Going into 2015, the Padres had never had a no hitter nor a cycle hit. Now they are still waiting for that elusive no hitter, but they can chalk up multiple cycles now.
Wil Myers lined one into left center field and legged it out for a triple, completing the cycle and leading the Padres to a 5-3 victory against the Rockies.
Back in 2015, Matt Kemp legged out HIS cycle with a triple in Coors.
Innnnnnteresting. The Padres are STILL waiting for their first cycle that wasn’t hit in Colorado!
And true to 2016 Atlanta Braves style, the team almost lost the damn game. It took extra innings, but Freddie Freeman made the list. This might be the highlight of Atlanta’s season!
There is no doubt about it that the Yankees are old. However, they have some guys who are chasing down some historical numbers this season in Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran.
A-Rod is chasing down Babe Ruth next on the ALL – Time HR list with just trailing him 714 – 686. If he can crack 28 jacks, he will tie the “Sultan of Swat” and with 29 he will surpass him.
If #13 manages just 23 HRs, he would become the ALL – Time American League HR champ, as Babe Ruth hit 708 of his 714 big fly’s in the Junior Circuit, before tallying 6 more with the Boston Braves.
Rodriguez is also chasing down many other categories like Hits, Runs, RBI, GP, XBH and Strikeouts. Of course he already holds the record for Career Grandslams with 24.
If he can somehow reach the 30 HR barrier, it will be his 16th year of that many, and break a tie with Aaron for that honor.
Adrian Beltre has earned every cent of his 6 years/$96 MIL deal signed before the 2011 season so far. He has 3 slashed .309/.358/.514 in his tenure and has finished in the top 15 for MVP voting in each of those campaigns. The Rangers should try to extend him for 2 or 3 more years past 2016 – and lock up the future Hall Of Famer so he can end his career in Arlington. Beltre will play next season at Age 37 – and will make $16 MIL in the final year of his pact.
When Adrian Beltre arrived in Texas for the 2011 season he had a fine career that was started at age 20 in Los Angeles. What he has achieved in Arlington was turn a decent lifetime of playing baseball into a Hall of Fame Career.
The 36 year old Third Baseman could hold records for the hot corner for XBH, 2B’s, R, GP, PA, AB, Hits and RBI just to start with – and cement his legacy in Cooperstown.
So how many years can he play beyond next year? I think it is realistic to say he could play until he is 40. That would mean playing in the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons.Read the rest of this entry →
The Rangers third baseman, who is quietly assembling a Hall of Fame resume, joined Bob Meusel, Babe Herman and Long John Reilly in the exclusive “Three Cycles in a Career” club.
OK, it isn’t quite Bonds, Aaron, Ruth, Mays… but it is kind of cool.
Bad news for Shin-Soo Choo who didn’t even last 3 weeks on this list!
Meanwhile Beltre is on here twice as the most recent cycle for the Rangers and the Mariners.
Lots of people hit their cycles in Colorado. Choo is the latest. In fact his teammate Delino DeShields almost joined him if only he could have connected for a Coors homer himself.
Either way, it was safe to say that humidor or no humidor, it was a good night to hit in Colorado (except for the Rockies who were shutout, 9-0.
With all the great hitters in baseball, naturally it is BROCK HOLT of the Red Sox who gets a single, double, triple and homer. Granted, I am not thrilled that he wears Wade Boggs’ number 26, but this is a day to celebrate.
Kauffman Stadium was newly renovated about 5 years ago. It is a nice visual display of a ballpark, however it is far being in the top venues in the Majors for earning money. The Royals fans saw the club struggle to finally end a 3 decade long playoff drought this year. It is imperative that the MLB work with ‘cost control’ in the upcoming ‘Collective Bargaining Agreement. Both KC and Baltimore had to endure lengthy stints of losing campaigns, before compiling enough top-level draft picks to compete in their respective divisions. Hopefully other small to mid market teams will not have to be bad for that amount of time in the future to obtain success finally.
