All Entries in the "NL Central" Category
The Reds need to notice what they have right under their nose
It’s that time of the year again, gifts of love are exchanged, football has come to a close, and baseball fans stir up their optimism about their team’s chances of winning it all. With this in mind the Reds are optimistic when it comes to securing the team leader, Joey Votto. Although Votto is locked [...]
Mr. Baseball Inducted into Broadcasting Hall of Fame
It’s only right that a man known simply as “Mr. Baseball” be entered into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Bob “Mr. Baseball” Uecker will officially be inducted next year so that leaves you with some time to get his books and memorabilia from Tanga because they will become collector’s items soon. [...]
Aramis Is The Wrong Direction For Brewers
The Brewers signed Aramis Ramirez to a 3-year deal today to play 3rd and fill in the gap in offense that the departed Prince Fielder left via free agency. Although Fielder has yet to sign with another team, it’s all but a guarantee that the slugger will land somewhere other than Milwaukee for the next decade. [...]
Braun Tests Positive, Could Mean Big Changes in Milwaukee
It was just made public that NL MVP Ryan Braun has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and will serve a 50-game suspension barring an appeal. This is extremely significant for Milwaukee going forward and all but surely takes them out of the bidding for Prince Fielder as Braun will miss 1/3 of the season [...]
Ron Santo Elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee
Ron Santo spent 14 of his 15-year career as a professional baseball player with the Chicago Cubs before he joined their broadcasting team. He was the self-described “single biggest Cubs fan of all time.” He was vocal on and off the field too, especially when it came to his desire to be voted into the [...]
Why Albert Pujols Will Stay In St. Louis
We heard it a lot. At the end of September and during every playoff series, we heard “this could be the last time Albert Pujols has an at-bat in a Cardinal uniform,” sometimes tweaked with the last home appearance. So much so that someone made a chart out of how he did in those situations. (Spoiler, not all [...]
The Cardinal Conundrum: Where Is The Real Genius Behind All The Winning?
With Tony La Russa deciding to call it a career earlier this week, MLB will try to remember what it’s like to exist without him managing one of its teams. It hasn’t had to since 1978. As some reminders just how long ago that was: - Cardinals 10-time All-Star Albert Pujols wasn’t even conceived yet. [...]
Happily Ever After: A Tale of the 2011 Redbird Tribe
Once upon a time, there was a baseball team. This baseball team wasn’t the richest team, though it wasn’t poor by any means. It wasn’t the strongest team and it wasn’t by any means the fastest team. It wasn’t even considered the best team within its region, much less in all the land. [...]
GM Theo Epstein Would be a Smart Hire for the Cubs
Multiple sources, including ESPN and The Sporting News, are reporting that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein has agreed to a five year deal worth more than $15 million with the Chicago Cubs. While the Sox and Cubs are still discussing compensation for Epstein, since he is still under contract with Boston, sources are saying that [...]
Vote of Confidence Signals Long Overdue End
Few words scare any team executive, coach, or even player quite like the dreaded “vote of confidence.” In fact, according to a Wall Street Journal study done last year, 20% of coaches who receive a vote of confidence from their boss are pursuing gainful employment within just the next month, while others are fired shortly [...]
The Brewers High-StaKes Gamble
With their recent acquisition of Francisco Rodriguez, the Milwaukee Brewers further solidify their bullpen and continue to push all their chips onto the table for a 2011 playoff berth. The Brewers bullpen to date has offered them a steady 1.4 WAR according to Fangraphs, which is in the middle of the pack in MLB. K-Rod, [...]
The Jolly Roger Has Broken Out
For the first time since 1992, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a winning record heading into the All-Star Break. Ironically, the last time the Pirates compiled a winning season was the same year, 1992. Here we stand in 2011 watching an assembly of young talent get better each week. Clint Hurdle has done a great job managing [...]
Pirates Enter June Respectably
What has only happened a handful of times in the past 20 years seems to be breathing again. It is now June and the Pittsburgh Pirates are flirting with .500. The Pirates have one of the worst streaks in all of sports, in fact it is the worst. Eighteen consecutive seasons with [...]
Reds Monthly Review: April
Overview You can tell there is a different perception of the Reds in Cincinnati when fans seem to be getting impatient and worried after a 14-13 start in April. The Reds had a very easy schedule, facing the Astros, Pirates, Padres and Diamondbacks twice, but were unable to capitalize because of injuries and all around [...]
2011 Fantasy Baseball Projections: What’s Wrong With Chicago Cubs’ Ryan Dempster?
Chicago Cubs’ pitcher Ryan Dempster allowed seven earned runs for the second consecutive start on Thursday, recording just one out before being yanked. Along the way he walked four, hit a batter and yielded four hits, including a grand slam to Stephen Drew. Through six starts, the usually reliable Dempster now sports an unsightly 9.58 ERA [...]
