All Entries in the "AL West" Category
Francisco Martinez And His 2012 Outlook
Francisco Martinez is quite a polarizing figure for a guy who most Mariner fans have never seen in person. The guy came over in the Doug Fister trade. Fister was a fan-favorite. I think Fister will regress next year, but I liked him enough as a pitcher to be sad that he’s gone. However, when he [...]
Texas Rangers News Round-up
The Texas Rangers have been very busy in the last couple of weeks. Right now the Rangers are still trying to negotiate a deal with Yu Darvish but there is a limited amount of information and insight on the negotiations. Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports reported earlier this week that The Texas Rangers are [...]
Pujols Talks About His New Team: Angels
Albert Pujols opens up about his decision to sign with the Angels, noting that he brings experience to a young club. Help support Baseball Reflections and buy me a coffee with PayPal!
What’s the Best Player in Baseball Worth?
In a twist reminiscent of last year’s Cliff Lee negotiations, what appeared to be a two-team race for the services of Albert Pujols between the Cardinals and Marlins was upset by the entrance of a third “Mystery Team”. Though many believed the Mystery Team was simply a tactic Pujols’ agent, Dan Lozano, was using [...]
Dipoto and Moreno bet Angels future on Pujols/Wilson
It was reported two days ago within the course of two hours that the LA Angels had signed both Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson. By doing so, they simultaneously declared themselves favorites to win the AL West and pronounce them the “winners” of the 2011-’12 off-season. The buzz on Twitter the moment of the announced [...]
Angels Stun the Baseball World
In what can only be described as stunning, the Angels shook the baseball world today in a way normally reserved only for earthquakes on Southern California’s notorious San Andreas Fault by announcing they have reached an agreement on a 10 year contract with first baseman Albert Pujols and a 5 year agreement with starting pitcher [...]
Acquisitions Propel Rangers to ALCS…Again!
For the second straight season, the Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays to advance to the ALCS. For the second straight season, their success was largely based on recent player acquisitions. In 2010, Rangers GM Jon Daniels made several key moves in both the offseason and prior to the trade deadline, including the additions of [...]
ALCS Preview: The Texas Rangers vs The Detroit Tigers
While both National League Divisional Series will be going to a decisive Game 5 tonight, the Tigers and Rangers have each earned a berth to their league’s Championship Series. We’ll take a look at how these two teams match up to try to determine which club will represent the AL in the World Series. [...]
The New Moneyball
Those that read Moneyball remember it well. You had the case of Scott Hatteberg. Hatteberg moved from behind the dish to first base because he could no longer throw effectively. He could however draw walks and hit with moderate power. There were the collective drafts of Nick Swisher and Jeremy Brown. Swisher you have heard [...]
The Mariners Career of Erik Bedard
15 Starts That seems like the magic number Bedard strives for each season, at least during his Mariners career. In his four seasons with the club (he missed all of 2010), Bedard has made exactly 15 starts in all of them. Here’s a look at his numbers: 2008: 6-4 3.67 ERA 4.50 xFIP 1.0 [...]
A’s Trade Ellis to Rockies
Midday Thursday, just about 12 hours before the calendar turned to July, we finally witnessed the first significant trade since the start of the 2011 season. The Colorado Rockies acquired second baseman Mark Ellis from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for pitcher Bruce Billings and a player to be named later. Colorado will also receive [...]
Top Prospect Dustin Ackley (2B) Debuts for the Mariners Tonight
Dustin Ackley will be making the most highly anticipated Seattle Mariner debut on June 17th 2011 since the debut of one King Felix Hernandez in 2005. Ackley got off to an abysmal start in April, but he then hit .355/.443/.605 in May and .346/.500/.538 in June. Yes, he’s due for regression away from those numbers, [...]
Odds on Seattle’s Side
Even the most casual of Mariners fans have probably picked up on the alternating nature of expectations over the past few years. The 2007 and 2009 seasons saw the Mariners achieve unexpected success which lead to big off season acquisitions (Bedard post 2007, Lee post 2009), and high expectations heading into 2008 and 2010. Both [...]
2011 Fantasy Baseball Projections: Comparing Oakland Athletics’ Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill
Through the team’s first 22 games, the Oakland Athletics lead the majors in ERA, and it’s not even close. The A’s team ERA currently sits at 2.46, while the major’s second lowest ERA (Padres) is 2.95. Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill have been big contributors to the team’s stellar ERA thus far. From a fantasy standpoint, however, [...]
