Miller: Could Baltimore Handle Brandon Phillips?

It all comes down to numbers! Twitter numbers (bangs head on glass & stone)...

Could Adam Jones stand in the way of such a deal?

Jones is undoubtedly the vocal leader in Baltimore. Phillips is the same in Cincinnati. Teammates on Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, both markedly use Twitter and other social media outlets to share thoughts, converse with fans, and relay messages to hundreds of thousands of followers.

The amount of scrutiny that Jones receives on the social media monster ...

Reilly: Papi Talks, Red Sox Listen

I really, really apologize for a link to a Rick Reilly piece, but this was too good to pass up:

Where did Ortiz learn to orate like that?

“Bill Clinton, he makes a lot of money making speeches,” Ortiz said. “And he changes a lot of lives with his speeches. I watch him. I learn. If you can get people to listen, they will react.”

David Ortiz TED talk this offseason or GTFO.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 10-28-2013

Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, October 28, 1913:

BALTIMORE, MD., Oct. 27.—A company was incorporated here today to organize a baseball club to represent this city in the Federal League. A franchise has been acquired and an option secured on grounds near those of the International League club. The enterprise has the backing of a number of prominent Baltimore business men.

They got a baseball club, the rest of us got an inexplicable Supreme Court ruling.

FOX Misses Game-Ending Pickoff; Shows Cute Fan Instead (GIF)

Harry Coyle just throttled an unsuspecting peacock.

If you’ve ever watched a playoff game on FOX, you’re familiar with their overwhelming desire to show the most anxious fans throughout the last few innings of a tight game. Game Four on Sunday night was no different, but this time it cost the broadcast as they missed the final play in real-time.

Gambler Mark Fein loses big on 1963 World Series and kills bookmaker Reuben Markowitz

All this and not a mention of Newsboy Moriarty…

Schoolboys and other suckers figured the Yankees were a cinch to clobber the Dodgers in the 1963 World Series, played 50 years ago this month.

The New York team had sluggers like Elston Howard, Joe Pepitone and Tom Tresh to support the hobbling M&M Boys, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. And they had Whitey Ford and Jim Bouton, both winners of more than 20 games that year, on the mound.

The Yanks also had history on their side, having won 10 ...

Gary Gillette says the Tigers will continue to spend on players ... for now

A regular cavalcade of stars!

Tigers owner Mike Ilitch has shown that he is willing to spend a lot of his money to create a winning team. One of the problems—from the ownership point of view, not the fans’ viewpoint—is that a winning team generally comes with really big salaries.

Even a team that wins the pennant with a group of young and relatively inexpensive players gets expensive very fast. Basically, in 21st-century MLB economics, it gets very expensive to keep the nucleus of a ...

2013 WORLD SERIES GAME 5 OMNICHATTER

You cannot pick-off the OMNICHATTER!

GAME 5 of the 2013 WORLD SERIES (Tied 2-2)
Red Sox (Lester) at Cardinals (Wainwright), 8ish PM ET start…ish

CHATTER UP!

Tracy Ringolsby: Storylines to watch for in Game 4 of Fall Classic | MLB.com: News

Game 4 stuff from Tracy Ringolsby.

Baseball Prospectus | Playoff Prospectus: World Series Game Three Recap (The Call Edition)

This articulates what I believe far better than I have been able to express so far.

Peavy: ‘It’s a crying shame… it’s a joke’ - Boston Red Sox Blog - ESPN Boston

I learned a long time ago that life isn’t always fair. Knowing that life isn’t always fair doesn’t mean it’s easy to accept when you are faced with its unfairness.

I’ve watched the game-ending play multiple times. I’ve heard the explanations. If the call is truly a correct interpretation of the rule, I guess fans have no other real choice than to accept it. I don’t see, however, how MLB doesn’t rewrite this rule in the off season because, even as Joe Torre admitted during a post game ...

Umpires point to rulebook in explaining World Series game-ending obstruction call | MLB.com: News

Middlebrooks obviously should have teleported himself.

OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner.

