After Game 163, I went on Marty Andrade’s podcast and said what I’d been thinking for a long time: We’ve judged Bill Smith too quickly.
His first winter on the job, he was essentially handed something of a crisis in the making. Torii Hunter was asking for an unholy sum of money and Johan Santana was [...]

For hardcore baseball fans, the off-season moves at a glacial pace. But mercifully, pitchers and catchers report in a couple of weeks. Spring training is closing in, but there are still a number of players out there looking for employment.
In late January, I took a look at what major league clubs are dishing out for [...]

Let me start by saying that I used to be a real big fan of Ben Sheets. Back in 2005, I traded a boatload to acquire him mid-season in my long-running NL-only fantasy keeper league. At the time Sheets was 26-years old and coming off of a breakout season with incredible ratios, including an eye-popping [...]

Anecdotally, it seems as though this offseason has provided teams with a strong buyer’s market. Free agents are finding jobs and cash to be scarce. Sure, the elite players aren’t suffering: Matt Holliday inked a deal that will pay him more than the Gross Domestic Product of Anguilla, while Jason Bay and John Lackey also [...]

In essence, the Angels have swapped gimpy designated hitters, downgraded from Lackey to Piniero, lost Figgins and gained Rodney. Meanwhile, Roy Halladay went to Philadelphia, Cliff Lee went to Seattle, and Aroldis Chapman went to Cincinnati. The Angels wanted an ace pitcher and they ended up with Joel Piniero. It’s the kind of dream/reality contrast one would expect to find with the New York Mets, not the L.A. Angels.

Of the 184 brother pairings, the “best” brother contributed negatively (-0.1 or lower) in 17 of them (92.4%). The “worst” brother contributed negatively in 91 of them (49.5%). Overall, there were 23 pairings (12.5%) that ended up hurting their teams.

Eye 2012 as a potential break-out year for the organization. It is likely when the bulk of the core of the organization will be at the Major League level, when Votto will be in his prime, and most importantly, when the Reds will have money and interest as a means to attract premier free agents.

Free agent third baseman Adrian Beltre has finally found a new home. After spending the last five seasons in spacious Safeco Field in Seattle, Beltre is now looking forward to smacking doubles off of the Green Monster in Boston. The Red Sox have signed him to a one-year deal worth $9 million with a player [...]

When some think of third baseman Adrian Beltre, the following comes to mind: former blue-chip prospect with the Los Angeles Dodgers who went bonkers in his walk year, signed a lucrative free agent contract with the Seattle Mariners and then failed to live up to expectations.
Is that really accurate, though? As a result of making his big [...]

The Philadelphia Phillies traded for Roy Halladay on December 16, with the holiday season on the horizon*. The New York Mets have signed free agents Kelvim Escobar (one year, up to $3 million), Jason Bay (four years, $66 million with a vesting option), and are on the verge of signing Bengie Molina to a two-year [...]