Archive for September, 2009
For The Cardinals, It Was A Stuttering September
It took a while, but finally September gave the Cardinals the moment they had been waiting for, a clinching celebration as they punched their tickets into the postseason as NL Central champs. What happened between September 1 and September 26 to get to that point alternatively thrilled and concerned St. Louis fans as they try [...]
10 Reasons the Angels will be in the ALCS
The Angels are headed to the ALCS, after they finally defeat their traditional post season nemesis, the Boston Red Sox. Bet the house on it. Granted, it’s hard to come up with a solid baseball-based argument to support that bold statement. The Red Sox have owned the Angels in the post season since Dave Henderson [...]
Nick Kappel’s Fantasy Focus: Top Spot Starters For Week 26
The final week of the fantasy baseball season is upon us. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve got a lot to gain (or lose) in the next seven days. It’s important to note that all Yahoo leagues use ERA as it’s first tiebreaker. If you finish the week tied five-to-five, the championship goes to [...]
The Gold Glove Award Selection Process Needs Impoving
Image via Wikipedia It’s fairly unclear as to what voters take into consideration when choosing winners of the gold glove award – the one stat that has consistently been used to determine a players fielding ability, has been fielding percentage. Fielding percentage basically takes the player’s total number of chances converted into outs (assists/put outs), [...]
SPBA: If You Blinked, You Missed It!
Senior Professional Baseball Association Back in the winter of 1989, former minor leaguer and Colorado real estate guru Jim Morley founded the Senior Professional Baseball Association after seeing the success of the Senior Golf Tour. After all, baseball is America’s favorite pastime, so why not play winter ball in the states with former major leaguers [...]
A Collection of Baseball Reflections Book Reviews
A Glove of Their Own by Debbie Moldovan, Keri Conkling and Lisa Funari-Willever A great children’s book written in poetic rhyme with wonderful illustrations. A must read for people with children in their life. Fair Ball by Bob Costas A look into the world of baseball through the eyes of world renown broadcaster and sports [...]
The Diamondbacks Should Exercise Their Option on Webb Now!
The Arizona Diamondbacks must decide on whether to exercise their $8.5 million option on Brandon Webb within 10 days of the conclusion of the World Series. Webb is scheduled to throw in October after missing all but the opening day start of 2009. Regardless of how those throwing sessions go, the D-backs should invoke their [...]
Astros Fire Manager Cecil Cooper
If you were to write up a job description for the incoming manager of the Houston Astros in order to replace Cecil Cooper, who was fired yesterday, it would be a pretty long one. Must be able to work with handsy owner. Must be willing to work with mouthy veterans. Must be willing to play [...]
Braves Run Scored, Run Scored Against Analysis
There’s Hope in Atlanta for 2010! I’ve noticed this year, like many before, that the Braves seem to lose against teams that have losing records. I’ve got guesses for this, but with 162 games, all teams will do this on occasion anyway. One such guess is that the Braves often score less runs against certain [...]
Nick Kappel’s Fantasy Focus: Top Spot Starters for Week 25
In last week’s Fantasy Focus, I suggested three players to add in your quest for a championship game berth. If you’ve reached the finals, you’re just one win away from every manager’s dream: a fantasy baseball title. It’s important to note, however, that in a one (or two) week matchup, anything can happen. You can [...]
Baseball Scores, But Game Suspended
A guest article by Charles S. Farrell from the DRSEA Informer Volume II, Issue 19: A Publication For Your Reading Enjoyment Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association got a split decision recently when a U.S. federal court of appeals ruled that federal agents went too far in seizing urine samples, drug [...]
Is Ballpark Concessionaire Aramark bad for Baseball teams?
Superstitious Fans Wonder: Is Ballpark Concessionaire Aramark bad for Baseball teams? Image by saturdave via Flickr This article was sent to me for publication here at Baseball Reflections.com by Eric Sharfstein, Assistant Director of Communications, Media for Workers United – An SEIU Affiliate. Baseball teams in stadiums that use concessionaire Aramark fall short of expected [...]
Friday Night Links: Contest
Image by Keith Allison via Flickr Tonight’s version of Friday Night Links will focus on a contest being run by our friends over at RAYS THE STAKES, a Tampa Bay Rays blog. The winner of this contest will get an autographed JASON BARTLETT (Rays SS) Upper Deck baseball card. This contest is being provided by [...]
MLB Players Have NOT Hit it Off with Twitter
As reported by Gail Sideman of Mashable in her article entitled, “Twitter and Major League Baseball: A Missed Opportunity“, major league baseball players have not taken to Twitter like players in other major sports have. Image by Keith Allison via Flickr You hear about NBA players like Shaq and NFL players like T.O. using Twitter [...]
Sugar: The Movie now on DVD
Back in July I was informed of the DVD release of the movie “SUGAR”, but as life can sometimes be hectic, I haven’t gotten to write about it until now. “SUGAR” came out on Blu-ray and DVD on September 1st. So if you are a fan of the Dominican Republic’s brand of baseball, “SUGAR” give [...]