Yesterday I addressed the Dodgers potentially winning the World Series in the next few years while bringing more attention to the inequities of the big and small market clubs.
Even with LAD losing today and being eliminated, it doesn’t change the fact they will be playoff contenders for years to come based on their talent level, and super imposed revenue stream to outspend every team in the National League.
I identified the last several lower revenue teams that have had success, and pointed out that it took them big stretches of poor campaigns in order to collect on some good.
This is the biggest reason why baseball needs to adopt a salary cap – in order to leveling off the field.
Kansas City and Baltimore are perfect examples of this. The narrative is great here Franchises that haven’t appeared in the Fall Classic since 1985 and 1983 respectively, when both organization won their last Titles.
The Royals 29 years since that has been tough to stomach. The later George Brett years, the core from the championship had aged or moved on by the time he hung up the cleats.
After the 1994 strike/1995 lockout, the Royals found themselves at the bottom of the division for years.Read the rest of this entry →
Mike Moustakas was a high school shortstop and was named California High School Player of the Year in both his Sophmore and Junior seasons. His teammate and left side of the infield counterpart is fellow big leaguer, and first round draft pick Matt Dominguez. He also launched 52 career home runs in high school, a California record, but then again, I launched a home run at Chatsworth, and I was a skinny pitcher who typically wasn’t allowed to hit, so take that record as you will.
The Tampa Bay Rays do it by getting career years out of castoffs like James Loney. The Oakland A’s do it with a platoon at nearly every position.
Now the Kansas City Royals will try to be the latest small market club to make a run at the playoffs with an unorthodox roster strategy, of utility and multi-positional players.
Given their roster today, the only player in any likely starting lineup the Royals will throw out there this season that has not played multiple positions in the major leagues is Mike Moustakas.
But even Moustakas has a past that includes him playing other positions.
When at Chatsworth High School, he played shortstop because current Houston Astros third baseman, Matt Dominguez, played third base on that same high school team.
Cabrera has had back to back AL MVP seasons in 2012 and 2013. He has also won 3 straight AL Batting Titles. Cabrera is the best player offensively in the universe. He has put up 10 straight 100+ RBI campaigns, but he has racked in 276 RBI, and also 88 HRs – while featuring an OPS well north of 1.000. The 11 Year Veterans totals would have even been higher in 2013, but he fought a torn groin for the last half of the year. The 8 time ALL – Star and 5 time Silver Slugger Award Winner has improved even greater on his totals over the last decade. Cabrera has a Career 3 Slash Line of .321/.399/.967 – with 365 HRs and 1260 RBI in just 1660 Games Played.
While watching Miguel Cabrera this year, I started thinking about the best players in the MLB over the last 33 years. I am talking the best player of the game at any point of time.
I tracked back to 1979 for this article. I may expand further back in follow-up articles. I didn’t rank defense as highly as offense when I came up with the players.
I agonized over players like Mike Schmidt, Jim Rice, Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken for some of the years given in specific time frames. These gentlemen were given every consideration.
In the end, we are talking about the best player in the game though and it is always subject to debate and personal opinion.
The criteria had to involve leading the league in several different offensive and/or defensive categories, followed by routinely being in the top 7 in MVP balloting (if not taking home the honor), All-Star Appearances for every year I listed them for and most of them won silver sluggers and/or Gold Gloves as well.
Follow @tbwarmers I start off with the new replay rules that mlb wants to put in starting next season in 2014.
Chuck Booth (16 minute mark and a 40 Minute Segment) calls in on his segment to talk about the HUGE changes that are taking place on the MLB Reports website so make sure you all check that out!!
Also I got to talk to Thomas Aaron Roberts (1 hour in and 50 minutes) Follow @bertsball)
Roberts was one of the last 7 MLB Fancave Dwellers & was our first LA Dodgers correspondent back in the infancy of MLB Reports!!
We talked about his experience in the MLB Fancave, all of the ball players he met & advice on being a MLB Fancave Dweller for future contestants…
then we get into about his team the Dodgers & if he thinks they have a chance to go to the World Series!!
