Elbo passes along a link to a John C. Dvorak column -- he's an old techie journalist who looks like Brian Dennehy and bloviates like Chris Matthews -- in which he claims the blog world is full of dilettantes and... # continue reading
Or, if you prefer, No Choi in Mudville. Ah, the pleasures of rank amateurism. The Giants' first base situation grows more intriguing. The Cubs just traded for Derrek Lee, giving up Hee Seop Choi and a PTBNL in what seems... # continue reading
The sabermetric revolution in baseball has heaped a lot of scorn on "small ball," the subtle, often elegant facets of the game that emphasize speed, defense and bat control. Bunting, stealing, hitting-and-running, good defense over offense, moving runners over with... # continue reading
Or so Theo Epstein is apparently singing this evening as he waits for Curt Schilling to approve a deal between the D-Backs and Red Sox. It's contingent upon the Sox and Schilling working out a contract extension. The Sox would... # continue reading
My co-conspirator Elbo elaborates on his Travis Lee post of a few days back. He's almost got me, good God, hoping the Giants sign Lee. He writes: I think Pedro Feliz is good for .240/.285/.450 at best, as an everyday... # continue reading
The agony of wading through Jayson Stark's column produced this Giants' news nugget: Boof Bonser was once one of the Giants' most highly regarded pitching prospects. But after they included him in the deal with Minnesota that brought them A.J.... # continue reading
Item! The Cardinals traded Tino Martinez to the Devil Rays for minor-league reliever Evan Rust today. This means that the Rays are highly unlikely to re-sign The Other J.T. Snow, who is probably the most attractive option among first basemen... # continue reading
Tim of Chicago and Doug of Westwood Blues have written this morning to clarify my Rule 5 misunderstandings. As I suspected but was too lazy to search out, there are age and service time restrictions on Rule 5 draftees. It... # continue reading
The Giants added four minor leaguers to their 40-man roster today: pitcher Merkin Valdez, infielder Jamie Athas, infielder Angel Chavez and catcher Justin Knoedler. Of the four, only Valdez has drawn any significant attention -- he was the throw-in in... # continue reading
It hadn't occurred to me until now that "gagné" in French means "won." As in, "he won the Cy Young Award." I guess it was only a matter of time. And perhaps it will lead to a French version of... # continue reading
Just in case you had trouble understanding those Quebecois, I thought I'd help out by running one of the articles through the Babelfish translator. Among the observations therein: "The fame of Gained could increase more as of Tuesday since it... # continue reading
Kinda old news, but here are a couple stories en Français about Eric Gagné's return to Québec as a conquering hero, complete with the play-by-play as his family, including his "better half" Valerie, greets him at the aeroport. Merci à... # continue reading
The United States will have to wait another day for Shinjomania to blossom. Pack away your foot-long orange wristbands; Shinjo's going back to the Land of the Rising Sun to be a Fighting Jamón.... # continue reading
Evidently the Man Who Made The Giants won't be catching for the Padres after all, despite my repeated suggestions that he was headed to Petco. Los Friars de San Diego have reportedly shunned Benito Santiago in favor of obtaining Ramon... # continue reading
The Pierzynski trade had me muttering to myself all day yesterday. If there was one sure line item in all of our mock roster construction for 2004, it was 8) Torrealba C ...but now Sabean has me all flummoxed. I... # continue reading
As Benito Santiago likes to say, Let me tell you something. Elbo found the following quote at the bottom of a Contra Costa Times story on the Pierzynski trade: "The Giants are done with me," said Santiago by phone from... # continue reading
¡Dios mio! El Lefty goes to parts of Mexico where the only daily report is what the fishermen have brought in for the filet of the day, and all hell breaks loose! Well, OK, a little bit of heck swirls... # continue reading
Item! Apparently the Giants have heeded my warnings regarding their impending weakness at the catcher position, and acquired A.J. Pierzynski from the Twins. Gone to Minneapolis are Joe Nathan, minor league lefty Francisco Liriano and 2000 first-round draft pick Boof... # continue reading
I don't expect that Jason Schmidt will win the Cy Young award, although you could make a case that he's been the best starter in the league this year. While these guys aren't necessarily a representative sample of the voters,... # continue reading
In the interest of keeping this space relatively timely in El Lefty's absence, I'll remark on some news from last week. Does the signing of Alberto Castillo to a one-year contract mean that he will be the backup catcher to... # continue reading
El Lefty will be on vacation in La Paz, Mexico (and thereabouts) for the next week. I'll be off the blog completely unless I stumble across, in the following order, a minor league Mexican ball game and a cheap Internet... # continue reading
Whenever I read Joe Morgan's columns on ESPN.com, I can't help but think of The Onion columnist Jackie Harvey. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two. To wit: Columnist A: "Item! Mandy Moore is the name on... # continue reading
Instead of looking at the Giants' off-season needs by defensive position, let's look at the holes in the batting lineup. As I've mentioned before, there are two glaring holes right now: a high-on-base guy to hit behind Durham, and a... # continue reading
The drumbeat is getting louder. Every star columnist has to weigh in. The number-crunchers are busting out their calculators. It's supposedly no longer a rumor: The Rangers are trying to trade Alex Rodriguez. The usual suspects are painted into the... # continue reading
Guess what? Last week, the Devil Rays declined their $2.5 million option on a 28-year-old first baseman who made only $500,000 this year. His .275 batting average was rather J.T. Snow-like (at least it wasn't .246), but he swatted 19... # continue reading
Last week I posted my top-10 under-the-radar free agent mysteries. One was immediately solved when the White Sox picked up Esteban Loiaza's $4 million option for next year. Nothing else has yet been resolved, but there are some intriguing updates:... # continue reading
