There are five pitchers in baseball that have 11 wins. They are, in no particular order… Roy Halladay, the reigning NL Cy Young award winner Jair Jurrjens, who leads baseball with a 1.89 ERA CC Sabathia, one of the best pitchers year after year and another former Cy Young winner Justin Verlander, who has been […]

Way back in 2008, right-handed starter Philip Humber was one of the pieces sent from the Mets to the Twins in the Johan Santana trade. Over two years with Minnesota, he had just 20.2 IP in the majors, and ended up leaving after the 2009 season. The Royals picked him up, gave him 21.2 innings […]

Let me set the scene on this one for you. The Blue Jays trail the Phillies 4-3 in the ninth inning. Jon Rauch thinks he has Ryan Howard struck out twice, but ends up walking him. The next hitter is Shane Victorino, who singles in Chase Utley, barely avoiding the tag of Jays catcher JP […]

It’s rare that an 11th round draft pick qualifies as one of the highlights of any Major League Baseball team’s season. Then again, the 2011 season has been particularly miserable for the Cubs and their fanbase. The team’s roster is populated with overpaid veterans that aren’t playing well and fan apathy is at an all-time […]

Two Bay Area pitchers made their returns to the pitching mound this week from injury. One had just made his first trip to the DL in his storied career while the other…well, the other made a return from the DL for what seems like the 45th time in his. So what lies in store for […]

On this fourth of July weekend, we need to celebrate all things American. Baseball is of course, the national pastime and should be celebrated with much glory and fanfare. After all, two of the other four major sports are on lockout right now, and the third is primarily shown on Versus. But there is something […]

Rich Harden made his first start of 2011 yesterday, pitching six quality innings for the A’s against the Diamondbacks; 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 6 K. Harden spent the first three months of the season on the DL, ensuring that once again he wouldn’t even get to 150 innings in a season, […]

In 2008, Ryan Franklin picked up a handful of saves for the Cardinals. Even though he didn’t strike out many batters (just 5.8 K/9), didn’t have elite control (3.4 BB/9), and only topped out in the low 90s with his fastball, St. Louis installed him as the team’s primary closer. In 2009 Franklin rewarded them […]

Mark Teixeira hit his 300th homered on Thursday. He’s a damn solid player, but I find it a little hard to believe that he’s already got 300 homers. There are 130 players that now have 300 homers. I’m not sure where Teixiera ranks on the list, but it’s definitely not near the botom of the […]

With a 7-0 win over their cross-state rivals from Arlington, the Houston Astros avoided a sweep and snapped a five-game losing streak that started after they beat the Rangers to avoid a sweep last week. That sounds a little sad and depressing for Astros fans and the truth is that it probably is: the biggest […]

Very quietly, Cliff Lee has had one of the most dominant months put forward by a pitcher in the last several decades.  In fact, you can’t do much better than Lee did this month.  The Philadelphia left-hander went 5-0 in June, allowing only one earned run the entire month and pitching three consecutive shutouts.  Can […]

After pitching his third consecutive complete game shutout, Cliff Lee has become the darling of the baseball-loving world.  We are all impressed with Lee’s amazing stretch of dominance, but what really makes it so special is that he is dominant AND durable.  Nothing screams “old school” like a pitcher going the distance to finish what […]

Today is June 30th, the day that online voting for the 2011 All-Star game in Phoenix is closing. The team is going to be announced on Sunday on TBS. Of course, we here at the Outside Corner feel that it’s necessary to create our own All-Star team. I’ve polled the some of the staff, and […]

Behind a strong pitching performance from Derek Lowe and some offensive help from Freddie Freeman, the Braves finished off the sweep against the Seattle Mariners 5-3. Even after beating the likes of Erik Bedard, Michael Pineda, and Felix Hernandez, the Braves virtually gained no ground on the Phillies in the NL East, and it got […]

Or should I say “odd snake”? Anyway, our friends over at Awful Announcing found this clip of Wily Mo Pena from last night’s Diamondbacks-Indians game. Let me set the scene: two outs, bottom of the ninth, tie game. The winning run is on third. Pena comes in to pinch hit for the pitcher and all […]