After watching Alex Rodriguez roll on the ground for what seemed like an eternity, I would have expected him to have had a broken leg, or at least a fractured hoof.  However, A-Rod was able to postpone a trip to the glue factory for one more day, and was in the starting lineup on Sunday.  Yesterday, ProRumors published the story that Joe Buck might have been the reason that A-Rod took the line drive to shin- apparently their exchange of greetings distracted A-Rod just before being struck with the batted ball.  While he has denied that he was distracted by Buck, I don’t think that alone should exonerate him.  Personally, I think we need to examine a different angle in this story- Joe Buck’s undeniably ginormous head obstructed A-Rod’s view of the ball.

One of my favorite things about baseball is the array of characters that have played the game over time.  In a sport where refined technique is as valued as raw athleticism, there is much more opportunity for people outside of the typical “jock” to excel.  Anyone with an oversized pituitary gland can dunk a basketball or run and make a leaping catch, but it takes more than just physical skills to understand the mechanics of effectively swinging a bat at something moving so fast you can hardly see it.  And while all sports require some amount of strategy, baseball is much more of a thinking man’s game due to its endless situational possibilities and therefore many more intellectual athletes seem to be drawn to it as opposed to other sports.  Finally, baseball is inherently much more of an individual game than any other team sport.  When a batter strikes out he cannot blame his teammates and when a team completes a perfect game it is only the pitcher who gets recorded credit for the statistic.  These nuances, along with the overly-conservative rigidity of MLB, make baseball the perfect sport for unique personas to stand out, and no character has ever shined brighter than baseball’s one and only Spaceman, Bill Lee.

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The 2010 Major League Baseball trade deadline has come and gone and once again ended with GMs shouting out deals back and forth as frenetically as Wall Street floor traders. The two biggest names dealt before today’s deadline were pitchers Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt. Lee has turned into quite the vagabond as of late, heading from Cleveland to Philly to Seattle and finally to the Texas Rangers all within the last two seasons. Seattle got switch hitting first baseman Justin Smoak and three minor league prospects out of the deal.

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At first glance, there wouldn’t appear to be many similarities between the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees. The Yankees regularly top the league’s payroll, shelling out $206 million in player salaries to lead the way once again in 2010. This year the Rays have climbed to number 21 on the list and their payroll is still barely a third of New York’s. The Yankees make a habit of throwing as much money at as many big names as possible, landing blockbuster free agents every offseason as opposed to developing their farm system. Tampa Bay, on the other hand, has been led this season by homegrown talents Evan Longoria (3b, drafted by Rays in 2006) and the AL’s All-Star Game starting pitcher, David Price (drafted by Rays in 2007). The Yankees also happen to be the most storied franchise in baseball, if not all sports, and have won a record 27 World Series titles. The Rays only became a Major League team in 1998 and lost in their only World Series appearance. Yet despite these seemingly overwhelming differences, at the All-Star break both teams share one important trait: winning games.

Continue Reading ‘Evan Longoria and the Rays Battle Baseball’s Evil Empire’

Be sure to check out Brett Phelps’s latest article over at youbeenblinded.com

Exploring Scott Boras’s statistical projections that helped score A-Rod $252 million