I’ve taken many jabs at the WBC lately. Well, maybe not jabs, because I don’t actually hate it or anything. But I certainly have made a point of saying how little I care about it. A reader asked me what gives in the comments to the People in My Neighborhood post this afternoon: Craig, I […]

Those of us who are both (a) familiar with the concept of Pythagorean record; and (b) kind of glib and lazy about our use of sabermetric terminology, have often, at least subconsciously, used it as a synonym for luck. But is it really? Sam Miller at the OC Register isn’t so sure. A block quote […]

What’s shakin’ in the neighborhood? Jason at IIATMS has a couple of good pieces today. First is the one about media and steroids I linked this morning, but is worth linking again. Second is a close look at the incentives in Freddy Garcia’s contract, which Jason promises to be the first in a series of […]

Our long national nightmare is over: The Dodgers have agreed in principle on a two-year, $45 million deal to re-sign free agent left fielder Manny Ramirez, a baseball source said on Wednesday morning. The deal was closed, pending a physical, at a meeting in Los Angeles attended by Ramirez, his agents Scott Boras and Mike […]

In the wake of Neyer’s correction of RJ Anderson yesterday, Tangotiger makes the point that every blog-hater misses: Friend of The Book RJ Anderson made a post at 6AM this morning about Longoria probably having the best rookie season for 3B of all time. Less than 2 hours later, Repoz linked to it, where people […]

To tell you how emotionally estranged I’ve been from the Braves lately, it hadn’t even occured to me that there is competiton for the fifth spot in the Braves rotation, and it’s between Tommys old and new. From Dave O’Brien’s notes column today, after Glavine went on about how his shoulder was kind of sore: […]

A must-read feature in the Philadelphia Daily News today, relaying one anonymous players’ experiences with steroids: ONE TIME, the former major league pitcher recalled, the package that arrived in the mail looked like it contained pastries. The label even said something like Johnny’s Bakery on it. Puzzled, he opened the box. Sure enough, he found […]

The Padres are responding to the bad economy: The Padres’ much-maligned $9 beer vanished with an ear-ringing bang yesterday as the team cut, slashed and exploded prices on tickets, food and drink. “There will be no price increase on any concession item in 2009,” proclaimed Mark Grant, one of the team’s broadcasters. “And beer prices […]

Jason at IIATMS has a major post up this morning about how the baseball press missed the steroids story. There are many good points there, and the most comprehensive cataloging of reporter mea culpas on how they missed the story that I’ve seen to date. At the moment, however, it is this passage that has […]

Things to read while wondering whether the fact that Britney Spears albums and concert tickets are actually selling is a sign that the economy isn’t as dire as we thought it was: dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip BA dum, sha na na na, sha na na […]