The second act for the Lake County Fielders, an independent minor league baseball team purportedly partially owned by actor Kevin Costner has gone from comic to tragic in a heartbeat. Although if you believe people now formerly associated with the organization, Costner himself has never really had any involvement with the team and is likely […]

Time for the fourth of our six awards at the OC, the AL Cy Young award. This one went down to the wire between a pair of players who are both very much deserving of the award. But only one can win. Who was it, you ask? AL Cy Young1) Justin Verlander (31 points, seven […]

The National League has its share of awesome pitchers this year. Hell, three of the men who received votes in our poll are from Philadelphia. There was a lot less variety with the Cy Young votes than with the Rookie of the Year votes, as only five NL players got votes, in comparison to eight […]

Some conversations in life you just don’t forget. Eight years ago Saturday, I was an intern in the Milwaukee Brewers’ media relations department on my way back from visiting friends at Purdue when I had the following exchange with my mom somewhere in between West Lafayette and Merrillville, Ind.: Mom: “Hey Matt, did you hear […]

We took care of the NL Rookie of the Year this morning. Now, it’s time for the AL Rookie of the Year. I wrote about this race a couple of weeks ago, and talked about how Michael Pineda seemed to have the award all but locked up. Did the staff agree with me? Let’s take […]

As we’ve reached the All-Star Break, I polled every one of the 12 writers here at the Outside Corner to determine who the staff picks for the major award winners are. We did the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP awards for each league. The Rookie of the Year voting will be unveiled […]

The scene doesn’t need to be set a ton. David Ortiz and Kevin Gregg were going at it all at bat in the eighth inning in Boston last night. After Ortiz popped out to right, Gregg yelled something at him and was ejected. Ortiz responded by storming the mound and throwing some vicious punches at […]

I’m sure you’ve all heard the news by now: Angels super-prospect Mike Trout has been called up from AA, and will make his major league debut tonight against the Mariners. Trout has been discussed on the site before, in a Minor Leage Monday feature a couple of weeks ago, but Mark didn’t exactly expect Trout […]

This was talked about on ESPN’s Baseball Today podcast on Thursday, and got me thinking. Jeff Karstens of the Pirates is having a very interesting year. In the 98 2/3 innings he’s thrown this year, he’s only walked 18 batters. That’s excellent, a rate of 1.64 per nine innings, which ranks among the best in […]

When the news broke on Monday that the Washington Nationals were promoting Bryce Harper to AA Harrisburg, which happens to be where I live, I gave my dad a call and pretty much said “we’re going this week. Pick a night”. We ended up going to last night’s game against the Erie Seawolves, and I […]

Time for another edition of then and now….today, I’m looking at the all-time hit king, Pete Rose. Which currently active player reminds me the most of Pete Rose? Let’s quickly go over what I’m looking for here. Rose was a player who amassed a ton of hits, having ten 200+ hit seasons. He also had […]

When you think of the teams that generally gravitate near the bottom of the standings, the same names come up: Pittsburgh, Washington, Arizona, Seattle, Cleveland etc. This season, there has been a shift in the balance of power. Sure, your teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Braves, Phillies, and Cardinals are among the best teams […]

Teams get contributions from rookies all the time. There will usually be a top prospect that is nurtured throughout the system, and then thrust onto the big stage, with a core of veterans surrounding him to help him get acclimated to the majors. There are usually major growing pains, and lots of rookies often struggle […]

The Atlanta Braves had four players named to the All-Star team on Sunday: pitchers Jair Jurrjens and Jonny Venters, catcher Brian McCann, and third baseman Chipper Jones. Many fans believed that the Braves should have had two more pitchers on the team: Tommy Hanson, and Craig Kimbrel. Both of those pitchers saw action on Monday. […]

We already touched on the AL All-Star team. Now, it’s time to look at the NL. Again, here’s the list of the Outside Corner’s staff picks for the game. Let’s first take a look at the position players who didn’t make the team that had votes by our staff. Miguel Montero, Diamondbacks. Yadier Molina was selected […]