Wells struggled all year to hit .220, but fans seem to have a sense that he is a decent guy whose 2011 may have been more aberration than trend. Napoli is a different story.
Reagins traded him away and all sorts of bad things happened. He got traded again, this time to the rival Texas Rangers. Then, he had a year with Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza-like numbers, a good portion of that against the Angels. He hit several homers at the Big A that seemed to descend into the distant bleachers from ...
Prospective Astros owner Jim Crane has had increased dialogue of late about a potential move to the American League, but Crane said he has yet to receive a formal proposal from Major League Baseball for any sort of compensation for the move.
Crane also said that should the Nov. 30 expiration date of his contract with Drayton McLane lapse, he would likely walk away, but left some door open to renegotiate in what is now his fourth attempt to buy a baseball team.
[Jaime] Garcia had allowed a combined three earned runs in four career starts against the Phillies and had cruised through six innings until Ben Francisco hit a pinch-hit, three-run home run in the seventh in a 3-2 victory that gave the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.
The Phillies can clinch a trip to their fourth consecutive NL Championship Series with a victory in Game 4 on Wednesday.
Dustin Kellogg, the Astros’ 34th-round pick in this year’s Draft, was killed late Monday when the pickup truck he was driving collided with a tractor-trailer in Porter, Texas, authorities said.
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According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, Kellogg was traveling south on FM 1314 when his vehicle crossed into oncoming traffic and struck an 18-wheeler at 11:40 p.m. CT.
Adrian Beltre, 1-for-11 in the first three games, hit a playoff-record-tying three home runs as the Rangers advanced to the AL Championship Series with a 4-3 victory over the Rays in Game 4 on Tuesday at Tropicana Field. Neftali Feliz earned his third save in three games to preserve the victory for Matt Harrison and touched off another raucous ginger ale and champagne celebration in the visiting clubhouse.
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Ian Kinsler also hit a home run on the second pitch of the game from Rays starter ...
I’ll say this: If the Braves even consider offering Jason Heyward in a trade, there should be 29 teams lining up to bid.
The mere fact that there was even mention of the possibility – rumored or otherwise – says something of how bad a season Heyward had, and how perception of the 22-year-old has already changed in some quarters.
Few people in baseball will be shocked if Heyward bounces back from an alarming second season – .227 average, .319 on-base percentage, 34 extra-base hits, 42 ...
Tony LaRussa invented baseball. Everyone knows that. So when someone else gets credit for an alternative take on his game, he gets mad. Rightfully so.
And you can bet LaRussa did plunk down $12 of his hard-earned drinkin’ money to see “Moneyball” last weekend because that trash isn’t part of his game.
With that in mind, LaRussa decided to swap his corner outfielders today, moving Lance Berkman to left and Allen Craig to right. Why? Here’s his answer…
(grumble) Just soup up some of those old Ed Koch Talking Broom street sweeper trucks and move ‘em around a bit! (end nitwitted grumble)
Major League Baseball’s relationship with a group of environmental extremists is drawing criticism from experts at the National Center for Public Policy Research who believe that taking good care of the environment, like baseball, should be a uniting factor, instead of a divisive one.
“MLB’s partnership with the radical Natural Resources Defense Council ...
Adds Maury…“Yeah, well you’re going to need a lot more than the “extra 2%” on that attendance figure.”
Despite the wettest season that resulted in the most rainouts since 1997, Major League Baseball saw a slight increase in paid attendance from 2010 for the 2011 regular season. Baseball saw an increase of under 1 percent (0.71%) with a total attendance of 73,451,522 over 2,420 games, or just shy of 400,000 more tickets sold than last year (397,715) when the league drew 73,053,807 over 2,424 ...
TAMPA, Fla.—Houston Astros’ outfielder Jordan Schafer has been arrested in Florida and charged with felony possession of marijuana.
According to an arrest report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office, Schafer was arrested early Tuesday morning in Tampa after a traffic stop and was released on a $2,000 cash bond. It wasn’t clear if he had an attorney.
A police report says that a black Land Rover driven by Schafer with its windows open pulled up next to a police car. Police say officers ...
Darren Rovell: Former Goldman Sachs Partner Stuart Sternberg became owner of the Tampa Bay Rays. He hired a junior investment banker from Goldman Sachs to be his partner. Stuart, what—is there something about Wall Street that allows you to be this Moneyball-type team?
Stuart Sternberg: The anti-Moneyball, I guess you’d call it. If we had the money. Yeah, we took a business person’s approach, an analytical approach to getting this done and I think it served us well.
...in the aftermath of the debacle that was the trade in which Vernon Wells was imported and Mike Napoli was exported, Mike Scioscia said he was just the manager.
The way Scioscia explained the trade last week, Napoli was coming off an injury that might have restricted him to first base, where the Angels expected Kendrys Morales to play.
“We needed to get better in the outfield,” Scioscia told reporters, “so some decisions were made by Tony and Arte as to what the team would look like.”
He’s also paid to honor the franchise mission statement, which makes no mention of a first-round exit. But Sabathia put the Yanks on the brink of elimination by failing to protect the 2-0 lead handed him in the first inning, and by failing to honor his $161 million contract—or the pending opt-out from that contract—on a night when his teammates somehow managed to score four runs on Verlander.
