Hall of Fame Ballot (New Names)

The BBWAA released its annual Baseball Hall of Fame ballot on Tuesday, which includes a striking 37 names, with 24 of those names being new this year.  This year is notable for being the first in which Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds, the three most prominent players associated with steroids, are eligible.  Of course, that means that we fans will be subjected to plenty of sanctimonious hot air from the various card-carrying blowhards of the BBWAA about "preserving the integrity of the game".  Joe Posnanski had an excellent column about the three arguments that any anti-steroid era player defends: they're cheaters, they wouldn't be Hall-worthy without steroids, and they hurt the integrity of the game.

An Intriguing Trade Proposal (or Two)

I devoted a fair amount of pixels to an explanation of why the Nationals should attempt to pry James Shields (or another talented pitcher) loose from Tampa Bay in order to strengthen their rotation for 2013.  But the Rays are not the only team that has surplus pitching.  Counting current commitments and ready or soon-to-be-ready prospects, there are three other teams with an abundance of arms: Atlanta, Texas, and Seattle.  Atlanta we can obviously toss out because of the extreme unlikelihood that two contenders in the same division would conduct a trade, however mutually beneficial it might be.*  No, if the Nats are not going to, for instance, sign Zack Greinke or cross their fingers and hope for a bounce-back year from Dan Haren, their best options for upgrading the rotation will be a team with pitchers to spare, and Tampa, Texas, and Seattle are the three teams that fit the bill.

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.