Baseball Historians

Man, this was a tough one.  The Yankees came back from four down only to lose it in the ninth.  You have to kind of fell for Phil Coke.  He gave up a walk to lead off the ninth then got pulled after a sac. bunt.  Then David Robertson came in and gave up a [...]

For the third straight game, the Brewers were too much for the Reds and this time, Cincinnati picked up just a couple of runs on seven hits. Brandon Phillips belted a solo homer (his ninth) and Alex Gonzalez went two for four. Another mediocre offensive performance overall.
Micah Owings wasn’t all that great either. [...]

The Tigers got back to their winning weekends and they capped this latest one off with a spectacular pitching performance by Edwin Jackson.  He yielded just two hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in eight shutout innings.  Throw in a shutout ninth by Fernando Rodney for save number 10 and you have the Tigers [...]

Marlins starting pitcher Josh Johnson(4-1,2.66) continued his strong season as well as his dominance of the NY Mets , leading them to a 7-3 victory Saturday afternoon at Citifield. Johnson, who remains unbeaten in 8 career starts vs the Mets, allowed 5 hits & 2 runs in 7 innings. He struck out 5 and walked [...]

Yeah, it’s been a while so sue me.  Still, it’s nice to see the Yankees sitting atop the standings.  They have two more games against the AL Central doormats (Indians) before they head home to take on the surprising Rangers.  Still, at the end of the day, regardless of whether the Yankees win or lose, [...]

We’re about a half hour away from the Reds finale against the Brewers and the goal is to avoid the sweep. The Reds had made some nice headway in the division but after losing two to the Brewers, they now sit 2 1/2 games back (just two in the loss column) against Milwaukee and [...]

It wasn’t pretty, but the Tigers finally picked up their first win of the series against the Orioles.  On a good note, Justin Verlander was pretty good and he picked up his sixth straight win.  The bad news is, it was his worst start in the month of May and you hope this isn’t him [...]

C Omir Santos capped a  huge day personally with a 11th inning game winning single. helping the New York Mets defeat the Florida Marlins 2-1 2-1 Friday night at Citifield. Santos homered in the 5th for the first NY run and received the biggest news of the day post game, as the Mets made a [...]

Alright, it’s time to nit pick.  In the bottom of the third inning with the score 1-0, the Orioles had runners on first and third with one out.  Aubrey Huff hit a hard grounder to Brandon Inge, who was playing in.  Huff isn’t a speedster, so Inge probably could have gotten an inning ending double play [...]

After taking two of in Kansas City, the Tigers dropped their opener to the AL East cellar dwellers, the Baltimore Orioles.  Luke Scott was a thorn in the Tigers side and he accounted for most of the Orioles offense and a lack of offense cost Armando Galarraga his first win in a while.  He gave [...]

We’re almost two months into the season and already we have some very interesting division races.  In the American League, the Tigers are a bit of a surprise and they have the largest lead, but all they’re really doing is living up to last years hype.  The Blue Jays have fallen off the shelf and [...]

The New York Mets supported their ace on  a night when he struggled a bit with his control and the umpire, defeating the Washington Nationals, 7-4 7-4 Wednesday night at Citifield. LH Johan Santana(7-2, 1.77) labored into the 6th but earned the win. 1b Daniel Murphy had a career night with 3 separate rbi hits, [...]

The Dodgers beat the Rockies 8-6 on Wednesday for a three-game sweep and their eighth win in their last ten.
Clayton Kershaw evens his record at .500 with his third win of the season. He went six innings, giving up three runs on four hits, with his only real mistake coming in the fourth with a [...]

Andrew Hess, over at Tigers Minors, is asking for feedback on what people would like to know about the career of a minor league player.  Just leave a comment on the post and he’ll be picking the best of the best to formulate his next few posts.

Eric Milton picked up his first win since August 2006, holding the Rockies to one run on seven hits through five. Wade, Troncoso, and Leach all combined for four shutout innings to hold the Rockies at one run.
The Dodgers again got on board first with a run in the first inning. Casey Blake, batting cleanup, [...]

The Mets, beaten and battered, got huge performances from 2 old veterans, leading them to a gutsy 6-1 win over the Washington Nationals Tuesday night at Citifield.  34 yr old Livian Hernandez(4-1, 4.28) pitched the first complete game of the season and lF Gary Sheffield homered for the 2nd consecutive game to led NY. CF [...]

