Twenty-year-old shortstop Starlin Castro is providing hope amid the Chicago Cubs’ disheartening 2010 season. While the Cubs play out the rest of Lou Piniella’s last, increasingly lethargic season, Castro continues to live up to his hype after entering the season as the Cubs’ top prospect. He dazzled in his debut by driving in six runs, […]

Here’s a look at the remarkable number of injuries the Red Sox have sustained this season. Red represents the number of “starters” missing games, with “starters” consisting of eight fielders, one DH, and one starting pitcher. The Red Sox fielded 10 starters only four times during the season (games 1-4), and then a rash of […]

I was about to leave a comment at The Book Blog in a thread titled When to go from the eyes to the numbers when I realized it was probably worth delving into here as well. It opened a philosophical door in my mind that occasionally opens and closes. It seemed a good time to […]

Rockies 6, Mets 2: Two outs, runners on second and third, a base open and Troy Tulowitzski at the plate. I hate intentional walks, but I understand that a lot of managers would walk Tulowtizki in that spot. Especially to bring up Melvin Mora. Boy did that ever bite Jerry Manuel in the ass! Grand […]

40 years ago today, on August 12, 1970 – back when men were men and so were the pitchers – Bob Gibson threw one of his most impressive games. It wasn’t one of his best games. Heck, by Game Score it wasn’t even one of his 50 best games. It was, however, a distinctive game. […]

I had the pleasure of taking in one of the Giants vs. Braves games in Atlanta last week sitting next to THT’s own Studes. When Pablo Sandoval came to bat, Studes asked me the obvious question, to which I, as a close observer of the Giants, should have some manner of reasonable answer, namely: just […]

The Cardinals and Reds have given their best efforts over the last two nights to ensure everyone understands the NL Central division is no longer a men’s rec softball league. They wanted to establish themselves as a fight club instead. So, they are now giving tips on how to fight like a man. 1. Trash […]

Cardinals 8, Reds 4: Fisticuffsmanship! Or, Footsticuffsmanship, if you watched Johnny Cueto kicking people in the donnybrook. Look, I know that, depending on who ends up winning the division, either Reds fans or Cards fans are going to point to this series as some sort of turning point or inspiration or whatever, but the fact […]

Mike Minor throws a four-seam fastball against the Mets in Spring Training, March 3, 2010. (Icon/SMI) Though I’ve always been interested in pitch grips, you may have recently noticed that fascination extending to my articles here at the Hardball Times. I don’t have much substance to add to what has already been written about Mike […]

Cardinals 7, Reds 3: Mike Leake got rocked and the Cardinals made a statement in game one of a big series. And it is only one game, Reds fans, even if it didn’t feel like it. Jim Edmonds’ Reds debut: 0 for 4. Theory: he’s a deep cover agent sent out by the Cards three […]