A few weeks ago, Epstein was the subject of a glowing Sports Illustrated profile that portrayed the Red Sox as the leading practitioners of the new Moneyball.
Now, after one month of horrid baseball, culminating in a historic collapse, the entire operation needs to be torpedoed?
Enough.
...Staying the course. What a concept.
The Red Sox should have told Francona: “Terry, you are part of the solution. We want you to take control of the clubhouse. We want you to lead us to another World ...
Some usual, and some not so usual, managerial suspects from John Perrotto.
They call it the Silly Season in NASCAR. It is that time right after the stock car season ends, in which drivers and pit crews began jumping from one team to another, the sport’s version of free agency.
What happened last week could be described as Major League Baseball’s version of the Silly Season for managers.
Magpie at Batters Box covers the last 80 years of MVP’s and explains which categories can get you the award, which positions win most often, and how players on contending teams fare.
It’s commonplace to say that the MVP will (or should) come from a contender. Are you wondering just how often it does?
Wonder no more.
How often? Well…pretty much all the time, essentially.
The modern MVP award begins in 1931. There have been 80 seasons since then, and 161 MVP awards handed out (the NL had a ...
A statistical analysis breaking down the trade that may have eventually cost Reagins his job after the first season utilizing advanced statistics.
Why did Tony Reagins “resign”? Well in this trade, he gave up almost 5 wins while adding $7 million in salary for the 2011 season. He also added $69 million in future salaries…however it is important to note that his team did finish 10 wins above .500 and 2nd in their division. The Rangers ended up the big winner with a player who added over 5 ...
President Navin of the Detroit baseball club yesterday awarded the contract for the construction of a new ball park to the Hunkin, Conkey Construction Company of Cleveland.
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The contract calls for the construction of the new park by April 1. The plant will be one of the finest in the country.
And it was. The new ballpark was the home of the Tigers for 88 seasons.
The Phillies lost on Sunday Night. That was the bad news. On a positive note, and as a byproduct, you get to hate Tony La Russa for at least two more games.
La Russa was booed when he complained about the strike zone. He was booed when he took trips to the mound to give his bullpen time to warm up. He was booed when he argued with the umpires and when he made double switches (plural) each time he brought in a new pitcher.
At the time, as I was becoming more and more recognized as a member of the LGBT community, I was sure that Billy was getting the short end of the stick. It was OK for me to be confused with a general manager of a Major League Baseball team, but I wasn’t so sure how he felt about people thinking that he was “the gay baseball player.” He’s a straight Republican, who’s married with kids, and I’m a gay Democrat with two Jack Russell Terriers. To make ...
Fox will formally announce Monday that the active baseball player who will be able to build a video résumé by appearing on the network’s World Series coverage will be A.J. Pierzynski.
The Chicago White Sox catcher, says Fox spokesman Dan Bell, will join host Chris Rose and analyst Eric Karros in on-site pregame and postgame shows. Pierzynski, who has appeared in pro wrestling shows and has played 14 big-league seasons, is opinionated and sometimes an agitator.
The Phillies entered the 2011 postseason with high hopes behind the strength of their four aces.
The Cardinals got to one of them Sunday in Game 2 of the National League Division Series. Cliff Lee, who was a postseason hero for the Phils in 2009, tied a career high by allowing 12 hits and gave up five runs in six-plus innings in a 5-4 loss to St. Louis, evening the best-of-five series at 1.
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The Phils’ offense went into hibernation after the second. Carpenter retired the last four batters ...
After closing out the Detroit Tigers’ win over the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS on Sunday, closer Jose Valverde believes the Tigers are a lock to win the series.
“I think the series will finish in our house,” Valverde told ESPN Deportes’ Enrique Rojas and other outlets. “They have a good team, but the series is not (coming) back to New York.”
...“We have a big advantage,” Valverde said. “We have Verlander ready for tomorrow. ...
Greinke served up three home runs, but the Brewers stayed perfect in his home starts, taking command of the National League Division Series with a flurry of sixth-inning small ball that included catcher Jonathan Lucroy’s go-ahead squeeze bunt. It led to a 9-4 win over the D-backs in Game 2 and a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
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On Sunday, Ryan Braun had three more hits, including his first career postseason home run, a first-inning shot that accounted for two of his three ...
It happens to all of them, especially in 2011. There are no more Walter Alstons. You won’t find a Bobby Cox anymore. Joe Torre had his magical run in New York, and it ended badly. Now Tony LaRussa looks like he’s near the end in St. Louis. Even while he’s in the playoffs.
I doubt there’ll ever be another eight-year manager in Boston. The corner office at Fenway Park is a combustible space. The Sox field boss has to deal with interference from the front office. Owner John Henry is a notorious ...
While the opening round of the MLB Playoffs has most of his attention these days, Texas Rangers’ starting pitcher CJ Wilson is also admittedly “kind of obsessed” with food, but it’s a vice he’s comfortable with. “I don’t drink; I don’t do drugs; I do food.” But the All Star and soon-to-be $10 million free agent takes his food seriously. “I think I have a sophisticated palate because I’m adventurous. I try to find a spot in every city we visit to satisfy any craving from ...
The Yankees were overmatched by Max Scherzer’s high-octane arsenal on Sunday, as the right-hander carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and helped the Tigers post a 5-3 victory in Game 2 of the American League Division Series, evening the series at 1-1.
