Francisco Liriano is having a tough season. His strike-out rate has fallen, his control has been spotty, and his ERA is way up. The main bright spot early in the season was the no-hitter he pitched against the White Sox. Since then things have actually picked up some, capped off by his most recent […]

Do you ever wonder if those guys picked in the last few rounds of the draft ever amount to anything? After helping Kyle Drabek lead their high school team to a national championship, Paul Goldschmidt was selected in the 49th round of the 2006 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Goldschmidt, not surprisingly, decided to […]

Redemption, thy name is Vin Mazarro. The last most of us saw of Vin Mazzaro, he was leaving a game with his head hung lower than low after finishing up one of the worst pitching performances in MLB history.  Mazzaro got pounded for 14 runs in 2+ innings of work, a beating so bad he […]

Ever since coming of the DL at the beginning of May, Zack Greinke has been fantastic for the Brewers. His 4.69 ERA doesn’t look at all impressive, but it belies how well he’s pitched. He picked up his 6th win of the season yesterday (versus just one loss), with a quality start against St. Louis. […]

The Giants won in walk-off fashion yesterday, moving to 36-28 on the season and extending their lead in the NL West to 2 games. But their loss in the game might be more relevant, as Freddy Sanchez dislocated his shoulder and was placed on the disabled list. San Francisco has had pretty terrible luck with […]

  Every April a group of hitters start out the season crushing the ball. Invariably columns are written about why so-and-so has turned the corner or made an adjustment or whatnot, and yet many of these batter fall back down to earth. It’s early yet, but I thought I’d take a look at how the […]

With his ninth inning home run against the Astros on Thursday night, Lance Berkman officially passed his 2010 home run total. Last year, Berkman hit 13 with the Astros and one with the Yankees over 122 total games; this year he’s already got 15 bombs in less than half as many games.  How unlikely is […]

During last night’s ESPN Wednesday Night Game pitting the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, IIATMS and Fire Brand of the AL had a live chat, and being a writer for IIATMS, I was a part of it. Because of a dinner engagement, I was a little late to the game when they were […]

During his career with the Padres, Jake Peavy was actually a pretty durable pitcher. Starting with his first full season in 2003, up to his trade to the White Sox in 2009, Peavy had made at least 30 starts in all but two seasons, when he logged 27 in both 2004 and 2008. When the […]

Not many knew of Matt Joyce before this season, and if they did know him, they knew of him as a platoon partner outfielder and not an All-Star type talent. The timing for a breakout season from Joyce could not have been better, as losing Carl Crawford left a big hole in the outfield that […]

Last night, while almost all baseball eyes were focused on the draft, Tim Lincecum recorded his 1,000th Major League strikeout. On the surface, this isn’t a hugely impressive accomplishment. Lincecum is the 449th Major Leaguer to accomplish the feat, joining such luminaries as Ralph Terry (the guy who gave up Bill Mazeroski’s homer) and Michael […]

When it comes to getting major-league talent from the draft, you’ll find most of it in the first round. Sure, there are several players on each team that are from different rounds, but a disproportionate amount of roster spots end up in the hands of first round talents. This shouldn’t be surprising. The guys drafted […]

According to Shin-Soo Choo, he is suffering from the worst hangover mankind has ever seen. Choo was asked yesterday about his struggles this season and Choo made the surprising admission that he felt his May 2nd DUI arrest was affecting his game, causing him to think too much and be too hard on himself. On […]

I’m not going to say that it has anything to do with his contract status, but Albert Pujols has not gotten off to the best start this season. Now, .275/.348/.459 is actually well above average this year, but it’s still quite un-Pujols like. His power has been down (12 home runs, but only 7 doubles) […]

The Rangers moved Alexi Ogando from the bullpen to the starting rotation this year and – much like with CJ Wilson last season – the transition has gone quite well. The 27 year-old right-hander has had a very nice 2011, moving to 6-0 with his win over the Indians. Texas put 11 runs on the […]