Snobs vs. Slobs

One thing our site has tried to reinforce is the lack of import that coaches in sport (more aptly, baseball managers) do not make as much of a difference as a lot of people like to think. A manager—like “chemistry,” “clutch” or “heart”—cannot make a bad team good, nor can a bad manager stop a very talented team win the World Series (see Brenly, Bob). (more…)

Yesterday, I examined the rationale on picking the Detroit Tigers as your rooting interest for the World Series. Today, the Cardinals. (more…)

Being that there is no realvillain (i.e., the Yankees aren’t in it) in this year’s World Series, I have assembled a crib sheet for our readers on whom to root for. Today, we tackle the Tigers. (more…)

I’m a few days late on this, but, apparently, the Dominican police arrested and detained White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe last weekend. The police say he and his brother Elipidio shot two men. (more…)

Second verse, similar to the first... (more…)

For those of you who’ve read since Spring Training, you may remember the “five questions” posts that I asked before the season began. With the season three weeks gone, I will now try to answer the questions, as hindsight is 20/20. (more…)

The Tribune is reporting that Lou Piniella is Hendry’s choice to be Dusty Baker’s successor. That makes this news as good as done, but the question, of course, is whether or not Lou Piniella will really help the Cubs. (more…)

At the beginning of the season, I made 23 random predictions about the 2006 Cubs that I said I would revisit at season’s end. How did they turn out? Let’s find out… (more…)

Richard Sandomir, the sports media/business writer for the New York Times, reports this week that the Sox have struck a $500,000 deal with a certain convenience store chain to change all the team’s night games to 7:11 p.m. This isn’t a huge amount of money for a baseball team, especially considering Paul Konerko made $12,000,000 this year. (more…)

Every year, Baseball Prospectus hosts the Internet Baseball Awards, which gives fans a chance to vote on who they think should win the major baseball awards. Just as I did last year, I am publishing my ballot here and will share some thoughts on why I voted the way I did. Most of my votes are based on Baseball Prospectus’ Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP), which factors in a player’s entire contribution to his team (offense/pitching plus defense). (more…)