cactusleague Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Are there timelines anymore?
The MLB trade deadline has passed, and for the most part, it was the usual story. It’s not really Haves and Have-nots anymore, because any team can and should be a Have considering the immense wealth every MLB team has even before opening the gates. It’s more Wants and Want-nots. So the Wants, like ...

Mariners make splash in hopes of ending lengthy postseason drought
The Seattle Mariners are looking to make the playoffs for the first time in over 20 years. Ichiro’s rookie season was the last time they played past 162 games. Heading into Saturday’s games, Seattle is only a half-game ahead of Tampa Bay in the Wild Card standings, and it’s far from a guarantee the ...

David Ross completes Cubs’ transformation back to token laughingstock
When the Chicago Cubs hired David Ross as manager, there were only two possible outcomes to his tenure. The first scenario is a return to glory and another ring, which isn’t going to happen this year or next year, or really anytime soon considering the front office has been hocking parts to the rest...

HEAR ME OUT! Abolish the minor leagues
Stick with me here....

None of it matters
The White Sox only had a debate that it feels like every team in North American sports will have in the next year or two. But honestly, what does it matter if the White Sox had decided to not play yesterday’s game? Canceled or postponed games out of respect for those killed or injured by another mas...

It’s all just so pointless
There was a baseball game on the Northside of Chicago last night. I didn’t watch it. I haven’t watched any of them. But Twitter tends to tell me if there’s anything that happens of note with the Cubs. I can’t say I’m not informed. I just don’t have to watch Marquee Network’s high school AV Club leve...

A’s President Dave Kaval seems a little bitter about attendance
It’s no secret that the Oakland A’s are struggling with attendance. They’ve been struggling in that department for years. 2022 is a whole different monster for the A’s, though. After two series on the road to open the season, the A’s came back home to a modest crowd of 17,503. That number dropped dr...

Actually, dude, we can go anywhere
MLB owners and front offices probably forgot the concept of shame long ago. I doubt most of them could spell it much less define it at this point. You still see owners in other sports wince when one of theirs goes off script and lets in a glimpse of how things really work behind the curtain (see: Sn...

The White Sox had better hope injuries don’t again haunt them all season
A sweep of the Detroit Tigers would have been the ideal way for the Chicago White Sox to begin the 2022 season, but sometimes the ball bounces off the wall, just over the right fielders’ glove for a game-winning hit. Hey, it’s a 162-game season, there’s going to be some head scratchers....

The White Sox are getting to their proper level of cantankerous
The term “White Sox” in baseball basically means anger. Or at least a heavy pinch of it to go with however else it might be defined. There is always an undercurrent of seething with the White Sox and their fans. It’s part of their identity. The White Sox are a symbol of their part of Chicago, the So...

Even a lockout can't prevent the Cubs from being greedy and stupid
It’s still worth it, every so often, to consider how impressive it is that the Ricketts family pissed all over the glow of being the ownership group that brought the first World Series title to the Northside of Chicago in 100 years to being universally hated in less than five....

Seattle GM: Who needs a Gold Glove shortstop who hits home runs?
Jerry Dipoto is either stupid or a liar. Probably the latter, but don’t discount the former....

The Athletics begin their Major League’ing
The news flashed out of nowhere, which is probably the most worrying thing. The Padres hired Bob Melvin as a manager, which is great for them. Melvin has been making the most out of whatever he’s been given in Oakland for a decade now, and a lot of that time it has been a mishmash of misfit toys. He...

The Cleveland Guardians name situation keeps getting uglier
The team formerly known as the Cleveland Indians is being sued over their non-rights to the name “Cleveland Guardians.” The Cleveland Guardians moniker is already trademarked by a roller derby team located in Parma, one of the suburbs of Cleveland. However, that hasn’t stopped Cleveland’s MLB franch...

What will Dave Roberts’ legacy be?
I know better than to write the Dodgers’ eulogy now. We’re just where we’ve been before. The series should be over, and if it wasn’t for Cody Bellinger guessing right on a high fastball on Tuesday, it would be. The Braves’ 9-2 win in Game 4 only makes it 3-1, which is exactly where they were against...

This doesn’t feel like the first time the Dodgers and Giants have met in the playoffs
Tonight will be the first time in MLB history we see the Dodgers and Giants compete in the postseason. For such a storied rivalry, it’s crazy to think that in the year 2021, there’s still something new for these franchises to experience with one another. Sure, there are some discrepancies like the 1...

The San Francisco Giants, the ones who stood out
I had about four different drafts of this in my head before I actually sitting down (or in my case, stand up, as I work in reverse) and writing it. I wanted to proclaim the Giants as the anti-rebuild success story, which they kind of are. But not wholly, because it’s one year....

Four-way wild card tie still very much a possibility
So, this is the scenario that Major League Baseball dreamed about when it scheduled all the games on the last day of the regular season for 3 p.m. Eastern....

The Cubs are the dumbest
There are people out there, who — unlike me — didn’t fire the Cubs as a fan back in July after they completed their three-year sandbagging of the roster that brought them their first World Series win in 108 years. That should have been enough to see Wrigley be more desolate than the Atacama, but tha...

Cardinals do what they do… unfortunately
You can always be sure that when a division or league comes up mediocre, the St. Louis Cardinals will be there to just barely rise above the muck. It’s their oeuvre. ...