2011 Fantasy Baseball Projections: Why Los Angeles Angels’ Jered Weaver is a Top 10 Pitcher
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Jered Weaver tossed another quality start on Friday, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits in seven innings—against a very potent White Sox lineup in Chicago. This comes after Weaver’s absolute gem last Sunday, when he limited the Blue Jays’ lineup to just one run on four hits in 7 2/3 innings. [...]
A Look At The Mariners Pitching Staff in 2011
The Mariners have stumbled out of the gate to start the 2011 season; however, it’s no fault of the pitching staff. ERA FIP K/9 BB/9 GB% 2011 (9 games) 4.56 3.59 6.43 2.22 47.9 2010 (162 games) 3.95 4.17 6.09 2.83 43.4 Nine games is a very small sample size but, based on the [...]
Jack Z and the 2011 Seattle Mariners Offense
The 2011 season will be Jack Zduriencik’s 3rd season as GM of the Seattle Mariners. It seems like just yesterday that the Mariners were fresh off a horrible season, had no good players (excluding Ichiro and Felix), a bloated payroll, and no hope of a prospect contributing anything to the big league [...]
A’s work out details to make MLB doubleheader a reality
Editor’s Note: This post was originally posted to Kevin’s Examiner page! Not since Bill Clinton was in the White House and Beavis and Butthead were childishly giggling their ways into our living rooms have the Oakland A’s done what they will do next year. For the first time in 15 years, the A’s will conduct [...]
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. [...]
Cliff Lee NOT Traded to the Yankees, but IS now a Ranger!!!
Biggest Trade of 2010 Season Occurs With Added Drama From the words of Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels, the Rangers, not Yankees, are the winners of the Cliff Lee sweepstakes. They will be sending star 1B prospect Justin Smoak, and minor leaguers RHP Blake Beavin, RHP Josh Lueke, and utility man Matt Lawson to the [...]
Cliff Lee (Almost) Traded to Yankees?!!!
Lee becomes 9th Yankee on AL All-Star team Mariners receive prospect package with Jesus Montero as the centerpiece The most talked-about sweepstakes at the trade deadline this year is coming to a close. THUH-UH-UH-UH—YANKEES WIN! Despite missing the first month of the season with an abdominal strain, LHP Cliff Lee places 4th among pitchers in [...]
Russell Branyan traded for Randy Johnson… Kind of (includes FLOW CHART)
About a week ago, on the heels of winning 6 of their last 7, a few days ago Seattle Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik was quoted “I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet.” Now, he has absolutely no incentive to say the opposite (“Fire Sale!” shows your hand and gives away your leverage), [...]
What Gives The Angels Their Edge? Manager Mike Scioscia
The longest name in sports franchise history has suffered a large share of personnel misfortunes due to a variety of causes on and off the diamond, yet they are still consistently expected not only to contend, but to win the American League West. Why? Two words: Mike Scioscia. Owning two World Series rings as [...]
Pizza Used as Projectile in a Red Sox – Angels Game
Late in a game between the Red Sox and the Angels (I’m assuming it’s from 2009, but I’m not too sure), on a foul ball down the left field line at Boston’s Fenway Park, a fan gets abused by both food and drink when the ball goes into the stands. The best part about this [...]
Rangers Pitching, Post Spring Traning
Much of the spring training coverage for the Rangers has focused on all their options at starting pitcher. Now that the opening day rotation is set we should probably examine if they are really as deep as we think. I think the biggest concern for this rotation is will it eat up enough innings as [...]
The Priesthood Wins Out Over Baseball?!
This week a top OF prospect in the A’s farm system by the name of Grant Desme (23) has decided to leave baseball to pursue a higher calling. The 8th ranked player in the Oakland A’s system was looking like he could get the call to join the major league team during spring training, but [...]
Will Nolan Ryan Change How Pitchers Are Treated?
One of my new favorite organizations in baseball is now the Nolan Ryan led Texas Rangers! I’m still a Red Sox fan, but I absolutely love what the Hall of Famer is trying to do in Texas. I just hope that the new management, whoever that may be, will be on the same page. For [...]
The Mariners’ Hot Stove Report
Image via Wikipedia Since the beginning of November, the end of the baseball season, it is almost unarguable that the Mariners have led the charge through the offseason. After a strong 2008 offseason, highlighted by the signing of Russell Branyan and the J.J. Putz trade, which netted the team Gold-Glove-snub Franklin Gutierrez, it wasn’t completely [...]
Mariners On The Verge of Signing Chone Figgins. Whither Adrian Beltre?
he AP reports that Chone Figgins has signed a deal with the Seattle Mariners that would guarantee him $36 million over 4 years, with a vesting option for a 5th year to make the deal worth up to $45 million. Figgins would likely be the Mariners opening day third baseman and slide nicely into the [...]
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 [...]
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