deal for me.” — Gabe Kapler, Rangers outfielder, on hitting a pair of home runs “It’s not a sign. It’s just the first game. We’ve got a lot of games left.” — Tony Muser, Royals manager, on losing a late lead and…
Among the biggest stories in baseball every spring is the emergence of a new crop of phenoms, those great talents that take the relaxed atmosphere of spring training by storm before they take their first legal drink–or their first swing in Double-A. This year, the name on everyone’s lips depended on the humidity: in arid…