Last summer Rays’ owner Stuart Sternberg announced a novel idea—for the team to split their seasons between St Petersburg and Montreal.  The proposal was for each city to build a $500M outdoor stadium, and to play the first half of … Continue reading →

Okay, bad pun, but I’m not ashamed; I love bad puns. Yesterday was the deadline to offer contracts to arbitration eligible players.  Those players who did not receive an offer have become the latest entries into the free agent market. … Continue reading →

The O’s have put Jonathan Villar on outright waivers.  You know, a guy who hit .273/.339/.453 with 24 homers, who stole 40 bases, and was worth 4.0 bWAR.  You know, one of the few guys on the team who was … Continue reading →

Recently I posted articles reviewing this year’s BBWAA ballot for the Hall of Fame. Today I decided to look ahead to who will be on future ballots through 2024, and to play Nostradamus (Nostradumbass?) about who will get in each … Continue reading →

Word at the end of the season was that the Rays wanted to re-sign catcher d’Arnaud.  It was understandable too, as he played well in his partial season as a Ray.  He hit 16 homers and slashed .263/.323/.459 in 92 … Continue reading →

The White Sox have signed Jose Abreu to a 3 year, $50M deal.  Last week he signed the $17.8M QO, then parlayed that this week into the extension.  Good for him. Good for the ChiSox too; the 32-year-old has played … Continue reading →

in my last post, I reviewed the returning players on the ballot.  This will discuss the players on their first HoF ballot.  The obvious headliner is, of course, Derek Jeter—to whom I will give proper re2pect of course.  However, it … Continue reading →

There are 18 players appearing on the ballot for the first time, and 14 returning players.  Among the newbies is no-doubt soon-to-be-enshrined Derek Jeter.  The real question is whether any of the other 31 will also be selected this year … Continue reading →

This year’s MVPs are: Mike Trout of the Angels and Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers, for a sweep by the two Los Angeles franchises.   On the AL side, it was a close race between Trout and the Astros’ Alex … Continue reading →

Both winners garnered theirs second award tonight: Justin Verlander of the Astros (AL) and Jacob deGrom of the Mets (NL).  Verlander won his first in 2012 with the Tigers; deGrom, of course, also won the NL CYA last year. The … Continue reading →

Awards week continued tonight with the most narrative driven of the awards—the Managers of the Year.  The aren’t manager metrics to make comparisons of how well they do easy.  Thus the voters tend to look at which teams outperformed expectations … Continue reading →

The announced winners came as zero surprise: Yordan Alvarez of the Astros and Pete Alonso of the Mets.  They were overwhelming favorites and both won in landslides. Indeed, Alvarez garnered all 30 first place votes, and Alonso 29/30.   Alvarez … Continue reading →

The Silver Slugger Awards were announced yesterday.  The winners are: AL C—Mitch Garver, Twins 1B—Carlos Santana, Indians 2B—DJ LeMahieu, Yankees 3B—Alex Bregman, Astros SS—Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox OF—George Springer, Astros OF—Mike Trout, Angels OF—Mookie Betts, Red Sox DH—Nelson Cruz, Twins … Continue reading →

This week the ten finalists were announced for consideration for Hall of Fame induction via this year’s iteration of what used to be called the veterans committee—the “Modern Era” committee.  Its 16 members consider nominees whose primary years in baseball … Continue reading →