All Entries in the "AL Central" Category
2011 Fantasy Baseball Projections: Why You Should Buy Low on Chicago White Sox’s Alex Rios
Ubaldo Jimenez isn’t the only star of 2010 that has struggled this season. After a year in which Alex Rios hit 21 HRs, swiped 34 bases and hit .284 in the middle of a potent White Sox lineup, the 30-year-old center fielder has slumped through the first two months of 2011, posting a pathetic .201/.253/.306 slash with four HRs [...]
Tribe Fans Feeling Like It’s 1995
No one, including the most optimistic fans in Cleveland, thought with the season headed into June, the Indians would be in the discussion of the best teams in baseball. In fact, even employees of the team were saying before the season that they were realistically two years out of contending. To fans, this felt like [...]
Chicago White Sox turn on power for 2011
The Chicago White Sox went into this off-season with plenty of work to do. They head toward spring training with a job well Dunn. Plenty of questions surrounded the offense heading into the fall and winter. Would catcher A.J. Pierzynski remain? Could they find a left-handed power hitter to compliment their line-up? And, most notably, [...]
American and National League Divisional Series Prediction
OK, this is my first attempt at a webcast so it’s bound to be a little rough around the edges. I now see that it is much easier doing one of these with at least one more person like on the BBA Baseball Talk podcasts or online with the guys over at Pro Rumors TV. [...]
Closing Argument in Chicago for the Sox
No set closer might be the best move for the Sox How patient can the White Sox be with their closer Bobby Jenks when Minnesota continues to stay hot on their heels? Jenks’ rollercoaster season has to stabilize if the Sox want to keep the Twins at bay in the American League Central or the [...]
Reflections on the 2010 White Sox: A Preview
The 2010 season is less than a month away, and here on the South side of Chicago (read: the western Chicago suburbs), White Sox fans are mostly talking about five topics in regards to the team’s upcoming campaign. The arms race: Say it with me, “Buehrle, Peavy, Danks, Floyd… Garcia” If there’s a case to [...]
Minnesota Twins Season Preview
Image via Wikipedia 1) How was the off-season? What kind of grade would you give it? For the Twins, the 2009 offseason was one of the best in recent history. After the (unfortunate) early exit from the postseason to end the 2009 season, the Twins had several clear and pressing needs. The most notable and [...]
Breaking Down Liriano’s DWL Dominance
This article was originally written by Andrew Kneeland back on January 29, 2010 on his site Twins Target. If you haven’t already heard, Francisco Liriano appears to be back to his old self. After putting up a 0.80 ERA in just under 50 innings of work in the Domincan Winter League, Liriano has impressed scouts [...]
February’s Look at the Cleveland Indians
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The Indians started the off season by firing their manager and his coaches, but keeping most of the other front office personnel in place. They staged some what of an extensive manager search and ended on former Washington Nationals’ skipper Manny Acta. There was a big deal made in [...]
Around The Horn in MLB News
Image by JudeanPeoplesFront via Flickr Here are a few links to the trades and signings this Hot Stove Season from teams who are either not currently covered here or haven’t been covered in a while…in alphabetical order and from the blogs currently on my blogroll. If you want to be added to my team blogrolls [...]
Tigers Considering Major Changes
They are not calling it a fire sale. Let’s get that out of the way first. Dave Dombrowski has conducted fire sales before, most notably following the 1997 championship season with the Florida Marlins. This, he says, is not a fire sale. The GM meetings don’t usually bring much noise, and there were no major [...]
Tigers Drop Finale, Division to Twins
Detroit 5, Minnesota 6 (box) Final Record 86-77 (second place) Devastation. That’s what I felt Tuesday night as the Twins celebrated following their 12th inning walk off, that’s what I’m feeling Wednesday morning as I write this. The back and forth nature of this game made it a classic. The stakes made it one of [...]
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 [...]
Royals Are Laughingstocks Once More
When Dayton Moore was hired as general manager and David Glass decided it was okay to spend a little money, most of us were sure that the Royals were on the road back to respectability. Bolstered by a better than it really was September, the Royals won more games in 2008 than they had since [...]
Reminder: MLB Keychain Raffle
Welcome to the first, and hopefully not last, Baseball Reflections Keychain Raffle sponsored by WholesaleKeychain.com. We will be raffling off 9 MLB team keychains. There will be links below to the WholesaleKeychain.com page of the 9 teams (these links will open up in a new tab or page) selected for this raffle. There will be [...]