2011 Fantasy Baseball Projections: Is Milwaukee Brewers’ Chris Narveson Worth a Waiver Wire Flier?
Milwaukee Brewers’ pitcher Chris Narveson tossed seven shutout innings against the Cubs Saturday night, allowing just six hits and one walk while striking out nine. Through two starts (13 innings) thus far, Narveson has yet to allow a run, and boasts a 1.00 WHIP and 14/4 K/BB ratio. The 29-year-old journeyman is currently owned in just [...]
Mediocre Better Than Bad in Pittsburgh for the Pirates
Pittsburgh got rolling into 2011 with a 4-3 first week. Think about it, they can finish 25 games over .500 if they keep this up. So far, there have been a few surprises as well as a few disappointments. Since this is the Pirates, let’s start with the disappointments. Evan Meek [...]
2011 Fantasy Baseball Projections: How Good Is Chicago Cubs’ Starlin Castro?
Chicago Cubs’ shortstop Starlin Castro is 8-for-13 (.615) with four runs and one RBI through three games this season, and already has the fantasy baseball community buzzing over the his stud potential. Castro’s 2011 spring totals turned some heads last month, as he displayed surprising power: 66 at-bats, 14 runs, nine XBH (four HRs), 15 RBI, 2 steals, .348/.386/.621. Fresh off [...]
A Winning Hiatus in Pittsburgh
People know Pittsburgh as one of the “City of Champions”. While the Steelers and Penguins have had recent success, the Pirates have been cellar dwellers and have has loosing seasons for 18 consecutive years. This is definitely not the team they were in the 1970s. Like the Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies, [...]
2011 Fantasy Projections, No. 96: What’s Standing Between St. Louis Cardinals’ Colby Rasmus and the Elite Ranks?
Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings. Colby Rasmus soared through the St. Louis Cardinals’ system after being selected in the first round of the 2005 draft, touted as a toolsy [...]
Remembering Chuck Tanner and Winning Championships
Chuck Tanner sadly passed away on February 11th. One thing you will never hear me criticize when writing about Pittsburgh is the loyalty that fans have shown to those who have given their best. Sometimes, one’s best isn’t enough to win a championship. Fortunately for Chuck Tanner, his best was good enough to claim a [...]
Two Historic Pitchers Retired This Off Season And Their Press Conferences
Trevor Hoffman Calls It Quits So, after the trials of the 2010 season where Glenn’s little brother saw himself loose his job as the closer for the Brewers for a while, yet rebound and still get his 600th career save (most ever), he decided to hang ‘em up! Here is the video of his retirement [...]
Scouting Legend Bill Lajoie Goes to Heaven as a Pirate
Editor’s note: This article was first published on Bucs Prospects HERE on December 30th. As far as Pirates fans should be concerned, the biggest mistake Bill Lajoie made was joining the organization 20 years too late. You Bucco fanatics have no idea what you missed and what Detroiters like me gained. Allow me to explain. Hired [...]
Why today’s Pirates might consider reusing the mold of the 1960 World Champs
This article was originally posted on Bucs Prospects back on the 19th. I hope baseball fans enjoyed watching Game 7 of the 1960 World Series on MLB Network. I didn’t think it possible to fulfill the build-up, but it absolutely did. Maz’s homer was hardly the only drama, it was baseball at its best with [...]
Pirates Still Not Serious About Winning
New skipper Clint Hurdle will have an array of things working against him. Most notably would be the Pittsburgh Pirates front office. No big names were offered anything to come to Pittsburgh this season at the recently held Winter meetings. A couple of acquisitions were made, and a decent Buc flew South to Arizona. Scott [...]
The Houston Astros Free Agency Primer
As most baseball fans know, free agency officially began on Sunday (11/7). That in of itself is unique. Usually, the waiting period after the World Series is a few weeks. On the one hand, it’s hard to catch your breath when free agency starts five days after the end of the World Series. On the [...]
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. [...]
2010 Brewers Reflection: What Happened?
As the 2010 baseball season winds to an end, it is time to check on how this season has gone and take a look at a few burning questions that are likely to be answered between the end of the season and the beginning of 2011. It seemed that it was just yesterday that the [...]
September Baseball and Buehrle’s Balks
If you are in any city without a chance to win the division baseball in September brings mixed emotions. On the one hand it reminds one that the season is drawing to a close and will create that void a true baseball fan feels. On the other hand, it reminds any team fan outside the [...]
Berry Reassigned, Bagwell to Take Over as Astros Hitting Coach
Image by BaseballBacks via Flickr The following article was originally posted at James’ site Astros County back on July 11th! It’s not often you get an email in church that makes you go, “Whoa!” in the middle of the Lord’s Supper. But that’s exactly what happened this morning. Alyson Footer first broke this morning that [...]
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