In Tuesday’s chat, a flurry of Baseball Prospectus readers wanted to know my thoughts on the possiblility of Blue Jays’ ace Roy Halladay being dealt: Roopan (toronto): If the jays put a Halladay/Wells combo on the market – would [there] be any take[r]s. I don’t believe a mid-market team like the jays can afford to …
In yesterday’s chat, I had a two-part exchange with a reader regarding perhaps the Yankees’ top prospect: Charlie (Bethesda, MD): Think Jesus Montero is a good enough catcher (and hitter) to play DH and backup catcher for the Yankees next year? If he’s their DH they could probably rotate him, Posada and Cervelli as catcher …
A few choice cuts from yesterday’s Baseball Prospectus chat: strupp (madison): Jay. Thanks as always for the chat. Are we about to see a long “drought” of pitchers being elected to the Hall Of Fame because of the change in usage and other factors that prevent pitchers from reaching milestones? Maddux, Glavine, Unit seem locks, …
Via my boy Alex Belth comes this fantastically irreverent Slate piece by Charles P. Pierce on Manny Ramirez’s return to action: Then, back in May, the test results came back. A chorus of moaning arose from the Church of the Perpetually Outraged. (This week’s sermon: “What about the children?”) But he slowly but surely made …
On Sunday the baseball season reached its midway point in terms of total games played, and this week at Baseball Prospectus and ESPN Insider, we’re using that as an opportunity to examine how our PECOTA forecasts have held up over the course of the first half. Yesterday, Christina Kahrl examined team-level performances. The top six: …
Drop by Baseball Prospectus at 1 PM Eastern on Tuesday where I’ll be chatting about Manny Ramirez’s new hairstyle and the striking facial resemblance of latter day Johnny Cash and Dodger-era Joe Torre (as seen in the fine Cowboy Jack Clement documentary, Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan). Leave a question beforehand if you …
Last week’s Hit List, submitted for Thursday publication prior to my departure for Milwaukee (hence the holiday traffic title reference) but alas, not run until Friday. The list marks the first time since Opening Day that the Dodgers were not #1; they were one point short of the Rays. Ouch. Meanwhile, at a Fourth of …
I’ve got another Baseball Prospectus/ESPN Insider twin killing today, this time devoted to players who might be left off the two leagues’ All-Star teams. By midnight tonight, the All-Star balloting will have ended, and on Sunday the starting lineups will be announced. Inevitably, deserving players will be left out in the cold (even after managers …
The Baseball Prospectus/ESPN Insider soup du jour is a roundtable devoted to dissecting the performances of a few unlikely first-half heroes. ESPN editor Matt Meyers, columnist Buster Olney, BP colleagues Kevin Goldstein and John Perrotto and I discussed whether the work of Red Sox shotstop Nick Green, Mets pitcher Fernando Nieve, and Rays utilityman Ben …
A couple weeks back, on one of my Boston “Young Guns” radio spots, I joked with host Chris Villani about Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury being the new Juan Pierre. Yesterday, Rob Neyer’s got a blog entry ruminating on that prospect, and concluding that while he’s been a disappointment, time is on the 25-year-old Ellsbury’s …