The Texas Rangers today essentially swapped Kevin Millwood for Rich Harden. Can’t go wrong there, right? The Rangers are sending Kevin Millwood to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Chris Ray in what is purely a salary dump. Ray, 27, is no great shakes. He might yet have a solid career in the majors as a […]

It appears that Peter Gammons will be leaving ESPN to pursue “new challenges and a less demanding schedule.” Gammons will depart after the conclusions of the Winter Meetings, and it is unclear right now what exactly Gammons will be doing in terms of career choice, but we wish him well. On an unrelated note, word […]

The first blockbuster trade of the 2009-2010 offseason has happened, pending medicals. The particulars: Arizona Diamondbacks receive SP Edwin Jackson (Detroit), SP Ian Kennedy (New York). Detroit Tigers receive SP Max Scherzer (Arizona), SP Daniel Schlereth (Arizona), CF Austin Jackson (Yankees), RP Phil Coke (Yankees) New York Yankees receive CF Curtis Granderson (Detroit). Let’s look […]

I’m not really sure about this one. At first glance, 7.5 million (plus 1.5 million in incentives) seems like a little bit much for Penny. He’s a pretty good pitcher, and coming off of a 173 inning, 4.45 FIP season for the Red Sox and Giants last year. According to FanGraphs’ estimates, that was good […]

One of the biggest topics at the winter meetings this week is the fate of a number of major leaguers who will likely be on the move because their contracts are albatrosses to their teams’ respective bottom lines. We’ve all heard about the Cubs’ desire to extricate themselves from Milton Bradley and that he may […]

Membership in the Hall of Fame grew by two on Monday, as Whitey Herzog and Doug Harvey received sufficient support from the 16-man Veterans’ Committee. Harvey is one of those slam dunk candidates who should have been elected years ago. He was the National League’s counterpart to Nestor Chylak, a commanding presence behind the plate […]

There are a few changes going on at the Hardball Times. You probably already know that Craig Calcaterra has closed down his Shysterball blog and moved onto a gig at NBC Sports’ Circling the Bases. If you use RSS feeds, you can follow Craig in this one. We’ll miss Craig dearly, but we’re happy for […]

RZ provides a rundown of all the online pitchf/x goodies out there, and reveals a new one by Joe Lefkowitz that I highly recommend, though it’s still a work in progress. As RZ describes it, it’s useful for those “who don’t have a MySQL database and are good at working with Excel data.”

My last post explored ways to use typeface (word clouds) to illustrate differences in performance and salary. Continuing the theme of comparisons, I’ve been experimenting with lists as a visual way to rank players and teams. Here are some graphics from the World Series, showing how the Yankees and Phillies ranked across a range of […]

Chone Figgins and the Seattle Mariners have agreed to a contract bringing the former Angel to town. This was a story to watch all day Friday as the confirmations rolled in. Figgins, turning 32 in late January, should be a valuable player for the next two years at a minimum. Figgins had an incredible year […]