Baseball Page 889 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Jasson Dominguez is the latest reason to hate when good things happen to the Yankees

Even in the worst of times, there are signals that the best of times are just over the horizon for the New York Yankees. This season has been a bust for the Bronx Bombers until Jasson Dominguez saved them with a soft landing for 2024....

The Texas Rangers are backing up

For avid horseplayers, there comes a point in most races, especially when your steed has shot out to the lead from the opening of the gates, where it becomes pretty clear you’re going to lose. Somewhere on that far turn, your horse’s gait is shrinking, the jockey is working just a little too hard fo...

Julio Urías wasn’t sorry the first time

Never say never, but in all likelihood, Julio Urías’ 2023 MLB season has come to an end. He most likely will not take the mound in a Los Angeles Dodgers cap again. For the second time in four years, he has been arrested on domestic violence charges. Neither arrest was at his home. Both were in publi...

What do the Cleveland Guardians want to be?

To hear Larry Dolan tell it, the Cleveland Guardians are the poster child for the unfairness in MLB. They can’t run with the big boys of the American League, even though there are no big market teams in the AL Central, at least when the Tigers suck eggs (and the White Sox will never act like they pl...

Ronald Acuña and Aaron Judge made history, but which feat is more impressive?

Arbitrary arguments are as much a part of baseball as spit and crotch scratching, so in the spirit of lazy September standings, here’s one between two of the biggest names in the league. Which accomplishment is more impressive: Ronald Acuña Jr’s 30 home run-60 stolen base club, or Aaron Judge reachi...

Behold the dumpster fire that is the Los Angeles Angels' front office

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Angels added another day of ignominy to their woeful franchise’s history under Arte Moreno by placing starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, relievers Matt Moore and Reynaldo López, plus outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers. In a vacuum, they aren’t the big...

The National League Cy Young race is kind of a mess

With one month to go in the MLB season it’s generally about the time that not only playoff spot chases become pretty clear, but so do individual award chases. If not a clear winner, as one might find with the AL MVP, then at least a couple of candidates have separated themselves and voters at least ...

Mookie Betts, not Ronald Acuña Jr., is the NL MVP

We’d all be better off if every MVP award was simply renamed, “Player Of The Year,” as it would save us a very annoying and tiresome debate about what “valuable” means. It gets doubly so in baseball, where we still haven’t quite escaped what numbers people should pay attention to, and what is overbl...

Texas Rangers' current slide is tanking their chances at postseason redemption

How the tables have turned. On Aug. 15, the Texas Rangers were riding high, 24 games over .500, and in cruise control to the playoffs, if not an American League West title. Aug. 15 now happens to be the last time Bruce Bochy’s team has won. The Rangers are on a seven-game losing streak, including an...

So long, Stephen Strasburg, we hardly knew you

Stephen Strasburg’s announced retirement due to thoracic outlet syndrome isn’t so much a sad time as it is a prophecy fulfilled. Strasburg emerged from San Diego State and the minors as the most highly touted flamethrower in a generation. ...

Ohtani tears UCL and the Angels are done

Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout are hurt — how else would the Angels season end?

Neil Young told us that it was better to burn out than to fade away. In the same fashion, some things are just meant to divebomb so hard into the dirt that they cause a smoldering crater that affects all life on the planet rather than just saunter out to the woods to die in peace. That quickly appro...

Did Rogers Centre kill Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s power?

Whenever the post-mortem is compiled on this Toronto Blue Jays season — they’re still very much in the hunt for a wildcard spot — it won’t be hard to find culprits for how they didn’t quite manage to take the next step from a good team to a power that most in Ontario were expecting (feels like a the...

Alex Cora had himself a night

It’s starting to slip away from the Boston Red Sox. After an excellent July, the Carmines have run to nowhere in August with a 10-10 mark which has left them five games adrift of the last wildcard spot. Which isn’t a huge surprise, given that this team was built to basically win 84 games and give th...

What if there was a Mendoza Line for other baseball stats?

Mario Mendoza put together nine nondescript major league seasons from 1974-1982 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers. He was good for -2.7 WAR and finished with a career .215 batting average....

Julio Rodriguez refuses to make any outs

Baseball fans can lose track of the Mariners, all tucked away down there, pretty easily. They’re on late at night, and they don’t come with any of the glamor of some of the other West Coast teams. Though they entered this season as one of the more promising units after last year’s exploits, a pretty...

Who will New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman scapegoat next?

Atlanta has been a menace to New Yorkers of late. First, they dribbled the New York Mets all over Citi Field. Off the diamond, their District Attorney pinched Rudy Guiliani and Donald Trump in a RICO case, then the Braves continued their streak by lopping off the Bronx Bombers heads in three consecu...

Do you know just how bad the Colorado Rockies have been?

It’s a baseball axiom that the Colorado Rockies are clueless, helpless, directionless. They don’t have any stars, they don’t have any prospects, and they don’t have any idea how to get or produce either. Their ballpark presents a unique set of problems, but the Rockies are certainly not the organiza...

Wander Franco placed on administrative leave, off Rays roster [Update]

UPDATE: Aug. 22, 11:20 a.m.: Franco has been placed on administrative leave by MLB, who issued the following statement:...

Who’s more exciting: Shohei Ohtani or Elly De La Cruz?

This is not an argument about who’s the better player: Shohei Ohtani, or Elly De La Cruz. Ohtani is probably the best two-way player in baseball history, and De La Cruz has 55 games to his name. The discussion is about excitement, about who’s highlight you’re watching first, about throwing a complet...