The idea of expanding the baseball playoffs to 10 teams has made its rounds during the past year-plus. In late 2009, Commissioner Bud Selig formed a committee to discuss a number of issues, which included expanding the playoffs. Reports from those closed-door meetings made it sound as if expanded playoffs were a real possibility. Selig then made it seem like an inevitability in October, when he said that expanded playoffs could come in 2011. That won’t happen, of course, but yesterday Selig spoke again on the subject, and what he said has reignited the debate.

“The more we’ve talked about it, I think we’re moving inexorably to that,” Selig said of expanding the playoffs. There is certainly a case to be made for adding two teams to the playoff pool, but it creates more problems than it solves. There are alternatives that could provide similar effects while keeping the same number of teams in the playoffs every year.

Read the rest of this entry »

If the Boston Red Sox are going to contend for the World Series, much of their success is contingent on Josh Beckett’s return to form. After succumbing to a back injury last season, Beckett entered 2011 as one of the question marks on a strong Red Sox team. Throughout the month of April, Beckett has churned out some vintage performances. Now that Beckett appears fully healthy, should we expect his strong performances to continue?
Read the rest of this entry »

Almost exactly one year ago, the Philadelphia Phillies signed Ryan Howard to a five year contract extension that was, shall we say, not exactly well thought of. The Phillies already had their slugging first baseman under team control for the current season and an additional one, but chose to give him a long term deal that locked up his age 32-36 seasons anyway.

Little did we know that this extend-a-guy-who-doesn’t-need-an-extension idea was going to turn into a full fledged trend. The Rockies took it to another level over the winter, giving Troy Tulowitzki a six year deal that, combined with his current contract, will keep him in Colorado through 2020. While I thought that deal exposed the Rockies to a lot of risk, Tulowitzki is in the best-player-in-baseball conversation, and locking him up now did give them a chance to keep an elite player around – an option that might not have been possible had they waited for him to have another MVP type season or two.

Now, we have the Ryan Braun extension, which borrows some from each of the first two moves. Like Tulowitzki, the Brewers chose to sign Braun through 2020, despite the fact that he was already under contract through 2015. Like Howard, they locked up a big time power hitter’s age 32-36 seasons. Braun simply isn’t as good as Tulowitzki and he got nearly the same amount of money, so it’s easy to say that this extension for Milwaukee is worse than the deal Colorado made. But, is it worse than the roundly mocked deal that Philadelphia made?

Read the rest of this entry »

Seattle’s Jason Vargas wants you to know: “They’re not tricks, they’re illusions.”

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. Previews for seven — yes, seven — weekend games.

2. Updated Team NERD scores in parentheses.

3. Shameless references to pop culture — for the kids.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, that wasn’t predictable

Dodgers 5, Braves 3

Moving the Needle: David Ross puts the Braves ahead with a two-out, RBI single, +.619 WPA. Really, I covered the entire story here. It was a huge moment for the Braves, as they came back after having none on and two outs against the Dodgers’ ace. But it ended in tragedy when their own manager made a questionable decision in extras.

Notables

Clayton Kershaw: 8.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 HR, 4 BB, 7 K, 1 HR. Really, this would have looked a ton better if Mattingly had removed Kershaw after eight. But he had allowed so few baserunners to that point — just two hits and a few walks — that the decision was understandable.

Casey Blake: 3 for 6, 1 HR. I think that every time Blake does something awesome from now on someone will bring up the Santana trade. It was just that ridiculous.

Matt Kemp: Again, read the above-linked story for the story of Kemp’s walk-off bomb.

Also in this issue: Red Sox 4, Angels 2 | Reds 7, Diamondbacks 4 | Twins 3, Orioles 1 | Marlins 9, Pirates 5 | Royals 3, Indians 2 | Mariners 1, A’s 0 | Mets 9, Astros 1 | White Sox 9, Rays 2 | Cardinals 5, Nationals 0 | Phillies 3, Padres 0

Read the rest of this entry »

The Angels designated Brandon Wood for assignment earlier this week. He will latch on elsewhere given his former status as a top-tier prospect, but whether the 26-year old infielder can translate minor league raking into big league success remains to be seen.