The Dodgers scored all but one of their 16 runs in just two innings as they beat the Rockies on Monday in the first of a three game series at Coors.
Eric Stults shut out the Rockies for the first three frames, and he took the mound in the fourth with a 7-0 cushion. Stults then [...]

Gary Sheffield’s controversial 3 run homer in the 6th helped the New York Mets defeat the struggling Washington Nationals, 5-2 Monday Night at Citifield. RH John Maine(4-3) pitched 6 strong for the win while allowing  4 hits. He walked 3 and struck out 4. 2b Luis Castillo, CF Carlos Beltran and Sheffield all had 2 [...]

The Tigers big winning streak came to an end over the weekend.  After going 12-0 on Saturday and Sunday prior to Saturday, they dropped two straight weekend games to the Rockies before heading to Kansas City for a big three game series.  Fortunately, they snapped that two game mini-skid and dismantled the Royals yesterday afternoon.  [...]

Recent call-up Jamie Hoffmann, in his big league debut, notched four RBIs and a homerun but the Dodgers took a 10-7 loss to lose the series finale.
The Dodgers gave Chad Billingsley a quick 4-0 lead by the second inning, but Billingsley ended up taking the loss. He gave up two runs in the third and [...]

The Boston Red Sox broke open a close game with a 9 run explosion in innings 5,6 and 7, helping the host Red Sox avoid a rare home sweep, defeating the injury riddled New York  Mets, 12-5.  With the win, Boston takes over 1st place in the powerful AL East, collecting 16 hits. 3b Mike [...]

The Dodgers came back from a 4-1 deficit to force extra innings and even up the series as they beat the Angels 5-4 in 10 innings.
Randy Wolf shut out the Angels for the first three frames before running into trouble in the fourth and fifth. He allowed four runs, all off homeruns, on ten hits, [...]

All appears well on the K Rod front, as Mets closer Francisco Rodriquez appears to be Ok after a major back scare post game Saturday night.  K Rod experienced severe lower back spasms, collapsed outside the locker room and was rushed to a local hospital for treatment. He was given pain medicine and  released, he [...]

C Omir Santos’ overturned homer capped an amazing night at Fenway Park Saturday as the New York Mets rallied to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2. Santos’ hit a ball just over the wall in left with 2 outs off of Sox star closer Jonathan Papelbon and the ball was originally called a double. However, [...]

1st Quarter 26 man NL All Star Team- 2 players per position, 6 OFs & Starting pitchers with 4 closers
1b- 
Albert Pujols, St Louis Cardinals, Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds
2b-
Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies, Orlando Hudson, LA Dodgers
3b-
Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals, David Wright, NY  Mets
SS-
Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins, Christian Guzman, Washington Nationals
C-
Bengie Molina, San Francisco Giants, Yadier Molina, [...]

Both teams were pretty quiet at the plate, but the Angels pulled off a 3-1 win in the first game of the Freeway Series.
In most other situations, Clayton Kershaw would’ve picked up the win for his one-run, four hit performance. He gave up a run in the fourth and was lifted after five with a [...]

Interesting article in this weeks Sporting  News, ranking the top 50 players in all of MLB. The magazine polled 100 ex-players, managers and execs for their lists. St. Louis Cardinals stud 1b Albert Pujols was voted #1 by an amazing 55  voters!!!! Here is my list and my rules-explanation.
 
This is my list, I strongly value [...]

NY Ace Johan Santana won his 6th game Friday night despite 3 errors behind him, leading The Mets to a 5-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Massachusetts. This weekend kicks off the 1st wave of itnerleague play as AL and NL teams match-up. 3b David Wright,OF Angel Pagan,  C Omir [...]

1st Quarter 28 man AL All Star team- 2 at each position, 6 OFs with 6 starting pitchers and 4 closers
1b- 
Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins, Carlos Pena, Tampa Bay Rays
2b- 
Aaron Hill, Toronto Blue Jays, Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers
SS- 
Jason Bartlett, Tampa Bay Rays, Marco Scutaro, Toronto Blue Jays
3b- 
Evan  Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays, Brandon Inge, Detroit Tigers
C-
Joe Mauer, [...]

I recently reviewed Forever Blue over at the Hardball Times.  If you have an interest in the book, be sure to check it out.