Plus i get into my future award winning segment & everyone’s favorite Stats & Facts so pull up a chair, download/play this podcast & SPREAD THE WORD!!! Thank you all for your continuous support!!!
Either click the link just below here… or you can go past the show logo or CLICK THE READ TO READ THIS ENTRY – to listen to it on our Player
EE continues to show his metal this year – by clutching up for 21 HRs thus far . He has a 3 Slash Line of .274/.355/.900. EE had an OPS of 1.326 – with 3 HRs and 3 Doubles over the last 6 games, and also scored 7 Runs. He was part of key rallies that led to the clubs 6 – 0 week. The 1B only Struckout 1 time for the 6 Games. Encarnacion is now tied with Miggy Cabrera with 63 HRs since the start of the 2012 year. He is the MLB Reports hitter of the week!
(MLB Reports) AL Hitter Of The Week – Edwin Encarnacion (See Picture Above).
Runners up were: Chris Davis (BAL) – (1.357 OPS, with 4 HRs and 10 RBI), Nelson Cruz (TEX) – (.379 BA, 3 HRS and 11 RBI) and Miguel Cabrera (.536 BA, 20 times reached on base in 7 Games, 15 Hits – with 2 HRs and 6 RBI).
(MLB Reports) AL Pitcher Of The Week– Max Scherzer – who went 2 – 0 with a 2.08 ERA in 2 Game Starts and 16 SO in 13 IP.
Runners Up were: Casey Janssen (1 – 0, with 3 Saves – while only yielding 1 Hit and 1 Walk in 4 IP), Jarrod Parker 2 GS (1 – 0, with a 0.79 WHIP in 14 IP.)
Guests in this Podcast – Chuck Booth (MLB Reports Owner and Lead Analyst)
On this week’s show Chuck Booth joins us to break down all the biggest stories in MLB. We also go Around the Horn with Chuck to discuss the A’s, Rockies and Royals current situations and declare the worthy few that belong on their respective Mt Rushmore’s. Bethubb.com best bets end the show as always. Happy Father’s Day!!!!!!!
Intro – 10 Minutes, Toronto Blue Jays talk from 10 Minute to the 18 Minute Mark. OAK chat – 18 minute – 33 Minute Mark, COL Talk 33 Minutes – 44 Minute Mark. Kansas City Royals Chart 44 Minutes Mark – 59 Minute Mark. Late Jays Talk Bethubb Best Bets 1 hour 1 MIN mark to 1 hour 9 Minute Mark.
Quick Facts: Catsfish Hunter was 7 – 2 in the Post Season for the 1972, 1973 and 1974 World Series Winning A’s – and only 2 -4 with the 3 Post Seasons with the Yankees. Still 5 World Series Winners was great. Chuck also meant Ewing Kauffman (Chuck thought his nickname was Charlie in the podcast – maybe because his name his Charlie) when talking about the Royals MT. Rushmore for the franchise.
Yogi Berra did indeed play in 14 World Series and won 10 of them in his Yankees days.
To Keep Reading and Listen to this Podcast click the READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY or scroll past the Triple Play Logo.
Guests in this Podcast – Thomas Aaron Roberts (25 Minute Mark and a 17 Min Segment) (Former MLB Reports Dodgers Correspondent and 1 of 7 MLB FanCave Dwellers left in New York)Follow @bertsball
Richard Perez (www.strosbros.mlblogs.com and 1 of our 3 Astros Correspondents from there – (4 Minutes in and a 20 Minute Segment)Follow @yokorick
Guys (Frank and Carmen) from the @mydopehatgame (44 Minutes In and a 10 Minute Segment) Follow @mydopehatgame
To Keep Reading and Listen to this Podcast click the READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY or scroll past the Triple Play Logo
On today’s show, brought to you by MLB Reports (www.mlbreports.com) & The Bench Warmers Show (thebenchwarmers.podomatic.com), I started by paying respects to a follower of mine on twitter (the great late Kiley) Follow @jeterfan_02 who passed away last week…not only she was a great Yankee fan who loved Derek Jeter – but also was the most sweetest giving person ever, R.I.P….
