Even as the pennant races heat up, baseball is of minor importance this week in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The images, footage and reports of the devastation and chaos in New Orleans and Mississippi are simply jaw-dropping and heart-rending. For all our our high standards of living in this country, to see a natural …
Last week’s Prospectus Hit List generated a larger and more contentious batch of reader mail than usual, with the relative rankings of the Oakland A’s and Anaheim Angels of Whereversville a particular flashpoint for some readers. Rather than take a defensive attitude towards the criticism, I’ve used the opportunity as a means to explain the …
Continue reading ‘Clearing the Bases — Crossing the Lines edition’ »
A few weeks ago, I mentioned a book I’d been reading, Matthew McGough’s Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees. I first encountered McGough’s story in the New York Times a couple of years ago. In that article, he described his first day as a Yankee batboy in …
Yesterday evening my pal Alex Belth sent an email asking my opinions about the Hall of Fame credentials of several active pitchers: Got a question I thought you might have some thoughts about. I figure that Maddux, Johnson, Pedro and Clemens are sure-fire, first-ballot Hall of Famers. And I also figure that Glavine and Mariano …
After a week’s hiatus so that I could complete my recent articles for the New York Sun and Salon, I’m back with a new Prospectus Hit List. The Cardinals sit at #1 for the ninth week in a row (zzzz), but the White Sox, who spent eight weeks at #2, have fallen to sixth on …
A month ago, Salon Sports Daily columnist King Kaufman invited me to pinch-hit for him during his upcoming paternity leave, one of a select group of writers that includes Bat-Girl and Chris Kahrl. I’m pleased to announce that my turn at-bat has come today with a piece on steroids and home runs, checking in on …
I’ve spent a good portion of the last couple of weeks thinking about the Atlanta Braves, who now sit in first place atop the NL East, just as they have for the better part of the last 15 seasons. They’re winning again, but in a way few people expected. With as many as 10 rookies …
If you’re in the demographic that has more than a passing familiarity with this site and its proprietor’s damaged sense of humor and jaundiced view of the world, then you’re no doubt familiar with The Simpsons, hands down the greatest TV show in the history of, well, history (hey, that’s a perfectly cromulant claim!). For …
Written and delivered less than 24 hours after “The Claussen Pickle Revisited”, this week’s Prospectus Hit List is up at BP. This week’s edition features lots of stuff about rookies, for some reason; this late in the year, some pretty good ones, such as Oakland’s Dan Johnson and the White Sox’s Tadahito Iguchi, are playing …
Just over a year ago, I examined the track record of the Yankees’ front office when it came to dealing unproven talent. That Baseball Prospectus piece, “The Claussen Pickle: An Analysis of Traded Yankee Prospects 1994-2004,” remains a personal favorite, not only because it represented a huge amount of research and a novel approach to …