Archive for November, 2008

New York Yankees Off Season Report

Season Wrap Up
The Yankees failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 90’s due to injuries, age and the less than expected performance out of some of their up and coming pitchers Kennedy and Hughes, not to mention CF Cabrera. They finished in third place just 3 games ahead of the Blue Jays. Need I say more? If Mr. Steinbrenner (as in George Steinbrenner) were in better…

Tampa Bay Rays Off Season Report

Season Wrap Up
Who would have imagined that the newly renamed Rays would have made history in 2008? After finishing last in the AL East in 2007, they finished first in 2008, surpassing the mighty Yankees and Red Sox with their 97 wins. Not only did they win the AL East, but they also won the AL Pennant as well. Their incredible run ended at the hands of the Phillies in…

Happy Thanksgiving!

From those of us at Baseball Reflections, we wish our readers and their families a Very Happy Thanksgiving! We hope all of you will be as pleasantly stuffed with food, family and friends this day!

For those history buffs out there, and a lot of baseball fans are just that, here’s a brief history of Thanksgiving for you, The Thanksgiving Story.

Help support Baseball Reflections and buy me a coffee with PayPal!

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Kansas City Royals off Season Report

Season Wrap Up

For many other teams, posting a 75 win season isn’t exactly a cause for excitement, but for the first time in a while, the Royals were able to dig themselves out of the bottom spot in the American League Central. They finished fourth, but some improvement is better than none. The good thing for the Royals is that much of their talent that they have accrued over recent…

Minnesota Twins off Season Report

Season Wrap Up

Baseball fans last saw the Twins in a one game playoff with the Chicago White Sox for the Central Division crown and a spot in the playoffs. Although they did not win that game, they still had an impressive season. After losing Torii Hunter to free agency and trading away Johan Santana, the Twins were picked by most to finish as low as fourth in the division. The…

Detroit Tigers Season Wrap Up

Everyone in baseball was surprised the Tigers did not vie for a playoff spot last year. In fact, they played more like house cats than Tigers. While their payroll ballooned, their play on the field greatly decreased. Despite having many previous and potential All Stars on their team, Detroit was unable to stay in the hunt starting with the first game of the season. Their pitching was very disappointing and…

More Tribe News…

On Thursday, the Indians made some moves as they purchased the contracts of five players currently in their minor league system.

Outfielder Trevor Crowe, catchers Carlos Santana and Chris Gimenez and pitcher Jeff Stevens from the Columbus Clippers AAA team were four of the five.

The fifth was pitcher Hector Rondon of the Kinston Indians Low A team.

Crowe, who was drafted out of the University of Arizona, has been one of the…

Tribe Names Chuck Hernandez Bullpen Coach

The Indians named their first new acquisition of the off season, Chuck Hernandez who was chosen by Manager Eric Wedge to be the Indians’ new bullpen coach for the 2009 season.

Hernandez is just 48 years old, but will be entering his 31st season in professional baseball. His last three seasons were spent with the Indians’ division rival, the Detroit Tigers, as their pitching coach. During the two seasons prior to…

Cleveland Indians off Season Report

Season Wrap-up

The Indians had a disappointing year on all accounts. Picked by many to go to, and even with the World Series, the Indians underperformed and were marred with injuries to some of their main contributors for most of the season. They also traded away one Cy Young Award winner, but they did have another Cy Young winner emerge in Cliff Lee. Some of the young talent proved to have…

Chicago White Sox off Season Report

Season Wrap-up

Baseball fans last saw the White Sox lose to the Rays in the divisional round of the playoffs. They were by no means a power during the season, but they play in a weak division and were able to stay above water enough to make it to the playoffs.

Holes to Fill

Their most obvious needs are for youth and speed. Many of their players are aging veterans who just aren’t able…

The Baseball Reflections Annual Team Analysis

This off season Bill and I will tackle the task of analyzing the needs of each team going into the 2009 season. Last year I did it all myself and I think I forgot 1 or 2 teams along the way. Plus, I went overboard with details and the task took me two days worth of my usual writing time in order to finish a lot of the teams like…

MLB Awards: How Did We Do with our Predictions?

Here’s a list of the recently assigned MLB awards and how Baseball Reflections fared in predicting them.

AL Rookie of the Year

We at Baseball Reflections were right on with selecting Rays 3B Evan Longoria as the hands down choice. But in all fairness, this wasn’t difficult to predict. No one else even came close to Longoria in 2008.

NL Rookie of the Year

The award went to Cubs catcher Geovany Soto, but we picked Braves SP Jair…

This Week’s Hot Stove Red Sox Reflections

Rumors

I have heard rumors that the Tigers are interested in SS Julio Lugo in exchange for either SP Dontrelle “D-Train” Willis or SP Nate Robertson. Theo, pull the trigger no matter which one of these guys they offer, but especially if it’s Robertson!