Miguel Cabrera slugged a two-run homer and drove in three runs for the Tigers, who got to New York starter Freddy Garcia for four runs (three earned) in 5 1/3 innings.
Just as we’re settling into the postseason, let’s divulge our annual end-of-the-regular-season awards.
AL Most Valuable Player: Jose Bautista, TOR
AL Least Valuable Player: Carl Crawford, BOS
NL Most Valuable Player: Matt Kemp, LAD
NL Least Valuable Player: Aubrey Huff, SF
AL Cy Young Award: Justin Verlander, DET
AL Belly-Itcher: John Lackey, BOS
NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay, PHI
NL Belly-Itcher: Derek Lowe, ATL
AL Rookie of the Year: Michael ...
They should be erecting a statue of Terry Francona in front of Fenway Park, not shoving him out the back door. Francona, after all, won two World Series with a franchise the World Series had forgotten, two, in fact, only three years apart, the first in 2004 that ended an 86-year drought. ...
In his comments, Francona said he left because he felt the players needed to hear a different voice. Perhaps his view can be linked to the substance of reports that Francona had “lost” the clubhouse, ...
the Royals figure to take a run at [free agent] Edwin Jackson. But club officials say any impact acquisition is likely to come through a trade…
[James] Shields seems the best fit — if the Rays are indeed willing to deal him after their surprising run to postseason — because his salary is about to jump from $4.25 million to $7 million in 2012, $9 million in 2013 and $12 million in 2014.
That might be more than the frugal Rays can afford, but it fits ...
Fortunately for Detroit, the punchless Gardner pulled the meatball on the ground to the right side of second base. Unfortunately for Detroit, Ryan Raburn was playing second. He took a few choppy steps to his right and didn’t even try to get his glove down, as the ball had clearly beaten him. Teixeira and Posada came around to score, and Detroit’s likelihood of winning the game fell to 10 percent from 25 percent. Had Raburn made the play, the Tigers’ probability ...
With Ozzie Guillen leaving the White Sox to manage the Marlins, there has been speculation that Carlos Zambrano will join him in Florida. The two Venezuelans are close and have helped each other’s charities…
According to a report in Venezuela’s El Nacional by reporter Ignacio Serrano, Guillen has reached out to Zambrano and wants to bring him to Miami. Zambrano is owed $18 million next season on his contract, and the report says the Marlins would pay ...
Even when he’s not! (scratches head feverishly with engraved trephine blade)
Before pitching coach Larry Rothschild could express concern above the effect working from the stretch had on Nova’s pitches, Peralta struck, Granderson waited for the sinking line drive to reach him, and Jeter prepared himself to not lose. The primary cutoff man was to be Mark Teixeira at the mound. Infield coach Mick Kelleher said Jeter, the cutoff man on a throw to third, was out of position when he put himself in ...
Let’s let Kapitan Kirk Gibson answer that…”“I left him in; it was a bad decision on my part, obviously,”
This is not to say that these are the only considerations to take into account. Perhaps Arizona manager Kirk Gibson or his coaches could have seen something in Kennedy at that point that would have indicated he should be pulled (I don’t know). Maybe Gibson would have been better served to bring in an appropriate lefty-killing reliever to get Fielder out.
And he’s got time to roll a number…Oh, Alburquerque.
Why did he bring Al Alburquerque, a right-hander, into Game 1 of the Division Series on Saturday night instead of a left-hander to face Robinson Cano with the bases loaded in the sixth inning?
Cano made it a hot topic because he hit a grand slam off Alburquerque in the Tigers’ 9-3 loss to the Yankees, the first home run Alburquerque has allowed as a Tiger.
“To me,” Leyland said, “that’s one for everyone else to second guess. Obviously, ...
Branded! The anti-anti-anti Moneyball is in full swing!
And yet just watch, everybody will skip Young’s role because, frankly, it involves intangibles, and what cannot be measured no longer matters in baseball, or so we have been told. Just do not tell Rangers manager Ron Washington unless you want him to drop an f-bomb on you and walk away talking about the fool he just talked to who does not know the first thing about baseball or how much chemistry matters.
Terry Francona didn’t talk about OPS numbers on Friday after he was fired in Boston. He didn’t talk about Pythagorean winning percentages or range factors or runs created or win shares. He didn’t talk about Bill James or Billy Beane or sabermetrics, the cult that now runs baseball. Francona essentially spoke of how the men on the field playing the game for the Red Sox this past September weren’t enough of a team when their season exploded all over the ...
Robinson Cano connected for his team’s first postseason grand slam in nearly 12 years and Ivan Nova fired 6 1/3 sterling innings in his postseason debut, leading the Yankees to a 9-3 victory over the Tigers in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday.
Cano’s towering blast to right field off left-hander Al Alburquerque highlighted a six-run New York sixth inning, helping the Yankees pull away after the skies cleared to permit the continuation of the contest.
The Rangers scored five runs in the fourth inning and held on for a 8-6 victory over the Rays in Game 2 of the American League Division Series at the Ballpark in Arlington on Saturday night.
The victory, their first ever in a Division Series at the Ballpark, allowed the Rangers to even the series at one game each.
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Derek Holland earned the victory despite allowing three runs in five innings.
