Biggest Snubs from the 2016 All-Star Game

After the fans decided to elect Michael Saunders and Brandon Belt in the All-Star Final Vote, the American League and National League All-Star rosters were set. Saunders and Belt beat out four candidates from their respective leagues, but it’s safe to say the other Final Vote candidates were deserving of chances to play in the Midsummer […]

Ike Futch on Life in the 1960s Minor Leagues

Two years ago, I interviewed Ike Futch, who played second base, mostly, for a variety of Yankee minor league teams from 1959 through 1964, about his experiences as a minor leaguer in the Yankee organization at the tail end of its long dynasty. Ike, after graduating high school in Louisiana, always hit .300+ while playing […]

Lazzari’s Vault: Remembering Phil Rizzuto

Looking back, I’d have to say that Phil Rizzuto was the “voice” of my youth. It was the “Scooter’s” unmistakable, high-pitched voice that would be resounding throughout the steamy living room during those summers in the late 60’s when I first started following America’s pastime. Whether it was his trademark “Holy Cow!” (which, at times, […]

Bullpen Barbie Dolls

The Washington Nationals pitching staff reminds me eerily of my daughters’ doll collections when they were very young.  They were lucky enough to have a collection of American Girl dolls.  Each one had a special place of reverence in their bedroom. Those were the starters. American Girl dolls came with distinctive names and back stories. […]

Fun Facts About Inside-the-Park Home Runs

One of the most exciting plays in baseball is the inside-the-park home run. The ITPHR is a rare event in today’s game due, primarily due to smaller field dimensions. It can involve a diving attempt at a fly ball that comes up just short, a collision between fielders, a ball that ricochets off the fence […]

Old Dogs and New Tricks in DC

The season flies past like a train gathering speed as it leaves the station. The cold spring days are a memory and the ball is starting to carry in the early summer heat. Mookie Betts and Cory Seager are etching their names into the list of young sluggers to be taken seriously, but in Washington […]

The Pirates Can Contend in 2016, but Only If…

The Pittsburgh Pirates, the team I chose as my favorite when I was a six-year old in 1979, have finally become a consistently good team these past few years. They’ve not been able to get to the World Series, and 2016 could be more of the same — since the National League has no shortage […]

A-Hunting We Did Go

It was a cold, gray Saturday afternoon on the South Side, not a good day for a ballgame, and that was just as well because the White Sox were in New York. The game was being shown on the TVs scattered about the picnic area beneath the outfield of U.S. Cellular Field as Sox fans […]

The Strasburg Signing is a Twofer

The recent road trip for the Washington Nationals is a microcosm of their season so far. They played ten games in three cities against teams that want to be in the playoff picture come late September. They won five and lost five, sweeping the Cardinals in St. Louis, beating the World Champion Royals in Kansas […]

Taking the Extra Base:  The Teams

The following entry complements my preceding article, “Taking the Extra Base: The Players”. I will review my findings with respect to team baserunning outcomes. Inspired by the Texas Rangers chapter in the “Bill James Baseball Abstract 1984” entitled “Running The Bases” (pages 156-159), the following study uncovers the top base running teams in the past […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1940 NNL & NAL

After two years of relative stability, 1940 proved to be a difficult season for the Negro leagues, as the trickle of players defecting to Venezuela or (especially) Mexico became a flood. Many of black baseball’s biggest stars—Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Willard Brown, Leon Day—spent most or all of 1940 south of the border. Compounding […]

Knowing When You Have Reached the Promised Land

For forty years Washington Baseball wandered in the wilderness, maybe longer. Yet deliverance is upon us–the Washington Nationals have the best record in the early going of the 2016 season and the team as a whole is playing well. Are those who have suffered for so long ready for their own redemption? Rumors popped up in […]

Lazzari’s 2016 MLB Predictions

Ahhh, yes, spring is in the air and it’s time for that annual crapshoot better known as baseball predictions. And if you ever come across a sportswriter/columnist who is EXTREMELY comfortable with his/her picks, then that scribe HASN’T been following the game long enough. Here’s how they MAY finish in 2016, my friends……… AL EAST […]

White Sox Opening Day: Snowflakes, Fistfights and Fault Lines

The Chicago White Sox opened the 2016 season by winning three-of-four in Oakland due to great pitching, timely hitting, smart defense and a suspect opponent. The Sox then came home to Chicago’s South Side and were greeted by a winter blast which they only made worse with a woeful performance. The Sox looked cold in […]

When Past is Prologue and When it Ain’t

Watching the ESPN opening night game between the Royals and Mets, the conversation was understandably about whether the two teams would make the post-season again in 2016. The Mets have a great rotation, a lousy bullpen, and a lineup that is better than the one they began 2015 with. But was the second half of […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1939 NNL & NAL

This week we’re adding further results of our collaboration with the Negro League Researchers and Authors Group (Larry Lester and Wayne Stivers) with the unveiling of the 1939 Negro league season. We’ve got both leagues, the Negro National League and Negro American League, plus the postseason series. This represents the first NAL season we’ve done […]

Taking the Extra Base:  The Players

Stimulated by the Texas Rangers chapter in the “Bill James Baseball Abstract 1984” entitled “Running The Bases” (pages 156-159), the following study reveals the top base runners in the past 85 seasons (1930-2015) with respect to taking the extra base on a clean single.* I will post a companion article in the near future to […]

Grapefruit League Tradition Shapes Florida Baseball History

One of the most popular annual rites of spring—watching big leaguers shake off the rust in spring training camps—is synonymous with Florida. Spring training in the Sunshine State can be traced back to a four-day camp held by the Washington Statesmen in Jacksonville in 1888, more than a century before major league teams came to […]