I start to talk about the Subway Series then I interviewed my first guest Derek Jackson (10 Minute Mark – 20 Minute Segment. Follow @djaxmlbreports who is a fantasy expert for MLB Reports! We talked about which callups to watch midway through the season,a look at the rookie crop of players & second year players…check out his latest fantasy article hereRead the rest of this entry →
By Aaron Roberts (Dodgers Correspondent / MLB Fancave Top 30 Finalist 2013): Follow @Bertsball
Here are all of the videos I have done for the MLB Fancave and also my latest blog entries. Bookmark the next link here for this will have all of the dedicated information for my quest to be in New York as an MLBFancave Dweller all of the 2013 Year. Thanks to the MLB Reports for allowing me this platform! Right after the videos and a page break – are the 3 days I spent in Phoenix with 29 other prospective cave dwellers.
The Videos:
Interview with Adam Kennedy:
Dodgers and Angels Fan In Love – MLB Top 30 MLB Fancave Finalist Video:
Taking the Campaign to the streets of LA:
Get to know your LA Dodgers MLB Fancave Representative:
Vote For me (Thomas Roberts AKA – #CapeintheCave):
You can vote for me by either clicking on this link here: – This Link also contains my 2 minute application video.
Or going to the MLB Fan Cave website, clicking on “Vote” at the top and finding “Thomas Roberts.” I have my submission video on there so you can watch that as well. You can also come be my friend on Twitter Follow @bertsballFacebook (Facebook.com/Bertsball) Instagram (@Bertsball) and my Blog (Bertsball.blogspot.com) I post about the Dodgers, Baseball and my campaign frequently on each of them.
Alex Rodriguez is the Active Leader for XBH with 1190, however who knows when he will have a chance to resume his career again with injuries + allegations of PED use perhaps sparking an investigation/suspension for the MLB and is still owed 114 Million Dollars over the next 5 years.
I have nothing against sabermetrics in baseball. Yes I know they are not going away and I will probably learn them one day as someone who can comprehend Math pretty good. However, I understand the frustration of the casual fan who will not set a foot near them – although they know what Home Runs and Runs Batted In are. I have thrown the topic out for discussion on Twitter – and am extremely curious to see what percentage of fans actually follow the new numbers formats. This site totally allows our writers to convey any form of statistical analysis they want. The only thing that I request, is that if they use sabermetrics, to also add some regular stats with them.
One of the stats that can gauge any era since the beginning of baseball is Extra Base Hits. Before the fences were brought in (or even put up), Doubles and Triples could be hit at any time. Singles are great in the game too. There have been several great baseball players that are singles hitters, that also compiled a bunch of Doubles and Triples. That is why this statistic is fairest to all of the hitters in the history of the game and the most comparable. Like the old saying, (hit’em where they ain’t), players that can hit the baseball into the open areas of the outfield are special. Babe Ruth re-coined the phrase later when he said “Well they ain’t over the fence, so that’s where I hit them!” The Bambino was right. In the course of this article, we will list the top active list for this category – and some underrated hitters that may stack up nicely against historical hitters.
Dwight Evans falls into that category with Don Mattingly, Mark Grace, Will Clark and Keith Hernandez. Guys that were the best players amongst their peers, (offensively and defensively) plus BBHOF Worthy (In some cases) – but are trounced on by the ballooned ‘Steroid era” numbers.
By John Tuberty – Special Guest Writer and Cooperstown Correspondent (Owner of The Wesbite Tubbs Baseball Blog, please view here .)
Under current Hall of Fame voting rules, the Expansion Era Committee meets once every three years to vote on retired players who are no longer eligible for election by the BBWAA, have been retired 21 or more seasons, and made their biggest contributions to the sport after 1972. In addition to the retired players, the Expansion Era ballot also includes retired managers, umpires, and executives from the post-1972 era. One player who is eligible to be included on December’s Expansion Era ballot is former Red Sox Right Fielder, Dwight Evans.
