With almost half a season in the books, the Cubs are toiling just to stay out of the bottom of the NL Central’s cellar.  Meanwhile, chairman Tom Ricketts is starting to feel heat from the media and fans who want the ax to drop on whoever is to blame for the miserable season-to-date. While Ricketts has, “100 […]

Bud Selig has made some pretty big mistakes in his long tenure as Commissioner, several of which have had a great deal to do with Selig’s propensity for hand-picking owners whenever a team goes up for sale. We all know how poorly his decision to hand the Dodgers to Frank McCourt has been.  The people […]

When I wrote about Ramon Santiago’s walkoff triple for Tuesday’s Digest, I thought I’d hit the jackpot of unusual game endings. Then DJ Carrasco balked in a winning run on Thursday night. Carrasco’s balk came runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the tenth when he apparently lifted his left […]

Today is June 16th, 2011. The Pittsburgh Pirates, who have not had a winning season since 1992 (which I’m sure you all know), are currently 34-33 and only four games out in the NL Central. What the hell is going on here? The Pirates have been lambasted over the years for being a small market […]

Livan Hernandez had a nice start for the Nationals yesterday, tossing a complete game shutout with 6 K’s against the Cardinals. That dropped his season ERA down to 3.77, and once again brought up the question of how long the 36 year old right-hander who hasn’t seen his fastball cross 90 mph with any consistency […]

Two years and one month ago, I wrote that David Ortiz was probably done as an effective player of the game we call baseball. If you recall, he got off to an impossibly slow start in 2009, hitting a measly .208/.318/.300 with 0 HR and a slightly elevated strikeout rate through the first month and […]

The term “Bronx Bombers” is often thrown around in regard to the New York Yankees, but it is quite the apt description for this year’s club. Unfortunately for Derek Holland and the Texas Rangers, the Yankees were at it again last night as the Yankees added four home runs to their already impressive total. Mark […]

After a brief hiatus, the roundtable of Bloguin’s best baseball writers is back to touch on three topics from around the sport.  This week, we chat about the man that may be the best pitcher in the big leagues, the team that may be the most hopeless, and the “R” word that’s on everyone’s minds […]

Putting Derek Jeter on the disabled list with a strained calf muscle is only delaying the inevitable. Sometime, probably before the All-Star Break, the Yankee’s captain will record his 3,000th hit. He’ll be the 28th player to do so and the first since Craig Biggio in 2007. He’s no longer a viable threat to top […]

Rumors were flying around the water cooler this morning that Angels pitcher Scott Kazmir was looking awful in rehab, and that the team was going to release him and eat the approximately $8 million left on his contract this season, and the $2.5 million buyout on his deal for next year. The Angels acquired Kazmir […]

Hey there, ladies and gents! It’s time for your seemingly biennial speculation on MLB realignment! Are you ready? ESPN’s Buster Olney became the latest to chime in on the idea of realigning the current — ahem — unbalanced league format, which apparently takes inspiration from the astonishingly levelheaded and sensical decision to have two groups of teams separated by […]

This is nothing new. Verlander threw a perfect game earlier this year against the Blue Jays. On Tuesday, he went 7 1/3 without allowing a hit, before finishing with two hits allowed, one walk, one hit batter, and 12 strikeouts in a complete game shutout. In the month of June, Verlander’s stats are just insane. […]

If you thought the potential introduction of a second wild card in each league was a good but poorly thought-out idea, just wait until you hear about the league’s supposed plans for realignment. Actually, you don’t need to hear much more because that is all there is to the plan.  MLB wants to do some […]

Ramon Santiago may not have realized it on Monday, but he found a fairly unique way to end a baseball game when he hit a walkoff triple to lead the Tigers to a 2-1 victory over the Rays in ten innings. In an era in which we’re used to walkoff homers and singles and even […]

On Sunday, White Sox manager was quoted as saying about his first baseman, Paul Konerko that “Paul Konerko will be in the Hall of Fame”. That got me to thinking. Is Konerko really a Hall of Fame-type player? He’s been flying under the radar for years as a solid hand at first base, and I’ve […]