BASEBALL CRAZINESS

EXORCISING DEMONS On October 16, 2003, Aaron “F*&^%ng” Boone added to the Boston lore by hitting a walk-off, game-winning, series-ending homerun in the bottom of the 11th inning, sending the Yankees to the World Series and the Red Sox home without a championship for the 85th consecutive year. The Boston faithful had reason for hope…

EATING CASH Eating cash is the new eating crow.  I am not sure when the tide turned and teams decided it was better to eat cash and release or trade a player rather than rolling him out day after day (or start after start) and suffer the indignity of a deal gone bad.  But it…

Last week we set out to determine which team was carrying the worst contracts for the 2016 season.  As we saw, there were many contenders.  We ended by making reference to the great value in Noah Syndergaard’s $535K deal.  The great news for baseball owners and GMs is that there are many more Thor-like contracts…

  DUDGER STADIUM Hot Take: The Dodgers hate their fans?  More than three million people have flowed through the gates at Chavez Ravine in 18 of the past 20 seasons, so the fans obviously don’t hate the Dodgers, but the feeling certainly doesn’t seem mutual.  The only explanation I can come up with is that with…

WHO HAS IT WORSE? Remember the good old days, when Kevin Brown’s 7/$105M deal with the Dodgers seemed like the worst contract in history?  Brown was baseball’s first $100M man; and the deal included twelve chartered flights from Georgia for Brown’s family.  A year later the Angels, not to be outdone, gave Mo Vaughn 6/$80M. …

HEAD FIRST SLIDES HURT BOTTOM LINES According to FanGraphs, A.J. Pollock tied for second in wins above replacement (WAR) among outfielders last season; and he was fourth overall in WAR in the National League. His unique combination of speed and power (20 HRs/39 SBs) make him a must-have for any fantasy team. And, when paired…

DOLLARS & SENSE It was quite an (un)eventful off-season for the Boys in Blue.  When the Diamondbacks swooped in and paid Zach Greinke 6/$206.5M, Andrew Friedman and company took a ton of flak.  An oft-held belief is that the Dodgers have unlimited money, and that not signing Greinke was simply a bad business decision.  Unfortunately…

HOT SEAT The Boston Red Sox 2012 season – what was supposed to be a bounce-back year after the fried chicken and beer calamity that was the 2011 campaign – ended with a thud.  The Bobby Valentine experiment failed (in Spring Training), and so the Red Sox needed their third manager in three years.  In…

FAMILY TIME If you are like me, you spend a great deal of time worrying about being a good parent, making sure you spend quality time with each of your kids, and giving/showing/having the appropriate amount of love for each (if you have more than one).  That said, when you have a son who has…

THE GOOSE IS LOOSE If you even tangentially follow baseball, by now you probably have heard about Rich “Goose” Gossage’s tirade about the current state of baseball.  If you don’t have the time to listen to an old man shouting “get off my lawn”, allow me to provide you with just a handful of highlights:…