At the All-Star Break, we did some voting for awards here at the Outside Corner. In our AL MVP voting, Adrian Gonzalez of the Red Sox finished second, while teammate Jacoby Ellsbury was sixth, and Dustin Pedroia was 11th. Just a month later, and we’ve got ourselves an interesting situation: Gonzalez is now the least […]

Brandon McCarthy was once a promising young pitcher – enough so that he was traded for John Danks. The A’s picked him up for this year despite a career ERA of 4.56 and a 1.8 K/BB ratio, and McCarthy has certainly rewarded them. With his eight excellent innings against the Rays (in a game in […]

In part one of this series, we looked at the deals that happened before the final two days of the deadline. Today, we’re gonna look at the deals that happened ON the final two days of the deadline. Let’s do some quick and dirty analysis, shall we? Diamondbacks trade Edwin Jackson to White Sox for […]

Yadier Molina was suspended. Yadier Molina was suspended for five games. He bumped an umpire. He bumped Rob Drake. He bumped him several times. In the midst of his tirade, saliva sprung from his mouth. The saliva peppered Rob Drake’s face. Yadier Molina, being a thoughtful chest bumper, apologized for the spray. He did not […]

In last night Phillies-Giants game, which ended up being a 9-2 Phillies win, benches cleared in the sixth inning after Ramon Ramirez hit Shane Victorino in the hip. Three players were ejected: Ramirez, Victorino, and Giants catcher Eli Whiteside. Ramirez plunked Victorino on the first pitch after homering earlier in the game, while Victorino charged […]

The date was July 25th. The Pirates just defeated the Braves 3-1, and were six games above .500. They were in a tie for first place in the NL Central with the Cardinals. Since then, it’s been a disaster for the Pirates. The next night was the infamous Jerry Meals game that the Pirates lost […]

In Triple-A in 2008, San Diego third-baseman Chase Headley hit 13 home runs in only 295 plate appearances. In his fourth major league season now, he still hasn’t hit 13 in a year. The Padres beat up on the Pirates yesterday, 15-5, and Headley played a big role there, driving in 5 runs. Four of […]

Every year, there are a flurry of moves made in late July by contenders in an effort to add that one missing piece to get to the playoffs and attempt to win the World Series. But I was thinking today: how many of these deals actually end up mattering at the end of the day? […]

Jake Peavy was once one of the best pitchers in baseball. From 2004 to 2008 he pitched almost 1,000 innings of 2.95 ERA ball, and won a Cy Young award. Making half his starts in San Diego helped, but he was legitimately really, really good. The Padres signed him to a hefty extension, but then dealt him at […]

Due to his alleged involvement in a ring of illegal, high stakes poker games, Alex Rodriguez is being summoned to the league offices in New York to discuss this potentially very serious matter.  The talk may not happen for a few weeks yet and when it does, we surely won’t ever know exactly what was […]

CC Sabathia is carrying the Yankees rotation on his rather large back this season. He’s thrown 34 more innings than the #2 man on New York’s staff (AJ Burnett) and 59 more than the #3 man (Freddy Garcia). He’s among the AL leaders in innings pitched, wins, and strikeouts. He’s been worth 5.9 WAR already […]

The Rays and Blue Jays played an epic game in Tampa yesterday afternoon. After nine innings, the score was tied at three. After ten, it was tied at four. After 11, it was tied at six. Finally it ended in the 12th, when Robinson Chirinos singled in BJ Upton to give the Rays a 7-6 […]

After being released by the Nationals on Monday, the great Matt Stairs decided to call it a career. He wasn’t the most productive major league player, but from his debut 19 years ago up until his final swing, he came to represent much of what I loved about baseball. Baseball is a game that can […]

This week’s roundtable takes a look at the dilemma of baseball’s sanctimonious “Unwritten Rules,” an injury that may change the course of the AL Pennant race, and one last look at the trade deadline and which team made the best deal to load up for the stretch run. Strike 1: What are your thoughts on the […]

For most of the season, it was widely believed that in the National League, the wild card would come from the Eastern division. The Braves and Phillies looked like they would be battling all season, and that the loser of their war would take the wild card. Well here we are, with under two months […]