Baseball Analysis

The best teams and players are headed to the playoffs. Who will win this season's MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie Of The Year awards? Can the Twins' Joe Mauer and the Pirates' Freddy Sanchez hold off the Yankees' Derek Jeter and the Marlins' Miquel Cabrera to win this year's batting titles? Check out this week's RealGM Top 25 Player Rankings, and my choices for the MVP and Cy Young awards. Read more »

Fire up the engine. Pump the stereo. Grease the wheels, the Small-Market Bandwagon is ready to roll. Has been for some time now, actually. While the high-powered Yanks and Mets and Red Sox, and other teams of equally deep pockets, have spent the year making their usual noise, the real music is being played on the baseball diamonds of Oakland, Minnesota, and Philadelphia. It is there you can find quality baseball at a fraction of the price of the Other Leading Brands. And you can count me a member of their growing fan base. Read more »

With only three weeks to go in the regular season, the team and individual races are really heating up. Several of our Top 25 players are prime candidates for post-season AL and NL awards. Will Howard, Pujols, Beltan, or Cabrera take home the NL-MVP? Will Jeter hold off the challenge of Ortiz, Dye, Mauer, Thomas, and Santana for AL-MVP honors? Take a moment and check out this week's RealGM Player Rankings. How would you vote? Read more »

Usually, the Yankees and their players are seen as the Goliaths in a league full of Davids, where losing is an anomaly for them. This year, the Yankees have overcome the early season doubts about whether they?re washed up or not. Now, there?s another subplot that pits the poster boy Yankee as the little guy in the MVP race. Read more »

Let's face it A's fans, without the "Big Hurt" this season would have been a "Big Disappointment." Prior to the season's start, a handful of experts picked the A's to be the last team standing in October. Read more »

The Dodgers are just the kind of team that can throw a scare into the Mets. Of course, they have to get there first, but 1988 was the last year the Mets won the NL East, and it was the last year the Dodgers won a World Series. Read more »

Something considerably newsworthy is occurring in Major League Baseball. Confounding. Improbable. And seemingly more than just a passing fad. We take a look at Exhibit NL: in the National League teams have been winning. A lot. With purpose, consistency, talent and a flair for competition, the Marlins, Giants, Phillies, and Padres lead the charge. Read more »

The races for the AL and NL MVP races are heating up as baseball's best begin the stretch run for the playoffs. The Phils' young slugger, Ryan Howard is our NEW #1 ranked player this week, moving ahead of the Cards' Albert Pujols (#2). The Yankees' Derek Jeter (#3) moves ahead of Red Sox' David Ortiz (#4). Read more »

These days in Pittsburgh, baseball can?t come to an end fast enough. With the Steelers getting over the hump last year in Super Bowl XL, the pressure is firmly on the Pirates now to succeed, but the question then becomes, ?Are they even close?? Read more »

Many veterans on the tail-end of their careers are given platoon roles and they struggle as a cause of the adjustment of going from starters to a lesser role. Bernie Williams has done just the opposite, excelling in his role, coming off the bench to provide a spark and filling in for devastating injuries to outfielders this season. In just 110 games this season, Bernie is hitting .286 with 11 homeruns and 55 RBI. Read more »

It's September 1st, and this week's RealGM Player Rankings feature a NEW #1 and #2 Player along with some NEW names in our Top 25 for the very first time. A number of ballclubs still have the playoffs on their minds, as baseball's best players prepare themselves for '"crunch time." Read more »

It has been a long, long week in the Major Leagues. And I don?t mean only for the Red Sox, who daily alternate between hanging their heads and shaking them violently in desperate hopes of waking from one of the most insufferable of baseball nightmares. Not just for the Detroit Tigers, who finally hit their first significant losing skid of the 2006 campaign, ceded their throne atop my Top-Team Rankings for the first time in several weeks, and kept the AL Central division hopes of the Twins and White Sox very much alive. Read more »

When John Gibbons had the "interim" banner removed from his managerial title in 2005, it was widely regarded as a good move. "Gibby" was seen as a different kind of manager in the clubhouse; a players' coach and a manager who could do no wrong to his players. In 2006, some wrongs have moved to the forefront and have caused baseball observers to question whether or not Gibbons is the right fit for this up-and-coming Jays squad. Read more »

If you hate A-Rod, you have to look at his positives. If you love him, you have to look at his failures. In reality, a man who?s hitting about .287 with 26 homeruns and 93 RBI is not having a bad season, it?s actually pretty good. Combine that with his game-winning RBI and you?ve got yourself an All-Star caliber player. The problem with that? it?s not what A-Rod is supposed to be doing. Read more »

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen loves to speak his mind. Most of the time, his commentary is about ripping his own players, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti, and others in major league baseball. He does have a soft spot for one team, which is the Minnesota Twins. He was raving about them prior to the White Sox/Twins game at the Metrodome on August 19th. Read more »

Once the last game was completed, the press in Boston all but buried their hometown team. Their New York counterparts have been lauding their Yankees. What was supposed to be a chess match turned into a beating that evoked memories of the original sports-oriented ?Boston Massacre? in September of 1978. Read more »

Boston's Manny Ramirez (#10) moves into our Top 10 this week, as MLB moves closer to the September stretch run. Baseball's top sluggers, Ortiz, Howard, Pujols, Hafner, Berkman, and Guerrero continue to produce huge numbers. Seven of this season's best hurlers have worked their way on to our list. Take a look at this week's RealGM Top 25. Read more »

Boston's Manny Ramirez (#10) moves into our Top 10 this week, as MLB moves closer to the September stretch run. Baseball's top sluggers, Ortiz, Howard, Pujols, Hafner, Berkman, and Guerrero continue to produce huge numbers. Seven of this season's best hurlers have worked their way on to our list. Take a look at this week's RealGM Top 25. Read more »

Until a month ago, I had a fleeting hope that Cito Gaston was still the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. Little did I know their current and very entertaining manager began his tenure with the Toronto organization as the bullpen catcher back in 2002. Theo Epstein got his start in San Diego holding a radar gun, so there's nothing wrong with ladder climbing. Read more »

If you think your division is tough, come and visit the AL East for a week or two. Boot Camp for baseball sissies, this hotbed of pain, disaster, ballooning ERAs, and belligerent Blue Jays managers will chew up and spit out even the hardiest of tourists. So don?t stay long. Unless you plan to tough it out. The Red Sox got the fuzzy end of the lollipop this past week, as the Yankees used their heels to stamp them out as they would a lit cigarette. Read more »