The Essence of Self-Absorption

I want to start by apologizing to all the people who have been wondering where my blog went, or at least to the handful of friends who have mentioned it to me. I’m fine, but two things have kept me away from the blog for. . .holy crap, nearly three months! First, although a few [...]

Jose Cruz, Jr.: Carrying On His Family’s Baseball Legacy

Talented baseball players who have fathers who played in the major are often viewed as the gold standard when evaluating player development. On top of their innate ability, the access to elite instruction and being exposed to what it takes to be a big leaguer puts them at a major advantage over other prospects. The [...]

Clearing The Bases

We can’t have a surprise column without a disappointment column now can we?  Earlier this week we talked about our Top 9 pleasant surprises, and now we will visit the opposite end of the spectrum.  Maybe I’m a negative kind of person, but it seemed that there were quite a few players/teams I could put [...]

There Are Things That “Go Bad”

A few days ago, almost the entire Media declared a “national holiday with extension to the Caribbean” because a game is decided by Alex Rodriguez. But, when Albert Pujol hits his first home run of this campaign, after 111 times at bat without producing one, the scandal must have been heard on the moon. As much [...]

Adjusting for Military Service

Many fans have wondered over the years about those players who lost playing time to military service – and how that may have impacted their total careers. One interesting aspect of win shares and the CAWS Career Gauge is that it is fairly easy to reasonably adjust a player’s career numbers to reflect this lost [...]

Clearing The Bases

The season is only 6-7 games old for most MLB teams to this is certainly no time to panic no matter how bad your fantasy team has started off.  Standings can change dramatically in the span of a couple of days.  Like every season, there are plenty of players that are off to slow starts.  [...]

2012 Milestones (And Beyond): Home Runs

Depending on which camp you’re in, 2012 will either tickle you pink or make you throw up in your mouth.  With 629 home runs already under his belt, Alex Rodriguez is only one away from tying former teammate Ken Griffey Jr. at 630 and 31 away from catching Willie Mays for fourth place on the [...]

2012 Milestones (And Beyond): Runs Scored

Ten days ago I wrote that we won’t be witnessing any real milestones in wins for a long time unless Jaimie Moyer makes a successful comeback, and even that’s no guarantee.  Using Bill James’ “Favorite Toy” at ESPN.go.com (called “Career Assessments” now), I deduced that CC Sabathia has a 45% chance of reaching the 300-win [...]

Fun With Retrosheet: Nelson Cruz Made Me Do It

Normally, I try to find someone else to blame for suggesting one of these posts, but this silly one is all mine. After noticing that Nelson Cruz had seven RBIs in the eleventh innings of Texas’ playoff series with the Tigers, I wondered what player had the most extra-inning HRs and RBIs in a season [...]

Clearing The Bases

We’ve had to take a few weeks off due to some software problems, but we’re back today, just in time to watch all of the players that major league teams will call up to fortify their bullpen and bench during this final month.  The Yanks and Red Sox have been playing a big series this [...]

Math v. March Madness

On July 27, 1975, a child was born in Washington Heights, New York. Four years later, his family moved to the Dominican Republic, and soon after to Miami, Florida. He grew up rooting for the New York Mets, and idolized Cal Ripken and Keith Hernandez. Like most children, he dreamed about becoming a professional athlete. [...]

Looking Back at Alex Rodriguez, the Young Seattle Mariner: 1993 Through 1995

I recently looked through the news archives for information about Alex Rodriguez’s introduction to Seattle as a 1993 draftee from Miami, then as a minor leaguer, a rookie in 1994, and a backup in 1995, to see what foreshadowings of his future controversies and successes were present when he was still a teenager. Rodriguez’s seasonal [...]

Boston Sweeps Yanks but Playoff Hopes Remain Dim

Boston has finally reached .500 this season but now midway through May it’s a likely bet the Red Sox playoff hopes in this overly-hyped season remain iffy at best. Their position in the standings is certainly not bleak, however, for the Red Sox to have any chance of reaching the playoffs, the team would have [...]

Rico Petrocelli to Appear on “View From the Lone Red Seat” Tuesday

Two-time American League All-Star shortstop and long-time member of the Boston Red Sox, Rico Petrocelli, will appear on Tuesday night’s episode of “View From the Lone Red Seat” to discuss Red Sox baseball and his career.  Petrocelli was named to the A.L. All-Star team in 1967 and 1969, a year in which he established a [...]

Fearless forecast for 2011 flag chases

The first rule in making baseball predictions is to expect the unexpected. Don’t go with last year’s winners, popular favorites, or big-money ballclubs. Unless they deserve it, of course. Now that we’ve gotten past the obvious rules, there are the string of unknowns that can pop up anywhere during the course of a 162-game schedule, [...]

Clearing The Bases: 3rd Base

Clearing The Bases                                                                                                                                          March 22, 2011 By George Kurtz Outside of Shortstop, Third Base may be the toughest position to judge come draft time.  There are a bunch of interesting players here but what order to put them in is the big question.  Traditionally 3B is a power position, so you would like a player [...]

Born in August? Welcome to the Majors

Fun fact: since 1965, players born on July 31 have spent a combined 30 years in the Major Leagues. Fast forward 24 hours to August 1, where players born that day have spent a combined 71 years in the majors. How could 24 hours make such a difference? It has been argued for some time [...]