Despite owning impressive career totals such as 385 Home Runs, 2,446 Hits, and 8 Gold Glove Awards, Evans struggled to draw support in BBWAA Hall of Fame voting and fell off the ballot after failing to draw the necessary five percent needed to stay on the ballot on a very crowded 1999 election. However in recent years, Evans has become a popular Hall of Fame debate in the sabermetric community and several articles have been written in support of his overlooked Hall of Fame candidacy. One particular writer, Patrick Languzzi is spearheading a campaign to put Dwight Evans on December’s Expansion Era ballot. Languzzi, who writes for MLB Reports as the Hall of Fame Correspondent, created his own website, Call to the Hall, which is devoted to bringing awareness to Dwight Evans’ overlooked Hall of Fame candidacy. Languzzi even started a petition which calls for Evans to be selected as one of the twelve finalists on December’s Expansion Era ballot. Languzzi was nice enough to take the time for me to interview him about his Call to the Hall website and petition.
JT: Patrick, you, along with Nick Carfardo of the Boston Globe were recently interviewed by Tom Caron on the New England Sports Network (NESN) to discuss Evans’ overlooked Hall of Fame candidacy (see link below). What was that experience like?
PL: The experience was validating for me, meaning, when I started this project, I never imagined it would have gone as far as it has, and gotten the attention it’s drawn. It’s great to see that I’m not the only one that feels that Evans’ case deserves to be revisited.
JT: You mention in the NESN clip that you got a chance to meet Dwight, what can you tell us about meeting him?
PL: Through all of my research, I’ve gotten to know Evans, and what I’ve found is that he is extremely humble and unwilling to discuss himself as a possible Hall of Fame candidate. He was humble as a player too. A good example of this is the clip from the 1987 All-Star game (see link to clip below) when Dwight fields a fly ball and fires a strike to home plate, Tim Raines the player at third holds from tagging up.
Note from Alex Mednick: I am going to be putting together a small project that accumulates all the best players of all time, and puts them together on teams according to their birthplace. For example, in this first edition I will be breaking down players from the United States of America into teams from the 1) Northeast, 2) Southeast, 3) Midwest, and 4) Southwest…(sorry, there really is not enough quality coming out of the northwest to compete with these teams…maybe I will put a Northwestern United States team in a later edition with less competitive teams). Later on I will bring you teams assembled from the all-time greats out Central and South American (Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Panama Canal Zone, etc.) and the All-Caribbean Team (Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Curacao, etc). Also look forward to teams from Japan, Canada and the EU. Should be fun to sort of assemble an “Olympics” of Baseball. I love watching the World Baseball Classic and seeing players fight for their nations pride…but by grouping the teams by region, it might make the teams more competitive. Of course, this is all for the sake of speculation; Babe Ruth was a great player, but I don’t think he will be taking any at-bat’s soon. (Also, please note that I do not lend consideration to relief pitchers in this analysis). Read the rest of this entry →
Hamilton and Beltre need to carry the Rangers to their 3rd straight World Series Appearance. This feat has not been done since the Yankees went to 4 straight WS Appearances from 1998-2001.
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer): Follow @chuckbooth3024It is Adrian Beltre Awareness Week! What is that exactly? I have adopted an idea to carry out on twitter-in order to provide the unheralded players of the MLB, their just credit. So far there has been Juan Pierre, Mike Morse , Jose Altuve Awareness Weeks and now it is Adrian Beltre’s turn. I decided on the Rangers 3rd base slugger because I believe that he is on a path for Cooperstown. Rather than bore you with details I have already written about before on the Reports, you can click here for my previous article on Beltre hitting himself into Hall Of Fame Consideration: click here.
