Holy damn. And he was All Star last season, too ( Read more... )

We interrupt this period of silence to bring you one the funniest goddamn websites that has ever, ever, ever been made: Yard Work.

Pointed out on Baseball Primer on that same wonderful thread that brought me news that Jim Kruk asked, on-air, why a team would play an obviously injured pitcher like Jim Mecir who limps in from the bull-penI now ( Read more... )

Reason #84783 the Reds are the greatest team ever: Popup to the Reds dugout by first base. Sean Casey runs over to try to catch it, and catcher Jason LaRue is running after it too. Sean Casey bumps up against the dugout fence and leans far, far over it in a futile attempt to snag the ball. LaRue has his eyes fixed on the ball too, and he only ( Read more... )

Mark Mulder is, contrary to popular belief, a true Petitian love. Doing well in baseball tends to earn you a powerful case of the lusts from me, but doing supernaturally craptacularly wins you (congratulations!) true eternal wrenching soul-deep love. Witness: my love for Brook Fordyce and Aaron Boone. Mulder so totally joined the club in the latter ( Read more... )

Because it's 2:21 AM and my better judgment has fled me, here, take a look at this, which is quite possibly one of the greatest pieces of baseball journalism that I've seen recently. I expect it to be all over your f-list this morning, and I'm posting it anyway because it's just that awesome. Sure, it's not that well-written. Sure, it doens't ( Read more... )

As part of an interesting, interesting series about how stats are working with scouting in one of the lamest-seeming front offices in baseball, the Cincy Post put out an article featuring a chunk of this:In 2004, according to the Bill James Handbook, Dunn ranked seventh in the National League in OPS against fastballs (1.113) and changeups (1.035 ( Read more... )

This is how I get through the winter: Gisli picked up the ball . . . and pitched it between Thorgrim's shoulders, so that he fell forward; then Gisli spoke:'Ball on the broad shoulder
Banged. I feel no anguish'

From The Saga of Gisli, as translated by George Johnston.

Four days and twenty hours and four minutes until first pitch.

From the BPro 2005 writeup of the Oakland Athletics: But instead of noting the aspiring mediocrity of a line-up no longer among the league's best, most of the finger-pointing has been directed at the pitching staff.The rotation went from famous to troubled down the stretch, with Mark Mulder going flaky, Zito staying flaky, Tim Hudson breaking ( Read more... )

So I have this MP3 player. It was an expensive piece of gadgetry, but damn, if it isn't the handsomest MP3 player on the block -- forget those sanitized white iPods. My Philips has a glossy black finish, stainless steel trim, and silver navigation buttons tucked discreetly against the side and textured for easy location in the dark. The interface ( Read more... )

Ankiel, Ankiel, Ankiel. Oh man. There are no words. Apparently, he was his old self -- low nineties fastball, spectacular curveball, respectable command -- in his first two spring appearances, but in the appearance after that, they had to pull him out of a BP session that he was pitching because they were afraid that he'd injure the players ( Read more... )