Sergio Santos stopped hitting the heat, so he decided to throw it instead. A 6-3, 240 pound infielder who Baseball America rated as the 37th-best prospect in the game prior to 2004 and number 61 prior to 2005, Santos was supposed to emerge as a middle-of-the-order thumper for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was part of, […]

Athletics 4, Rays 0:  I wrote my real-time reaction last night when it happened, and touched on the A-Rod implications a bit later. With a night’s sleep on it, I’m thinking more cosmically about it. HardballTalk’s Senior Commenter, Old Gator, sent me a book last week called The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, […]

I’ve just returned home from the Oakland Coliseum, having witnessed live Dallas Braden’s perfect game victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. In all the hundreds and hundreds of games I’ve watched live over the decades, major league, minor league, and college, I’ve only watched one no-hitter before: Ed Halicki’s, with the Giants at Candlestick Park […]

As a San Francisco resident, I’ve seen the Giants up close and agree their rotation rocks. But is it the NL’s best? What about the Cardinals rotation? Let’s ask Rankometer. It ranks each team’s starters 1-5, based on FIP. After looking at these, I think I might go with the Cards rotation for its depth […]

So the Seattle Mariners are terrible offensively; this we all know. Coming into Saturday, the M’s had just just two players with an OPS over .700 (Ichiro Suzuki at .710 and Franklin Gutierrez at .852). With Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Sweeney not doing the “veteran hitter” job they are supposed to, I have no […]

I’ve wondered for awhile if, for expected record purposes, blowouts should have their runs capped. If any team has given us reason to consider this in more depth, it’s the Pirates. Right now, the Brewers and Pirates both are 13-16. The Brewers have scored and allowed the same amount of runs, while the Pirates have […]

Why is it that the San Francisco Giants are off to such a strong start this season (17-11 as of this writing)? Mostly it’s about the starting pitchers. The Giants’ top four starters (Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Matt Cain, and Jonathan Sanchez) have now all made six starts. In those 24 outings, they’ve combined for […]

Happy Friday. Here’s an experiment that I’d love some feedback on. I’m using the barcode metaphor to visualize a hitter’s performance for each at-bat. Line thickness represents the type of hit (thinnest for walks and singles, thickest for homeruns) with each at-bat separated by a space. Big white areas represent long stretches of outs. Lots […]

Dodgers 7, Brewers 3:  Walkoff slam for Andre Ethier! Jonathan Broxton had blown a two-run lead in the top of the ninth, but Either untied it with authority to end it. It was Ethier’s second game-ending hit of the season and 11th since the start of 2008. Video here. Rangers 13, Royals 12: Texas jumped […]

The Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of Eternals announced their newest members today: Casey Stengel, Roger Angell and Pete Rose. Stengel’s omission has been, of course, a constant source of debate among those of us who follow the Shrine closely. Here is more info from their press release: CASEY STENGEL, in his 12th year on the ballot, […]