Indians Sign The MLB’s First European Player
Indians Sign European Catcher Cervenka to Minor League Deal The Indians announced on February 21 that they had come to terms with Martin Cervenka to a minor league deal. The deal was originally done on January 24 and the team was just waiting for the right time to make this news public. To most, this […]
February Diamondbacks Reflections
Image via Wikipedia Generally speaking, when a team enjoys a productive offseason, you should predict good things for that team in the following season. Conversely, a team’s poor offseason will lead to pessimism for the upcoming campaign. Seemingly simple enough, it doesn’t always work that way. Last winter, the Detroit Tigers acquired Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle […]
Reflections On the White Sox
2008 was an odd year in the AL Central. A lot of people–this commentator included– thought that the Tigers had the division won before pitchers and catchers even reported to camp. Oops. They ended up in last place. And while it took an extra game, the Chicago White Sox were your AL Central champs. Cue […]
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 […]
Tribe Signs Graffanino to Minor League Deal
With a busy, yet slow off season still yet to end, even though pitchers and catchers have already reported to spring training, the Indians decided that they didn’t have enough veteran talent with minor league contracts and major league invites to spring training, so they signed Tony Graffanino to one. Graffanino was originally drafted in […]
Kurt’s Reflections on the Tigers Off Season
With the difficult economic situation in Detroit, we (recognize) that people will turn to our team for three hours of daily relief from the stress of everyday life. The Detroit Tigers have filled that role through World Wars, depressions and riots. With the bedrock industry of the city struggling to survive, our fans want to […]
MLB.TV and the NHL Team Up in Viewing Package
Image via Wikipedia On February 9, two of America’s premium sports leagues made an agreement. MLB.TV agreed with the National Hockey League (NHL) that they were going to be partners in a television package that would combine their two products into one subscription. According to a press release, the deal will start on February 16. […]
The Indians Add Another Cy Young Award Winner
The Cleveland Indians have added another Cy Young Award winner to their staff. Well, sort of. Frank Viola, who won the award with the Minnesota Twins in 1988, has signed on to work with the Indians’ pitchers during spring training in Goodyear Arizona. The former big leaguer will work along side pitching coach Carl Willis. […]
I Guess Canseco Was Right
Image via Wikipedia I usually try to stay clear of the controversial issues in baseball, but I couldn’t resist this topic. To start things off, here are some quotes from the baseball world by some past and present players. In the MLB.com article, “A-Rod is talk of MLB after admission “, George Brett was quoted […]
Red Sox Reflections
Here’s a few notes concerning recent Red Sox news… Boston signed 1B/3B Kevin Youkilis to a a four-year contract with a club option for a fifth year for around $41M (not including the 5th year option). In order to make room on the 40 man roster for some of the moves they’ve made this off […]
Indians Sign Chulk to Minor League Deal
On Tuesday the Indians signed pitcher Vinnie Chulk to a minor league contract. The right hander was originally a 12th round draft pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2000. The reliever made his major league debut on September 8, 2003 as an end of the season call up to the Jays. He has spent […]
How MLB Expansion Has Affected Hall of Fame Voting
Image by Getty Images via Daylife By way of comparison, lets look at the careers of newly elected Hall of Famer Jim Rice and current Free Agent who is being touted as a first ballot Hall of Famer himself, Manny Ramirez. As luck would have it, they have both played 16 seasons, making the timing […]
Review of the New York Yankees Off Season
To start, I want to thank Peter Schiller, Baseball Reflections, and you, the readers for allowing me to provide you with the breaking news, rumors, and information regarding the New York Yankees. This is my first post here at Baseball Reflections, and I hope you like what you read. I would like to start by […]
Reflections on the Blue Jays’ Off Season
Hi everyone, and greetings from the great white north (metaphorically speaking, in my case– I actually live in Washington DC). I’m Hugo, and Rincewind and I (more on that later) run Bluebird Banter, a blog dedicated to discussions and ruminations on our favourite azure-tinged corvids. It’s a great site full of great folks and we’d […]
Reviewing the 2008 World Series Program
There is no doubt that the story lines for this year’s World Series were endless as the Phillies, a historic baseball franchise, were heading back to the Series to try to end a quarter century drought, and the Rays, who had never even had a winning season in their history, faced off. As one can […]
SF Giants Offseason Report Card
Image via Wikipedia This is why I’m not a teacher; I’m sort of a pass or fail guy. So since the Giants seem destined to have Bengie Molina bat cleanup for the second year in a row, I suppose they have failed (or at least come close) in their off season mission to improve the […]
Does the Pitcher’s Mound Cause Injuries?