Pujols vs. A-Rod: Contract Negotiations by the Numbers

Following the 2007 season, Alex Rodriguez exercised a clause built into his existing contract which allowed him to opt out of the remaining years and become a free agent. Less than two months after doing so, the New York Yankees resigned their third baseman to a MLB record ten year, $275 Million contract. The deal [...]

AL East Positional Analysis And Ranking: Third Base

I am in the midst of a series examining the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position are being ranked in relation to their peers within the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks in comparison [...]

The Favorite Toy and…Tony Conigliaro

Since I went with all-time greats, Babe Ruth and Grover Cleveland Alexander, in my first two articles in this series, I figured I’d shift gears and go with a should-have-been great in Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro whose potentially brilliant career was derailed on August 18, 1967 when he was struck in the face by [...]

Sincerely, Adrian Gonzalez

What if you broke into the hotel room of Adrian Gonzalez, looked through his things, and found a diary? What would it say? Here is a possible answer: June 2000 I DID IT!!!! Today is a day I will never forget. I was the first overall pick of the 2000 draft today. Looks like I [...]

Pride v. Power

Since 1901, only nine shortstops, age 37 or above, hit over .270 in a season. Derek Jeter will qualify to be the 10th player in that category next season, and the Yankees are well aware of that. Sure, if you are going to bet on someone entering that group – that happens to include six Hall [...]

Inspiration in Baseball

Ben Ulene started the Double Play Foundation in December of 2009 when he was going through his closet and noticed how many old baseball jerseys he had accrued over his adolescence and that he no longer had use for. “I thought that there had to be some way that these uniforms could be used again, as each one had been used for only one 3-month season and then put away, ” Ben told me. It was at that moment that he decided to pass-on his once prized possessions to others who may not be as fortunate as himself. He named his cause, The Double Play Foundation (DPF) and told me it was because “just like in a double play where one batted ball is used to get two outs, one baseball uniform is being used twice, doing double duty.”

The Class of 2010 – the New Hall of Famers

At the beginning of the 2010 baseball season, there were eight active major league players who had already earned obvious Hall of Fame numbers during their careers.  Here are those players: Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Ken Griffey, Jr., Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter, Jim Thome, Jason Giambi and Mariano Rivera. By the end of the 2010 [...]

They Are Two Stepping in Texas

There is dancing in Texas tonight.  The Texas Rangers played the best two teams in the American League and beat them both in convincing fashion to win the first American League Championship for the franchise after fifty years of frustration.  The anticipation of history in the making gave drama to a game that was decided [...]

Breaking Down The MVP Candidates

While the Cy Young debate in the American League is getting a lot of attention, the Most Valuable Player award is not. Although it is discussed occasionally, people are not giving it the attention that it deserves. The front-runner(s) at this point are Robinson Cano, Miguel Cabrera, and Josh Hamilton. All have had incredible seasons, but [...]

Yankees: Why Losses Today May Mean Wins Tomorrow

Yankee fans were unhappy—to say the least—on Monday night, when the Yankees surrendered first place to the Rays for the first time since August 3. Tuesday night, the Yankees got first place back, and breathed a sigh of relief. Amidst all that anger came an interesting thought: what if, by some chance, the Yankees didn’t win [...]

Bottoming Out in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor

They should bottle Showalter’s elixir and sell it outside Camden Yarks.  The Baltimore Orioles are showing signs of life in response to their new manager’s tonic after flat-lining for more than half of the 2010 season. The Orioles’ record since Showalter stepped into the dugout is 17 – 10.  That is a .630 winning percentage [...]

A-OK without A-Rod? Not quite.

The Yankees placed Alex Rodriguez on the 15-day disabled list Saturday. The move is looked at as a precautionary one; the Yankees want to make sure that the injury does not turn into a bigger problem as we approach the playoffs. With a win on Saturday, the Yankees improved to 11-0 when Alex Rodriguez is not [...]

The Yankees’ future is grid-locked

Remember a couple of months ago when Stephen Strasburg was ready to advance to the majors? The anticipation was as high as ever before: Nationals Stadium was sold out within hours of the announced date of his debut. It seemed as though the world of the Washington Nationals was waiting for the future to thrust [...]

610 is the new 600

After about 50 chances at home run number 600, Alex Rodriguez finally became the seventh player in history to hit 600 career home runs. The fans went wild, the anticipation is over, and the history is made. Yay! But here is my question: what is so special about 600? Why does all the excitement come [...]

Pressing Matter: A-Rod’s pursuit of 600

Watching Alex Rodriguez swing for his 600th home run has been a frustrating experience. “Strikeout, groundout, popout” seems to appear in the box score every night. As he approaches plate appearance number 50 since home run number 599, it has become more and more evident that A-Rod is pressing. Here are four of Alex’s five [...]

2010 midseason awards

MVP: Robinson Cano It’s hard to deny Cano’s talent the most valuable player award for the first half. Despite his numbers — his batting average is fifth in all of baseball — Cano has been the center piece of a Yankee team that holds the best record in baseball. With Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and [...]

LeBron situation brings back Manny memories

This whole Lebron James saga which played out live on national TV and the internet the past couple of weeks was an eerie reminder for Cleveland fans of the whole Manny Ramirez saga which in its own way played out on TV back in 2000.  While ESPN may not have been as big then as [...]

Beware the Derby

The participants have been announced for the 2010 Home Run Derby. Among the participants are Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers and Robinson Cano of the Yankees. The Tigers and Yankees are both wrapped up in tight races in their respective divisions, and these two players are significant, essential pieces to their teams. Other participants include [...]

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