Rule 2.00 (Obstruction) Comment: If a fielder is about to receive a thrown ball and if the ball is in flight directly toward and near enough to the fielder so he must occupy his position to receive the ball he may be considered in the act of fielding a ball. It is entirely up to the ...

Selig: ‘Never say never’ about changing DH rule

When the World Series moved from Boston’s Fenway Park to Busch Stadium, the rules changed just like they have every year since the American League adopted the designated hitter rule in 1972. So it’s probably not a surprise that Commissioner Bud Selig was asked before Game 3 on Saturday night whether he could foresee a day when all teams would use the DH or none would.

“I’m the only one left who voted in 1972 for the designated hitter,” the Commissioner said during an impromptu news conference ...

Calcaterra: The night John Farrell embraced chaos

And in doing so…went from get smart to got dumb.

At this point I feel like John Farrell started to appreciate the power of chaos. And maybe began to think that he could use it to his advantage. Because at this point he seemed to embrace chaos with both arms and to eschew the notion of matchups and the ideal deployment of resources altogether. How else can we explain Farrell allowing Brandon Workman to face Matt Holliday in the eighth with runners on base when his best reliever — Koji Uehara ...

2013 WORLD SERIES GAME 4 OMNICHATTER

You can’t obstruct the OMNICHATTER!

GAME 4 of the 2013 WORLD SERIES (Cardinals lead 2-1)
Red Sox (Buchholz?) at Cardinals (Lynn), 8ish PM ET start…ish

CHATTER UP!

Shaikin: Cardinals hero David Eckstein: Wins & losses ‘only stat’ that matters

Thomas Capano was disbarred for less!

Eckstein, 38, played 10 years in the major leagues. He was an above-average offensive performer once, according to the OPS+ statistic. However, the 2002 Angels and 2006 St. Louis Cardinals each won the World Series with him as their shortstop and leadoff hitter. He was the MVP of the 2006 World Series.

Eckstein had a good laugh with the fake law firm. He said he embraces advanced statistics as an aid in rating players, but he fears some teams might tilt ...

LaVelle E. Neal III to head BBWAA

Congrats to LaVelle E. Neal III and Jose de Jesus Ortiz!

LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has become the first black reporter to head the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The 48-year-old Neal, who has covered baseball for the paper since 1998, was elected Saturday at the BBWAA’s World Series meeting to succeed Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Slusser was the first woman to head the organization, which was founded in 1908.

Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the ...

Passan: Despite DH role and reported positive PED test, David Ortiz should be a future Hall of Famer

David Ortiz’s gets first promised HOF vote! And the band went ta-ta..ta-ta! (h/t Abbott-Costello)

Ortiz does not argue when someone calls him this because he believes it to be true, that he is a Hall of Fame-caliber player despite his position and positive drug test, a pair of variables that individually have torpedoed past candidacies and in concert portend doom. Ultimately, however, Ortiz may be prescient. The designated-hitter wall is soon to fall. Even if Ortiz retires at the end of his ...

Neyer: Cardinals: The model organization that couldn’t grow a shortstop

And so it goes for the St. Louis Cardinals, who haven’t developed their own good shortstop since Garry Templeton. If you don’t recognize that name, don’t worry; when Templeton was a rookie, someone named Chevy Chase was actually running America. Those were strange times.

Seriously, that was a long time ago. Templeton manned shortstop through the ‘81 season. But he could be a bit much, and the Cardinals traded him to the Padres for Ozzie Smith. Which worked out exceptionally well for the ...

Beltran and Red Sox Scout Share World Series Moment

Public-address announcer Henry Mahegan, the voice of Fenway Park, was recognizing the team’s scouts, player-development staff and Minor League coaches in between innings, and Beltran knew his childhood friend Edgar Perez was among those being applauded by the 38,000 fans.

Then, it happened.

“Carlos is looking up at us. I get to the side where he can see me, and he just gives me a wave and a nod,” said Perez, who has been a scout for 16 years. “It was a special moment. Here we are, two ...

Zuckerman - Nationals Big 3 Players Go Under Knife

Attention players! Rush to aisle 1/2 for our blue light special on loose body removal! And for a limited time only get your bursa sac debrided at no extra charge!

