Archive for July, 2008

MLB Trade Deadline Transactions

In transactions from Wednesday, July 30^th the New York Yankees were the most active with two moves.

First, in a minor move, they traded ineffective RHP LaTroy Hawkins (RP), whom they designated him for assignment Saturday, to the Houston Astros for INF Matt Cusick, a 22-year old minor leaguer in class A ball. Analysis: The Yankees just wanted to get something for Hawkins and Cusick was batting .285 with 9 HRs and 38 RBIs in 94 games. Not…

Sleepless in Seattle: MLB Style

Seattle Mariners

After an off season that saw Seattle trade their young and talented future CF Adam Jones, a 5-tool player, to Baltimore in a package for 29-year old Left-handed SP Erik Bedard, Seattle now finds itself with the second worst record in baseball (2 wins more than the Nationals). Although Bedard is 6-4 with a 3.67 ERA in 15 starts so far this season, but he’s been hurt and not as effective or…

MLB Trade Deadline Mailbag

Who do you think will be traded this week?

What are your favorite team’s needs right now?

Who shouldn’t be traded?

It’s your turn to voice your opinion or ask my opinion of specific trades to date! Add comments below and I’ll add updates to this post as they come in!!

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Best Hitters from July 21st-27th

It seems as if the move to LF hasn’t affected Arizona 1B/LF Conor Jackson offensively what-so-ever as he sits atop our list again this week with a line of 9/3/7/1/.542/.593 (R/HR/RBI/SB/BA/OBP).

Another LF sits in the # 2 spot this week as the White Sox Carlos Quentin was 1 of 4 players on this top 10 list who hit 4 HRs this past week.

With 3 SB and 3 HRs the Phillies CF Shane Victorino is 3^rd on this…

Baseball Links Exchange

This week’s selection is a multi-authored site called UmpBump.com: in-your-face baseball commentary. This is a fun, yet informative site that has a style all its own. Like the name of the blog hints at, they do get a little heated at times, but that just shows their passion for the game.

By the way, have you seen that bottled water commercial with Cubs manager Lou Pinella? Great stuff!

Now, here’s a snipet…

Maple Syrup, Yes! Maple Bats, No!

Maple bats have got to go! Sure they may not splinter and may last longer, but when they do break, they are by far more dangerous. This year alone we have seen an umpire get impaled in the neck, a base coach get hit in the head and needed stitches, spectator incur a broken jaw and a player who got hit in the shoulder after a swing by the broken…

This Week’s MLB Transactions

7/20/08

The Milwaukee Brewers acquired 2B Ray Durham from San Francisco Giants for OF Darren Ford and LHP Steve Hammond.

7/22/08

The Houston Astros acquired LHP Randy Wolf from the San Diego Padres for RHP Chad Reineke.

Help support Baseball Reflections and buy me a…

Who Wants to Win the NL West?!

It seems as if no one in the NL West wants first place. It is truly sad when the Rangers would be in 1^st place if after the All Star break if they were in the NL and they’re only 4 games over .500. No NL West team is above .500 as of July 21, 2008.

So what seems to be the problem? Could it be that most teams in both leagues…

Hottest Hitters Since the All Star Break

Because this is only a 3 or 4 game sample size, we are seeing players who would not normally make it onto this list. You should also take into account, the lesser amount of games when you look at the table below, remember, this is only over 3 or 4 games.

Topping out this shortened week’s list is Baltimore 3B Melvin Mora who hit 3 HRs in that short period of time while…

Baseball Links Exchange

This week’s link is another one that I can’t imagine why I had not done before now. The author of this week’s selection has recently taken his blogging more seriously as he went full time with it back in January of this year. The site is MLB  Trade Rumors and the creator is Tim Dierkes. Here is the write up from his About page which was written back on January 9, 2008:

MLBTradeRumors.com is…

Recent MLB Transactions

The Phillies acquired RHP Joe Blanton from the Athletics for three minor leaguers; 2B Adrian Cardenas, LHP Josh Outman and OF Matthew Spencer.

The Diamondbacks acquired 1B Tony Clark from the Padres for RHP Evan Scribner. Clark waived his $500,000.00 no trade clause in order to go back to his 2007 club.

