MoneyStats top 5 players at each position
Here are the top 5 players at each position separated by League according to the MoneyStats Player Rater. We use an exclusive formula to rate each player according to their MoneyStats Value. To view our complete Player Rating System including exclusive Splits for Starting Pitchers, please join us at www.moneystats.net. Click on the […]
April Reflections on the Cleveland Indians
The ending of Spring Training is supposed to be a time when all teams are still optimistic about their opportunities in the upcoming season. Despite promises in the media by players and coaches alike, many Indians fans are more than leery about the beginning of the season. The Indians finished Spring Training with the worst […]
Book Review: Summer of ’68 by Tim Wendel
For baseball, the 1960s were an extremely memorable decade. Every fall it seemed that there were heated series between historic teams who had a deep love for the game and a desire to call themselves the best. This decade also featured many polarizing and other not so popular, yet still interesting players. Author Tim Wendel […]
The 2012 Kansas City Royals are Primed for a Breakout Season
The Kansas City Royals were at one time the class of the American League. They were established as a premiere team that was built with homegrown talent, sprinkled with free agents that made the team contenders year after year. However, for the last 15-plus years they turned into a laughing stock, basically a minor league […]
Fantasy Baseball: An Early Form of Social Media
The year was 1992. I entered into my very first fantasy baseball league. It was limited to American League players only and featured a points-based scoring system. I was already a baseball fan but I was about to become an even bigger baseball fan in a very short time. I soon found myself watching more games […]
For true baseball fans, the 2011 World Series offers a breath of fresh air
I have to admit that this World Series offers a bit of optimism for those fans who realize the talent disparity between the American and National Leagues. If you were to take an overall view of the talent level, the American League has been significantly more “stacked” with talent for many years now. Sometimes you’ll […]
Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella; A Book Review
Even some who consider themselves serious fans of the game of baseball probably don’t know the true historical significance of the career and life of Roy Campanella. To many, Campanella is just a name of someone who is in the Hall of Fame, but he accomplished so much more on and off the […]
Is the Future Finally Here For The Baltimore Orioles?
After more than a decade of mediocrity and a continual “building for the future” mentality, it appears that the future has finally arrived for the Baltimore Orioles. Buoyed by the 34-23 (.596) record posted once Buck Showalter became manager in August of last season, the Orioles’ front office decided in the off-season to make moves […]
Luck Factor in the Senior Circuit (NL): Starting Pitchers
Hopefully, you are following along with the luck factor series. This will be number five in that series. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I will try to give you a quick hook before we dive into the numbers. Fantasy baseball players have many of the same concerns as general managers. When you look […]
Luck Factor: AL Lineups
Honestly I feel a whole lot better about studying the American League. It has nothing to do with superior play or the designated hitter. It has everything to do with the fact that I am a dedicated Astros fan. I run an Astros blog at Breathingorangefire.com and have been a fan of […]
An Introduction to the Luck Factor in Baseball
There is a schism in baseball between those that we might call traditionalists and those we would call sabermetricians. Traditionalists believe in intangibles. They believe in character, chemistry, and pure athletic skills. Unexplained events are actually explained by clutch performance or what some people call “choking”, Moreover, we shouldn’t try to define it or quantify […]
A Video Tribute to Hall of Famer Bob Feller
Please share your favorite stories of the late Bob Feller in the comments section below! We hope you like this video tribute… Feel free to add links to any other video tributes on Bob Feller in the comments section as well!
