Today at Pinstriped Bible, I’ve got a more refined take of yesterday’s rant regarding distinguished Yankee alumnus Joe Torre, cataloging his litany of sins and looking at the possibility that he may not return for another year at the helm of the Dodgers: Torre, who let a one-year contract extension offer dangle in the face …
True story: on Sunday afternoon I sat down to write about Manny Ramirez’s apparently imminent departure from the Dodgers and was overtaken by an overwhelming anger that was so close to physically manifesting itself that I had to stop and go to the gym before I started breaking things. One of my Twitter followers suggested …
No shortage of what I’m serving today: • Over at the Pinstriped Bible, I’ve got a look at a reliever who could help the Yankees in September, Jonathan Albaladejo, and an update of last month’s silliness regarding the possibility of Joe Girardi bolting the Bronx for the Cubs’ managerial job. The Albaladejo piece was a …
Another busy week at Baseball Prospectus. On Wednesday, I examined the Hall of Fame’s announcement of new voting procedures to consider manager, executives, umpires and long-retired players — basically a rebranding of the unloved Veterans Committee in any of its forms, including the expanded format one which begat us hearing that Reggie Jackson didn’t think …
Continue reading ‘Friday’s Child: The Trade Deadline Approacheth’ »
Defense is a slippery beast to get a handle upon. As my Baseball Prospectus colleague Colin Wyers points out, the current generation of defensive metrics — such as Ultimate Zone Rating, Plus/Minus, and BP’s own Fielding Runs Above Average — aren’t as objective as we’d like to believe due to questions about the quality of …
With the Dodgers and Yankees set to square off in L.A. tonight, I’ve got a rant at Baseball Prospectus wondering why Major League Baseball has never brought this matchup to the Bronx in 14 seasons of interleague play: Tonight the Yankees and Dodgers kick off a three-game interleague series in Los Angeles. The two teams …
Continue reading ‘A Thumbnail Guide to the Dodgers-Yankees Fall Classics’ »
Sad news out of Los Angeles: Jose Lima died of a heart attack on Sunday morning at the age of 37. An erratic pitcher for parts of 13 major league seasons, Lima was almost always either awfully entertaining or entertainingly awful. He had just appeared at Dodger Stadium two nights earlier, as the Dodgers, the …
This week’s National and American League Hit Lists are up, as is the combined ranking with the all-important league adjustment (-21 points for NL, +24 for AL to balance out the asymmtrical number of teams). Here’s a royal sampler: [#2 AL Yankees] Tex Time: While helping to secure a series win, Mark Teixeira scores a …
Continue reading ‘Friday’s Child: the Royal Sampler Edition’ »
As promised, today’s Prospectus Hit and Run column, “Night of the Living Dodgers,” finds me examining the threadbare state of the team’s pitching staff, one with an all-too-high count of zombies: Rewind to the winter, when the Dodgers let Randy Wolf, who’d just set personal bests for starts, innings and ERA+ while finishing 11th in …
Back after a few days on the disabled list for… well, you don’t want to know, trust me. Missed the chance to post links to last week’s Hit Lists, so here they are, the National and American League editions. It’s a few days old, but here’s what I had to say about the AL East’s …