The Yankees have a preliminary agreement with recently released 1B Richie Sexton (formerly with Seattle) to platoon at 1B with Jason Giambi. Sexton will likely only be playing against left handed pitching…

The Best Hitters Up to the All Star Break

This one surprised me, I was expecting to see either Atlanta’s 3B Chipper Jones* or CF Josh Hamilton** of the Rangers on top of this list, but instead, we find Houston’s 1B Lance Berkman** just edging out Hamilton. In fact, Jones doesn’t even make this top 20 list as he has begun to come down to earth. The big difference between Hamilton and Berkman seems to be stolen bases, average and OBP as the differences in…

Morneau Wins Derby, But Hamilton Steals the Spotlight

Last night was “not a good night for atheists” R.Reilly ESPN

At the end of Monday night’s 2008 All Star Home Run Derby, Twins 1B Justin Morneau won the title, but Texas CF Josh Hamilton, a born-again Christian, won the hearts of thousands with his heroic first round performance. His climb to the major leagues is a storybook ending, fraught with stumbling blocks that caused him to miss 3 years of…

This (Past) Week’s Hottest Hitters

I love a good underdog story and the offensive performance of the Pirate’s OF Nate McLouth, and 2008 NL All Star, is one of those stories. Who would have thought that he’d have a year like the one he’s currently enjoying? His line this week was 9/4/9/2/.290/.333 (R/HR/RBI/SB/BA/OBP).

Ryan Howard, 1B of the Phirst place Phillies hit 5 HRs this past week while hitting .370, raising his season batting average, which was in…

What Makes a Player an All Star?

Is an all star a one dimensional player who can hit the cover off the ball? I would consider a true all star to be a player that is as above average both offensively AND defensively. Willie Mays was one of those rare players, so was Carl Yastrzemski and more recently, players like Dustin Pedroia, Ken Griffey Jr., the younger Barry Bonds and Ivan Rodriguez. These players either had or…

Baseball Links Exchange

This week’s Baseball Links Exchange will be focusing on a new sports blogger community called, www.armchairgm.net. Bryan, a reader of Baseball Reflections is one of the founders of this site. Here is what he wrote me when describing this new sports community of his.

A group of us have a website we are trying to get off the ground, www.armchairgm.net.  It is a site dedicated to sharing news, information and a little…

A Hard(en) Act to Follow

On the heels of the CC Sabathia trade to the Brewers, who are a division rival by the way, the Cubs made a deal of their own. A day after CC went from being an Indian to a Brewer, the A’s oft injured stud Rich Harden, along with RP and spot starter Chad Gaudin were sent to the Cubs in exchange for middle of the rotation SP Sean Gallagher, OF Matt Murton, INF/OF Eric Patterson and minor league catcher…

LA Story: Almost Perfect

On Monday night, first year Dodger pitcher Hiroki Kuroda needed only 91 pitches to complete a shutout of Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann and the Atlanta Braves. In fact, he came 6 outs away from a perfect game until Mark Teixeira doubled to lead off the 8^th inning ( a solid hit by the way). Kuroda followed up that at bat by slamming the door on the remaining six batters, with a little help from his friends behind him, to finish…

The Indians Throw in the Towel?

Hot MLB Hitters

Week 14

With 6 HRs, 12 RBIs, 1 SB to go along with a .559 BA and a .583 OBP Brewers SS J.J. Hardy edges out Marlins OF Cody Ross as this past week’s hottest hitter.

Ross hit 2 HRs while knocking in 16 runs and hitting .500 with a .526 OBP.

Rounding out the top half of this week’s list are the Rockies LF Matt Holliday who collected 10 RBIs and stole 3 bases, the…

Baseball Divas

This post is a bit late due to a recent death in the family. So here we go.MLB recently received two black eyes due to the incidents in Houston between Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon and GM Ed Wade and the other incident also being in Houston, but this time on the visitor’s side between Red Sox LF Manny Ramirez and Boston’s travelling secretary Jack McCormick.

The Houston Astros Incident

The Astros incident…

Baseball Links Exchange

This week’s Baseball Links Exchange will focus on Out in the Desert, an MVN site on the Arizona Diamondbacks authored by Devin Jessup and Nicholas Cote.

Here is the author’s bio on Nick from the Authors page (Devin doesn’t have a listed bio here):

Nick is currently in his senior year at Providence College, where he studies political science and serves as president of the Debate Society and vice president of the political science…