0 comments by Joe Lucia on 2/27/2014
Welcome to Diamondbacks Day here at TOC, where we embrace mediocrity. Arizona is coming off of two straight 81-81 seasons, and while I try to keep personal biases out of my writing, I'd love to see them have the same record once again this year. Yesterday was Giants Day on TOC, and here's your recap. […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 2/26/2014
Oakland Athletics outfielder Josh Reddick has made his share of great catches in the past, but in Wednesday's game against the Giants, he may have outdone himself. Michael Morse hit a fly ball to deep right field, and Reddick proceeded to scale the wall, hang on, reach far over the fence, and rob Morse of […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
If you're not familiar with the Brewers' unofficial mascot Hank, here's a quick primer – Hank is a stray dog that the Brewers found wandering around their Spring Training complex. After a checkup with a veterinarian, who revealed that Hank may have been hit by a car, the Brewers have been taking care of Hank […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
The Giants are a star-heavy team. They have both a former MVP and a former Cy Young winner in their midst, along with three other starters that received Cy Young votes and thee other hitters that have received MVP votes. Needless to say, there are plenty of options when choosing the four horsemen of the […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
There weren't many questions about the Giants in 2013, and the team fell apart. There were a lot of questions about the Giants in 2012, and they won the World Series. So clearly, questions don't tell us much of anything about potential struggles. Naturally, there are a few questions about the Giants going into 2014, […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
It's officially baseball season, because Jose Bautista is hitting monstrous home runs. In the first inning of Toronto's Spring Training game with the Phillies on Wednesday, Bautista crushed this Roberto Hernandez pitch to deep left center field, knocking it over three fences and completely out of Bright House Field. It's all downhill from here, I […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Saying that the Giants "fell off" in 2013 is misleading. The Giants didn't just fall off, they cratered. Sure, the club finished in third place in the NL West, but they were just two games ahead of the last place Rockies. Really, the most positive thing to say about the 2010 and 2012 World Champions […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Everything went right for the Giants in 2012, and not much went right for them in 2013. Actually, let me rephrase that – not much went right for them on the mound in 2013. The only starters to have an ERA under 4.00 were Madison Bumgarner and Chad Gaudin, who made more appearances out of […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Day 13 of previews takes us back to the Bay Area for our Spring Training look at the San Francisco Giants. 2013 was the Giants' worst year since 2008, the first season of the post-Bonds era, and the Giants didn't do a lot to reshape their roster this winter. That could be a problem. Yesterday […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry on 2/25/2014
When selecting the Padres' four horsemen, is it more important to look toward the future than the present? Players like Chase Headley and Josh Johnson will certainly play major roles in how successful or disappointing San Diego is this season. But looking at potential building blocks for this franchise and taking a longer view seems […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry
The Padres have enough injury risks on their roster that every key question concerning the team could revolve around staying healthy. Getting 30 starts from Josh Johnson and 130 games from Carlos Quentin would make a tremendous difference for San Diego. But slogging through a full season without suffering any significant injuries is an issue […]
0 comments by Ian Casselberry
The Padres' infield could be one of the team's strengths this season. So leading a post about San Diego's two biggest weaknesses with an image of third baseman Chase Headley might seem curious. He's two years removed from hitting 31 home runs with 113 RBI and an .875 OPS. Yet his drastic drop in production […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
For all intents and purposes, the 2013 MLB offseason is over. Sure, there are still three marquee free agents on the market, but Stephen Drew, Kendrys Morales, or Ervin Santana probably won’t change much in the way of grades. At the beginning of the month, I looked at the winners and losers of this winter, […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mcdMqEFKpgg Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith and Budweiser are teaming together on a campaign to turn Opening Day into a national holiday. The campaign is essentially centered around one of those White House petitions that requires 100,000 signatures before it must be acknowledged by the White House. Over the next 30 days, Anheuser-Busch will […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
NL West week is continuing on today with the San Diego Padres, who seemingly underachieve every year. San Diego had a mediocre winter, and they seem primed to have another mediocre season as a result. Yesterday was Rockies Day on TOC, and here's your recap. –Season preview –Two biggest weaknesses –Three key questions –Four horsemen […]
