I'll never understand how Cubs fans and White Sox fans can technically be from the same city. Last night, the Sox had Chris Sale taking the mound as they went for the first sweep of the New York Yankees at home in 21 years. 26,319 people showed up to watch that. That's less than 65% of capacity. More than one …
Melky Cabrera
This is a strange story. In a bizarre attempt to avoid a 50-game drug suspension, San Francisco Giants star Melky Cabrera created a fictitious website and a nonexistent product designed to prove he inadvertently took the banned substance that caused a positive test under Major League Baseball’s drug program. The other day I was considering writing a post about Cabrera's …
2012 Astros Draft: Behind The Scenes
There's a fantastic article about the Astros draft on Crawfish Boxes. Here's a snippet: 1.1: Heck and Luhnow both talked of the 1.1 like it was a frightening blessing, like triplets. They kept saying that they needed to get their guy but there were no guarantees. They talked about 1.1 pressures, responsibilities, etc. We know they took Correa and pretty …
A few things that don’t make sense
Carl Crawford and a prospect to the Marlins for Hanley Ramirez and Heath Bell is something that Bob NIghtengale is suggesting is in the works that doesn't make the least bit of sense. Carl Crawford, a truckload of money and all the Red Sox prospects for Hanley Ramirez makes sense, but other than that this is just ridiculous. I've read …
2012 MLB Draft: Best Available Prospects
The first day of the draft is over, which means we've only seen 60 selections so far and have 39 rounds to go. I thought I'd post a roundup of the stuff we posted yesterday and then talk abou a few of the best available players that should be taken sometime today. The second day of the draft begins at …
Bobby Ojeda's Left Arm
Bobby Ojeda has written an article that's been published on The New York Times. He talks about the pain he went through just to pitch and how he hid it from the coaching staff. It's a fantastic look at what I'm guessing a large number of pitchers go through in their lives. The pain for Ojeda began when he was …
Power hitters should be bunting more frequently
I figured we could use a new post and it seemed like a good time to point out how power hitters are failing to maximize their production. Many of them are shifted against these days, even right-handed batters. The obvious way to put a stop to this is to bunt. All you've got to do as a batter is get …
Q & A With Phillies Blog "That Ball's Outta Here"
We were contacted by Phillies blog "That Ball's Outta Here" to do a Q&A, and you can read our answers to the Cubs questions over at their site. Ethan was kind enough to answer a few questions of our own about the Phillies 1. What can the Phillies do to improve their offense? Watching a few Tom Emansky hitting videos …
National League Power Rankings, 4-28-12
At the beginning of March we did a pre-season NL power rankings and plan to do this every few weeks once the season starts. DJ is taking part in these now too so there are 5 really smart and knowledgeable people. These are probably the most accurate power rankings you'll ever find. You shouldn't even question them since they are …
Ramblings about strikeout rate and the silliness of pitchers batting
A few days ago Rob Neyer pointed out how three true outcomes (TTO) are increasing and wonders if something should be done about it. For those who don't know, the TTO is a walk, strikeout or home run. It's most of the plays that don't require the involvement of any fielder. Everyone knows that strikeouts have increased over the years. …