0 comments by Joe Lucia on 9/30/2013
Well, the regular season is over. Wait: a correction. the regular season is over for 28 clubs. The Rays and Rangers still need to play one more, and the second AL Wild Card berth is on the line. Both clubs finished 91-71 after winning on Sunday, and their seasons will require an extra game to […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
There will be a Game 163. The Rays beat the Blue Jays 7-6 in Toronto and the Rangers beat the Angels 6-2 in Arlington on Sunday, deadlocking both teams at 91-71 and necessitating a one game playoff for the right to face the 92-70 Indians in the Wild Card Playoff game. Cleveland beat Minnesota 5-1 […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 9/29/2013
On Sunday in Miami, the final day of the 2013 regular season, something magical happened. Henderson Alvarez threw nine no-hit innings for the Marlins against the Tigers. There was just one problem as Alvarez left the mound in the ninth inning: the game wasn't over yet, because the Marlins hadn't scored a run. In the […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
On Friday, the Miami Marlins fired long-time president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest. I wondered aloud as to who would want to work for Jeffrey Loria. On Sunday, that question was answered – people that already work for Loria, of course. Michael Hill has been promoted to the president of baseball operations from his previous […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
The San Francisco Giants have preemptively taken one of the best free agent bats off of this winter's market, reportedly signing right fielder Hunter Pence to a five year, $90 million extension. Pence is having one of the best years of his career in 2013, hitting .282/.339/.484 with a career-high 27 homers. The 30-year old […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
After Chris Johnson grounded out to Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins to end last night's game in Atlanta, the Braves third baseman got into a confrontation in Atlanta's dugout with first base coach Terry Pendleton. The official word is that the confrontation was caused when Johnson threw his helmet in frustration after the game, and that […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Here we are, folks: the final day of the 2013 regular season. We've seen a lot of wild and crazy things this year, but MLB might have one trick left up their sleeve in the AL Wild Card race, where the Indians are assured of at least a one game playoff and the Rays and […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 9/28/2013
Two games left, and the AL Wild Card race is still a mess. The Rays and Indians are currently on top with identical 90-70 records, while the Rangers are a game back at 89-71. So we could conceivably have this all wrapped up tomorrow…or we could go into Sunday with a three-way tie and chaos […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Some of the drama in the National League is over – the St Louis Cardinals are NL Central champions for the first time since 2009. The division title is actually only the second for the Cardinals since they won three in a row from 2004-06, but the club was the NL's lone Wild Card in […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Eric Wedge has become the second manager of the year to be claimed by disappointing seasons. Seattle's skipper won't be back for 2014, but the decision was Wedge's and didn't come via edict from the front office. The 2013 season is Wedge's tenth overall as a big league manager, and third at the helm of […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 9/27/2013
The Jeffrey Loria path of rage marches on in Miami, as the Marlins owner has fired long-time president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest. The club has also let go of special assistant Jim Fleming. The Marlins are 59-100 in 2013, but you can't fault Beinfest for that given the dysfunctional atmosphere perpetrated by Loria in […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
This week, TOC will be looking at five players who recently announced their retirements from the game and their potential Hall of Fame cases. Today, we'll close with a player who hasn't officially retired but looks done – Manny Ramirez. None of the other players we've profiled this week carries the stigma of steroids quite […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Here we are, folks: the End of Season Post-Mortem series. If you're new here (which about 50% of our reader base is in comparison to last year), here's a brief explanation: after a team is eliminated from playoff contention, we're going to put their season under a microscope and look at just what the hell […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
There is still a level of uncertainty with the National League Postseason this year. We know the five teams that will be playing October baseball, but we don't know who is playing where and when. But the NL East champion Atlanta Braves are already trying to play some psychological warfare with their potential opponents – […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Brian Wilson is in the news…again. The current Dodgers reliever, who made his bacon in San Francisco as part of their two World Series winning teams, confronted Giants CEO Larry Baer after the Dodgers' 3-2 loss on Thursday night about his World Series ring from last year. According to a report from CSN Bay Area, […]
