It was announced this morning that free agent outfielder Jason Kubel had signed a two year deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks worth $15 million. My immediate thought upon hearing of the Kubel signing was “um….why?” The Diamondbacks have a perfectly capable left fielder in Gerardo Parra. In 2011, Parra had a .774 OPS in his […]

2011 was not a kind year to the Oakland Athletics. Texas and Los Angeles were the clear front-runners of the division, and while the team showed a knack for run prevention, they never showed a knack for run creation. Losing that often tends to get a few rookies in the lineup, and Tyson Ross, Fautino […]

There is absolutely no good starting pitchers left on the free agent market.  It’s true, ask anyone. There are also 25 teams, give or take, who have a desperate desire to upgrade at least one of the spots in their rotation.  Those same people you asked earlier can confirm this as well. There are multiple […]

After yesterday’s trade of Mat Latos to the Reds, the general consensus among fans what that the Padres got a hell of a haul of prospects from Cincinnati. The highlights of the deal are Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal, a pair of Cubans who look ready for the majors after brief spells in the minor […]

The 2011/2012 free agent market for starting pitchers wasn’t deep to begin with.  Unless teams were willing to shell out upwards of $15 million a year or more for starting pitching, there just wasn’t much out there.  Teams that weren’t in a position to contend in 2012 that have starting pitching depth suddenly find themselves […]

The San Diego Padres are an incomplete team.  They’ve lost Heath Bell, Mike Adams and Adrian Gonzalez all within the last year and lack the start power to remain anything but an after-thought in an already weak NL West.  Their General Manager left the first chance he had for Chicago, and their minor league system […]

As the trade winds continue to blow this December, an interesting name has been added to the mix for teams looking for a starting pitcher: Jonathon Niese of the New York Mets. The 25 year old Niese has been one of the Mets’ most effective starter over the past two seasons, ranking second on the […]

Thanks to the Yu Darvish posting process, American baseball fans have been given a wonderful opportunity to become acquainted with the oddly named Nippon Ham Fighters, Darvish’s Japanese team.  This has prompted all sorts of questions from the general public. Why does the ham need to be fought? How exactly does one fight against ham?  […]

The New York Mets lost Johan Santana and never got him back, and that was about how the season went. The poor season sent Jose Reyes to the San Francisco Giants to begin the rebuilding effort for Zach Wheeler. As for minor leaguers already in the system, the Mets introduced a few, but the ones […]

Today, the Phillies officially announced the signing of well-traveled and charismatic lefty, Dontrelle Willis, to a one-year, $1M deal with incentives. While Willis has seen very little success as a starting pitcher over the last few years, the Phillies were the team that did the right thing by convincing him to make the full-time move […]

As a guy who grew up just outside of Los Angeles but has spent most of his adult life living in New York and Washington, I can tell you that when it comes to sports, non-Californians think about the Lakers first, the Dodgers second, the lack of a NFL team third and the probably the […]

  What do you do when you have one of the most popular and beloved brand names in all of minor league baseball, as the Quad Cities River Bandits did from 1992-2003? You immediately jettison it and replace it for something that became almost universally reviled from the get-go, right? That’s what River Bandits ownership […]

It is inevitable, a prospect is going to one day shatter your worldview and leave you in metaphorical (hopefully, not actual) tears because of his poor performance in the majors.  Since major league teams have caught on to the idea of building a winning roster with smaller payroll, prospects have become the new currency among […]

As someone who spent years dressing up as one of the most iconic food-based mascots in professional sports history, I have a special place in my heart for food-based logos. Yes, from 2004-2006 I was one of the Milwaukee Brewers’ racing sausages. And while I treasure my time racing around the field in Milwaukee, the […]

While most news sources recover from the Yu Darvish bidding fallout and subsequent contract negotiations, the Norichika Aoki buzz/hype has remained silent or nonexisstent.  Perhaps the media overlooks Aoki because at first glance he seems like every other Japanese hitter not named Hideki Matsui or Ichiro, which is to say he looks like a future […]