Baseball Historians

Moises Alou and Damion Easley will be Mets again in 2008.  The team picked up their option on Moises Alou and they’ll pay him $7.5 million.  Could be a bargain but not if he plays just half the season like he did last year.  Easley was re-signed and he’ll make just short of $1 million.  [...]

The World Series is in the books so now it’s time to look towards the 2008 season.  Orioles fans probably expect more of the same but they do have some bright spots coming up through the minors and Kevin Goldstein highlights these in his latest Future Shock.  He gives Matt Wieters a five star rating [...]

While the departure of Grady Little was somewhat a surprise, the hiring of Joe Torre wasn’t and it looks like Torre has now agreed to manage the Dodgers. This is a guy who’s managed in six World Series and won four of them so this is pretty huge.  I thought Grady Little did a nice job in [...]

It’s funny how Joe Girardi has this golden reputation because he had one good year for the Marlins organization.  I’m not knocked the choice because I think out of the three guys the Yankees looked, Girardi was probably the best guy but you also don’t want to latch onto a guy who blows his wad [...]

The Neifi Perez era may be over in Detroit as the veteran infielder filed for free agency yesterday.  It’ll be interesting to see if Neifi will latch on after the drug suspensions or whether his illustrious career is now over.

Okay, so Chris Speier signs on as Cincinnati bench coach.  Dick Pole is the pitching coach.  Juan “Porky” Lopez is the bullpen coach.  All those names are a bit, um, suggestive. And fun.  So, while the pitching may not improve much this next year, worst case the Reds coaches can star in a remake of [...]

I heard last week that Tony LaRussa was at one point in the past (before they hired Dusty Baker) in discussions with Reds ownership to possibly join on as manager of the Reds.  Apparently Bob Castellini has a relationship with Mr. Tony and that was a big reason LaRussa even considered it. 
I cannot say enough how happy [...]

That’s two pretty good bluechip prospects for Renteria.  I’ll comment more on this deal tonight.  Make that tomorrow.  I’m having some periodic internet outages so I don’t want to have to redo this several times.
***ANALYSIS***
It’s funny because a couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me what big move the Tigers would make this offseason. [...]

I’ll keep it short, but man this was bummer.  I guess I know how Tigers’ fans felt last year when they had that huge run only to get spanked by the Cardinals.  Still, it’s hard to be sad with how the Rockies did this year, you just wish they would have made more of an [...]

Just three years after breaking their curse, the Red Sox did it again and they finished up a four game sweep over the Rockies to win the 2007 World Series.  The Red Sox scored their runs one inning at a time and while, like Saturday, the Rockies got close but never had the lead.  David [...]

Well, the Rockies are now down 3-0.  We all know just one team has come back from that and that is the Rockies opposition just three years ago.  And to make it worse, the Rockies have a starter who hasn’t thrown since in over two months.  Still, it starts with just one win and if [...]

The Red Sox made it six straight postseason wins and three straight in this series against the Rockies as they now just have to win one of their next four to win their second World Series in four years.  The big inning was the third when the Red Sox jumped out to a 6-0 lead.  [...]

The Rockies are down 2-0 and they’re in unfamiliar territory.  The last time they lost back to back games was well over a month ago on September 14-15.  Still, the Rockies have to get their offense going quickly or this series is going to be over sooner rather then later.
The Rockies lone run came in [...]

The offense wasn’t there like it was the night before, but the pitching was just as good as Curt Schilling and the Red Sox pen pitched Boston to a 2-1 win.  Schilling gave up the lone run in 5 1/3 innings while Hideki Okajima was awesome with 2 1/3 perfect innings.  Jon Papelbon closed things [...]

October 25, 1987 at the Metrodome
Twins 4, Cardinals 2 
Twins Win Best of Seven Game Series 4-3
The Twins won their first World Series in a dramatic come from behind win in game seven over the Cardinals.  The Twins ace, Frank Viola, got the start for the Twins while Magrane threw for the Cardinals.
Things got off to [...]

