A Reflection on the Career of Alex Rodriguez to Date
I recently ran into this CNN feature from 1995 on Alex Rodriguez. If you think about it, they were making a pretty big deal about him – when was the last time a major news outlet did a feature on an up and coming teenage pro athlete? LeBron James is the only one I can […]
Why You’re Wrong About Yu Darvish
For many years, American baseball fans with an eye towards the Japanese Major Leagues have been rolling out the red carpet for the Nippon-Ham Fighters‘ 6-foot-5 fireballer Yu Darvish. The NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) has a strange relationship with MLB regarding their players crossing the Pacific to play stateside. NPB players can sign with […]
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. […]
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, […]
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, […]
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), […]
The New York Yankees: Brains Behind the Brawn?
Ah, hating the Yankees. This is a passion that even the most hated division rivals will share. If you’ve never heard someone say “All they do is buy championships,” you must not be from this continent. Buying championships? I think that undersells the fantastic job that GM Brian Cashman has done. Since From 1973 until […]
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 […]
Wins and Loses: A Decline in Value?
Image via Wikipedia Congratulations to Tim Lincecum for winning the 2009 NL Cy Young award, just a couple short days after Zack Greinke‘s victory for the AL counterpart. But an even bigger congratulations is in order. A congratulations to the BBWAA voters. Just what am I getting at, you ask? As we’re all aware of, […]
Reflections on the Mariners
So what’s been happening in Mariner land over Spring Training? Not a lot of good. With frontline pitchers John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Kelvim Escobar and Justin Durocher out for significant amounts of playing time for the Angels and Athletics, the Mariners had an increased opportunity to steal the AL West out from the baseball world’s […]
Reflections on the Mariners Part 2: Pitching
Starting rotation 2008: Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard, Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista, R.A. Dickey, Ryan Feierabend, Ryan-Rowland Smith 2009: Hernandez, Bedard, Silva, Washburn, Brandon Morrow, Rowland-Smith This time last year people were talking about the M’s rotation being one of the best in baseball until everything went haywire. Felix stagnated, Bedard gave a career-low […]
Reflections on the Mariners
Last October, Jack Zduriencik was anointed Seattle’s next GM after a ton of success in Milwaukee as Special Assistant to the GM for Player Personnel and Director of Amateur Scouting (and you thought his name was a mouthful, whew!). He may come in with a scouting background to bolster Seattle’s already-strong scouting department, but his […]
