Working Hard in Cincinnati Other than the teeth-gnashing fringe element of bitter Reds fans mourning the rise and fall of Jon Nunnally or Dmitri Young or Willie Greene, has anyone else noted how much Jack McKeon is using some of his relievers? Through the first 54 games of the season, side-armer Scott Sullivan is on…
Last July, I published an article here at Baseball Prospectus Online on the best teams in baseball history. At the time, the 1998 Yankees were plowing through the American league like Arnold Schwarzenegger through "Commando", and I noted that by my measurements, they could wind up as one of the best teams ever. "The Best…
For the past few years, it’s been difficult to write anything new about the San Francisco Giants. The same topics keep raising their heads: Brian Sabean, Barry Bonds, Dusty Baker and the new ballpark. A third of the way into the 1999 season, nothing has changed on this front. Sabean has been relatively quiet so…
Baseball Prospectus introduced Pitcher Abuse Points last summer as an attempt to measure the workloads of starting pitchers. Briefly, the system is based on the premise that each pitch above a certain threshold is incrementally more damaging than the last, with the damage growing more severe as more pitches are thrown. Our threshold is 100…
BALTIMORE ORIOLES Optioned C Tommy Davis to Rochester. [6/4] Placed RHP Mike Fetters on the 15-day DL; recalled RHP Scott Kamieniecki from Rochester. [6/7] Nothing really important to note here; neither Fetters nor Kamieniecki will ever again be significant parts of any team, even one as bad as the Orioles. BOSTON RED SOX Activated RHP…
UNREST IN NEW YORK “I don’t have to be told anything. I know I am not doing my job as good as I should be. I don’t need a message when we are one game under .500 with a $70 million payroll. We’re not doing the job we need to do.” — Bobby Valentine, Mets…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Placed C Charlie O’Brien on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 6/3 (partially torn ligament – foot); recalled OF Reggie Williams from Edmonton. [6/4] With O’Brien gone and Todd Greene’s shoulder giving him some problems, this may be present a chance for Steve Decker to stick around and do some catching.If Greene goes behind…
Gesundheit Put bluntly, former Expo Mike Lansing hasn’t been all the Rockies had hoped for since they traded several pitching prospects for him during the 1996 offseason. He’s had some major back troubles, isn’t the defensive player he once was, and really didn’t hit at all last year (.276/.325/.411 playing half his games on Planet…
NO FAT LADIES ‘ROUND HERE “We’ve got too much talent to be a bad ballclub, therefore the word underachieving fits right now. It hurts to admit that fits. I’m trying to be positive and optimistic that it will turn around and there’s still lots of time to turn it around. We’re still in a position…
Something Just Isn’t Wright Jaret Wright avoided a suspension in the aftermath of the May 22nd brawl at Jacobs Field. The right-hander, with a five-game suspension already on his record this year, drew only a fine from the league office. More curious is AL president Gene Budig’s request for an audience with Wright, to discuss…
Fixing the Ms The Seattle Mariners currently sport a team ERA of 6.23–more than a quarter of a run higher than the next worst team in the American League. Shoulder injuries to Butch Henry (torn labrum) and Mark Leiter (torn rotator cuff) thinned an already anorexic staff and have prompted the ever-reactionary Lou Piniella to…
Almost one full year ago–June of 1998, to be exact–I had become increasingly frustrated at Jim Leyland’s idea of "entertainment" in what was turning into The Lost Season in south Florida. My frustration stemmed from watching as his young and promising pitchers were made to throw close to a gross of pitches on an all-too-frequent…
ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS Recalled pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim from Tucson of the Pacific Coast League (AAA); optioned pitcher Bobby Chouinard to Tucson. [5/27] Kim blew threw Double-A and Triple-A, leading to talk that he, like Billy Koch, will soon be installed as the major-league closer. Kim did pitch well in the PCL, but in one of the…
The Chase for… .500? Yes, it’s early, but given the attention Larry Walker and Sean Casey are getting for having batting averages around .400, it’s probably not unreasonable to mention that John Olerud’s OBP is .505. In 1998, Mark McGwire spent a few weeks around the magic mark, and in 1994, Frank Thomas ran a…
ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS Optioned infielder Hanley Frias to Tucson of the Pacific Coast League (AAA); recalled pitcher Bobby Chouinard from Tucson. [5/22] Given the innings the D’backs normally get from their rotation, you wonder if they have any real use for an extra pitcher, much less one of Chouinard’s dubious qualifications. That said, they also ride…
IT’S A HIT! “They were all real slow knuckleballs that just happened to drift on me for whatever reason. They felt good coming out of my hand. It’s just part of the game and part of the frustration for anybody throwing the knuckleball.” — Steve Sparks, Angels pitcher, on hitting four batters “I was trying…