...CC didn’t blame the weird run-up to this game, thanks to Friday night’s weather, and he didn’t ...
Howard adds…“As Dave (Cameron) wrote on Twitter, “We don’t really disagree.” If only I’d told him to get his head out of a spreadsheet…”
With two championships on his resume, and a commensurate contract, the Cubs wouldn’t be likely to give him just two years, the way the Dodgers did with Paul DePodesta. And make no mistake, any Moneyball-inspired GM is still facing an anti-stats clique in the media that is significant- precisely what helped to bring DePodesta down. To the extent that any ...
Last week, Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon made a surprising decision when he announced that rookie left-hander Matt Moore would start Game 1 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers. Moore wasn’t just a rookie, but a rookie with one major league start under his belt who spent more than half the year with the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits. The decision worked out well, as Moore shut down the 96-win Rangers on their home turf for seven innings.
In this case, ability trumped experience, and the ...
That brings up a pretty interesting question – what is a Major League General Manager worth? As Buster Olney wrote over the weekend, GMs draw salaries in the range of $800,000 to $2.5 million per season, and their supporting staff make significantly less than that. Olney quoted a “high ranking executive” as saying that “you could fund an unbelievable front office for what it takes to pay a couple of utility infielders.” And he’s right – the cost of ...
Personally, after scouting Reyes and the Mets for many recent years, I would let Jose go and let him hit the market. I have my own personal criteria and value chart that I have put together through the years (mainly shaped from teams that I gave worked with and learned from) and in this particular player’s case, the value is not a fit for me.
Too many inconsistencies and unpredictability with this player to sign long term — and probably have to ...
Until this day, I’d always thought there was only one real reality!
“It’s just being home, playing against my hometown team,” Howard said. “I don’t know. I think it’s when guys get a chance to play in front of their hometown team, where it all began, family and friends, it’s something different. It’s just, I guess, maybe a little bit more natural.”
This, of course, is just one more thing about Howard that will make the sabermetricians cringe. There is no number, after all, that can ...
Wasted $7.75 Saturday night (senior citizens half-price ticket - age has its privileges) to view Moneyball. While it is a nice baseball movie, there isn’t much substance to it.
Right up front, I am not a Moneyball guy. I don’t subscribe to many of the Bill James theories on which Moneyball is based. He doesn’t believe in sacrifice bunts (a waste of an out) and puts no value into stolen bases (one of baseball’s exciting plays).
The Rangers are making another World Series bid, and A’s fans might wonder what might have happened had Ron Washington managed in Oakland.
Washington has an idea.
“If I took this team over when I went to Texas, I believe the same thing we did in Texas, we’d be doing here,” said Washington, referring to Oakland. “Billy (Beane) had that chance. I’m not saying he didn’t want me, but he went in another direction, and another team wanted me.”
Tub Spencer, former Philly backstop, who was sold to Louisville a few weeks ago by the Phillies, announced today he had retired from baseball…Spencer’s father, who is a millionaire presented Eddie with a check for $50,000 as soon as he made his decision.
Tubby Spencer, ex-Saint, given $50,000 by a fond papa for retiring from the Phillies, immediately tried to become a financier by betting $5,000 to $4,200 on the Athletics [in the ...
And after eight innings from [Verlander] in a 5-4 win, the Tigers are a win away from taking this AL Division Series with a 2-1 lead.
Minutes after Brett Gardner’s game-tying two-run double in the seventh inning brought a Verlander gem to a halt, Delmon Young’s second home run of the series gave him the lead back. Verlander didn’t waste it, working through the middle of the Yankees order. He had another two-out walk, the flaw that began New York’s tying rally an inning earlier, yet recovered ...
A.J. Burnett ERA+ 86 vs Rick Porcello ERA+ 86 ~ Loser gets 86’d!
The pitching matchup on Tuesday between A.J. Burnett and Rick Porcello shapes up as one of the worst in postseason history—unless, of course, you’re a hitter.
The Yankees’ Burnett and the Tigers’ Porcello meet in Game 4 of the American League Division Series with a combined regular season ERA of 9.90—the sixth highest in baseball history. Porcello finished 2011 with a 4.75 ERA. Burnett’s was even worse at an unfortunate ...
Rafael Advanced Defense System now fully functional.
“You know that 3,000th hit, going through that was a nightmare,” Palmeiro said now, signing baseballs in a side room at the Hilton. “‘Cause I was going through the issues I was having with the commissioner’s office (with his failed steroid test). I don’t look back on 3,000 hits as a celebration. I look back on that as a nightmare.”
After the season, Palmeiro went back to Texas in disgrace. He more or less dropped out of sight after that. ...
The Rangers scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning Monday and are now one win away from advancing to the American League Championship Series after holding on to 4-3 victory over the Rays.
Mike Napoli, with the Rangers down, 1-0, in Game 3 of the AL Division Series, hit a two-run home run off of Rays starter David Price to put his team ahead, and Josh Hamilton later added a two-run single.
Colby Lewis earned the victory by allowing one hit—a home run to Desmond Jennings in the ...
I posted this news a few weeks ago but here’s new video from AM 570, the new radio home for the Dodgers.
Now they will be at a all sports radio station. I’m hoping better and longer coverage for the Dodgers. How about a longer pre-game show? What’s up with only 30 minutes? I know the Angels have about a 2 hour show before the first pitch.
