Torre To Manage US In 2013 World Classic

Torre to manage US in 2013 World Classic (via AFP) Joe Torre, who guided the New York Yankees to four World Series titles as a Major League Baseball manager, will guide the US team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, USA Baseball said Thursday. The 71-year-old American played for 18 seasons and served as a […]

Ted Williams Leads As Most Popular Stamp

Ted Williams Leads As Most Popular Stamp (via PR Newswire) Postal Service Calls on Fans to Show Support for their Favorite All-Star WASHINGTON, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Pre-order stats for Forever stamps honoring four of Major League Baseball’s most iconic legends indicate that Ted Williams is in the leadoff slot for hits with 14,380 […]

A Rising Tide in Washington

The Potomac River is near flood stage as it boils through the rapids at Great Falls, a crescendo of roaring noise. Further downstream from that much photographed natural beauty, at Nationals Park, a wave of human noise has not even begun to crest as fans of the Washington Nationals cheer a team that has risen […]

Reviewing The Baseball Hall of Shame: The Best of Blooperstown

Let’s face it; for many of us baseball fans the game is not always about who won or lost. It’s about the story and the journey of our favorite teams and players, which are comprised of plays; the unusual, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Perhaps more than any other sport baseball has a […]

Clearing The Bases

What shall we talk about tonight?  So many things going on in the world of fantasy baseball that I feel we need a news and notes column to go over each team.  We’ll do the American League first, followed by the National League on Thursday.  As always, these teams are in no particular order.   […]

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 […]

‘Fun to Watch’ Double Play Duo Helps Spark ‘Relentless’ Wichita to 13 Wins in Last 14 Games

It is not always easy to find just a word or two that describes a successful baseball team, but Kevin Hooper says he has found himself frequently using “relentless” in describing the Wichita (KS) Wingnuts he manages.  I have a feeling a second word to describe the American Association team that has run off 13 […]

Bob Gibson’s 1968 Season Is Overrated

The 1968 MLB season featured the greatest pitching statistics in the live ball era (since 1920).  However, thanks to the Factor12 (F12) Rating on 60ft6in.com, baseball fans can delve deeper into the statistical minutia and uncover the real truth. Bob Gibson 1968 F12:   22-9 / 1.12 ERA/ 0.85 WHIP / 28 CG / 13 SHO / 304.67 IP […]

The Glory Days: First NL Expansion Draft

The New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s stocked their rosters with players selected in the expansion draft held by the National League on October 10 of 1961 at the Netherland-Hilton Hotel in Cincinnati. The Mets’ brain trust was headed up by general manager George Weiss and manager Casey Stengel, both of whom had […]

A Grooved Pitch—Hall of Famer vs. Three Game Cup of Coffee Youngster

On Sunday, May 26, 1912, the sixth place American Association Milwaukee Brewers opened a series against the second place Minneapolis Millers, facing future Hall of Fame member Rube Waddell. The eccentric Waddell is known to most baseball fans. Although on the downside of his career, he was still a pitcher to be reckoned with. During […]

Scheppers, Coello Added to Indy Roster in Majors While Stu Pomeranz’s Season Is Interrupted

It was just a week ago when we projected that Tanner Scheppers, who started his professional career with the St. Paul Saints in the American Association, could well be one of the next Independent players to reach the major leagues.  It happened Thursday when the Texas Rangers added the right-hander to their roster.  Scheppers was […]

Chatting with the Royals’ Christian Colon

A long spate of losing seasons has put the Kansas City Royals in the position of drafting high in the MLB drafts over the past two-plus decades. However, it has only been recently that the organization has been recognized for accumulating one of the best collections of prospects in the game, with the hope that […]

Revised MLB Anti-Doping Plan Has All-Star Ban

Revised MLB anti-doping plan has All-Star ban (via AFP) Major League Baseball players who violate the league’s anti-doping program will be ineligible for that season’s All-Star Game under one of several revisions to the program announced on Thursday. Human growth hormone blood tests were added during pre-season training, the off-season and for reasonable…    

Clearing The Bases

Tonight’s column isn’t going to deal with the fantasy relevance of Major League Baseball, but more of some of the rules I would like to change if I were the commissioner.  I wrote a similar column last season and I’m happy to say that Bud Selig listened to one of my suggestions and moved a […]

Lasorda Hospitalized After Heart Attack

Lasorda hospitalized after heart attack (via AFP) Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda has been hospitalized in New York after suffering a heart attack on Monday, the Major League Baseball team announced on Tuesday. Lasorda, 84, is a Baseball Hall of Famer who represented the Dodgers at the Major League Baseball Draft when he […]

Clearing The Bases

We are now about 1/3 of the way through the 2012 baseball season, which means we are about the same amount of time through the 2012 fantasy baseball season.  The time has come now to face some harsh realities about your team.  Any player that has been on your roster since opening day has now […]

Build It and We Will Come

For years now the fans of D.C. have been whispering, “Build it and we will come,” in response to questions about attendance. In 2005, when the Nationals were the newest thing on the block, they drew 2.7 million. When Nationals Park opened in 2008 and there was another new toy, attendance went back up to 2.3 million […]

No-Hitters on the Road

Like every Mets fan my age, I’ve only been waiting since 1962 for their first no-hitter. Well, that might not be accurate. In those early years there were few illusions about the potential of any Mets pitcher to pitch a no-hitter. We weren’t like the fans of the expansion Montreal Expos in 1969, who got […]

