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 […]
Orioles Sewing the Seeds for Future Success
After more than a decade of consistent losing, fans of the Baltimore Orioles are ready for the team to stop looking toward the future and instead start winning some baseball games. It is doubtful that the Orioles will be a contender in the tough American League East in 2009, but followers of the Birds can […]
Reflections on the Rockies Past, Present & Future
Looking at the 2009 Rockies is a lot like looking at the 2008 Rockies. Only with a bit more urgency attached. Urgency in that if these Rockies don’t get off to a solid start, Clint Hurdle may not be in charge for long. This is Hurdle’s eighth season, and for the first time, he is […]
Indians Continue Making Moves
Starting pitcher Aaron Laffey became the most recent Cleveland Indians to be given the news that he wasn’t going to start the season with the big league club when he was optioned to the Columbus Clippers of the International League. At the beginning of camp, many thought that Laffey would be on the roster when […]
NY Mets: A Look Back at 2008 & What to Expect in 2009
Coming off yet another regular season collapse in 2008 the New York Mets are looking to bounce back in 2009. Trying to shake the monkey that is Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard off their backs and finally live up to their potential and hype. Following their most recent regular season collapse the Mets took action […]
Nick’s Fantasy Focus
As fantasy baseball managers, our job is not to assemble a team based on last year’s statistics, though many make the mistake of doing that. Instead, it is our duty to predict what’s going to happen next. Not many people realize this, but if you consistently make personnel decisions based on what happened last year, […]
A Case for Sabermetrics
Image via Wikipedia In the past few months I have been gathering monthly author for Baseball Reflections so that I could write on a more relaxed basis and produce more detailed work. This article is the first postto that effect. A version of it was previously posted over at RBI Magazine back on March 12th. […]
D-Backs Fantasy Impact
The Arizona Diamondbacks have won more games than any other National League team over the past two seasons. Considering that, you would figure that they would have a myriad of impact Fantasy Baseball players from which to select, but that really isn’t the case. General manager Josh Bynes and company have created a team for […]
Indians Send Some Big Names to Columbus
It’s that time of the year again, when fringe players are told whether they are going to be sent down or they get to stay with the team. On Tuesday, the Cleveland Indians optioned pitcher Jeremy Sowers and catcher Wyatt Toregas to the Columbus Clippers of the International League. The Tribe also assigned many players […]
Stadium Review: PNC Park Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates
Even though the Pittsburgh Pirates carry a history that goes back to 1887, they are often forgotten in historical conversations about baseball these days, perhaps because they haven’t really done anything of consequence in decades. This may be the reason, then that their immaculately built stadium seems to be overlooked when discussions about the great […]
Rays Reflections
David Price and Andy Sonnanstine are exhibits A and B in a lesson about how valuable experience can be when making a major league roster or, more importantly, a starting rotation. Though I am a big fan of Andy’s, anyone can see that Price is likely a far more talented pitcher in every aspect of […]
Stadium Review: Progressive Field Home of the Cleveland Indians
The Indians home ballpark was renamed Progressive Field before the 2008 season after being named Jacobs Field for the length of its existence. This did not make Tribe fans happy, and many still refuse to call the ballpark by its new name. Even though the stadium has only been around for about 15 years, it […]
What to Expect From The Cubs in 2009
To say that this is probably the beginning of the end for Derrek Lee would miss the point – we have likely reached the end of the beginning of the end. The beginning of the end came in 2006, when he broke his wrist in a collision with Rafael Furcal. Lee has had two good […]
Stadium Reflections: My Experience at Fenway Park
Image via Wikipedia Baseball Reflections reader may have noticed the stadium reviews that have been featured on the site recently. While it might be a good idea to review Fenway Park, it’s so well known that we considered it would just be better if there were a few personal perspectives on the stadium. My first, […]
Who Will Be The Tigers’ 5th Starter?
