Jake Peavy The line from Peavy’s start Saturday night looks okay, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Although he allowed just one run over six innings, Peavy was working out of jams most of the game. He didn’t dominate the way he has much of the past two seasons. In fact, we haven’t really [...]

4. Best Prospects, Best Big Leaguers (or, Fun with Tables) One question I found myself asking was which guys of the 515 in John Sickels’ 1996 Minor League Scouting Notebook were considered the best prospects, and how have they fared as big leaguers. The flip side of this is which players have become the best [...]

Just started reading Alan Schwarz’ The Numbers Game. I’m only through the first chapter but already it’s a good read. Among other things, I’ve learned that range factor was first introduced as a defensive metric in the 1870s, ’round about the same time people first started complaining about players caring more about stats and money [...]

How ’bout those Chargers? 10-3 and marching toward a playoff berth. Led by a quarterback who hadn’t done much in his first two years and in whom many folks had lost faith. Remind you of anyone? In baseball news, according to ESPN, 58 players have signed big-league contracts so far. All but one of those [...]

First off, thanks for all the well wishes. I’m doing fine, nothing is wrong; just needed some time off. I’m still on hiatus, but the All-Star teams have been announced and I just had to say something. First I’ll give you my picks, then I’ll kibbitz about the actual picks, then I’ll go back into [...]

Ain’t karma a bitch. We’ll talk about Sunday’s game tomorrow, since today is an off-day. But right now there are more important (and agonizing) things to discuss. Game 18: 4/19/03 Colorado 10, San Diego 9 (ESPN) As it turns out, Thursday’s game in Los Angeles was just a prelude for bigger things to come. Let’s [...]

I’m about the only person I know who still thinks Mark Phillips will have a better big-league career than Oliver Perez. Don’t bother trying to talk me out of it. Can’t be done. I worry about Perez’ multiple arm angles, his body type, his high pitch counts last year, his winter ball work. I keep [...]

It doesn’t get much better than that. We went out to dinner after the Chargers beat the Raiders in Oakland (Michael Vick? Yeah, he’s good; but so are LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees, thank you very much) and didn’t get back till the third inning. By then, the score was 7-5 Angels and both starters [...]

More wacky Bud Selig stuff: Former minority partners charge Selig, Loria with fraud (CBS SportsLine). Go get ‘em, boys. Good chat with Tony Gwynn over at ESPN.com. Closer to home, Monday night, thanks to my buddy Don, I had the best seats I probably will ever have at a big-league game. We sat literally on [...]

A quick look at my IBA choices: AL ROY Ichiro Suzuki C.C. Sabathia Alfonso Soriano Suzuki and Sabathia were easy. After that it was kind of dicey, with Soriano just nosing out Anaheim’s David Eckstein and Minnesota’s Luis Rivas for that last spot. Danys Baez also had a solid, if quiet, rookie campaign. NL ROY [...]