Many expected the world from Wood given his gaudy minor league numbers and his ability to ably handle the shortstop position. In five Triple-A seasons — and 1,437 plate appearances — Wood has hit .283/.350/.536. Even at a fraction of that slash line he would theoretically become one of the top offensive shortstops in the majors. However, his minor league numbers can be viewed two different ways.

On one hand, a slash line like that at the highest level of minor league play merits a legitimate shot in the majors. Not a week here or a month there, spread over several seasons, but a full and uninterrupted season. On the other hand, his struggles in limited major league action — a .168/.197/.259 line in 494 plate appearances — should not have been surprising given the frequency at which he struck out.

Read the rest of this entry »

In a couple of hours, for The Morning After, you’ll see the story of the Dodgers and Braves playing a fun, exciting, memorable game. It featured pitching dominance, comebacks, clutch two-out hits, and a walk-off. The game went 12 innings, but it could have gone longer. It probably should have gone longer, really. But Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez made a decision in the 12th that, I think, cost his team the game.

Criticizing the manager is as old as baseball itself, and most of the time it amounts to petty bickering. Armchair managing is easy, because the moves never blow up in our faces. But every once in a while there is a move so painfully wrong that a comment from the ivory tower is warranted. This is one of those instances. I simply cannot understand why Gonzalez would pitch to Matt Kemp in the 12th.

Read the rest of this entry »

The news this afternoon broke seemingly out of nowhere. Ryan Braun had just signed a five-year, $105 million extension that locks him in through the 2020 season. If it feels as though we just experienced a similar situation, it’s because we did. The Rockies signed Troy Tulowitzki to a six-year, $119 million extension in November even though he was under contract through 2014. Similarly, Braun’s current contract with the Brewers runs through 2015.

Before we dive into what this means for the Brewers, I suggest taking a moment to re-read Dave’s article on the Tulowitzki extension. It helps put in perspective part of the Brewers’ motivation for enacting this deal now and not a few years down the road. If they’re not betting on significant inflation affecting the market in the next four years, then their motives become a bit more questionable.

Read the rest of this entry »

A month ago, I wrote a column about Kim Ng, the senior vice president for baseball operations for Major League Baseball. Ng, the Dodgers’ former assistant general manager, wished that more women were hired to jobs in baseball and thinks that there are more women who want and deserve jobs in baseball than are able to get them. This blog post became, I think, the most-commented on post in the history of Fangraphs. Many of the comments were negative toward women — either incredulous at the idea that many women wanted to work in baseball or openly hostile toward the idea of women in the sport.

A few of the comments:

“The only way there will be more women working in MLB is if they start to have cheerleaders.”
“I think what the comments show is that there’s a lot of feminine men out there who are ruled by their women.”
“I’m not disappointed about the lack of women in MLB – I’m happy about it.”
“A lot of estrogen fueled whining about something that hasn’t been calculated.”
“Until they start putting kitchens in the dugout, women will not be in baseball. Period.”

Read the rest of this entry »

By the time I flipped on the Seibu-Lotte game last night (Pacific Time), Marines submariner Shunsuke Watanabe had sent the first nine Lions he faced down in order. I must have been bad luck, as he only got through two more before giving up a home run to Hiroyuki Nakajima. Nakaji’s homer was an obvious Watanabe mistake, a waist-high, 105 kmph (65 mph) hanging slider over the middle half of the plate. After the homer, Watanabe quickly re-established himself, and retired the next nine batters consecutively before surrendering a single to Takeya Nakamura in the 7th. Along the way Seibu only managed two more hard-hit balls, both of which were long fly ball outs, though one did require rightfielder Saburo to make a nice play at the way. And when Nakaji finally came up again in the 7th inning, Watanabe kept everything away.

Read the rest of this entry »