Cincinnati Reds

This off-season has ultimately been a poor one for the Twins. From the terrible Pat Neshek news, to failed trade attempts and failed free agent signings, the Twins have missed out on a great opporunity to improve their team in what is a very watered down market in terms of dollars. The weak corner outfield market really hurt the Twins, since they were undoubtedly looking to trade either Michael Cuddyer or Delmon Young. Personally, I don't think the Twins did anything wrong by passing on both Casey Blake and Ty Wigginton. Neither player strikes me as a very good hitter, and while Wigginton's numbers look good on the surface, they are very misleading. I'll get into the exact stats and explanations of those stats sometime this week, but for now just trust me that his Home/Road splits are terrible, and leaving hitter friendly Minute-Maid Park should cause Wigginton's numbers to come crashing back to earth regardless of where he goes. (Unless the Rockies sign him, which won't be happening.) The team also failed in not signing at least one solid reliever when their bullpen is clearly the team's biggest weakness. With relievers like Jeremy Affeldt, Brandon Lyon and others signing for very reasonable deals, it's frustrating to see that the Twins haven't made a move yet.

Continue reading "A Failed Off-Season And Kubel's Extension"

Arizona has just traded for Adam Dunn, reports Baseball Digest Daily, bolstering their outfield to offset injuries to Eric Byrnes and Justin Upton, as well as to counteract the Dodgers' recent acquisition of Manny Ramirez. That Dunn passed through waivers is both an indication of his big salary for the year, as well as his undervalued status among GMs.

Continue reading "Arizona Dunn-Backs"

But this isn’t your garden variety scandal. The players come off as innocents who were upset that they were underpaid by Albert Comiskey — they earned about half what the Reds players made though they were much better.

Continue reading "'Eight' good enough to be among best sports books"

One of the All-Star Break traditions: Reassessing our predictions from the first half of the season. Some of mine have changed, some have stayed the same—and some were just damn wrong. Living in the West, I will take the contrarian position and roll from west to east in my choices.

Continue reading "Second Half Predictions"

All right then, it’s almost July, which means it’s almost time for yet another midsummer classic, which once again will pit the National League against their arch-rivals, those bums from the junior circuit.

Continue reading "All-Star foppery"

The Reds have gone into Yankee stadium and in three consecutive games, their starting pitchers have held the Bronx Bombers, who are just beginning to wake from their early season slumber, to three runs.

Continue reading "Daryl Thompson: One of an Endangered Species"

To Junior, it must have felt like giving birth after a long and complex labor. Hitting his 600th home run last night was probably the most overpredicted and overdue statistical milepost in baseball history. We've been waiting for this to happen for at least ten years, ever since he put up back-to-back 56 homer seasons for Seattle in '97 and '98. When that season wrapped up, he had 350 career longballs at age 28, becoming the fastest player in history to hit that many, a feat he repeated when he cracked his 400th.

Continue reading "Junior's 600"

One of the talked-about items in two of my fave teams (Reds and Mariners) is the possible return of Griffey to the place where he got his start. Seattle's been scouting him, and there's a bit of a buzz, but it's not much more than idle talk at this point, but it's an interesting feel-good possibility that could help out both teams. Let's look at the pros and cons and possible stumbling blocks:

Continue reading "Junior Back in Seattle?"

Two interesting things happened at the end of the Reds-Mets game today. Well, really it was only one thing, but it told me two interesting things. In the top of the ninth inning, trailing 8-3, the eighth spot of the Reds order was due up, and Dave Ross, who had entered the game as part of a double-switch in the bottom of the sixth inning, came to bat. He flied out to right, and Corey Patterson, who had entered in a double-switch in the bottom of the eighth inning, stepped up to the plate.

Continue reading "This Whole Team's Out of Order!"

The Reds went all homer-happy over the Cubs last night, and Edinson Volquez twirled a gem on the mound, leading the Reds commentators and Steve Phillips on ESPN to go all gushy on them, proclaiming the future is now and they're gonna take the NL Central. Is this the case?

Continue reading "Here Come the Reds! (Really?)"

Cincinnati Reds

After Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo, do the Reds have anybody who can pitch?

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: NL Central"

Continue reading "Play Ball!"