Around the Horn in the MLB
Image via Wikipedia The Current State of the Playoff Picture Last week saw the first team clinch not only a playoff spot, but their division as well. For those of you who missed their celebration, here’s some video of it… The second team to clinch both a playoff spot and their division was the Texas […]
All-Star Shame; Prospects Flame
Image by Evan Wohrman via Flickr I’m going to go on my annual rant about the All-Star Game albeit somewhat less harsh. This game is at a crossroads. What is it really and what has it become? Historically the All-Star Game was created to offer some excitement during the Great Depression. No fewer than 19 […]
Book Review: Burying the Curse, By Terry Pluto
To many, Terry Pluto has been the most trusted voice of Cleveland sports over the past two decades. Through his tenure with the Akron Beacon Journal and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Pluto had readers waiting for the paper to get his specific view on whatever issue was going on at that time. Pluto has also […]
Top 10 Free Agent Outfielders
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Outfielders, as in many years, offer the most diverse market. The reason outfielders tend to end up as free agents more often, is that typically it is hard to find a combination of average to above-average offense and good defense, and vice versa. For example, Jason Bay is an […]
The Truth About Yankees Fans
What better time to talk about the New York Yankees fan base, than two weeks after the 27th World Series Championship in team history. Yes, the Bronx Bombers are the most successful franchise in the history of professional sports. Yankees “faithful” have been filling “The Stadium” to root on their heroes for decades…or have they? […]
2009/2010 Free Agents at SS
It’s been quite some time since the the first wave of Cal Ripken deciples made up a trio of the league’s elite shortstops. Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter now play together, with Rodriguez moving to third base (though a swap would probably improve the Yankees left side). Nomar Garciaparra has battled wrist injuries and become […]
Free Agent Tracker: 2B
The market for second baseman in the offseason is one of the few that have significantly more supply than demand. Last season, players like Orlando Hudson entered the offseason expecting a major pay raise, and didn’t get it because the economy caused several free agents to remain unsigned for most of the offseason. Hudson is […]
Why Tim Lincecum will be your 2009 NL Cy Young winner
Image by Getty Images via Daylife After a year in which Cardinals starting pitchers Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright dominated the headlines, pitched their team to a division title and were expected to fight for some off-season hardware, it was the Giants’ Tim Lincecum who picked up the first post-season win amongst the trio. When […]
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 the second year in a row it may […]
Matt Wieters Gets On The Job Training
By any measure, Baltimore Orioles rookie catcher Matt Wieters has been outstanding since making his Major League debut for the Orioles on May 29. While it is easy to notice his 13 RBI in the month of August and .277 batting average since July 1st, what is especially impressive is the strides Wieters is making […]
The LaRoche Rule
Image by SD Dirk via Flickr Recently, Adam LaRoche was traded back to the National League after spending less than 2 weeks in the American League. As you would know, this does not happen often, and, inadvertently set up a fun scenario in the two fantasy leagues I play in – one auction, one draft. […]
Great Moments in All-Star Game History: Part 3 (1990-2008)
Over the last two decades, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has transformed from being simply a game to being a multi-day extravaganza where the game itself is simply one component. For that reason, the game has at times seemed to be anti-climatic, but has still produced some great memories. After the National League dominated […]
Great Moments in All-Star Game History: Part 1, 1933-1959
Since its inception in 1933, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has provided fans an annual opportunity to see most of the great stars of the game on the same field. While the game is an exhibition and has withstood periods of indifference by some players, management and fans, it remains a special mid-season moment. […]
Torii Hunter Beats the Odds
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The nice people at Guideposts.com have been kind enough to allow us to bring these stories of current Major League players in their entirety while I’m away on vacation. So without further ado…Torii Hunter Beats the Odds by Louis Berney. He rose above his father’s addiction to make it […]
Baltimore Orioles Midseason Report: Seeing Past the Ugliness
From the very beginning, the goal of the 2009 season for the Baltimore Orioles has been to be respectable on the field while continuing behind the scenes to develop the pieces needed to eventually lead the Orioles back to contention in the American League East. With the season now three months old and nearing the […]
Indians Acquire Salas in Trade with Rays, Designate Marte for Assignment
On Thursday, the Indians made a few roster moves, one in particular which raised some eyebrows in Northeast Ohio. To start things off, the Tribe traded with the Tampa Bay Rays and acquired reliever Juan Salas for minor league infielder Isaias Velasquez. Salas has seen action with the Rays during the past three seasons, but […]
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 American League. And if you managed to […]
The History of African Americans in Baseball Part 3
Image via Wikipedia Sometimes forgotten in the hype for Robinson was the man to break the color barrier in the American League with the Cleveland Indians, Larry Doby. This fact was even more surprising especially considering the fact that Doby entered during the same season as Robinson, just a couple of months later. This did […]
