Way back in April, the staff of The Outside Corner predicted how the 2015 season would shake out. When it came to the AL West, there was a consensus: the division would belong to either the Angels or Mariners, one of them would definitely be a Wild Card team, and the A’s had a good […]

If you happen to believe there’s no such thing as a curse, the San Francisco Giants are probably testing your faith right now. Odd years have been a thorn in the Giants’ side for a while now, interrupting their World Series dynasty plans with playoff-less autumns. And something unfortunate always seems to befall them in […]

The passing of the July 31 trade deadline doesn’t necessarily mean the end of trades. There have been a number of huge August trades over the years, and a few of them even decided pennant races down the stretch. Teams usually find a way to trade in August if they have a need, waivers be […]

The Giants addressed a major need last night, acquiring starting pitcher Mike Leake from the Reds for two minor leaguers. Leake, a free agent at the end of the season, has been on a roll lately and greatly increased his trade value in the process. He’s posted a 1.24 ERA over 36 innings this month, […]

Madison Bumgarner is one of the best postseason pitchers of all time, but he can’t pitch in every playoff game. To their credit, the Giants seem acutely aware of this fact and have tried to improve the starting pitchers who follow him. They were involved in the bidding for Jon Lester last winter and reportedly […]

The Kansas City Royals finally added a true number one starter to their pitching staff. And as a result, they just may leave the rest of the American League in their wake. Johnny Cueto was the best right handed starter available on the market and the Royals acted swiftly and decisively to get him, sending […]

It’s an odd year, which means the San Francisco Giants really shouldn’t bother trying to add anything at the trade deadline since there’s no point. But the Giants find themselves in the thick of contention with a chance to get to an odd year-playoffs for the first time since 2003, and that means they’ll be […]

No team made more noise this past offseason than the San Diego Padres, engaging in seemingly endless roster turnover in hopes of putting a contending team on the field. It was either going to be a spectacular success or a spectacular failure; either way, it’d be spectacular. Things haven’t gone exactly as general manager A.J. […]

Baseball saw its share of great games in the first half of 2015, from a couple of no-hitters and high strike out totals on the pitching side of things to a bunch of multi-homer games from the hitters. There were a few historically good showings thrown in for good measure, too. But which individual players […]

Yesterday, we took a look at the big names that may be on the move at this year’s trade deadline. Chances are your team won’t trade for any of those guys; instead, they’ll trade for a guy you kind of forgot was in the league before you look up his numbers and realize he’s been […]

Baseball’s trade deadline is just a few weeks away, which means trade rumors will start flying fast and furious soon. And the rumors are always the best part of deadline season, since your team will probably stand pat on July 31 and really tick you off. Hey, at least you had that great rumor a […]

The home run derby is getting some much-needed tweaks this year, with the inclusion of a bracket and timed rounds. The hope is these changes will breathe some life into baseball’s showcase event, which has sadly become a boring slog over the last few years. But it wasn’t always a sad, boring slog! No, the […]

Guys drafted in the 18th round aren’t supposed to amount to much. Every once in a while you get lucky, but for the most part teams are drafting for organizational depth by then: players who might move up a level or two in the minors, but nothing more. It’s where teams draft a light-hitting infielder […]

The Pretenders aren’t just a great ’80s band. The name also applies to teams that may look like contenders but lack the chops to stick around through the fall; they’re no Chrissy Hynde, so to speak. The 2015 season is nearly halfway done, and that’s plenty of time to separate the contenders from the pretenders. […]

Even in their three World Series championship years, the San Francisco Giants have never been considered an offensive juggernaut; rather, they’ve been thought of as a team that gets just enough offense to back up their stellar pitching. But that’s not an entirely accurate portrayal of the Giants. They’ve fielded dangerous lineups in all of […]