An Interview with Texas Rangers’ Prospect Cody Buckel

Since Nolan Ryan became president of the Texas Rangers in 2009, they have become known as one of the tightest run organizations in baseball; combining savvy roster building with cultivating a deep farm system. Because of Ryan’s Hall of Fame pedigree as a pitcher, he has added pressure to develop a stable of dominant young […]

Memorias de Fenway Park (Memories of Fenway Park)

El taxi me dejó en la esquina de Beacon y Arlington street. Tuve una conversación tan amena con el taxista que ni me di cuenta de la nieve y la temperatura. En la puerta del Boston School of Modern Languages la señora de la oficina me dijo que debía ir urgente a comprar ropa de […]

Cardiac Kids Take Chicago

Three tense and tightly contested games yielded two road wins for the 2012 Washington Nationals in Chicago thanks to surprising late inning magic. Call them the “Comeback Kids,” the “Cardiac Kids,” whatever you will, but the Nationals scored nine times in the last two innings during the three-game set in the Windy City.  The late […]

What Does F12 Really Mean?

As previously defined, the Factor12 Rating (F12) is an analytic measurement utilizing league average performance to compare the value of all MLB pitchers. In basic terms, F12 is a rating that takes into account all aspects of pitching. It produces a number on a scale of 0.000-infinity (theoretically), where the average pitcher’s value is 24.000. […]

Harper-Less Hagerstown Suns Open with a Flourish

A very respectable crowd of 2,078 turned out on a very chilly Opening Night, to watch the Bryce Harper-less Hagerstown Suns play the West Virginia Power in Sally League action on Thursday. Still, the contrast between this year and last year when 6,017 came to watch Harper’s minor league debut was stark to the point […]

An Interview With Blue Jays’ Prospect Brad Glenn

Headlined by Jose Bautista, the Toronto Blue Jays have become known in recent years as a power hitting team, finishing in the top 5 in the American league in home runs in each of the past 3 seasons. With their impressive collection of hitters, there is no indication that they are going to let up […]

Clearing The Bases

Well my draft season has ended.  Tuesday night was my 15th and final draft.  I said to myself just before the draft how happy I was that it was finally over, but the truth is I will miss it.  Love to draft.  Now I don’t get to experience that feeling again until football season is […]

West Virginia Power Looking for Excitement in 2012

Yesterday was a beautiful day for media day here in Charleston, WV for the West Virginia Power, Class A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sun, freshly cut grass, the smell of baseball in the air leading up to a season of great expectations on the ballfield.    The Power returns eight players from last year’s […]

The Big Hitter Of The 50’s Decade, Musial

During the decade of the 1950s occurred what american baseball analysts named a “rise of the hitters”. Running the racial integration, joined organized baseball with all the figures of importance included the Caribbean, guaranteeing the presence in major league baseball of sluggers as Mays, Aaron, Banks, Minoso, Clemente or Frank Robinson who, along with Williams, […]

Bob Lazzari’s Baseball Predictions

Yes, it’s that time of the year, folks–the obligatory crapshoot better-known as making MLB predictions.  Here’s how they’ll finish in 2012…… AL EAST N.Y. Yankees T.B. Rays Boston Red Sox Toronto Blue Jays Baltimore Orioles AL CENTRAL Detroit Tigers Cleveland Indians K.C. Royals Minnesota Twins Chicago White Sox AL WEST L.A. Angels Texas Rangers Oakland […]

The Factor12 Rating Returns

The Factor12 Rating (F12) is an analytic measurement utilizing league average performance to compare the value of all MLB pitchers on 60ft6in.com. F12 consists of the following twelve statistics incorporating every aspect of pitching. Innings Pitched (IP); Strikeouts Minus Walks (SO-BB); Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP); Earned Run Average (ERA); Walks plus Hits per Innings Pitched […]

A People’s History of Baseball: A Review

Baseball is steeped in the notion of myth and the existence of a narrative declaring the game to be a bastion of good and American wholesomeness. Such contrivances interfere with the study of history, making it difficult to find works associated with baseball that are able to push through such obstacles. With the publishing of […]

OOTP 13: Perhaps The Best Sports Simulation Game Ever

To paraphrase the words of the portly Simpsons character Comic Book Man, Out of the Park 13 is perhaps the “Best Game Ever” when it comes to sports simulations. Proclaiming OOTP13 as such doesn’t give the game enough justice. As awe-inspiring as last year’s edition was, producer Markus Heinson and his band of creative baseball […]

This Ain’t Your Uncle’s Slide Show

When I was a boy, the latest in home entertainment technology was not a 60″, HD, surround-sound television, but the Kodak Carousel slide projector.  This bit of click-clacking wizardry was hardly entertaining, however, because invariably, Uncle Bob and Aunt Sally would invite you and your family over to view the slides from their latest vacation […]

Thinking About Jamie Moyer at 49

Jamie Moyer is old enough to have helped prompt the Chicago Cubs to trade Dennis Eckersley to the Oakland A’s in the spring of 1987, when Moyer was a rising prospect displacing Eckersley as a starter, and to have been traded along with Rafael Palmeiro to the Texas Rangers for Mitch Williams before the 1989 […]

It Is Nail-Biting Time for Several Independent Players Although ’11 Standout Jerome Williams Is ‘On Track’

It appears 2011 Lancaster (PA) Barnstormers (Atlantic League) starter Jerome Williams could win that fifth starting job with the Los Angeles Angels after all even though his hamstring strain forced him to miss some 24 days of spring training. The 30-year-old, who also at one time hurled for Long Beach, CA in the Golden League, […]

Reporte de Las Ligas Mayores / Mes de Marzo‏ (Report of the Majors / March)

