Skimming through the All-Star game roster this year, there are some names that shouldn’t surprise: Mike Trout, Josh Donaldson and Bryce Harper. Not all All-Stars are MVP candidates and studs. In 2012, the Chicago Cubs needed a first baseman with Anthony Rizzo still in the minors and journeyman Bryan LaHair snatched up the starting job. […]

MLB tweaked the rules for this year’s Home Run Derby, instituting a bracket system and a timer for each player’s round. The changes were initially met with much scorn, but after Monday night, the critics have been silenced. Todd Frazier of the hometown Cincinnati Reds prevailed over Joc Pederson in the final, 15-14, hitting the […]

The Cleveland Indians set an MLB record last season with 1,450 strikeouts as a pitching staff, 946 of them coming from the starting rotation. The staff ERA of 3.56 sat in the middle of the league, but that was largely thanks to the five starters who filled in the back end of the rotation behind […]

Now that the first half of the 2015 season is in the books, what storylines caught our attention the most? There were plenty of interesting talking points throughout the first three months of the year, but these are what we were compelled to watch the most. The revitalization of Alex Rodriguez. No one know what […]

We’ve hit the halfway mark of the 2015 MLB season, and as we do every year during the All-Star Break, the TOC staff put our heads together and came up with our midseason award winners. For the MVP and Cy Young awards, ballots required five candidates, while just three were required for the Rookie of […]

Yesterday, we took a look at the big names that may be on the move at this year’s trade deadline. Chances are your team won’t trade for any of those guys; instead, they’ll trade for a guy you kind of forgot was in the league before you look up his numbers and realize he’s been […]

We’ve ended our second Giancarlo-less Friday…and that’s not a good thing. However, some of his friends tried to pick up the slack for him this week. They didn’t really succeed all that much, but hey, at least they tried! Also, all five of the homers are from the last three days. This wasn’t by design […]

With the MLB All-Star game fast-approaching and the rosters just recently revealed, we should also make sure to take time and appreciate the selected stars’ greatness. However, I think it’s more fun to pick on the players who have been utter disappointments this season. Thus, I’ve put together the “All-disappointment team.” C Jonathan Lucroy – Coming […]

Baseball’s trade deadline is just a few weeks away, which means trade rumors will start flying fast and furious soon. And the rumors are always the best part of deadline season, since your team will probably stand pat on July 31 and really tick you off. Hey, at least you had that great rumor a […]

Cincinnati is to baseball what Kitty Hawk, NC is to flying; it was talked about before, some people even participated in it, but it wasn’t until those respective places became involved when “hobbies” and “fascinations” turned into a profession and a booming industry. Indeed, the first all-professional baseball team started in Cincinnati (the Red Stockings) […]