Saying Goodbye to Ian Desmond

When the news that Ian Desmond signed with Texas was announced in the Washington front office, there must have been cheering all round. He nets the Nationals a first round pick in the June Rule 4 draft, the nineteenth pick overall. There had been worry that Desmond might not sign until such date as it […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1918/19 Cuban League

The 1918/19 Cuban winter season was the only time Tinti Molina’s Cuban Stars, normally a summertime traveling team in the United States, competed under that name for the regular Cuban League championship. (Molina would enter teams that were essentially his Cuban Stars in the league under different names: as the “White Sox” in 1916/17, and […]

Critiquing the 2016 Projections for the Washington Nationals

We are more than six weeks from the first official games of the 2016 season. Then, the day to day performance of players in the long grind of the season will determine what of these hot stove fantasies has any meaning whatsoever. No disrespect intended, but FanGraph’s “ZiPS” and “Steamer” projections are very handy to […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1925 ECL & NNL

In 1925 the Hilldale Club got its revenge on the Kansas City Monarchs, with the help of a toddler wielding a sewing needle. The year before, the Monarchs had ridden their luck to a thrilling 5 games to 4 victory in the first Colored World Series. In 1925 Hilldale won the ECL after a close […]

Baseball Greatness Was Forged on Sandlot Fields in Alabama

The narrative of baseball’s origins centers on distant fields in New York and New Jersey, mythical tales of an army officer inspired to innovate in Cooperstown and other hard to pinpoint half-truths. But it seems baseball really came alive in the sandlot fields of Mobile and the unheralded mill towns around Birmingham, where determined boys […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1938 Negro National League

In 1938 the Homestead Grays solidified their dominance of the Negro National League. Winning both halves at a trot, Cumberland Posey’s powerhouse team had essentially killed off interest in the league by September. At the end of the season a playoff scheme involving the top four teams was introduced, but the Grays pulled their team […]

Monte Made a Mark: The Late, Great Monte Irvin and the Chance Occurrences That Make History

On Monday, January 11, Monford “Monte” Irvin, Negro League star, major league baseball pioneer, mentor to Willie Mays, and all-around class act, died at the age of 96. Monte lived a full life.  He was born in the South during the time of the “Great Migration” of more than a million African-Americans to the North, […]

Baseball’s Early Days Trace Back to New York

No state can claim a bigger share of baseball history than New York, starting with the belief that the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York was the first organized baseball team. Fittingly, a player named Austin Knickerbocker (born in Bangall, N.Y.) made it to the majors, although he played just 21 games. Alexander Cartwright, […]

When Is Too Much Scott Boras, Too Much?

When the Washington Nationals sign Stephen Drew officially as their utility infielder, it will mean they currently have seven Scott Boras clients on their likely 25-man roster. That is 28 percent of all players or slightly more than one-in-four. Is it too much? For purposes of comparison, of the two World Series teams in 2015, […]

Rating the 2016 Hall of Fame Candidates Based on Win Shares

One of the first items of business in baseball each year is the announcement of players elected to the Hall of Fame.  This leads to lots of speculation and a little analysis prior to the announcement which is scheduled for January 6, 2016. Many systems exist for evaluating player performance.  One such system, the Win […]

5 Big Questions and Predictions for the 2016 Boston Red Sox

As the last notes of Auld Lang Syne evaporate into the atmosphere, and 2016 stretches its wings for the first time, the realization that spring training is mere weeks away starts to settle in. Although the Boston Red Sox made a significant splash this offseason to upgrade their roster after consecutive disappointing seasons, they are […]

Max Watt: The Boston Red Sox’s Power Pitching Prospect

Scouting is an integral part of professional baseball. Teams employ and send out hundreds of employees tasked with finding the next great players. Although they monitor first-round draft talent, their bread and butter is trying to decipher the future of players who may not have quite as much polish. As a result, some come to […]

Selecting the All-Time Best Pitchers from Texas

When I set out to write a book that outlined all-time teams by player’s state of birth, I encountered a number of tough challenges. For example, who was the best Texas-born second baseman, Joe Morgan or Rogers Hornsby? I went back and forth a hundred times on that selection and ended up picking Morgan. I’d […]

The Sunday Notes: Frank Robinson Traded

As Major League Baseball clubs spend and trade this holiday season, preparing for 2016, this edition of the Notes looks back on a trade propelling the Baltimore Orioles to a championship and reviews something this week that never happened before. Although the Chicago Cubs backed up a bank vault for outfielder Jason Heyward, other teams wheeled […]

Unusual Names from the Baseball World

As Abbott and Costello would say, they sure give baseball players peculiar names nowadays. As I researched my book, Baseball State by State over a five-year period, I kept coming across players with unusual names. So I included many of them in the book, which devotes a chapter to each state and includes all-time teams […]

The Boston Red Sox: The Frugal Shopper’s Guide to Rebuilding the Rest of Their Bullpen

The Boston Red Sox made an early splash this offseason, acquiring high-octane closer Craig Kimbrel from the San Diego Padres to anchor their bullpen. With the team coming off a last-place finish in the American League East, and a relief corps whose 4.24 ERA ranked 13th out of 15 teams, it’s a good bet there […]

Bob Lazzari’s 2015 MLB Awards

Yes, it’s that time of the year, folks. As the Royals celebrate their championship and players head for their yachts and/or the golf course, let’s give out some MLB awards based on the 2015 regular season: *The FRANK SINATRA “ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL” Award: Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles. The man struck out […]

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