Todo a punto para comenzar una nueva temporada del mejor béisbol del Mundo : Las Grandes Ligas. Este año será más emocionante, ya que habrá dos nuevos lugares para la postemporada, por lo que las posibilidades de jugar en octubre se amplían.Ahora se tendrán 10 invitados en playoffs, los 3 campeones divisionales y dos comodines.  […]

Batting Practice with the Z-Man

There are so few players who can lift the average fan from his seat during batting practice. It most commonly takes one of those leviathan sluggers like a Frank Howard or Mark McGwire to send ball after ball rocketing into the stands. So I was taken aback when in Kissimmee, Florida for a game between […]

The Legend of Alabama Pitts

The history of baseball is littered with larger than life fictional figures like Sidd Finch and Roy Hobbs. Perhaps even more than their supposed talents, their stories are what make them so memorable and a part of the fabric of America’s pastime. Every now and then a real player comes along and blurs the lines […]

Clearing The Bases

I completed all of my spring training rankings for each position last week.  Now that I have done that it’s time to go back and take a look at each set of rankings and see if there are any changes that I would make.  Now by changes I’m not talking about one or two spots, […]

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 […]

A Best Of Collection of Favorite Obscure Baseball Players

A year ago I started a project on my blog of asking people to name their favorite obscure baseball figure from the past: not exclusively players, but anyone employed by the game. The volume of responses (many came from the now-defunct Baseball-Reference blog) surprised me, and led me to start the project up again this […]

Porqué el béisbol. (Why baseball?)

Aquel atardecer me sorprendió admirando el asedio de un cucarachero a una “limpiacasas”. Cada picotazo tímido del pajarito marrón hacía saltar y volar al lagartijo de tonalidades azules. Ni en aquellos momentos Felipe y Jesús Mario cesaban de bromear para molestarme.  Dentro de mi fascinación con el ave y el pequeño saurio me preguntaba si […]

Spring Training

It is a good practice. Just Sam and me. I hit fly balls to him in the outfield, because he needs to practice catching and slamming into the wall like New York Yankees centerfielder Johnny Damon. Evidently, slamming into the wall is necessary even on ground balls that don’t make it to the wall. We […]

Just Another Gated Community

We arrived back from Spring Training last night, three games in three delightful mad dash days that left us wishing there was time for one more. When I got home there was a wonderful surprise: a copy of the new biography of Bill Veeck by Paul Dickson. I went to sleep reading it. Yes I […]

Independent Map Seems Set With 50 Teams, But North American Is Without Its CEO

It now seems pretty certain the 20th season of Independent Baseball, which started with two leagues in 1993, will consist of 50 teams, not counting any late-developing circuits or pay-to-play leagues. The final tally includes the return of Orange County (Fullerton, CA) to become the fourth team in the second-year North American League’s Northern Division.  […]

Pride Cometh Before the Fall (Classic)

Christopher Gasper of the Boston Globe recently wrote about a disagreement that has developed between Red Sox GM Ben Cherington and manager Bobby Valentine. It is another in a long line of failures and missteps over the past 6 months for the organization whose season ended so disappointingly last season. Even though the regular season […]

The Yankees Of New York 1921-1964: Empire And Dynasty

The New York Yankees aren’t the franchise more representatives have in Cooperstown, this distinction is also a heritage of the Giants, who once represented the city of skyscrapers in the National League, but “The Yankees were always the Yankees”. Babe Ruth came to New York because the management of the Boston Red Sox grew tired […]

Seamhead To Be Mayor Of Cooperstown!

I’m proud and pleased to announce that my good buddy and fellow Seamhead, Jeff Katz, will be sworn in as mayor of Cooperstown, New York on April 3.  Incumbent Mayor Joe Booan chose not to seek a second term, which made Katz, a Democrat, a lock for the job. “It has been the honor of […]

The Greatest Baseball Fan I Know

I met John Russell during the summer of 2003, my first as a researcher at the Baseball Hall of Fame library. I was stationed at the downstairs desk, the library’s public area where scholars and fans alike congregate to explore and share baseball history. Some visitors make appointments; some make annual pilgrimages (like another great […]

Venues, Pools Set For 2013 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers

Qualifiers to Start in Germany from September 20th-24th, Followed by Panama, Taiwan and U.S. in November World Baseball Classic, Inc. (WBCI) today announced the venues and pools of the new Qualifiers for the 2013 World Baseball Classic. The winners of each Qualifying Pool will advance to compete in the 2013 World Baseball Classic tournament next […]

Chick Gandil Talks Black Sox

The story of the 1919 Black Sox scandal has been frequently rehashed over the years but even so, there is still great interest in reviewing new information or angles. Every now and then I come across something about the group that I haven’t seen before and try to restore it to general knowledge. Last year […]

Clearing The Bases

Time for our predictions about the National League.  Have to be honest, I’m not really sure about anything in the NL.  Philadelphia and San Francisco have outstanding pitching staffs but their offensive deficiencies bring them back to the pack.  Milwaukee and St. Louis were hit hard in free agency, perhaps the Reds take the Central.  […]

Beane, The Proof Of A Genius

Modernity puts fear, the use or abuse of the “sacred” word are more present than love today: “legend”, the first thing that appears; “diva”, a singer which detune and not the lyrics of the songs that bad knows, but there is “knowledgeable and enthusiastic” public to support the profane bautism. The adjective “genius” only applied […]

2012 Chicago White Sox: Ozzie’s Out, Robin’s In, Are We Ready?

The Chicago White Sox had a prodigious payroll and high hopes in 2011 but crashed and burned quickly as some of their best, or at least highest paid, players had miserable campaigns.  The Sox finished 79-83, which was good for third place in the American League Central, 16 games behind the division champion Detroit Tigers […]

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