Author Archive
A.J. Burnett and the Baseball Media’s Misguided »
One of the worst things baseball analysts so consistently do is blur the line between correlation and causation. The Yankees went nine years without a championship? Blame Alex Rodriguez. The Angels and Cardinals both win the World Series? Must be because of David Eckstein. Some pitchers get better backing offenses than others? It's because [...]
MLB Trade Ideas: Barry Zito and 10 Pitchers the New »
According to New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman, the Bombers' search for rotation help is being impaired by a lack of decent options."Nobody's available," he said this week. "Nobody of value, anyway."Bollocks.It's possible, albeit unlikely, that there aren't any teams actively shopping their best starting pitchers. But I have a very hard time [...]
2011 MLB Preview: Jose Bautista and the 20 Biggest »
The American League East is the highest profile division in baseball. Home to both the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, it contains two of the league's biggest spenders, and with the Tampa Bay Rays in the mix as well, they have three perennial pennant contenders.But for all the attention the AL East gets, there's still a lot we don't know. Who [...]
Derek Jeter Fiasco: 10 Reasons Why New York Yankees »
Over the course of the 2010 MLB season, when the conversation turned to the upcoming free agent market, little attention was paid to Derek Jeter.The fates of Carl Crawford and Cliff Lee have inspired countless articles and debates, but few writers spilled ink on his pending free agency because it seemed unfathomable that the Yankees captain would [...]
Derek Jeter’s Gold Glove and the Meaning of Good »
When Derek Jeter was announced as the AL Gold Glove winner at shortstop Tuesday afternoon, I hit the roof. Many people had similar reactions to the article I wrote in response about why the Yankees' captain was nowhere close to the best defensive shortstop in the American League. Most of the criticism centered around the fact that I was a Red [...]
Damn Yankees: The Pure Insanity of Derek Jeter’s »
The national media’s love affair with the New York Yankees knows no bounds. They get the headlines, they get the national broadcasts, and they get the end-of-season awards. This last handout is most topical the day after the announcement of the American League Gold Gloves. The gilded webbing is notorious for being based more on reputation [...]
MLB Awards 2010: B/R’s AL Relief Man of the »
Every year, managers, coaches and writers from around Major League Baseball award honors and trophies to the players—and every year, they screw up.So Bleacher Report's Featured Columnists decided to do it ourselves. Instead of just complaining about the awards as they are announced as we would normally do on our own, we teamed up to hold our [...]
MLB Playoff Predictions: The 15 Biggest Questions »
You can spend all season waiting for the playoffs. You can design a roster around winning a seven-game series. You can run simulations and statistical analysis until you're blue in the face.But you still won't be ready for October.Each year, problems and uncertainties arise, and even the best teams are forced to face the unpleasant reality that [...]
2010 MLB Playoffs: Ranking the Top 25 Postseason »
Say what you want about the problems with MLB's current playoff system. You can bemoan the addition of the Wild Card, or whine about how home field advantage for the World Series is determined by the All-Star Game, or complain that a best-of-five series is a poor way to determine which of two good teams is superior.But when the first round kicks [...]
Empire State of 599: Why A-Rod’s Chase for 600 »
There’s nothing wrong with making unquantifiable excuses when your favorite team isn’t playing well—it’s only human. If the whole roster seems a little off, it must be residual jetlag from that last long road trip they were on. If it’s a certain player who’s mired in a slump, he probably hasn’t fully [...]