Over the weekend, Ireland became the second Eurozone country to get a significant bailout from its neighbors in order to head off a large scale financial collapse. Yesterday, the President issued a two year wage freeze for all federal employees as a response to the continuing weakness in the economy. Unemployment has shown few signs of recovery, and the housing market continues to struggle. After some years of free spending, the world is now focused on deficits and debt reduction.

The Colorado Rockies, however, think everything is going to be just fine. Read the rest of this entry »

In the interest of full disclosure, I am included among the writers in this year’s book from the guys at The Hardball Times, but I do not receive additional income from sales of the book. The opinions that follow are simply how I feel about their product, and not some kind of scheme to make any extra money for myself.

Sitting about four feet away from me is a copy of The 2011 Hardball Times Annual. I would love to give you a full review of the book, but that would require me to read the whole thing, and given the depth of content in this year’s copy, that will take me a while. So, instead, here’s a few of my favorite tidbits that I’ve picked up from the book so far, which double as reasons why you should go buy this thing right now.

Read the rest of this entry »

As RJ noted yesterday, the Marlins gave Javier Vazquez $7 million for the 2011 season, hoping for another rebound season after a switch back to the National League. Vazquez’s career peripherals are quite good, and he was one of the game’s best pitchers in 2009 with the Braves, so there are reasons to think that it is a reclamation project worth taking on. There’s also this:

Read the rest of this entry »

Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez are about as different as could be. No one has ever referred to Manny as The Captain, nor will you see Jeter selling his neighbors grill on Ebay. Even as players, their skillsets are polar opposites. However, with each passing day in the negotiations between New York and their star shortstop, it looks like Jeter is poised to follow in Manny’s footsteps.

Read the rest of this entry »

You have to hand it to Dave Dombrowski – he is nothing if not decisive and aggressive. He quickly identified Brandon Inge and Jhonny Peralta as players he wanted to retain and Joaquin Benoit as the reliever he wanted to acquire, and made them offers they couldn’t refuse. Now he has reportedly lured Victor Martinez to Detroit with a four year, $50 million deal. Was Dombrowski’s decision to outbid the rest of the market a good one?

Read the rest of this entry »

This afternoon, Joey Votto is almost certainly going to be awarded the National League MVP for 2010. You can make a case for some other guys who also had great years, but Votto is certainly a deserving recipient. What is interesting to me is how quickly Votto has blown past the ceiling that was put on him as a prospect.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just because I find it interesting, a comparison:

Joaquin Benoit: 217 batters faced, 30 hits, 6 HR, 11 BB, 75 K
J.J. Putz: 219 batters faced, 41 hits, 4 HR, 15 BB, 65 K

Benoit was marginally better than Putz a year ago. Putz has a significantly better track record than Benoit. Yet, it was essentially a consensus agreement that Benoit was the best setup reliever on the market, and he’s the one Detroit paid a premium to sign early in the offseason. But, given their respective careers, wouldn’t you rather have Putz going forward?

Read the rest of this entry »

In two hours, the American League Cy Young Award winner will be announced, but the story will be less about the pitcher who takes home the trophy and more about the people who cast their ballots. With Felix Hernandez and CC Sabathia as the presumed top two candidates, this vote is being seen as a referendum on Win-Loss record and a litmus test for how far the BBWAA has come in their acceptance of sabermetric thinking.

Read the rest of this entry »

This afternoon’s chat was dominated by one subject – Justin Upton trade speculation. Roughly 90 percent of the questions submitted were queries about what he’s worth, why the Diamondbacks would even want to trade him to begin with, and – most popularly – what it would take for a particular team to get him. In fact, I’d say that most of the questions asked today followed some kind of “would Propects A, B, and C get Upton to Team X” pattern. In general, my feeling was that almost every suggestion underestimated Upton’s value. Here’s why.

Read the rest of this entry »