Last week I watched Vanderbilt’s Jack Armstrong square off against Coastal Carolina’s Anthony Meo. Both rising juniors, they are each regarded as among the best starters in their class. Armstrong was named a CCBL all-star last year and Baseball America named him the top prospect for his class after reportedly hitting 97 mph. Meo led […]

I always find it entertaining that minor leaguers go on rehab assignments. For instance, before returning to Triple-A Buffalo this week, Mike Hessman played a single game with the GCL Mets. That’s fairly common for players in the high minors. These rehabs don’t have exactly the same rationale as rehab assignments for major leaguers. For […]

Giants 7, Dodgers 5: So the pitching matchup I was so looking forward to kind of fizzled out, but that didn’t keep this one from being interesting.  Clayton Kershaw hit Andres Torres in the first. Then Tim Lincecum smacked Matt Kemp and Denny Bautista threw some inside heat to Russell Martin. Kershaw then did the […]

Tonight (checks clock) – OK, yesterday (gosh darn insomnia!) I saw Aramis Ramirez of the Cubs hit three homers in one game. It’s the fourth time in his career he’s done so. Well, so let’s look it up: who has hit the most games with three homers (or more – the source I’m using includes […]

I attended the Cardinals-Phillies game last night and, thanks to getting home late, slow Internet, and a storm-based power outage, am finally commenting my random thoughts on it. It was an entertaining game — three convincing home runs with only one out separating them is great fun any time — but a few thoughts about […]

Cardinals 8, Phillies 4: Sometimes there are these pitches that seem simply unhittable. That scrape the corners, that paint the blacks, that fall right off the table and leave everyone in the house guessing except for the catcher who called for it and the pitcher who threw it. Kyle Kendrick does not possess any of […]

Batting Average Against is commonly cited in mainstream analysis as an indicator of how hard a pitcher has been hit. This is blatantly incorrect, of course, as batting average treats all hit types the same- so a pitcher that has allowed predominantly singles is seen as more or less the same as a pitcher who […]

Cliff Lee has been the talk recently after being traded to the Texas Rangers and not the New York Yankees over a week ago (for more on the deal, check out Myron Logan’s article here at THT). But my interest in him came before the trade as I found in an article I wrote a […]

When the Chicago Cubs promoted Starlin Castro to the major leagues in early May, some questioned whether the top shortstop prospect was ready for prime time. After all, Castro is just 20 years old, and the extent of his experience in the upper minors consists of 243 plate appearances at the Double-A level. Granted, the […]

Today, July 19, marks the anniversary of some rather impressive MLB pitching debuts. It was on July 19, 1936 that teenager Bob Feller first stepped on a MLB mound. 74 years later, he’s still with us. How many people can say they’re still around 74 years after they stepped on a MLB diamond? There can’t […]