Comedian Bill Maher Reveals NY Mets Ownership Stake

Comedian Bill Maher reveals NY Mets ownership stake (via AFP) Comedian Bill Maher, a New York native and life-long supporter of the New York Mets, revealed that he has purchased a minority ownership stake in the Major League Baseball club. The 56-year-old television show host said he made the purchase months ago, but would not […]

Clearing The Bases

Today we are going to start a debate.  We are going to talk about fantasy players on the New York Yankees and New York Mets.  Rather than just talk about different players and why they are fantasy worthy, we are going to rank Yankee and Met players in the order of which they should be […]

U.S. Postal Service Expands All-Star Stamp Lineup To Honor Each Icon Individually

U.S. Postal Service Expands All-Star Stamp Lineup To Honor Each Icon Individually (via PR Newswire) Joe DiMaggio, Larry Doby, Willie Stargell and Ted Williams to be honored on Individual Forever Stamp Sheets July 21 WASHINGTON, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Baseball fans can celebrate their favorite All-Stars as a group or individually. Responding to overwhelming […]

Can They Keep Up Their Hot Starts?

The first third of the baseball season is just wrapping up and has already been marked by numerous injuries, slow starts, and surprises galore. In particular there are some players who have come out of relative obscurity and are well on their way to posting seasons beyond what even the most optimistic analysts predicted during […]

The Loneliness of the Game:the Manager

In 1989, shortly before being suspended from duties as manager, Pete Rose stated: “managing is much harder than playing, sitting there, observing everything, responsible for everything and alone, helpless…” It is true, because in baseball, when a club wins it is the players, but when they lose, 98 % of the time it is the […]

The Glory Days: Stocking the Angels and Senators

On December 14, 1960, an expansion draft was held to stock the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators. The eight American League teams were required to pull seven players apiece from active rosters (as of August 31, 1960) and eight additional players from their 40-man rosters and make them available for the draft. The Senators […]

White Sox Rising

May 31, 2012 When the Chicago White Sox swept the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field two weeks ago it was fun but, really, can’t an old person with a fly swatter beat the Cubs? The Sox, however, were apparently emboldened by that three-game ear-gouge of their crosstown rivals because now the Pale Hose are taking […]

Willie Upshaw Already Has a Significant Major League Resume, But Bridgeport Skipper Longs for Chance to Lead a Team

Willie Upshaw’s post-playing-days reputation as both a major and minor league hitting guru seems unchallenged and he enjoys the opportunity to be near his home in Fairfield, CT, but he is much like those he manages in the Atlantic League in that he wants a different job. “I get pigeonholed as a hitting coach”, the […]

Texas Rangers Ink Oswalt to One-Year Deal

Texas Rangers ink Oswalt to one-year deal (via AFP) Roy Oswalt, a three-time Major League Baseball All-Star pitcher, has signed a one-year deal with the Texas Rangers, according to a posting on the team’s website. The 34-year-old right-hander is expected to make several starts with developmental-league teams before joining the Rangers, who lost starter…

New York Yankees Obtain Japan’s Igarashi

New York Yankees obtain Japan’s Igarashi (via AFP) Ryota Igarashi, who spent 10 seasons with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Central League, was obtained off waivers by the New York Yankees in a Major League Baseball transaction. The 33-year-old right-handed pitcher spent pre-season training with Pittsburgh but was acquired by Toronto on March…

An Interview with Minnesota Twins Prospect B.J. Hermsen

Although the Minnesota Twins often seem to find success no matter how flashy their roster or how little they spend in free agency, there is little doubt that they are currently in rebuilding mode. In particular their pitching staff is in dire need of an infusion of talent. The team hopes that some answers can […]

Clearing The Bases

Injuries are probably playing a big part in how your fantasy team is performing this season.  It seems every week we are seeing three to four players land on the DL, and I’m not talking about a long reliever or backup middle infielder that no one cares about, I’m talking about top of the line […]

The Glory Days: How MLB’s First Expansion Unfolded

Major league baseball’s first modern-day expansion did not just happen overnight. It was not simply the result of a shrewd job of blackmailing by William Shea and renowned baseball man Branch Rickey; they did not hold Commissioner Ford Frick and 16 team owners hostage by threatening to start a new league. The shadow of the […]

Yankee Stadium and the Lost Mystic

Mystic relates to something essentially religious, one of two currents. One is Renaissance poetry, the other, the lyrical: the Mystic Fray Luis de León, the beautiful poem “Vida retirada”. In this conception, mystic might relate to something in mysterious character and even the occult. My son Sergio, who has not seen Yankees players more than […]

All For Paul

May 27, 2012 Jimi Hendrix, Albert Einstein, Prince Planet, Julie Christie, Harper Lee and Joan of Arc.  What do they all have in common?  They’re about half as cool as Paul Konerko. Konerko, the venerable Chicago White Sox first baseman, is swinging the bat like a honey badger hocked up on Cherry Coke trapped inside […]

The 1983 California Angels

The Angels had captured 2 pennants in the last four seasons, and they were highly optimistic about their chances in 1983 after retaining most of the core players from their 1982 division winning squad. The team suffered a big loss in free agency, with slugger Don Baylor heading east to the Yankees. The Angels inked […]

Derek Jeter Moves Up All-Time Hits List

Derek Jeter moves up all-time hits list (via AFP) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter tied George Brett for 14th on Major League Baseball’s all-time hits list with two singles in New York’s 9-2 victory over Oakland. Jeter on Saturday tied Hall of Famer Brett at 3,154 hits with a bunt single in the fifth […]

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