baseball Page 43 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Look at these toads
It was a great weekend for those posing as journalists who are more interested in acting like bullhorns for the lizard people who want their messages out. I wouldn’t pretend to know all the things that go into being a dependable journalist, nor do I care much, but I do know from vague memories throu...

Familia latest Phillies’ free agent folly
The Phillies had a 4.60 bullpen ERA last season, sixth-worst in the major leagues. Philadelphia relievers’ 2.36 strikeout-to-walk ratio ranked 19th in the majors in 2021. And the Phillies’ bullpen corps served up 89 homers last year, tied for seventh-most in baseball....

Stream shows consciousness
When I told my mom about the reports of NBC’s impending $30 million deal to stream a dozen and a half Major League Baseball games on Peacock, she groaned. More streaming, more annoyance when all you want to do is just turn on the TV and see the ballgame....

He’s Joe Bucks now
Joe Buck, the longtime voice of Fox Sports, is bolting for the greener pastures of ESPN, signing a lucrative five-year deal in the $60-$75 million range, according to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand....

MLB free agency predictions - who will go where?
With over 200 names still facing free agency and less than one month to go before the start of the MLB season, we are in for an absolute flurry of moves. There are still dozens of big names on the table for any team looking to make a game-changing acquisition. Those teams that were right on the bord...

Baseball is back, but the DH is everywhere, and that’s awful
There’s only one bad thing about the MLB lockout being over: The game is changing forever....

Now that baseball is back, which free agents are still out there?
Yes, yes, yes, we’re all excited that baseball is back, but this is only the beginning. The main job is done, but now attention turns back to everything we missed over the last three months — i.e., free agency....

So baseball won’t die, after all
Turns out, neither side had the stomach to really put the game in peril in order to radically change how the business of baseball works. Fans will get a 162-game season, just about a week later than scheduled. They’ll get a reduced spring training, which is probably needed every year anyway but we’l...

Devil’s Advocate: Banning the shift shows that MLB is moving in the right direction
I’ve never had too strong an opinion on whether or not Major League Baseball should ban the shift....

MLB Owners looking to expand draft to international players
The concept of an international draft has become a big one in the collective bargaining talks between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, with the league reportedly trying to get a global entry system in place, in exchange for eliminating draft pick compensation for free agency....

Clock is ticking on 2021-22 NBA season for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George
The Wednesday-morning-blogger reason to have watched the Warriors clown the Clippers was for the Chris Haynes sideline reporter update on Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Yahoo Sports reporter said Leonard participated in an extended workout in front of media members for the first time since havin...

Now seating: Simmons, party of one
Count me among those who enjoy a good soft opening. You get to check out the restaurant space, try a newly created menu, and judge the decor while waitstaff fumble over pronunciations and the back of the house yell at each other over ticket times. There are no real consequences because nothing is at...

For MLB players, streaming deal is rotten Apple
MLB’s new streaming deal with Apple is why the Major League Baseball Players Association needs to scrap its entire bargaining strategy and go for a salary cap....

Singles were already available
Negotiations in MLB didn’t really get any better yesterday. There was buzz that the players gave up even more in their quest to get the luxury tax threshold raised, even though they still haven’t really asked for any guarantee that more than a few teams would even approach it. This was met with mor...

It’s happening to the Maple Leafs again
Even though we Chicagoans don’t get a spring — it’s winter until one day somewhere in May when it’s just suddenly summer and we’re all instantly drunk outside — that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize the signs of spring approaching elsewhere. Sure, we’ve been robbed of one of them in spring training. ...

Shades of 1994
As the MLB lockout turned from days to weeks to months with negative progress on the new CBA, it’s become abundantly clear that we’re not going to get the start to the MLB season anytime soon....

Let’s talk the Lakers, the Magic and HBO's '<em>Winning Time'</em><em></em>
Before the Los Angeles Lakers drafted Earvin “Magic” Johnson with the first overall pick in 1979, the league was on the verge of a fate worse than death — irrelevancy. ...

Strikes and Balks: A list of things ailing Major League Baseball
Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire aren’t walking through that door....

Hear me out: Derek Jeter for MLB Commissioner
We’re going to be without big league baseball for the foreseeable future, launching a sport that’s already been on the decline into what feels like its death throes....

I want baseball to die
Not that Rob Manfred would care, but his smirking and laughing visage as he announced the first cancellations of the 2022 regular season, which caused just about every baseball fan to have an urge to reach through their screens and thrust their fist through to the back of his skull, is the image tha...