The move had been rumored for a while, so when it was announced Friday that plans were in place for the Baltimore Orioles to ink Vladimir Guerrero…no one should have been surprised.
The surprising part of the whole thing…the Orioles have had, quietly, a fantastic off season.
Seriously…an off season like the one that had makes the paltry efforts of division foes, the New York Yankees, look comical.
Now, the beleaguered O’s won’t compete …

Theo Epstein, on the Red Sox’s spring training roster: “We’re more or less set.“
The team might make another depth move — signing a potential starter to a minor-league contract — but Epstein says, “right now those guys are looking for major league jobs”. And like everyone else, the GM is looking forward to
the return to health of a lot of our most important players. There aren’t many position battles per …

I was just looking his numbers. He broke in with the NY Giants in 1956, hitting 23 doubles, seven triples and 22 home runs in 138 games. He drove in 59 runs, batting mostly in the , and stole 15 bases. Impressive. Too bad he was a rookie in the same Year as Frank Robinson, who won the NL Rookie of the Year, winning all 24 first place votes.
White turns …

On occasion, we’re happy to get e-mails from guys like Chris Jaffe that we consider friends of the site (since they’ve at least obviously set browser upon URL, at least in most cases) – and Chris is one who just happens to send along great links to his work at The Hardball Times.
This time, Chris passes along a link to a short bit he wrote at THT on Wednesday about …

Pitchers are issuing intentional walks to Albert Pujols at an increasing rate.
If this continues, Pujols soon will hold the major league record for most intentional walks to a right-handed batter.
Pujols has led the National League in intentional walks four times, including each of the last three seasons.
In his first four years in the NL (2001-04), Pujols never received more than 13 intentional walks in a season. Since then, his yearly …

Through age 30, Andruw Jones’ top comparable player was Frank Robinson. Since then, he’s most comparable to Dale Murphy, another player seemingly destined for the Hall of Fame before collapsing after the age of 30.  
Will the Yankee mystique carry him like magical, unseen wings, or will the weight of the pinstripes finally sap him of his final tool; the ability to crush lefthanded pitching?

It was 30 years ago this month, Jan. 15, 1981, that Bob Gibson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on his first try.
In researching Gibson, I noted Frank Robinson hit a three-run, two-out home run in the ninth inning against the Cardinals ace, lifting the Reds to a dramatic 7-5 victory on Aug. 19, 1964. Boxscore
It got me wondering: How many regular-season home runs did Gibson surrender to fellow …

When Minnesota Twins legend, Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew announced publicly a little over a week ago that he is undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer…the collective heart of fans everywhere broke.
The baseball community had just lost Bob Feller a few weeks prior and now, another one of its favorite sons is facing what he called “perhaps the most difficult battle of my life”.
While status updates on Killebrew’s condition haven’t been made public, fans …

Back in May, the St. Louis Cardinals began publicly lobbying to get Hall of Famer Stan Musial the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Wednesday night, Musial (who will turn 90 this Sunday) got the call from baseball comissioner Bud Selig…the “Flat Stan the Man” campaign had paid off. 
Early next year, President Obama will honor the Cardinals legend.
Since 1977, seven others (Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Joe DiMaggio, Buck O’Neil, Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson and …

The final mlb game at Olympic Stadium was played on September 29, 2004. Stephanie Myles of the Montreal Gazette wrote:
For the history books, it ended at 10:01 p.m., when Terrmel Sledge took a 3-1 pitch from Florida Marlins right-hander Rudy Seanez, and popped it up to a former Expo who served with honour for several years, Marlins third-baseman Mike Mordecai.
But in the end, the 9-1 loss wasn’t how the Expos …

It’s all but a foregone conclusion that Jerry Manuel will be dismissed as Mets manager after the 2010 season and Joe Torre is apparently, well, willing to come home……
Whatever happened to the unwritten rule that you don’t comment on taking another man’s job while he still has it? I guess that’s why they put things in writing……….
Torre and new Dodgers manager to-be Don Mattingly were in town yesterday to attend …

One of the most interesting recent statistics in the remarkable career of Albert Pujols is that he needs just one more double this season to establish the big-league record for most seasons with at least 35 doubles and 35 home runs.
Pujols and former American League slugger Albert Belle share the mark, each doing it six times.
Here are the seasons in which Pujols has hit at least 35 doubles and 35 …

Alright, karma…you win.
A couple of years ago, I wrote the following about Minnesota Twins slugger Jim Thome:
Thome is very good, not great. Hall of Famer? Perhaps…but not on the first couple of ballots.
Then…I followed it up with this gem:

His home run total, while incredible, will not be as eye popping five years after Thome’s retirement. Basically, we’ve got a guy who smacked the Hell out of the ball, but was …

A day after his moonshot (didja see this one, yet?) seemingly changed my mind on his status as a first ballot Hall of Famer…Jim Thome went yard.
Again.
With this, his 586th career blast, the 40 year-old Thome tied Hall of Famer Frank Robinson for 8th place on the all-time list.

After Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th home run, I asked you all…who would be the next to the milestone. And what was …

Every time Jim Thome is in the news…The Hall of Very Good sees some traffic. Apparently a guy hitting monster bombs (more on that later) makes people bang the Googles to the tune of “jim thome steroids”.
I’ve detailed the rise in web traffic HERE and I ask you to skim it quickly before continuing. In the meantime, the rest of you can watch (or listen) this video.
Alright…are you back?
Now that …

I was hardly alone on a island last March in recommending Carlos Gonzalez as a breakout candidate.  His performance down the stretch and in the 2009 postseason put him on the radar of even some casual baseball fans.  I was one of the few, however, who believed Gonzalez was capable of an MVP-type campaign immediately, at the age of 24, and, as such, I was willing to pay almost any …

Playing a little catch-up here:
Aug. 30

Hideo Nomo, 42: Nomo: The Tornado Who Took America by Storm, by Edmon Rodman
Frank Robinson, 75: Robinson has published a couple of his own titles, including My Life Is Baseball (1975), Frank: The First Year (1976), and Extra Innings (1988). Other titles about Robinson include Russ Schneider’s Frank Robinson: The Making of a Manager and Frank Robinson, Born Leader, by Al Hirshberg. As with many …

Playing a little catch-up here:
Aug. 30

Hideo Nomo, 42: Nomo: The Tornado Who Took America by Storm, by Edmon Rodman
Frank Robinson, 75: Robinson has published a couple of his own titles, including My Life Is Baseball (1975), Frank: The First Year (1976), and Extra Innings (1988). Other titles about Robinson include Russ Schneider’s Frank Robinson: The Making of a Manager and Frank Robinson, Born Leader, by Al Hirshberg. As with many …

Playing a little catch-up here:
Aug. 30

Hideo Nomo, 42: Nomo: The Tornado Who Took America by Storm, by Edmon Rodman
Frank Robinson, 75: Robinson has published a couple of his own titles, including My Life Is Baseball (1975), Frank: The First Year (1976), and Extra Innings (1988). Other titles about Robinson include Russ Schneider’s Frank Robinson: The Making of a Manager and Frank Robinson, Born Leader, by Al Hirshberg. As with many …

Playing a little catch-up here:
Aug. 30

Hideo Nomo, 42: Nomo: The Tornado Who Took America by Storm, by Edmon Rodman
Frank Robinson, 75: Robinson has published a couple of his own titles, including My Life Is Baseball (1975), Frank: The First Year (1976), and Extra Innings (1988). Other titles about Robinson include Russ Schneider’s Frank Robinson: The Making of a Manager and Frank Robinson, Born Leader, by Al Hirshberg. As with many …