It must not be easy to be Mets manager Terry Collins.  His owner Fred Wilpon lost a zillion dollars to Bernie Madoff and then went and ripped half the roster.  The uncertain ownership situation would be bad enough (ok, it’s horrifying), but the Mets players do indeed stink and are vastly overpaid.  Carlos Beltran is […]

Our own Joe Lucia wrote about Joakim Soria’s struggles this season earlier this week. Joe Posnanski (he’s pretty good too), did likewise at his blog, noting that a lot of closers have a good few years but they don’t tend to endure. Mariano Rivera immediately comes to mind as a guy that has been very […]

So who’s winning and should they be? American League Catcher – Russell Martin (1.8 fWAR) is a deserving start at catcher, but Alex Avila (1.6 fWAR) isn’t far behind. Best pick: Martin. First Base – Mark Teixeira (1.8 fWAR) leads the voting, and while Adrian Gonzalez (2.0) and Miguel Cabrera could be better picks, it’s […]

Drafted 37th overall by the Seattle Mariners in 2003, Adam Jones made his way through the prospect ranks quickly. He was in AAA at the age of 20, but even after a pretty good year, he spent all of 2007 in AAA as well. During the following off-season, he was traded along with George Sherrill, […]

David Price has always been highly touted, since being drafted out of Vanderbilt. But it wasn’t until this season before he became truly elite. “What?” you ask. “His ERA is 3.52, and that’s a hell of a lot higher than the 2.72 it was last year!” You’re correct, his ERA is higher. But Price is […]

Baseball has been abuzz this week over catchers, blocking the plate, and collisions.  The hullabaloo began with Buster Posey’s gruesome ankle injury knocking him out of action for a lengthy piece of time.  The controversy and discussion has continued throughout the last week including news today that A’s GM slash resident Buddha of Baseball Billy […]

At the 2001 trading deadline, the San Francisco Giants needed a starting pitcher. The Pittsburgh Pirates had one available, Jason Schmidt. The two teams struck up a conversation, and a deal was reached, sending outfielder Armando Rios and pitcher Ryan Vogelsong to the Pirates in exchange for Schmidt. Vogelsong was drafted out of a eastern […]

Ryan Doumit’s injury last weekend was all kinds of bad news for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Doumit’s been one of the Pirates’ better hitters in 2011, hitting .269/.333/.441 from the catcher position, forming a productive tandem with Chris Snyder behind the plate for the Bucs. That was good for the Pirates both because it’s good to […]

It’s May 31, 2011. Quick, who’s in first place in the NL West? Is it the defending World Champion San Francisco Giants? Is it the Colorado Rockies, who have two of the top ten best players in the National League? No, it’s neither of those teams. The first place team in the NL West finished […]

Sorry, baseball fans, but we don’t have Jo-Jo Reyes to kick around anymore.  Our favorite lovable loser had to go and spoil all the fun by actually having the audacity to win a game and thus snap his 28-start winless streak.  Now what are we supposed to do? Yeah, yeah, yeah.  It is great and […]

After a career high fifth blown save on Monday, the Kansas City Royals announced that once-dominant closer Joakim Soria had been stripped of his role, and the new closer would be rookie Aaron Crow. My initial reaction was “…really?”. Relievers are a notoriously volatile commodity, and to demote a guy who had been one of […]

The improbable comeback of Bartolo Colon took another step forward yesterday when the 38-year old righty spun a complete game, four-hit, six-strikeout, no-walk shutout against the Oakland A’s. It’s Colon’s first shutout since 2006 and only his second since 2002. Once upon a time, Bartolo Colon threw shutouts fairly regularly. Between 1998 and 2002, Colon […]

In an effort to keep you well-informed on all fronts of the baseball world, we’re going to begin a series for Monday of each week in which we discuss an up-and-coming prospect that may not be the Bryce Harpers of the world but may be making an impact fairly soon. This week we’ll focus on […]

Way to ruin it for everyone, Scott Cousins.  Your Ray Lewis-esque shoulder tackle, errr… I mean totally legal and appropriate slide into Buster Posey has put the fear of God into catchers across the land. Who would blame them though?  After Posey got demolished, Humberto Quintero got taken out.  Today, it was Ryan Doumit’s turn […]

  When I wrote about Ryan Braun last week, I noted that his numbers were even more impressive than they looked because offensive levels were down this year. It’s the case that I need to do extra digging more often now, because all the usual reference points don’t seem to work anymore. Just take a […]