Word trickled out yesterday that long-time Yankees catcher Jorge Posada is set to announce his retirement in the next couple of weeks. Posada won five rings with the Yankees as a member of their 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009 World Championship teams. Discounting the rings, the first conversation that started to be stirred up […]

With the Chicago Cubs trading for Anthony Rizzo yesterday, another possible suitor for former Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder has apparently gone by the wayside. Three of the teams rumored to be leading the charge for Fielder, the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, and Washington Nationals, aren’t exactly big markets and contenders (though the Nationals […]

Self righteous so-called purists who masquerade as baseball writers when they’re not guarding society’s virgin eyes and ears have invested an inordinate amount of time and wasted entirely too much space both on paper and in the digital space to handwringing over whether guys who utilized performance enhancing drugs belong in the Hall of Fame. […]

You know the drill. The 2012 Hall of Fame inductees will be announced on Monday. We conducted an informal poll of the staff here at TOC, and we had eight of our writers participate. If you go by the Hall of Fame standards, you need 75% to be inducted….so if you’re on six of our […]

The Chicago Cubs were looking for a first baseman, and they got one on Friday, but not one of the ones you were thinking of. The team acquired Anthony Rizzo, along with pitcher Zach Cates, from the San Diego Padres in exchange for pitcher Andrew Cashner and outfielder Kyung-Min Na. Cubs president Theo Epstein and […]

It was big news earlier this week when Joe Torre announced he had resigned his position with the MLB league office so that he could formally pursue an ownership bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers. This should be great news for Dodger fans.  Joe Torre would bring an instant sense of trust and credibility that […]

The Boston Red Sox splurged in the 2010-2011 off-season in hopes of dominating the AL East and winning a World Series. They sent top prospects Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo, and Reymond Fuentes to San Diego for Adrian Gonzalez, gave Gonzalez an extension, and then signed Carl Crawford to a big contract. That didn’t work out, […]

Arguing over who should make the Hall of Fame on this year’s ballot is fun.  It is also so passe.  Why spend so much time arguing about the past when we can spend even more time arguing about the present and future?  How about instead of pontificating on the credentials of some over-the-hill has-beens, we […]

The bizarre saga of Carlos Zambrano has come to a close on the North Side of Chicago, as the Cubs dealt their one-time ace and long-time mental case to the Miami Marlins for 25-year-old starter Chris Volstad. In addition, the Cubs will pay $15.5 million of salary relief for Zambrano this season, the final year […]

The official announcement of who will be inducted into the 2012 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame is not yet official, but things aren’t looking good for Jeff Bagwell.  Despite a career that has led most fans to believe that Bagwell definitely deserves to enter the Hall, the early returns on the writer ballots […]

Trading away Zack Greinke was a pretty good indication that the Royals were just throwing in the towel on the season, and 71 wins and 91 losses later, we knew they had basically thrown in the towel. That did not mean, however, that they did not utilize the season. Eric Hosmer hit well as a […]

Some have feared the arrival of the year 2012, what with the Mayan culture predicting that it would be the end of existence and all.  Most other people though are sane and rational and are welcoming the new year with open arms.  And amongst that vast majority of the world’s population there is a very […]

One of baseball’s all-time great debates is who should or shouldn’t be enshrined in Cooperstown, NY and receive the highest honor attainable for a baseball player. Recent inductions and exclusions have only added fuel to the fire. Just this past year, the veterans committee voted to induct Ron Santo, one of, if not thee, best […]

In this offseason that has been rife with long-term contracts, two teams stand out above the pack for their spending: the Los Angeles Angels, and the Miami Marlins. Both teams made quite a splash in free agency, with the Angels signing Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson, and the Marlins signing Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle, and […]