Part five of our annual preview series. This year, we present for each team a 60-word-or-so takeaway from 2020, a 162-word-or-so preview for the 2021 season, a win prediction, and a song to represent the… Read more »
Posts by Simon Gutierrez
There has been much consternation, and dare I say some gnashing of teeth, about the state of the Boston Red Sox bullpen on the doorstep of the 2019 season. In its annual positional power rankings,… Read more »
A song to play while reading about the Athletics: “A Theme for Oakland,” by the Phenomenauts. For 30 years, the Oakland Athletics had used Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” as their victory song. That’s fine… Read more »
I’d like to preface this by saying this is not my idea. It’s Ben Lindbergh’s idea. Ben, ever the scholarly gentleman, suggested that an avenue for exploring the debut appearances of major league players would… Read more »
Jon Daniels is rolling the dice. At some point this offseason, he must have looked at his starting rotation and thought, huh. I have two starters. We should… I should do something about that. At… Read more »
If the Boston Red sox were a car, it would be a Subaru. Pretty popular, good gas mileage, roomy, durable. Solid, above-average ride. Not sexy though. Reliable. But not sexy.
Dan Vermilya and Simon Gutierrez collaborated on this preview. A Ben Zobrist double in the top of the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series paved the way for the passing down… Read more »
Simon Gutierrez and Scott Ross collaborated on this preview. The 2016 Red Sox were a testament to both the articulately blunt machinations of legendary wheeler-dealer Dave Dombrowski and the delicate, thoughtful construction of the… Read more »
The 2015 Red Sox were a thought experiment gone awry. The team was built around its 2013 championship core, but augmented in such a way as to capitalize on major league baseball’s current pitcher-friendly environment…. Read more »
Tell me you predicted the Texas Rangers would win the AL West in 2015. Go on, tell me! Of course you didn’t. I didn’t. Nobody did! And yet, there they were, sitting atop the standings… Read more »
The dealing’s done, and somehow, Rangers GM Jon Daniels walked away from the table with Ruben Amaro’s ace. In the months (and even years) leading up to this season’s trade deadline, Cole Hamels had been… Read more »
Staff writers Mark Sands and Simon Gutierrez join host Ryan Sullivan to talk about the Tigers, Rangers, Mariners, and Red Sox, as well as Johnny Cueto going to the Royals, and the upcoming trade deadline.
The 2015 Mariners entered the year with loads of promise, and lofty expectations. Heck, they made the cover of Sports Illustrated’s season preview. Sort of. One of four regional covers. The headline on the Mariners’ cover: “Time to Believe.” Well… then the season actually started, and the times were a-changin’ awful fast.
On May 19th, Red Sox rookie lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez tossed 6.1 solid innings, surrendering only one run, scattering six hits and a walk, while striking out five. Out of five starts this year, four have… Read more »
After much anticipation and salivation, Major League Baseball has begun trickling out tidbits from its revolutionary and proprietary STATCAST system, which tracks in real time the flight of baseballs off players’ bats, and routes defenders… Read more »
Opening Day is upon us, and if you try hard enough, you can imagine you can smell the freshly cut grass and various questionable culinary choices at your favorite ballpark. If you can’t imagine that… Read more »
The 2015 season is upon us, and people are bullish on the Mariners! No, really! They made the cover of Sports Illustrated! Felix and Robbie Cano, and they look really excited! Ok, so, to be… Read more »
The brain drain hit Tampa Bay this offseason, and it hit them hard. General Manager Andrew Friedman fell victim to the old “Dumptruck Full Of Money” gag and left to become President of Baseball Operations… Read more »
“We’re not going to take that woe-is-me mentality. It just doesn’t serve any purpose.” Jon Daniels, Texas Rangers GM
I know it’s Spring Training, and statistically minded analysts and writers generally moan about how they hate Spring Training because nothing means anything and anything means nothing, but as a baseball fan, I love this time of year, because baseball!
It’s hard to describe, the experience, really. Like meeting a person you already know all over again. It was almost like the blind baby who saw her mom for the first time. OK, not quite that. But close. The man, quite suddenly and unannounced, now has a face. After spending a good amount of time over the past two plus years railing against Major League Baseball’s talking heads and hot takes, Baseball Prospectus’ Editor-in-Chief Sam Miller loaned his own versions of both to MLB Network a couple days ago.
Max Scherzer is a hell of a pitcher, and he’s worth a whole bunch of money. He’s been waiting out the off-season thus far, in the way that Boras clients tend to, seemingly holding out… Read more »
“The Texas Rangers have a lot of holes left to fill in their 2015 roster, and an uneventful week of Winter Meetings brought the team no closer to addressing those needs. After unfruitful discussions with the Padres about Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross, and talks with Arizona about Wade Miley ending with the lefty heading to Boston, Evan Grant encountered a “grumpy” Jon Daniels on Tuesday clawing at a tangerine.”
“Has Billy Beane lost his mind? I mean, really. For years, the baseball world thought he was crazy, just, you know…like a fox. But after unloading three of his best players in the span of about a week for seemingly nickels on the dollar, you have to start wondering if these are the machinations of an evil genius, or a lunatic. Or maybe just a desperate man who went all-in and lost.”
