Atlanta Looking To Acquire Some Power The Braves have a very deep pitching staff, but their anemic offense has them stuck behind the Phillies in the NL East.
Team articles
'Striking Out' With The White Sox, Late May The elder statesman trio of Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye have delivered, but Carlos Quentin and Alexi Ramirez have been tremendously disappointing. Same goes for the rotation of Barack Obama's favorite team.
Manny Hit .362 With Suspension Looming You can say what you want in the wake of his suspension, but you can't knock Manny for his ability to hit through adversity.
What Can Zimmerman Expect When His Streak Ends? Taking a look at this decade's longest hit streaks, it appears as though Ryan Zimmerman is in for a steep decline once his phenomenal run ends.
The New Era Of Boston Baseball The turnover of the immensely likable, self-proclaimed band of idiots that won the 2004 World Series has been dramatically rapid and here is how it happened.
Are The Jays For Real? The question all Jays fans have on their mind is this: will the hot streak continue, or is this just a mirage?
'Striking Out' With The Yankees, Early May With some clever accounting, the Yankees pitching doesn't look so bad when you get rid of the toxic assets of Chien-Ming Wang's ERA. Also, we examine how the lineup at the bottom has improved from last year, while the middle has suffered in the absence of A-Rod.
Don’t Count Out The Angels The Angels started 6-14 in 2002 before shocking the world and beating the Giants in seven games in the Fall Classic. Between Nick Adenhart's tragic death and injuries to Vlad, Lackey and Santana, the club is lucky to be in the weak AL West.
2009 Mariners Spring Summit The Mariners lost 101 games last season, but the consensus is that they are at least marginally better heading into the 2009 campaign.
Grading The Deal: Mets Cheaply Sign Sheffield Signing Gary Sheffield is a low risk, high potential reward signing for the Mets, which will help them score runs and also keeps him from signing with the rivaled Phillies.
2009 Brewers Spring Summit If the Brewers are going to grab the NL Wild Card for the second straight season, they'll need MVP-type numbers from Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder.
2009 Marlins Spring Summit The consensus among fans is that Jorge Cantu will regress after the strong campaign he had in 2008.
2009 Season Preview: Houston Astros The Astros made a late charge and finished the season with a very inflated 86-75 record; inflated because they were outscored by 31 runs for the season. Without any real improvement in the offseason, Houston should fall back to a win total in the 70's.
2009 Season Preview: Baltimore Orioles The Orioles were a 61-63 team on August 17th, but lost an unreal 30 out of their final 37 games to finish the season 68-93. This kind of meltdown makes improving their win total by 7-10 wins an incredibly realistic scenario especially if Matt Wieters appears sooner rather than later.
2009 Season Preview: Texas Rangers The Rangers are stockpiled with big bats and great prospects, but they probably are one more season away from contending in earnest.
Narrowing The Closer Options To Five With all the drama this spring over who will be starting and who is healthy, it seems I had forgotten all about the real question: Who's gonna close?
Let 24 Bat Third? Grady Sizemore's production in the Cleveland lineup has been tremendously valuable, but would he produce more value if he batted third and was given more RBI opportunities?
Grading The Deal: Oakland Signs Cabrera The Oakland A's continued their aggressive offseason with an in-Spring Training move by signing shortstop Orlando Cabrera to a one-year, $4 million deal.
Phillies Have Rough Start To Spring The Phillies are still World Series Champions, despite their disappointing spring loss to the Pirates on Wednesday.
‘Striking Out’ With The D-Backs: Late-February Will the D-Backs young lineup bounce back after a 2008 in which they trailed off? Who will be the fifth starter and can they get better consistency out of their bullpen?
Rays Reach For Repeat In '09 The Rays surprised a lot of people with their run to the World Series in 2008, and they enter uncharted territory with lofty exceptions in 2009.
‘Striking Out’ With The Padres: Mid-February The Padres will look at 34 different pitchers in Spring Training, as they are already a long ways away from that one-game playoff in 2007.
Auditing The Detroit Tigers 2008 Season Like many people, I was very wrong on the Tigers. I expected them to flirt with scoring one-thousand runs and have a good front end of the rotation. Where did the season derail?
Auditing The Cincinnati Reds 2008 Season In an alternate universe the 2008 Reds could have looked like the 2008 Rays, but down years fro Harang and Arroyo, combined with inconsistent hitting left the club near the bottom of the NL Central in Dusty Baker's first season.
Auditing The Minnesota Twins 2008 Season The Twins dealt away a future Hall of Fame starting pitcher in Johan Santana and an up and comer in Matt Garza and weren't expected to compete in a division with the Tigers and Tribe, but they needed 163 games to be eliminated.
The Future Of The Pirates: A Sinking Ship Or Buried Treasure? In recent seasons, any small market team that has done well because a primary focus on maintaining a strong farm system. That is something that the 68-win Pirates of 2007, do not currently possess.
Recent Team articles
Garret To DL, Braves In Trouble Just two months ago, I wrote how the Braves made a great signing in bolstering their outfield with the signing of veteran Garret Anderson. Now, just 15 games into the season and one trip already to the DL, I’d like a redo.
How The Yankees Landed Teixeira The idea of signing Mark Teixeira wasn't nearly as last minute as it seemed, but it did take somewhat of a Boston blunder for the first baseman to end up in New York.
'Striking Out' With The Cubs, Volume 1.0 During the offseason, the Cubs made a conscious decision to improve their lineup against righties and it is already paying dividends. On the mound, the starters have been solid, but using Kevin Gregg as the closer over Carlos Marmol is already ill-advised.
When CC Uses His Height.. When CC Sabathia neutralizes his height by decreasing the vertical break on his fastball, he is a very different pitcher.
2009 Blue Jays Spring Summit The Blue Jays didn't do much this off-season, much to the dismay of their fans, who aren't too happy with general manager J.P. Ricciardi.
2009 Cubs Spring Summit It will be extremely hard for Ryan Dempster to repeat the success he had in 2008, but if the Cubs could land Jake Peavy they'll be alright.
2009 Red Sox Spring Summit Most Boston fans agree, Jason Bay and Jacoby Ellsbury are primed for big seasons and a third place finish would be a disaster.
2009 Season Preview: Los Angeles Dodgers With Manny Ramirez, Vin Scully, Joe Torre, an underrated Chad Billingsley and a few young players that have the very best of Paul O'Neill and Eric Davis in them, the Dodgers are nearly impossible not to like.
2009 Season Preview: New York Mets The Mets addressed their bullpen woes (twice) by acquiring Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz, but will they get enough offense and another improbably healthy season from their big four bats?
2009 Season Preview: Toronto Blue Jays The Jays were easily the best team in baseball on the mound in 2008, but their bats failed them in disappointing fashion. How can they compete against the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees this season?
2009 Season Preview: New York Yankees The Yankees improved dramatically with their free agent trifecta of CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett, but will their carryover core produce at a high enough level end their one-season October absence?
2009 Season Preview: San Francisco Giants The Giants have the potential to be a top-10 team in terms of pitching, but can young guys like Pablo Sandoval help a mediocre offense score enough runs to compete?
Dissecting 'The Yankee Years' The hype surrounding Joe Torre and Tom Verducci's collaboration, 'The Yankee Years', wasn't unlike a theatrical trailer, highlighting the funniest and most action-packed scenes from a movie.
Ranking The Yankees' Roster In 2009 Importance We don't know exactly which 25 players will be on the opening day roster for the Yankees. However, we do know who the 25 most important will be to their title hopes.