Baseball Reflection’s MLB Keychain Raffle
Welcome to the first, and hopefully not last, Baseball Reflections Keychain Raffle sponsored by WholesaleKeychain.com. We will be raffling off 9 MLB team keychains. There will be links below to the WholesaleKeychain.com page of the 9 teams (these links will open up in a new tab or page) selected for this raffle. There will be [...]
McClendon Not the Problem with Tigers Offense
In case you missed it, Kurt Menshing over at Mack Avenue Tigers examined the thought that many (myself included) have had that Tigers hitting coach Lloyd McClendon should be fired. When you take a peek at the poor offensive statistics that the Tigers have posted as a team this year, it would easy to have [...]
A Royal Thirty Days of Stink
There were once high hopes for the Kansas City Royals, but no longer. While the problems plaguing the Royals began even as they raced out of the 2009 starting gate to an 18-11 record and three game Central Division lead, the last thirty days provide a perfect illustration of the state of this franchise. Since [...]
Yesterday, Buehrle Was Perfect!
Image via Wikipedia Mark Buehrle led the White Sox to victory in grand fashion today, by tossing a perfect game, and his second career no-hitter. His first came on April 18th, 2007, also at U.S. Comiscular Field. This is only the 18th perfect game in MLB history, Randy Johnson being the last to do so [...]
Tigers Still looking for Bats
Image by mwlguide via Flickr As the All-Star break draws near, many teams around the league are looking for upgrades. Your Motor City Kitties are no exception. The Tigers need for a another bat has been well chronicled, and many names have been tossed around the blogosphere. Unfortunately, the Tigers failed to pounce on the [...]
Royals Showcase Textbook Bad Baseball
When I last reported on the Royals, the team was sitting just one game out of first place in the American League Central with a respectable 20-18 record. Sure, Kansas City had dropped seven of their last nine games to get to that mark, but all was still well in the land of blue. My, [...]
Why The Trade Deadline May Be Disappointing For Tigers Fans
With just about six weeks remaining until the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline the Detroit Tigers find themselves in first place in the AL Central, albeit with some gaping holes in their roster. Through ineffectiveness or injury the Tigers are struggling to fill the bottom two spots in the starting rotation, are platooning various youngsters in the outfield [...]
Detroit Tigers June Splits
Every season is a different season, however there are trends in baseball. So today we’ll take a look at the career split stats for the current group of Detroit Tigers for the month of June and see at least on some level, what we might expect. Let’s start with the hitters. As you would expect [...]
Dontrelle Willis Needed This!
He needed to step onto that mound at Comerica Park and feel the evening sun shine upon him, the clouds in retreat, the swirling winds at bay. He needed to kick his right leg high into the air and bring his left arm across his body in perfect plane as the baseball left his fingertips [...]
The Royals Become Relevant
Unless you are a Kansas City Royals fan or a really, really huge baseball fan in general, chances are you have not given the Royals much thought since about 1994. Even during the 2003 campaign, when Kansas City won sixteen of their first nineteen games and hung in the race until late August, they were [...]
Indians After Two Months = Disappointing
While the Cleveland Indians are currently on a winning streak at the time of this writing, it is the first time in nearly a month that they have won at least two games in a row. Even though there were no huge expectations coming into this season like there were in 2008 when many, including [...]
White Sox Reflections 1 ½ Months In
I’ll let Paul Konerko and Ozzie Guillen sum up the White Sox season (15-18) through the halfway point in May. “We stink.” – Guillen “We’re just not good right now, that’s it.” – Konerko That pretty much sums it up, but let’s take a look at why the Sox are struggling so much. Offense The [...]
Why I’m high on this Tigers team
Before the season, I wrote that these Tigers would be a bit of a mystery. We didn’t know what to expect. Unlike the “experts,” I didn’t expect the worst. But other than that, I had no idea what we’d see out of the 2009 Detroit Tigers. Well — and knowing full well the dangers in [...]
The White Sox at Week 2
We are 2 weeks into the season and I find the White Sox right where I expected them: hanging around and in the mix. Power bats are getting them their runs, and their pitching staff has done a good job. In the AL, only Seattle has allowed less runs than the Sox. For the Sox [...]
The Comings and Goings in Cleveland
Indians Place Dellucci on DL; Recall Crowe from Columbus With just one week until they open up against the Rangers in Texas, the Cleveland Indians tweaked their opening day roster once again to make sure that it is just right. Their basic moves are that they placed outfielder David Dellucci on the 15-day disabled list [...]
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