I’ve got an AL East Hot Stove preview up at Baseball Prospectus and mirrored at SI.com. In the preview I address four basic questions for each team. Here they are in the context of what I had to say about the Yankees: What Do They Have? The Yankees’ top asset is money, including more than …
I have saved the closing words for Preacher Roe, who soon will be eighty-three. Roe is retired but vigorous in West Plains, Missouri, and proud that every one of his grandchildren has gone to college. “I know one of these days the good Lord is going to come calling,” Preacher says, “and when that happens …
As a general rule, I avoid overt political content in this space. I started writing about baseball to escape writing about politics and the long-running culture war, and with a few exceptions, I’ve stuck to that. I might fundamentally disagree with readers on matters far more important than baseball, but I enjoy finding common ground …
From today’s Baseball Prospectus column: After nearly 48 hours of second-guessing regarding the circumstances under which Game Five was played and halted, speculation as to how the Rays could sustain their stay of execution to overcome a 3-1 series deficit, and unanswered questions about travel days and the amount of rest Cole Hamels might need …
Since we last spoke: • In Friday’s column at Baseball Prospectus, “A Tale of Two Right Fielders,” I discussed the way the spotlight seemed to find the Phillies’ Jayson Werth and the Rays’ Rocco Baldelli all night long in Game Two. Both players took unlikely routes to the World Series, and each threw out the other …
Recently the guys who run “The Young Guns” show on Boston’s WWZN have begun posting MP3s of their guests. My hit from this morning, discussing the outlook for the Phillies-Rays World Series, the fate of Manny Ramirez and the pair of offseason quandries the Red Sox face regarding Jason Varitek and David Ortiz, is here. …
It’s all the Jaffe you can eat today. I’ve got my hand in not one but two pieces today at Baseball Prospectus. First, there’s a little something that Joe Sheehan and I cooked up, a thought experiment in which we pooled the Rays’ and Phillies’ rosters and chose up sides, schoolyard style, based simply on …
As noted in my previous post, with the Dodgers out of the playoffs, I was pretty skittish about investing much emotional energy in the remaining ALCS battle as the Red Sox stormed back to force a seventh game against the Rays after being down 3-1. Moments after sitting down to Game Seven, I was IMing …
Writing up a postmortem of the NLCS for Baseball Prospectus today, I was forced by the events of last night in Fenway Park to graft a new head onto my piece like some Dr. Frankenstein. Having watched enough of the Red Sox from the vantage point of a Yankees fan last year, I could see …
Well, my Dodgers-in-six prediction isn’t looking so hot these days. Here’s what I’ve been up to since then: • My rundown of the first two games of the NLCS, with a statistical look at the Phillies’ reliance on the home run ball for their scoring. • Some notes for Game Four that foreshadowed Derek Lowe’s early exit …
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