0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 12/1/2016
When looking back at Bud Selig’s legacy as commissioner of Major League Baseball, there are plenty of additions and innovations to the game for which he’ll be credited. Expanding to three divisions per league, for example. Adding wild card teams to the postseason. The wave of new ballparks being built throughout MLB. One stain on […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 10/14/2016
Though it was surely foolish to think that any sort of window had closed on the Washington Nationals and their chances of winning a World Series, the team had failed to fulfill championship expectations during the past three seasons. Even worse, the New York Mets appeared to have overtaken the Nats as the best team […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 10/12/2016
After emerging from the pile-up at the top of the AL East, the Boston Red Sox looked like a potential World Series team with a potent lineup, a good bullpen and a starting rotation led by one of the best pitchers in baseball. The storylines practically wrote themselves. How great would a Red Sox-Cubs World […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 10/11/2016
The postseason wasn’t supposed to go like this for the Texas Rangers. The Houston Astros may have looked like the new hotness in the AL West, but the Rangers were defending division champions and eventually asserted themselves as the best team in the American League. Time for a return to the World Series, right? Well… […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 10/7/2016
The chances of making it to a second consecutive postseason did not look good for the New York Mets. As of Aug. 19, the team was third in the NL East behind the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins, while also 5.5 games in the wild-card standings and two teams ahead of them. Yet despite that […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 10/4/2016
Winning the NL Central probably wasn’t going to happen for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2016. Not with the rival Chicago Cubs assembling a juggernaut at the top of the division with eyes on a World Series championship. But the Cardinals always compete for a postseason spot and have proven that just getting into the […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 10/1/2016
The Houston Astros certainly looked like one of MLB’s teams of the future last season, with several developing players emerging as stars. Houston made the jump from up-and-comer to contender, and aimed at further improvement in 2016. But following up on breakout success can be a difficult task for a young team. Would players continue […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 9/19/2016
The Oakland Athletics weren’t expected to contend for an AL West title or wild card spot in 2016, based mostly on the competition they faced within their division. The Texas Rangers, Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners all looked like potential contenders, while the A’s were building for the future and likely to spin off veteran […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 9/18/2016
With preseason expectations to be the worst team in baseball, the Cincinnati Reds have to be at least somewhat happy with at least not being that. Unless, of course, they really wanted that No. 1 draft pick. There isn’t much to get excited about with a 62-84 season (although they’ve already won enough to avoid a […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 8/24/2016
It’s now been nearly four years since the infamous Stephen Strasburg shutdown, which seems like more than enough time and distance for the Washington Nationals to put it squarely in the past. Yet that decision is one that continues to hang over the franchise. Had the Nats won a World Series in 2012 or in […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 8/8/2016
Since virtually nothing at the tail end of Alex Rodriguez’s career has gone according to plan or followed the narrative he and the New York Yankees envisioned, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the announced end of his Yankees tenure hardly seemed ideal. One of the best players in baseball history — albeit a […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 7/26/2016
Getting Aroldis Chapman was the trade the Chicago Cubs had to make. Had the Cubs not acquired the rocket-launching left-hander from the New York Yankees (though Andrew Miller would have certainly sufficed) or ended up settling for a lesser reliever, doubts and questions would linger around the team throughout August and September, and into October. Going back […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 7/8/2016
Is it time to hit the panic button for the Chicago Cubs and their fans yet? Maybe that red button has already been pounded a few times over the past week or so. Following a dominating April and May during which the Cubs very much appeared to be the best team in baseball and entirely capable of […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 6/29/2016
Alex Rodriguez made his debut as a platoon player Tuesday night, batting third as the designated hitter for the New York Yankees against the Texas Rangers. Left-hander Cole Hamels pitched for Texas, which is why A-Rod was in the starting lineup for the first time in three games. The Yankees haven’t made any sort of […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 6/13/2016
Monday night at Nationals Park, the two best teams in baseball match up in a three-game series. The Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals face each other for the second time this season and have the top two records in the National League. (Over in the AL, the Texas Rangers have the same 39-24 record as […]
