Author Archive for Asher B. Chancey
Asher B. Chancey also writes for Baseball Evolution and you can read his work there by following this link.
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…
Breaking News: The Rays Are Sellers, and Looking Towards 2010
They’ve done it. I asked them to. I suggested it. But I didn’t expect them to do it. But they did it. I can’t believe they actually did it.
- Image via Wikipedia
The Tampa Bay Rays have traded…
As the Cubs Roll Into August…
July turns to August and finds the Chicago Cubs still in the NL Central hunt. Nevertheless, they didn’t look like a contending team as the trading deadline neared, making a nominal move for minimal help which may actually hurt the team this season.
- Image
…
The Current Mindset of the Rays
It’s hard to believe that in this decade, Tampa Bay major sports franchises have been to the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the Stanley Cup Finals. Not bad for a city that has, at other times, been synonymous with horrendous teams (the Buccaneers before this decade, and the Rays before last season).
…
Cubs Reflections on Being in First Place
Despite all my nay-saying and doom-daying, the Chicago Cubs woke up on July 27th and found themselves in first place in the NL Central. Outside of any performance by the Cubs, here are five reasons which this has happened:
5. The St. Louis Cardinals have no hitting. A
…
The Cubs Are Slumping and on the DL
Over the course of a 162 game season, even the best teams have slumps. Particularly in this era of relatively balanced competition even the perennial division winners – teams like the Red Sox, Cardinals, and Angels – run into rough stretches. But the 2009 Chicago Cubs are currently enduring a slump that even the worst teams have to avoid staring directly at. The Cubs…
The Rays After 40 Games
The 2009 Tampa Bay Rays played their fortieth game of the season on Monday, May 18th and in so doing got themselves back to the .500 mark at 20-20. But at this point, things that went right in 2008 so far have not in 2009, and the Rays find themselves in fourth place in their division.
Things have taken a…
Rays Reflections
David Price and Andy Sonnanstine are exhibits A and B in a lesson about how valuable experience can be when making a major league roster or, more importantly, a starting rotation. Though I am a big fan of Andy’s, anyone can see that Price is likely a far more talented pitcher in every aspect of the game. The 23 year old Price seemed major league ready when he was drafted,…
What to Expect From The Cubs in 2009
To say that this is probably the beginning of the end for Derrek Lee would miss the point – we have likely reached the end of the beginning of the end. The beginning of the end came in 2006, when he broke his wrist in a collision with Rafael Furcal. Lee has had two good seasons in 2007 and 2008, but they have been greatly aided by
Reflections on the Cub’s Off Season
The Chicago Cubs and their fans can congratulate themselves on a page-turning 2008 season. In what was the centennial year of World Series drought for the lovable losers, the Cubs managed to convince their fans that this was “The Year” before being summarily dismissed from the post-season by the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the process, the expectations became so high,…
Reflections on the Rays
In pre-season of 2008, I picked the Tampa Bay Rays to make some noise in the American League, to win 25 more games than they had the year before, to top the Seattle Mariners by 18 games, and to make a run at the wild card in the…