Are the Red Sox serious about acquiring 1B Mark Teixeira? Personally, I don’t think so!

CF Coco Crisp has been mentioned in trades with the following teams: SD Padres and the Chicago Cubs. Just don’t…

Indians Focus on a Closer for 2009 and Beyond

After experiencing a closer by committee position last season, the Indians seem to be attempting to solidify that spot on their team with a former All Star during the off season.

The Indians have surprisingly become one of the teams that are vying for some of the major free agent closers in the game and claim to have an upper hand on that position because they are willing to offer a…

Something Sounds Fishy Here

The day before the beginning of the free agent signing period saw two more trades. One between the Yankees and White Sox while the other being between the Marlins and Cubs.

In the American League transaction, the Yankees aquired 1B/OF Nick Swisher and minor league pitcher Kaneoka Texeira from the White Sox in exchange for INF Wilson Betemit, and minor league pitchers Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez. To read more on…

Baseball Reflections.com Gets Personal

In recent discussions, the main writers of Baseball Reflections (that would be Bill and I), have agreed to let our hair down so to speak. We will start reflecting upon our hometown teams on a regular basis here on Baseball Reflections. So, Bill, a lifetime resident of Ohio, will reflect upon his Cleveland Indians and I, a lifetime resident of Massachussetts, will reflect upon my Boston Red Sox.

Our plan is…

Recent Trades May Change Your Holliday Outlook

The Colorado Rockies, for some strange reason, have traded All-Star LF Matt Holliday to the Oakland A’s for SP Greg Smith, closer Huston Street and OF Carlos Gonzalez. You can see more details of this trade on ESPN.

For reactions of this move, please visit Athletics Nation posts entitled New Holliday Thread and The Matt Holliday Deal and Its Ramifications; and from Purple Row, please read The Oakland Trade: A Better Fit? and Tuesday…

RIP Former Indians Player and Broadcaster Herb Score

One of the greatest personalities in baseball history, Herb Score, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 75.

Most casual baseball fans outside of Cleveland probably never heard of Score, especially if they were born after the 1950s.

If Score would have been able to play the length of a normal career, he would have no doubt been the talk of the league for years to come. He was a hard…

Book Review of The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed

Book Review of The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed by J.C. Bradbury

A Review By: Bill Jordan

The Hardcover

The Paperback

Bradbury’s research in this work could no doubt be considered innovating, not only does he statistically prove many aspects of the game of baseball that were thought to be true already, but he also disproves many that even those who know the game very well assume to be correct.

The first part of…

Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy Set for Charity

We were recently contacted by a staff member at The Bench to post this project. You can find a link to their site here: www.thebenchtrading.com They asked us to post this on their behalf for a charity they are working with.

We as an on-line community are collecting the 2008 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy set. This is a 6,600+ card set with one card for every game ever played at Yankee Stadium. After…

AL Gold Glove Awards: How Did We Do?

AL Gold Glove Awards

Last week, Bill announced his picks for the AL Gold Glove Awards. MLB announced the official list yesterday afternoon, lets see how he did:

Pitcher: the official winner was Yankees starter Mike Mussina (another older player as the NL choose Greg Maddux), but Bill choose the White Sox Mark Buehrle.

Catcher: the official winner and Bill’s choice were the same, the Twins Joe Mauer. This one was probably a no brainer!

First…

NL Gold Glove Awards: How Did We Do?

NL Gold Glove Awards

Last week, Bill announced his picks for the NL Gold Glove Awards. MLB announced the official list yesterday afternoon, lets see how he did:

Pitcher: the official winner was Padres/Dodgers starter Greg Maddux, but Bill choose the Giants Matt Cain.

Catcher: the official winner was the Cardinals Yadier Molina, but Bill choose his brother, the Giants Benji Molina. Yadier wan’t even in his sights.

First Base: the official winner and Bill’s choice were the…

Free Agents and Possible Trade Bait

Thanks to Tim Dierkes and Co. at MLB Trade Rumors, here’s a few links for those of you who love Hot Stove Baseball talk!

Here’s a link to the list of Type A and B Free Agents via ESPN and Keith Law.

Here’s a link to the latest rumors regarding the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. Should they keep Burrell, and if not, who should be his replacement? Reunite Manny Ramirez with Charlie Manual? Go after Matt Holliday? Or how about Ken…

Who Had the Best Organization in the MLB in 2008?

According to Maury Brown and his staff at the Biz of Baseball, they picked the Tampa Bay Rays. We saw the Rays go from being one of the worst teams in baseball in 2007 to one of the best teams in 2008 as they hosted the Phillies in the first two games of the World Series. It is that accomplishment that has Bill & I in agreement with Biz of…