Okay back to the point. It was right after Adrian Beltre’s 3 HR game that I started sending out my link on the article and hailing Beltre as a man worthy for Cooperstown if he keeps it up. I had many of my followers indicate they had never thought about him like that. In bullet point style here. Right after that he had a 3 hit game, in which he was a Triple short of the cycle. The next day he hit for his second career cycle. It made me feel really good about my stance on the guy. 5 HRs, 2 Doubles, a Triple and 2 singles is a month for some guys and Beltre accomplished this feat in 14 AB over 3 games. That is 29 total bases folks, a slugging percentage of over 2 and a .714 Average. The Rangers offense has several players that seem to blow up like this. Nelson Cruz had 8 RBI not so long ago. Beltre had that 3 homer game in the ALCS last year. Then there was Josh Hamilton and his 4 HR game. Hamilton has also had 3 games this year where he had collected 5 RBI or more.
The Rangers are a power house offense. They have guys like Mitch Moreland and Mike Napoli hitting 8th routinely. They are going to win the AL West for a 3rd Straight year. With all of this said, something doesn’t resonate with me in them making their 3rd straight World Series this year. That feat has not been accomplished since the Yankees made 4 fall classics in a row from 1998-2001. The Rangers are vulnerable and have weaknesses in their pitching. They don’t have C.J Wilson this year and Rookie Yu Darvish is slowing down after a great first half. I think with Darvish, it is the innings that are catching up to him. In Japan, they usually have 6 man rotations. This is new territory for the talented chucker.
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- While watching Josh Hamilton this year, I started thinking about the best players in the MLB over the last 33 years. I am talking the best player of the game at any point of time. I tracked back to 1979 for this article. I may expand further back in follow up articles. I did rank defense highly when I came up with the players. I did agonize over Mike Schmidt, Jim Rice, Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken for some of the years given in specific time frames. These gentlemen were given every consideration. In the end, we are talking about the best player in the game though and it is always subject to debate and personal opinion. The criteria had to involve leading the league in several different offensive and/or defensive categories, followed by routinely being in the top 7 in MVP balloting(if not taking home the honor), All-Star Appearances for every year I listed them for and most of them won silver sluggers and/or Gold Gloves as well.
George Brett won batting titles in 3 different decades and flirted with .400 in 1980 while hitting .390 for the year. -Photo courtesy of lanius.wordpress.com
George Brett 1979-1983-George Brett was the best hitter in the game from 1979-1983. He hit for a .320 average and slugged his way to having the Royals as perennial contenders. He led the league in triples (20) and hits in 1979. In 1980, he hit .390 with a .454 OBP, 664 SLG and a 1.118 OBP which led the league. In 1983, Brett led the league in slugging an OPS once again. Brett won the MVP in 1980 and was the runner-up in 1979. In 1985, George Brett would lead the Royals to a World Series. He later won a batting title at age 37 with a .329 average. This was the toughest time frame to judge from 1979-1983. Mike Schmidt was an incredible force at third base with huge power and Jim Rice also put up mammoth numbers, but in the end I chose George Brett because he was more consistent out of 3. Read the rest of this entry →
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)-Heading into tonight’s game versus the Kansas City Royals, Derek Jeter sits in 16th all time for the All-time hits list. He is only 3 hits behind Paul Waner and another 5 hits behind George Brett. If Jeter has a decent last 120 games, he could find himself already in the top 10 all time by collecting another 145 hits and passing Willie Mays for 10th all time with 3284 hits by the end of the year. I am not sure how much longer the captain will play, but I think it has to be at least another year or two based on how he has started this campaign out. If he plays another 300 games after this year, you have to think he is capable of averaging a hit per game the rest of his career. This would place him in the top 5 of hits all time behind Pete Rose (4256), Ty Cobb (4191) Hank Aaron (3771) and Stan Musial’s (3630). If I were a betting man, I think that 482 more hits might be asking a little much for the 37-year-old shortstop. Having said this, Jeter will undoubtedly take his place amongst these immortal men by the time he is done playing the game. Read the rest of this entry →
Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and- @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)– For once the shoe is on the other foot. I asked the MLB Reports Founder and ‘Lead Columnist’ Jonathan Hacohen if I could interview him 5 months after he interviewed me. Jonathan and I came into talking by both talking to the MLB FanCave guys at the same time on twitter last June. Jonathan was really interested in My baseball book “The Fastest Thirty Ballgames” and I sent him a copy of it if he agreed to do a review. Jonathan finished the book and gave one of the most incredible reviews for my book that I have ever seen for any baseball book anywhere. Somewhere I had given up all of my creative writing energy in the process while writing this said book. Jonathan followed up with an interview later. During the World Series, he offered up a chance to do a guest article since I knew a lot about the ballparks in Texas and St. Louis. Now I am sure it was all part of his master plan: the one guest article turned into a once a week article, before I even realized it myself, I was writing 2 articles a week and craving more! I messaged Jonathan about a potential run at the record to see all 30 MLB Parks before anyone on this planet. The reason is the man loves baseball. He was just as fired up as I was! From there we have worked together as a team to provide a different kind of article series that has ever been seen by a baseball writer and website. I am happy to finally meet Jonathan today live in person for the Jays game during this record chase. Before we write about that, I had a chance to talk the man about baseball life, the MLB Reports and the Rogers Center. Here is what we discussed… Read the rest of this entry →
Bryan Sheehan (MLB Reports Intern): There hasn’t been much for fans of the Kansas City Royals to be excited about recently. A 71-91 record in 2011, combined with a playoff drought that dates back to 1986 (they’ve only had six winning seasons since), tells the story of a team playing without much inspiration or value. Last year had few bright spots for the club, but perhaps the best beacon of hope came in the form of outfielder Alex Gordon. The 28-year-old had a breakout season last year, hitting .303 with 87 RBIs and a Gold Glove in left field. This raises the question: was 2011 a fluke or is Gordon quickly becoming a superstar outfielder? (more…)
Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth(Baseball Writer): When I was a kid, the best players in the game of baseball all seemed to play Third or First Base. Think back to the mid-eighties, where George Brett, Wade Boggs, Mike Schmidt, Howard Johnson, Terry Pendleton and Paul Molitor were some of the better players in the game. Even Bobby Bonilla broke into the Majors at third base. The next wave of third baseman were impressive too, guys like: Chipper Jones, Ken Caminiti, a young Scott Rolen, Vinny Castilla and Robin Ventura. As little as five years ago, there was Alex Rodriguez and David Wright both being top-5 players in baseball. When you added Miguel Cabrera and Mike Lowell to the mix, it was a pretty formidable bunch of players at the Hot Corner. Read the rest of this entry →
5:44PM: Ray suffered a Grade 1 strain, Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters (including MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer). The team’s plan is to shut Ray down for two weeks and then re-evaluate after that period of daily treatment, with a rough timeline of 4-6 weeks until Ray’s eventual return from the IL. Ray told media that…
April 1: The Giants have announced the signing. March 31: The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent catcher Gary Sanchez, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). Sanchez will make a salary of $4MM if he cracks the major league team, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The deal is…
April 1: The Padres have now announced the deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that it’ll be an $80MM pact over the seven year term. As previously reported, the deal doesn’t start until 2024 though so it won’t affect the Padres’ luxury tax calculation this year. Dennis Lin of The Athletic adds that it includes…
The Yankees announced they’ve designated outfielder Estevan Florial for assignment to make room for right-hander Colten Brewer to be added to the big league roster. It seems highly unlikely that Florial, once one of the game’s top prospects, passes through waivers unclaimed, so this is almost certainly the end of his tenure in the Bronx.…
The Nationals signed veteran catcher Kevin Plawecki to a minor league deal, per Andrew Golden of the Washington Post. Plawecki, 32, spent camp with the Pirates but was released when he failed to make the Opening Day roster. Plawecki is coming off a 2022 season in which he hit .220/.286/.286 with eight doubles in 186…
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