Pop quiz — off the top of your head, can you name the guy who caught Nolan Ryan’s 300th career win? How about Trevor Hoffman’s 600th career save? Randy Johnson’s 4,000th strikeout? Or how about Mike Stanton’s record-setting 266th hold? Time’s up — how many did you get right? Chances are unless you are the […]

When you’re the 3rd overall pick, people expect you to hit, and they expect you to dominate the lower levels. If you don’t, you hit a weird grey area. Some scouts still see the guy who did enough to be picked so high, and others begin to believe that what they saw has not and […]

The ground-breaking book Moneyball was published way back in 2003, but only now, eight years later, it has finally jumped from the talk of the baseball world to the focal point of mainstream entertainment. Don’t believe me?  Then clearly you haven’t seen Brad Pitt on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.  And note that […]

It must be nice to earn $16 million a year to be mediocre at your job. That’s exactly the winning lottery ticket that Angels ace turned Red Sox boondoggle John Lackey has found himself holding. Since signing a 5-year, $82.5 million contract prior to the 2010 season, Lackey has gone from dominant to disaster. He’s […]

American League If things ended today…Rangers @ Yankees, Red Sox @ Indians THE RACESAL EastYankees 92-60 —Red Sox 88-66 5Rays 85-67 7 AL CentralTigers have clinched with a 89-64 record. AL WestRangers 88-65 —Angels 83-70 5 AL Wild CardRed Sox 88-66 —Rays 85-67 2Angels 83-70 4.5 The Race for Homefield AdvantageYankees 92-60 —Tigers 89-64 3.5Rangers […]

Because Boston is one of the two poles of the ESPN/FOX/Bud Selig baseball empire and because Red Sox fans have been freaking out so hilariously in the last week, most baseball fans have their eyes fixed on the American League wild card race. This is despite the fact that the Red Sox have five games […]

News broke last week that Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez wanted a two or three year deal, as opposed to the one year option he has left on his contract. The 2012 option is a club option for $16 million. What should the Cubs do in this situation: pick up the option, extend Ramirez, or […]

I know that there is probably a much deeper meaning behind the existence of Jose Canseco. He’s like a mystery wrapped in side a paradox with a side of irony sauce. He is the human equivalent of a Paradox Wrap. I interviewed Jesse Thorn on the podcast a few weeks back. The topic, or, rather […]

This is a new feature here at the OC that we’re going to post until the playoffs start….so, for a week and a half or so. In it, we’re going to look at what the current playoff picture in the MLB looks like, and who could use a little help at getting into the playoffs. […]

While most of the baseball world was focusing on the sudden multitude of playoff races, a funny trend emerged yesterday. No, the Twins still didn’t end their losing streak.  Rather, it seems that there was a two-for-one special on home runs yesterday. Not one, not two, but FIVE different players smacked a pair of homers […]

By virtue of their 9-2 win over the Cardinals last night, the Phillies clinched the NL East title, their fifth in a row. The team doesn’t have home field advantage throughout the playoffs locked up yet, but it’s coming. The team leads the Brewers for that number one seed by 10 games with 12 to […]

The Red Sox had their ace going yesterday, hoping that Jon Lester could beat Jeff Niemann and the Rays to guarantee themselves at least a split in their series and put Boston up 4 games in the AL Wild Card race. Four walks – plus a home run allowed to Ben Zobrist – put a […]

I’ve written more than a few words about the NL Cy Young award this season. I need to write more right now. While Roy Halladay still leads all MLB pitchers in fWAR with 8.1, Clayton Kershaw has crept up behind right behind him, second in baseball with 6.8. If you dig a little deeper, you […]

It was May 29th. The Detroit Tigers had a double header with the Red Sox, in which they dropped their first game to fall to 25-26 on the year. Almost a third of the way into the season, and the team was under .500 and 6 games out of first place in the AL Central, […]

Prince Fielder is probably not heading back to Milwaukee. We were already pretty certain of that, but now everyone’s almost completely sure. To be fair, there’s an entire post-season between now and Prince’s last game in a Brewer uniform and the Brewers certainly have a shot at making deep run into the playoffs this year […]