Ouch.  Jeff Francis probably still doesn’t know what hit him as the Red Sox hitters did a number on the Rockies pitching staff.  Francis was tagged for six runs in four innings in his start while Franklin Morales was pummelled for seven runs in the fifth inning.  This game was over pretty quickly and you [...]

Dominating pitching?  Check.  Heavy hitting?  Check.  Give Pitcher Big Early Lead?  Check.
The Red Sox took it to the Rockies last night.  Before the game could even really get started, the Red Sox had a 3-0 lead and by the end of the fifth inning, they had thirteen runs.  Josh Beckett was very good on a [...]

October 24, 1987 at the Metrodome
Twins 11, Cardinals 5
Best of Seven Game Series Tied 3-3
The Twins forced a game seven as they came from behind and ended up with a blowout win over the Cardinals.  St. Louis jumped out to a 5-2 lead but the Twins scored four in the fifth to take the lead [...]

Not sure why I picked today to end my little sabatical, but it is what it is.  Jason Beck answered reader’s mail yesterday in his regular mailbag column and he talks about everything from Cameron Maybin to the differences between the Arizona Fall League and the Hawaiian Winter League.
Also, the Tigers made a front office [...]

Well, it’s begun.  Joe Girardi was in for an interview and I like him, but I could see the relationship being a little Billy Martinesque.  Girardi got in trouble for running his mouth (in a good way) for the Marlins and they showed him the door so you wonder how George would deal with that.  [...]

Well, the Red Sox completed their comeback so they’ll be the Rockies’ opponent when the World Series kicks off.  The opposing pitcher will be the red hot Josh Beckett and you have to think the Rockies will go with Jeff Francis.  Let’s get it on.

Well, I’m a little bummed out right now as the Red Sox handed the Indians another blowout yesterday, ending their season.  All they needed was one good outing over a three day stretch but they couldn’t get it done.  Anyway, now it’s time to start looking towards the offseason so we can fill some holes [...]

The Red Sox are going to the World Series after a dramatic comeback in their series with the Indians.  All three of these final games were Red Sox blowouts and Boston put an exclamation point on things last night as they advanced to their second World Series in four years.
The Red Sox scored single runs [...]

The Red Sox have blown out the Indians the last two games and now, it’s down to a one game series with Jake Westbrook going up against Dice-K tonight.  It’s win or go home time.

The Red Sox got a ton of offense as they forced a winner take all game seven last night with a 12-2 win.  J.D. Drew got things started with a grand slam and an RBI single to drive in the first five Red Sox runs but the hitters kept piling it on and by the [...]

October 21, 1987 at Busch Stadium
Cardinals 7, Twins 2
Best of Seven Game Series Tied 2-2
In the sixth inning of game of game three, the Twins had a 2-0 series lead and a 1-0 lead in the game.  Now, after a game four loss, the Twins find themselves tied with the Cardinals in their best of [...]

October 20, 1987 at Busch Stadium
Cardinals 3, Twins 1
Twins Lead Best of Seven Game Series 2-1
The Twins offense was held in check by Cardinals starter John Tudor as they managed justa single run on five hits.  That lone run actually gave the Twins the lead in the sixth inning when Tom Brunansky singled home Greg [...]

The Indians were blown out yesterday as the Red Sox finally put together a solid game to pick up a win.  C.C. Sabathia was very good until he got tagged for his third and fourth run in the seventh inning and he lost his second game of the series.  Rafael Perez had his second straight [...]

The Red Sox will get a chance to win two straight games at Fenway Park as they extended their ALCS with the Indians.  Once again, it was Josh Beckett who got it done and he’s still the only Red Sox pitcher to have a win in the series.  He held the Indians to an impressive [...]

October 18, 1977 at Yankee Stadium
Yankees 8, Dodgers 4
Yankees Win Best of Seven Game Series 4-2
Reggie Jackson had a historic day as the Yankees won their first World Series since 1962.  Jackson became the first player to homer three times in a World Series game with long balls in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings. [...]