Baseball Analysis

The Cubs won the 2016 World Series but they rank behind the Dodgers and Red Sox in terms of the value of their collective assets. Read more »

On the Nationals trading for Adam Eaton from the White Sox and the Dodgers signing Kenley Jensen and Justin Turner. Read more »

While it came as a surprise that the Red Sox won the Chris Sale sweepstakes, the architect of the trade has a long history of blockbuster trades. Read more »

The Dodgers struck first, signing Rich Hill to a three-year, $48 million deal and then the Giants made their move, signing Mark Melancon to a four-year, $62 million deal. Both moves are interesting and risky, albeit in different ways. Read more »

The Yankees had limited options in free agency at designated hitter and their short-term deal with Matt Holliday was a good fallback option after Carlos Beltran. Read more »

Sure the market for the best sluggers is expensive, but if the Mets don't want to waste their cost-controlled pitchers, they need help scoring runs now and Yoenis Cespedes certainly does that. Read more »

The Mariners and Diamondbacks switched out a bushel of players and gave us our first hint of how new Arizona GM Mike Hazen is going to revamp his roster. Read more »

The MLB is making money hand over fist with record local television deals, so it seems like the opposing sides should be able to work something out. Here, we're going to take a look at at some of the biggest issues underlying this high-stakes game of chicken. Read more »

The Astros have been the busiest team in baseball over the last few days in adding Josh Reddick, Brian McCann and Charlie Morton in a series of reasonable yet underwhelming moves. Read more »

Both of these signings are exactly the type that the Braves should be making at this juncture: short contracts for veterans who can reliably eat up innings and give the Braves a chance to work towards productively developing their young pitchers. Read more »

On how the Cubs are a testament to what happens when you combine such new-school thinking about baseball with big market pockets, the Indians rewrote the rules for the postseason and Baseball always gonna Baseball. Read more »

A hot streak, home field (Cleveland tied for the second-best home record in baseball) and less pressure aside, the Indians are really, really good. Read more »

The Cubs are here for a reason: they were the the best team in the regular season and they still have the best team. Small-sample-size shenanigans aside, there's every reason to believe that the Cubs are going to win this series and the longest championship drought in professional sports. Read more »

While it's way, way too early to say that we're going to see teams change how bullpens are managed and move away from tradition there, you know the idea is there now with what Andrew Miller is doing in these playoffs. Read more »

It won't be easy but it's going to take a herculean effort from the Dodgers, and serious internal failure, for the Cubbies not to advance onto the 112th World Series. Read more »

The Cubs have a slight edge in talent and homefield but this series is essentially a coin toss with how the Dodgers' pitching has rounded into form and a deep lineup. Read more »

The Indians can't match Toronto's starting pitching but they have an excellent bullpen and can also manufacture runs. Read more »

Timing is every in the postseason and much like the offense; the Blue Jays’ rotation is rounding into form at the perfect time. Read more »

It's definitely more likely than not that 2016 will be the year that the #EvenYear stuff is finally put to bed, but it was certainly in full effect last night. And don't tell Madison Bumgarner about the so-called "odds," because you'll probably just make him angry. Read more »

An old-school train of thought on closers was on full display in Toronto. While it's not true that Zach Britton could have won the game for the Orioles, it's certainly true that he gave them the best chance to stay alive long enough to win it. Read more »