Kent Sterling: Hey Cubs Fans – Wait for Delivery Before You Invest Your Trust in Theo Epstein

Pop those Theophylline’s and breath easy Cub fans…Sterling is on the case!

We’ll not quite all of it, because the Cardinals Way isn’t just about baseball; it’s about living and owning by a set of principles the Cubs are so far beneath they can’t see the Cardinals ass.

Sure, the Cardinals know to hit cutoff men, where they should be deployed, and how to run the bases, but what they also know is that treating the fans well is good for business if it reflects the overall goodness the ...

Keith Olbermann: Why Nobody Watches The World Series

Hilarious…but where’s the ESPN/Gambling-bling angle?

Mike Francesa, NY Daily News’ Michael O’Keefe Battle On-Air Over A-Rod

Move over Howard Stern/Soupy Sales piano wire cutting incident!

On Friday, the two sides came to verbal blows in a 40-minute heated debate and argued their sides and opinions in what many have called one of most “must-listen” segments in recent radio. During the debate, Francesa calls out O’Keefe for trying to bash and crucify A-Rod at every single chance they could get, calls out baseball for buying stolen evidence and documents from the Miami ...

2013 WORLD SERIES GAME 3 OMNICHATTER

It’s tied 1-1, who takes the series lead?

Red Sox (Peavy) at Cardinals (Lynn), Game 3. 7:30 PM ET (gametime: 8ish) on FOX.

CHATTER UP!

Craig Breslow’s Playoff Blog

As complicated and complex as this game can be at times, it can also be incredibly simple. If you get a chance to make pitches, you have to make them. And on Thursday, in Game 2 of the World Series, I didn’t…

We were aware that the Cardinals might attempt a double steal when I entered the game. I knew that they had some guys on base that had some speed. I tried to vary my looks, vary my holds, step off the rubber and do what I could to disrupt their timing. But when Pete Kozma took off for ...

David Eckstein filmed a very inside baseball ad for the fake law firm from Parks And Recreation

SHO BIZ OOZ. F-STRIKE.

Last week’s episode of Parks honored that tradition with a rather brilliant passing nod to the baseball commentary Schur and Yang became known for outside their comedy writing. The law firm that Ben takes Ron Swanson to in order to prepare an actual will is named for the sabermetric instruments BABIP, PECOTA, and VORP, as well as the scrappy, statistics-defying career of David Eckstein. Now Eckstein has committed to the joke, ...

2013 Rawlings Gold Glove Award® Finalists Announced

A number of players are vying for the designation as the best defender at their respective positions, including 26 former Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners.  The Baltimore Orioles™ lead all teams with six finalists, with first-time finalists Chris Davis and Manny Machado joining Hardy, Wieters, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis.  The Kansas City Royals™ and Los Angeles Dodgers™ follow with five Rawlings Gold Glove Award finalists each.

Tampa Bay’s entire infield – first baseman James ...

Washington Post: Kilgore: Nationals To Hire Matt Williams As Manager

The Nationals plan to hire Arizona Diamondbacks third base coach Matt Williams to become the fifth manager in the team’s brief history, according to a person familiar with the situation. The expected move was first reported by Fox Sports. The Nationals have not confirmed Williams’s planned hiring, as MLB prohibits teams from making major announcements during the World Series.

World Series shows MLB’s dearth of black players - Sports - The Boston Globe

A fundamental problem is that baseball didn’t have to emphasize its greatness, its beauty, and its allure to previous generations.

It was America’s Game. The national pastime. That is no longer the case.

Baseball has to restate its worthiness to a new generation, one that didn’t grow up breaking in new gloves with plenty of oil and a couple of nights under the bed post — for those who don’t remember Bo Jackson scaling an outfield wall or Dave Parker throwing out Brian Downing at ...

The baseball fans really are different in St. Louis. | SportsonEarth.com : Howard Megdal Article

I have no problem accepting the idea Cardinals fans may be the most loyal and nicest fans in baseball. I just hope they are the ones dealing with disappointment when this World Series is over.