Billy Paultz Reconsidered

I’m excited about the Phillies. Philly’s excited about the Phillies. We’re all excited about the Philies. That doesn’t excuse some of the dumb, breathlessly overreaching stuff I’ve heard/read lately. Exhibit A: On “Daily News Live,” the other day, somebody said that somebody who should know said Ryan Howard is “on a path to be the […]

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Forget who’s starting game three. Should Cole Hamels have started game two? I recall too well my mental and emotional state the day my first kid was born, and let’s just say anything I would have tried to write that day would have read like Sylvia Plath on an ether binge. Plus there’s this issue […]

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I’m down with the Barnstormers, who if nothing else get me out of the office on Saturday nights. It’s an excellent ballpark in a nice downtown location, and it seems like a well-run, quality organization.
But this is their fifth year and they’ve had exactly one winning half-season. It’s taken nearly three and-a-half hours tonight to play six and-a-half […]

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The Phillies are 3-8 since they got Cliff Lee, and Lee is 2-0 since he got here. Perhaps the explanation is that the Fightins can’t get over their shock and awe over the Lee deal.
We could be seeing the beginning of the end of Jamie Moyer’s remarkable career, although Orel Hersheiser says a six-man rotation, […]

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Here’s a list of the top 50 current MLB players according to one blogger.
It’s not a great list- its author thinks errors, fielding percentage and Gold Gloves measure defense; badly overrates batting-order “protection” (see-Adrian Gonzalez); and conflates or confuses flashes-in-the-pan vs. consistent long-haul performers etc., etc.
Still, the overall selections aren’t terrible and, you know, lists are […]

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Back from an eventful (in sports, not for me, especially) week off…
Whether they get Roy Halladay or not, right now, at this moment, the Phillies are the best team in baseball. Yes, the Yankees are also 10-1 since the all-star break in a better league, but the Yankees haven’t faced better competition during that stretch […]

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Baseball Prospectus recently held an “American Idol”-style contest to pick a new writer to give a one-year contract.
Here’s an article from the winner, Ken Funck, that lends empirical creedence to an idea I’ve touted in print, that you could get more from a pitching staff, in quality and quantity, by using tandem starters, with a six-man […]

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You may, with ardent surfing, find your live blogs on the Home Run Derby, or the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, or, oh, I dunno…. pro wrestling.
But I say without fear of contradiction that nowhere else, in the entire world wide interwebs, will you find all three in one place. We’re coming at you live from Chez Gross, […]

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I have only two things to say about the all-star game, none of which get into the tedious business of player “snubs”.
1. It’s possible to get carried away with the idea that the squads should be chosen based entirely on first-half-of-2009 performance. I said this on “The Low Post,” Tuesday, but when I was in […]

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The weather, the food, the general sense of bonhomie…. it’s been a delightful Fourth of July weekend. Howevah…..
Ryan Howard should not be going to the all-star game. The National League is going with four first basemen- Howard plus Albert Pujols, Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder. Dumb.
Howard has an .845 OPS. Gonzalez’ is .969 is a […]

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