Baseball fans are very protective of their team’s uniforms, and rightfully so. It’s the banner an entire fan base rallies around, something that unites them, and they don’t take kindly to someone disparaging their team’s look. It’s completely understandable. Still, there’s no denying that some team’s uniform sets are better than others, and in some […]

The state of second base in baseball right now is interesting. You’ve got some fantastic second basemen (Robinson Cano), some budding young second basemen (Jose Altuve), and some second basemen that are clearly talented, but still have some questions surrounding them (Neil Walker, Jason Kipnis). And that doesn’t even begin to deal with the tier […]

I hate delving into football here on TOC, but the Seattle Seahawks are still getting eviscerated for their decision to pass at the end of the Super Bowl, resulting in what would be a game-ending interception. It’s being called the worst play call ever. Naturally, we’ve seen our share of awful decisions in the MLB […]

There are plenty of great first basemen in baseball right now. The best part is that most of these guys are young – an elder statesman like Albert Pujols isn’t even on our list, for example. And even though this had nothing to do with our rankings, a lot of these first basemen are pretty […]

Leading into the 2015 season, The Outside Corner will be ranking the ten best players and units in baseball at nine positions – catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, third base, outfield, bench, starting pitcher, and relief pitcher. The infield positions will be ranked on an individual basis, while the group positions will be ranked […]

I have a spoiler alert for you – the Philadelphia Phillies will not be a good team in 2015. They’ll likely finish last in the National League East. However, if the team is going to move up to fourth, or maybe even third, in the division, it’ll because of their starting rotation. Last year, the […]

As the offseason begins to wind down, most of the teams in the league made a statement on their plans for the 2015 season. A shocking amount of teams took steps towards contending, while some pumped the brakes a little bit and decided to rebuild for the long-term future. However, some teams didn’t make much […]

The offseason has quieted down as it normally does with February on the horizon (Four weeks until pitchers and catchers report!!!) but there are still plenty of teams that have positioned themselves for big things in 2015. I’ll take a look at a team from each division that has decided 2015 is going to be […]

What makes a general manager a “good” general manager? Is it a willingness to take risks? An emphasis on sabermetrics? Or the discipline to hold the line, be patient, and trust a process? It could be any of those things; conversely, all of those things can also make a GM a “bad” one. It’s a […]

We’re just a few days away from the beginning of February, and James Shields is still a free agent. Shields is far and away the best free agent left on the market, and while we’ve seen pitchers dangle in the wind this deep into the offseason before (Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez, Kyle Lohse, Ervin Santana […]

The tenure of Rob Manfred, MLB Commissioner, has now begun. Naturally, he’s pissing off baseball fans after just hours on the job, admitting to ESPN’s Karl Ravech that he’d be “open” to eliminating defensive shifts. So to improve offense in the game, Manfred would like to…get rid of shifting, which has become widely used and […]

We’ve nearly reached February, and James Shields is still out there, dangling in the wind on the free agent market. According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Shields wants to join a team on the west coast. That’s all fine and dandy, but there’s just one problem with his desires – the ten teams in […]

As more and more teams start inking players to long-term contracts, either to keep them in town or attract them to town, more and more of those contracts start going pear-shaped for the teams. Usually, it’s because the player simply starts to see their abilities fall off a cliff, but sometimes, it’s because the team […]