Sabermetrics 101: VORP
For those of you who are sabermetrically challenged, here is an introductory look into this basic stat. Here is the textbook description of VORP thanks to Baseball Prospectus.com. VORP stands for Value Over Replacement Player, which is broken down as the number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player at the same position would [...]
Do the Reds Have a Plan?
A team needs a plan. A losing team especially needs a plan. So, the Cincinnati Reds need a plan. Do they have one? Recent evidence calls this into question. Image by Getty Images via Daylife Owner Robert Castellini has installed a win-now team, going with a veteran manager in Dusty Baker and a veteran general [...]
Nick Kappel’s Fantasy Focus: Advancing to Your League Championship Game
For most fantasy baseball leagues, today marks the beginning of the semifinal playoff round. If you’ve made it this far, it’s important to know that this is the most critical time of the year. Everything that’s happened up until this point is irrelevant; because in a one-week matchup, anything can happen. Forget about the fact [...]
New York Yankees Are Sailing, But Not Coasting
As the New York Yankees head down the stretch towards the end of the season, they’re in even better shape than they were in July. And that’s really saying something, given that they went 18-9 in that month. In August, the Yankees went an incredible 21-7 (a .750 winning percentage). They ended the month – [...]
Giants Should Still Bring Bochy Back
Giants don’t score, but should bring Bochy back for more. Manager Bruce Bochy is in the last year of a three year deal with the Giants. And in that time the Giants have single handedly redefined the term scoring position; it’s no longer having a runner on second or third base. Scoring position for your [...]
The Curse of the American League
Image by Keith Allison via Flickr At this point, we have to begin to discuss the possibility of an official curse – for the third time in four years one of the American League’s elite homerun hitters has suffered a season ending injury in September, and for the second year in a row it may [...]
Boston’s Other Green Monster
I recently interviewed co-founder of Perfect Mind Perfect Motion (PMPM) Sports, Buddy Biancalana and he put me in touch with former PMPM Sports student and current Red Sox INF/RP Nick Green. In this interview, Nick talks about his career, Boston and his experience with PMPM Sports. Image by Getty Images via Daylife For Nick Green’s [...]
Matt Wieters Gets On The Job Training
By any measure, Baltimore Orioles rookie catcher Matt Wieters has been outstanding since making his Major League debut for the Orioles on May 29. While it is easy to notice his 13 RBI in the month of August and .277 batting average since July 1st, what is especially impressive is the strides Wieters is making [...]
The Red Sox’s Top Options at SS
I was going to provide a run down of the future at shortstop (SS) for the Boston Red Sox, but after my research was done, I found out that none of the top 6 players at this position were hitting over .249 as of Thursday, August 28th. Although Yamaico Navarro did hit for a .319 [...]
Introducing The Funnel AFL 11 from Akadema
There are a few scents that I know of that really wake me up. One is the smell of freshly cut grass (especially that of Fenway Park as smelled from behind the Green Monster), freshly cut wood, the smell of a new leather baseball glove and a certain perfume that my wife wears which I [...]
A Stephen Strasburg Warning for the Nats
Washington Nationals fans had been set up for disappointment all season long. No Nats fans had any reason to think the August 17th deadline to sign draft picks would be any different. It was only a year after the club had failed to sign their 2008 first round draft pick, Aaron Crow. A circus of [...]
Brewers Fading Away: An August Recap
Records/General Thoughts: August Record 13-14 Current Record 64-66 (3rd place-12 Games Behind St. Louis) August was an interesting month for the Brewers, but not in a good way. The Brewers came into August only 5 1/2 games out of first despite struggling throughout June and July. Instead of taking advantage of an easy August schedule [...]
Derrek Lee Shines in a Season to Forget
What can you offer up about the Cubs that hasn’t already been said? The Cubs have been a major disappointment in 2009 and yet, following Wednesday’s game they only find themselves 5.5 games out of first place. Yes, they also trail four other teams besides the Colorado Rockies, and yes they don’t even resemble in [...]
100 INNINGS OF BASEBALL Benefitting Curt’s Pitch for ALS
CURT SCHILLING’S ALS AWARENESS EFFORTS CONTINUE 6th ANNUAL, 100 INNINGS OF BASEBALL ANNOUNCED Contest expected to surpass $500,000 raised overall. Ballplayers of All Abilities Are Encouraged to Participate! Quincy – Stock up on the peanuts and cracker jacks. Boston-based sports marketing firm, Charity Hop, in conjunction with Curt Schilling and the ALS Association of Massachusetts, [...]
Carlos Guillen Key for Tigers’ Pennant Chances
As the July trade deadline neared, there was much rumbling about the Tigers lack of offensive prowess. The general consensus was that Detroit had to make a move to bring in a big bat. He should be left handed and be able to hit for some power. Instead, Dave Dombowski pulled the trigger on a [...]
<--under the tag-->