He is one of the greatest post-season pitchers in the history of baseball. His career 80.7 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is 6th best of any pitcher to debut in the last 40 years. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.38 is the best for any pitcher with a minimum of 1,200 innings thrown since the 19th […]
On Wednesday afternoon, my favorite moment of the baseball off-season will occur: the announcement of the Class of 2016, the new inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. After two terrific classes of Hall of Famers (seven deserving players elected in the past two years), this year’s class will likely be smaller, […]
Should the BBWAA vote for Bonds and Clemens for the Hall of Fame? I wrote about this a year ago: this is an updated version of the same post, call it a 2nd Edition. I’ll answer the question here up front: NO. If I were a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), I […]
Yesterday, on his 40th birthday, Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz announced that he will retire at the end of the 2016 season, bringing to a close the most consequential career in the history of the team since Babe Ruth. Although Hall of Famers like Carl Yastrzemski, Ted Williams, Wade Boggs, and Pedro Martinez had greater overall […]
Every year, in a small upstate New York town named Cooperstown, there is a magical day, usually in the glowing sunshine, in which legends of the sport of baseball are bestowed with the game’s greatest honor, induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Well, not every year. Two years ago, despite the […]
A year ago, the Boston Red Sox arrived at Fort Myers, Florida fresh off the buzz of their third World Championship in ten seasons. Two years ago, the Sox entered training camp fresh off the stench of a last-place finish in 2012: with a new manager and seven free agent signees, a perfect recipe of […]
With Tuesday’s upcoming announcement of the Class of 2015 for the Baseball National Hall of Fame, I wanted to take a few moments to pay tribute to the Class of “Not Quite Enough,” some of the players who will no longer appear on the BBWAA ballot in future years. The game of baseball has flourished […]
On the 2014 and 2015 baseball Hall of Fame ballots, as voted by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), there is more depth of excellent players than at any time since 1946, which was less than ten years since the Hall was created. Of particular note is the stunning and historic quality of starting […]
After the disappointment of losing out on the Jon Lester sweepstakes, it didn’t take Boston General Manager Ben Cherington long to turn to Plans B, C, D, acquiring three new pitchers to fill out the Red Sox’ starting rotation within 24 hours of the Lester news. Boston, say hello to Wade Miley, Rick Porcello and […]
So Jon Lester, owner of two Championship rings with the Boston Red Sox, is saddling up his workhorse stuff in Chicago, where he’ll attempt to help the Cubs win their first title in 106 years. DID THE RED SOX TRULY BLOW IT WITH JON LESTER?