Baseball Historians

By Thaq Diesel
At an after-work function the other day, I spoke briefly with a fellow co-worker who is also a huge Reds fan.  (and who used to gamble heavily, and supposedly lucratively, on baseball in his younger years).  Long story short, he knows a fair amount about baseball.
Conversation:
“Hey.” [Co-worker]
“Hey.” [Diesel]
“The Reds are going to be lousy […]

Having a good catcher is pretty important.  Whether you buy into whether a catcher can influence the game through how he works with pitchers or not, having a solid backstop is usually something you find on the elite teams.  Fortunately for the Astros, they have several young catchers who all have the potential to become […]

I like these kind of low impact moves.  Junior Spivey hasn’t done much the past few years and his “decent” season was way back in 2003.  Still though, Spivey is a guy who can take a walk and probably knows his role by now and he’s solid insurance especially considering Juan Uribe’s status is still […]

NBCsports.com recently published their Mets preseason preview.  Good stuff here but no big surprises.  The Mets should be as good as last year and if anything collapses, it’ll be the starting rotation.  Pedro’s hurt, Glavine’s old and the rest is just plain questionable.  So the teams hitting might keep them in the race, but it’ll […]

I picked this up at ESPN.com’s baseball rumor page, but it looks like a proposed deal that would have brought Aaron Rowand to Padres was put on hold.  The Padres looked like they were looking to send relief pitcher Scott Linebrick in exchange for Rowand.
Normally, I’d be all for sending a relief pitcher for a […]

Here’s a nice run down of the Phillies top right handed pitching prospects.  There’s some good information here if you’re looking for nice summaries.

Baseball America recently unveiled their list of the top ten Pirates prospects.  Topping the list is the Pirates first round pick in 2005, outfielder Andrew McCutchen.  At nineteen, McCutchen hit Double A pitching very well and while it looks like he’ll repeat their in 2007, a cup of coffee at the end of the year […]

Baseball Prospectus wrote up a very informative player profile on Morgan Ensberg today.  I expect Ensberg to bounce back in 2007 and it looks like BP does as well.  Good stuff and I particularly enjoyed the hit charts. 

Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, turns 76 today.  Congratulations to one of the best players in Cubs history.

Luis Castillo’s contract is up after the 2007 which means the Twins will either have to re-sign him or find a replacement.  The Twins might have his replacement already in Alexi Casilla, who had a solid season at Double A and then had a fantastic season in the Dominican Winter League.  Casilla finished fourth in […]

Diamondback’s outfield prospect Carlos Gonzalez struggled when he got promoted to Double A in 2006 but if he lost anything because of it, he probably made it all back up here with a solid performance in the Venezuela Winter League.  Gonzalez hit .318 and he led the league with a .530 slugging.  It’ll be fun […]

NBCsports.com recently published their Mariners preseason preview and there’s no major surprises in here.  The offense should be good enough but the starting rotation is pretty shoddy.  I expect Felix Hernandez to bounce back especially considering he’s shown up in better shape, but after that, it’s hit or miss.
The final prognosis is that the Mariners won’t […]

Victor Zambrano’s claim to fame is that he was traded for Tampa Bay Devil Rays starter Scott Kazmir in one of the most boneheaded trades ever.  Now the Jays have him locked up to a minor league deal after the right hander missed most of 2006 because of a bad elbow. 
Zambrano has never had a […]

Tigers farm director Glenn Ezell was interviewed on Around the Minors.  He had a lot to say about the Tigers farm system and you can listen to the entire interview at MinorLeagueBaseball.com.  Here are a few tidbits.
Cameron Maybin should start the season at Lakeland (High A) so the Tigers top two prospects will start there.  […]

Kevin Goldstein recently unveiled his list of the top ten A’s prospects in his latest Future Shock column.  Number one on the list is first basemen Daric Barton.  Barton is a walk machine and he had a solid season at Triple despite being only 20.  He won’t break into the A’s lineup in 2007 but it’ll […]

John Sickels recently asked people what they thought Alexis Rios would do in 2007.  The average of the community projections is up here and I could definitely live with this because it’s some solid production.  Hopefully we’ll really get to see what Rios can do with a full healthy season in 2007.