Back in 1969 the height of the pitcher‘s mound was lowered from 15″ down to 10″ in an attempt by major league baseball to level the playing ground between the era’s dominant pitching and the effect they were having on batters. Hitters were at an all time low for batting average of .237 the year […]
Do You Know Your Replacement Players?
Image via Wikipedia Many astute readers may remember the replacement players who were called upon during the strike in the mid-nineties just in case the players never reached an agreement with the owners on coming back to work. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of those players who were given the opportunity to try out ended up […]
An Interview with Chad Durbin, Phillies RP
Today we’d like to welcome 2008 World Series Champion relief pitcher from the Philadelphia Phillies, Chad Durbin to Baseball Reflections.com. We contacted Chad to talk about the World Series, his career and to discuss ShowcaseU.com which he co-founded. Showcase U gives high school student athletes a way to showcase themselves so that they can increase […]
It’s Just Boras Being Boras
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Although this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone in the world of baseball, but if this report is true, super agent Scott Boras hasn’t been returning the Red Sox phone calls concerning free agent catcher Jason Varitek per this article from Boston.com over the weekend. It was recently thought […]
The Bob Feller Story: A DVD Review
Bob Feller seems to be an almost forgotten baseball name outside of the city of Cleveland, but throughout the DVD, the viewers are reminded that he was without a doubt the greatest pitcher of his time and his accomplishments were such that he should be mentioned in the same sentences as Ted Williams and Joe […]
Tribe Signs Catcher Shoppach to One Year Deal
The Indians recently signed their current back-up catcher Kelly Shoppach to a one year deal. Shoppach has been with the Tribe since the 2006 season when he was traded from the Boston Red Sox in an off season deal involving outfielder Coco Crisp and third baseman Andy Marte. Shoppach’s role has grown since 2006 and […]
Red Sox Reflections
January has been the busiest month of the off season for Boston thus far. Right after the New Year’s day came the announcement of the signing of C Josh Bard to a one-year contract with a club option for 2010. Since then, they have officially signed OF Rocco Baldelli, SP Brad Penny and 1B/OF Mark […]
Interview of Boston’s Justin Masterson
Image by Getty Images via Daylife For a good interview with Boston’s Justin Masterson, go to “this link” at Baseball Prospectus.com.
This Just In…Rice is IN!
I just got the e-mail from Boston.com, Jim Rice (my favorite player growing up), in his last year of eligibility, was finally elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the BWAA! Here’s the story on the election of Rice and Rickey Henderson (in his first year of eligibility) from ESPN. The date of the […]
San Francisco Giants Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up 2008 saw the Bond-less Giants tied for the 6th worst record in baseball at 72-90, but I actually thought they had a chance of reaching 100 losses so they did better than I thought they would. They went into the year without a solid closer, which effects the rest of the bullpen, […]
San Diego Padres Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Like most of the NL West, the Padres had a disappointing 2008 season going 63-99, the third worst record in baseball last season! Who would have thought that the Giants would finish higher than San Diego at Spring Training last year? I for one did not even think it possible. Granted, 2008 […]
Colorado Rockies Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Like most of the NL West, the Rockies had a disappointing 2008 season going 74 and 88 after being in the World Series the previous October. On top of that, they lost second year SS Troy Tulowitzki to injury for a big part of the year, missing 61 games and 1B Todd […]
Tribe Trades with Cubs; Acquire DeRosa
Cleveland Indians general manager Mark Shapiro made yet another move to bolster his infield this off season as he pulled the trigger on a trade with the Chicago Cubs to bring right handed hitter Mark DeRosa to Cleveland. In exchange for the infielder, the Indians gave up three of their highly regarded minor league pitchers. […]
The History of Advertising in Major League Baseball
Image via Wikipedia Part 1 of 2 Companies have been using their own workers to advertise their product, even if they are not celebrities, for some time now. A much publicized Tylenol advertisement came out just a few years ago in which Tylenol used their own workers to sell the product. This technique is also […]