Image via Wikipedia Is Rick Porcello ready to be in a major league rotation? That is the big question right now at the Tigers’ spring headquarters in Lakeland, Fla., bigger than worries about the health of Jeremy Bonderman and Joel Zumaya, bigger than the hole in the lineup left when four of the Tigers’ top […]
Stadium Review: Rogers Centre Home of the Toronto Blue Jays
The Rogers Centre, formerly known and still frequently called the Sky Dome, is a staple of downtown Toronto. Even if one doesn’t make a trip to the stadium itself, it is very hard to miss the structure, especially since most visitors of downtown Toronto usually stop at the CN Tower, which looks straight down on […]
Baseball Reflections on the Cardinals
The 2008 offseason promised to be an exciting one for Cardinal fans. There was quite a bit of salary coming off the payroll, there were surpluses to trade from, and GM John Mozeliak promised to be “aggressive,” taking care of the “low-hanging fruit” first and moving on to other things. That was before the worst […]
Indians Make Roster Moves; Send Rundles, Ohka and Edell Down
The Indians made their first moves of the spring on Sunday as they made some cuts to their roster. Three players will be changing locations after the decisions made by manager Eric Wedge and general manager Mark Shapiro. First, pitcher Rich Rundles was optioned to the Columbus Clippers of the International League. Then, pitchers Tomo […]
Baseball Reflections on the Brewers
Any preview of the 2009 Milwaukee Brewers will invariably contain the names CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets early and often. The two combined for 24 wins in 2008 and the run CC went on after his trade from Cleveland has been well documented. With the “workhorse” Sabathia now in New York, and the oft-injured Sheets […]
Baseball Reflections on the Rangers
The Texas Rangers finished the 2008 season with a 79-83 record, finishing second in the AL West behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. During the season, the Rangers finished first in all offensive categories, while finishing last in all but one category in pitching. It is no secret the Rangers need to focus on […]
Reflections on the Blue Jays
Greetings from the Great White North and man is it ever white this year. I’m sure this is the worst winter in the last several years. I’m Rincewind and a great guy named Hugo and I run a blog called Bluebird Banter where we blather on and on about the Toronto Blue Jays. It is […]
The Giants pitching needs to be perfect in 2009
Pitching is the strength of the 2009 San Francisco Giants. It’s the one hope they have for being competitive this season. Well, that’s at least what’s been bought and sold thus far by the organization and the media. Truth is the staff could be pretty good. But the Giants may be in for a surprise […]
Welcome to Mannywood 2009
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The frustrating courtship between Manny Ramirez and the LA Dodgers is finally over. Manny’s a Dodger again, signing a contract on Wednesday. The slugger with Predator hair is expected to be in uniform and on the field by Friday (editor’s note: this was written on Thursday). Frank McCourt flew […]
Schlotzsky’s Introduces Big League Clubz Challenge
In the coming weeks, a restaurant called Schlotzsky’s will introduce a Big League Clubz challenge to all of their customers across the country. The company will have three different trading cards that will be featured at their franchises across the country which look like traditional baseball cards. The only difference between these cards and baseball […]
WBC: To Be or Not To Be?
That is the question! I can understand the financial benefit of MLB’s marketing the WBC to the overseas market. From a marketing standpoint, it’s a brilliant move (especially in Asia), but domestically it has major issues to contend with. Position players aren’t, in my opinion, affected much by the extra work because they’d be playing […]
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 […]
Reflections on the Cub’s Off Season
The Chicago Cubs and their fans can congratulate themselves on a page-turning 2008 season. In what was the centennial year of World Series drought for the lovable losers, the Cubs managed to convince their fans that this was “The Year” before being summarily dismissed from the post-season by the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the process, […]
Odds Listed for Possible Steroid Users
While BaseballReflections.com does not in anyway promote gambling, this story is an interesting one. If someone thought that betting on football and basketball had overtaken the game in the baseball arena, they just have to look at the current odds on BookMaker.com to see where society is today. Due to the fact that the recent […]
Nick’s Fantasy Focus
If you are new to fantasy baseball, or are just unsure where to play or what to look for in a league, you’ve come to the right place! As a 10 year veteran of fantasy baseball, I’ve endured several different types of leagues. Some bad, and others good, but over the years I’ve learned what […]
