Baseball Page 812 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Rangers, Astros, and Angels, oh my!
At 40-20, the Texas Rangers looked to be a lock for the postseason. The Dallas-area MLB team always appears to have a loaded farm system, and those moves looking toward the future paid off at the same time the big-money signings stayed healthy. In addition to all that, pitching whisperer Bruce Bochy...
Los Angeles Angels take the gutless route
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have traded their 2nd and 3rd ranked prospects to the Chicago White Sox for Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, signifying that the Angels are going to try to make a run, and that Shohei Ohtani will play out the remainder of his contract on the Angels....
OK, now imagine if the Mets had signed Carlos Correa
It feels like just yesterday that the New York Mets had orchestrated a coup, signing Carlos Correa, and putting the other 29 clubs on notice that there’s a new titan of spending in the Northeastern Corridor. Then Correa failed his physical, the deal went belly up, the season started, and the Mets re...
The Oakland A’s might not even be the worst team this year, let alone all time
Coming into the 2023 season, many thought that the Oakland A’s had the potential to be not just the worst team in baseball this year, but the worst of all time....
Playoff expansion in MLB, NBA has led to neither buying nor selling
I come to you today with a philosophical query: Is it better to have more and tighter playoff races, or a more active trade deadline? In previous MLB seasons, the Los Angeles Angels would already be looking ahead to next year. They’re five games out of what would’ve been the last play-in game spot u...
You have to marvel at the wretchedness of the Chicago White Sox
There are certainly a host of disappointing teams in MLB this year. More so than usual it feels like, with the Mets, Padres, and Cardinals face down in a muck they never considered being in back in the spring. You can throw the Mariners on there if you’re feeling truly dispirited and want to take it...
Carlos Rodón puts a chef’s kiss on the New York Yankees’ current slide
Boy, do I have a clip and some snark for those of you who hate the New York Yankees — or love them. There’s a certain degree of masochism in all NY sports fans, because every single one of them has James Dolan, the Mets, the Jets, or maybe the Nets in their lives, and cannot, will not quit them. (Ag...
Whether it’s stupidity or insanity, the Los Angeles Angels aren’t trading Shohei Ohtani
The Los Angeles Angels are as much in Los Angeles as they are in the running to re-sign Shohei Ohtani when he hits free agency this winter, and he will hit free agency, because he’s not getting traded. As much as I love throwing a bucket of ice water on the midseason hot stove, I say this for more t...
Once again in MLB, it’s better to be worse
MLB owners have been dead set on rewarding their own mediocrity, because the larger economy and society as a whole has basically been set up to reward shitfucks like them for barely being able to remain upright, and intaking oxygen. The expansion of the playoffs was meant to get more money from TV c...
Josh Donaldson's Yankee tenure is over — here are the 'highlights'
UPDATED Aug. 29: The New York Yankees have released Josh Donaldson....
Northwestern’s problems go beyond the football program
What is going on in Evanston, Illinois? Northwestern’s perception as a pristine academic university that plays sports on the side had already gone through an inferno over the last week with the firing of football coach Pat Fitzgerald on Monday due to hazing allegations. Turns out, that wasn’t the on...
An MLB postseason without suspense is like a ham no burger
Be it actual, or unspoken, the rules change for most postseasons. Hockey leaves its 3v3 overtime format in the regular season so game No. 57 doesn’t last forever, but reinstalls the old rules for the playoffs, leaving open the possibility for four-hour marathons. What is and isn’t a foul changes in ...
The Braves and the White Sox were supposed to both have bright futures
Now that the MLB has reached the midsummer classic portion of its schedule, it gives me time to reflect. This period of deep thought has taken me back to a time when the Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves had the two best farm systems in MLB....
MLB's Home Run Derby Chain is terribly uncool
Look at MLB attempting to improve its All Star production with 2004 John Cena-levels of swagger jacking. Remember the G-Unit spinner chain? It has gone from Cena’s WWE championship belt now to the Home Run Derby. The 2023 winner will receive a chain with a bejeweled spinning plus sign....
Luis Arraez is going to put up an eye-popping batting average, but how do we equate it?
Let’s bust some dreams right at the top. Luis Arraez is not going to bat .400. He’s not even there now, and will cross into the second half of the season today at .396, which is still incredible. Very few players even get halfway through the season anywhere near the beyond-mythical mark, and Arraez ...
Domingo Germán throws perfect game, but he’s still a domestic abuser
Domingo Germán achieved the pinnacle of single-game pitching performances Wednesday night, throwing only the 24th perfect game in MLB history, the first by a Dominican-born player, the fourth by a New York Yankee, and the first since in baseball Felix Hernandez in 2012. There have been plenty of no-...
The Angels need to do everyone a favor and free Shohei Ohtani
I’m probably the last person to discover that Shohei Ohtani is a Skrull. How else can anyone explain the Angels’ shapeshifting MVP? He’s simultaneously leading the league in smashing balls into orbit and the next he’s striking out batters at a more prolific pace than all but three pitchers while kee...
LSU's baseball title, Oklahoma's softball dominance should be a breakthrough in the collegiate ranks
In the fall, college football reigns supreme. The Power Five’s monopoly of collegiate competition is so fearsome that only March Madness in the spring can break through the chase and receipt of a gridiron national championship. And while the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments captured the nati...
Giving Houston Astro players immunity was Rob Manfred’s ‘best decision ever’
If you’re anti-sign stealing, then you’re not allowed to be pro-AI. The Houston Astros may have been the biggest offender when it came to modernizing cheating, but they also pioneered the advancements, and essentially got away with it before the people who determine what is or isn’t moral deemed the...