Perils of Free Agency

Over the weekend, ESPN's Keith Law published his rankings of the top fifty free agents in baseball this winter.  Law is an incredibly talented baseball mind, and very astute when it comes to evaluating players.  And this winter's list is, well, pretty grim.  This is because of the trend over the past few years for teams to lock up their best players with extensions that carry them through their three years of arbitration and the first couple of free agent eligibility.  A partial list of players who would be eligible for free agency this winter had they not inked extensions already would include the following: Matt Kemp, Dustin Pedroia, Nick Markakis, Troy Tulowitzki, Ian Kinsler, Adam Jones, Ben Zobrist, Andre Ethier, Cole Hamels, Jered Weaver, James Shields, and Ubaldo Jimenez.  That is a lot of talent that has already been taken off of the market.

NBA Conversation

The NBA season has just started, so it's time for my good friend Phil Schneider and I to trade some thoughts on the upcoming year.  This conversation started a month ago and has been condensed here, so some references are dated.

A Giant Proposition

First of all, count me as one of those who were surprised that the Giants were able to stave off six elimination games and ride all the way to a World Series title.  Short series are, of course, notoriously unpredictable, which is one of the things that makes baseball's postseason so entertaining after the longest regular season in sports has established who the best teams are.  But the postseason can still be wonderfully instructive, and I would like to share a theory that I discussed briefly with my good friend Keith Hankins a few days ago as we were chatting about the Giants' moves in the playoffs.

The Nationals' Offseason

On Friday night, the Washington Nationals tasted, for the first time in franchise history, the bitter defeat of an elimination game, falling 9-7 at home to the Cardinals after opening the game with 6 runs in less than three innings off of the Redbirds' ace, Adam Wainwright.  But losses like that one are learning moments, and given how the team has been built, there is every reason to expect that they will be serious contenders for the foreseeable future, even if rival anonymous front offices wish that they weren't.  To his credit, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo is steadfast in his belief that the team's process in handling Stephen Strasburg was correct, and has some choice words for the haters out there.  Everyone knows that the Nats shut down Strasburg with an eye (or both, depending on your perspective) to the future.  What will that immediate future look like?

AL Playoff Preview

While the National League had no drama whatsoever over the past couple of weeks, the American League had plenty, what with the White Sox and Rangers collapsing down the stretch, allowing the Tigers and A's to win their respective divisions and sending the Sox home and the Rangers, ostensibly the most talented team in the league, to the one-game playoff against that team of destiny, Baltimore.

National League Playoff Preview

October may be my favorite month of the year.  It is certainly the best on the sports calendar, with every sport doing something (barring labor disputes).  Midnight Madness is in October.  The NBA and NHL are in their preseasons.  Various soccer leagues are going on.  Both college football and the NFL are in full swing.  And then there is the baseball postseason, still my favorite of all the professional leagues.

MLB Awards

Baseball's postseason is almost here, and at this point all of the excitement is in the American League, as the National League playoff spots are mostly sewn up.  In particular, the most interesting development to watch will be in the AL West, as Texas, Oakland, and the Angels battle it out over the last week of the season.  The Angels are two games behind the A's for the second wild card berth, and they close out with six games against the lowly Mariners sandwiched around a weekend series in Texas.  Oakland has the opposite schedule, with six games against the league-leading Rangers spaced out by three home dates with Seattle.  So if the Angels win two more games over the remainder of the season (not inconceivable) than the A's, there will be at least one tie, to say nothing of what Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and the Yankees do in the AL East.