I’m old enough to remember when the Tigers had their Triple A affiliate in Evansville, OH but for most of you, the Mud Hens in Toledo have been the Tigers Triple A afffiliate for as long as you can remember.  Now the Tigers have extended their deal with the Mud Hens and they’ll be keeping […]

The Dodgers finished up a minor league deal with former high level prospect Chin-hui Tsao.  At one point, Tsao was considered the best prospect in the Rockies organization but his career was sidelined after he had surgery for a torn labrum in 2005 as well as a variety of other injuries.  The Dodgers will pay […]

Right handed pitching prospect Mark Rogers, the Brewers first round pick in 2004,  may miss the entire 2007 season after having shoulder surgery earlier this month.  Rogers spent most of his time last year at High A and had mixed results.  He struck out a ton of guys (96 in 71 innings) but he also […]

I guess it was worth a shot but it didn’t look like the Red Sox were offering up enough for All Star first basemen Todd Helton.  The deal on the table was Helton and some cash for Julian Tavarez and Mike Lowell but the Rockies wanted a couple of prospects that the Red Sox weren’t […]

It sounds like the deal that would have sent Todd Helton to the Red Sox is now indefinitely on hold.  The Red Sox were offering up Mike Lowell and Julian Tavarez while the Rockies were more interested in prospects like Dave Hansen.  I have to give the Rockies credit for sticking to their guns here […]

The Brewers signed right handed starting pitcher Claudio Vargas to a one year, $2.5 million deal and in the process, both sides will avoid arbitration.  Pegged as a fourth or fifth starter, Vargas had a solid season for the Diamondbacks in 2006.  He struck out 123 in 16 2/3 and he has a 4.83 ERA.  […]

The Cardinals firmed up their outfield yesterday when they signed slugger Preston Wilson to a one year, $1 million deal yesterday.  Wilson can play all three outfield spots and he’ll provide some solid depth as the team’s fourth outfielder.  He hit eight homeruns in only 33 games for the Cardinals last year and while he’s […]

If you like watching Tiger baseball on the tube, there’s some good news for you.  Fox Sports Net (FSN) and the Tigers came to an agreement that would air 151 regular season games.  Another ten will be on national television which means only one baseball game won’t make it onto television.  Only the Tigers first […]

Hi, I’m Darren Richards and I’ll be covering the Kansas City Royals for the Baseball Historians network of websites.  It’s been tough being a Royals fan lately.  Three straight 100+ loss seasons and the team has lost 951 games in the last ten years.  So an “average” season for the Royals has been a bad […]

Matthew Leach takes on the question of whether the Cardinals can and will repeat in 2007.  There’s some good stuff in here from Tony LaRussa as well the official prognosis, and that’s the fact that the question mark is the rotation.

According to ESPN.com’s rumor page, it appears that there’s speculation that Ichiro could hit the trade market sometime in 2007.  This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise because a) the Mariners probably won’t win the AL West and b) Ichiro is in the last year of his contract.  If the Mariners find themselves out of […]

Kevin Goldstein recently released his list of the top ten Yankees prospects in his latest Future Shock.  Good, good stuff and you have to be happy with how the Yankees have restocked their farm system.
Phillip Hughes comes in at the number spot, which shouldn’t surprise anyone.  Hughes roughed up both High A and Double A […]

You hate to see players speak out like this but shortstop Jack Wilson recently told the Pittsburgh media that he’d much rather have Freddy Sanchez playing second base over Jose Castillo.  He questions Castillo’s work ethic.  Of course I like how this tid bit goes on to talk about how Wilson should work on his […]

This news about John Patterson is encouraging.  He’s saying his forearm is 100% and that he’s all set to go for spring training.  If the Nationals can get anything close to what they got from him in 2005, I’d be pretty happy.  Even in 2006 he was pretty good until he got shutdown so there’s a […]