Ah, the bat off the bench. Perhaps not the foremost thought in most minds when it comes to roster construction, but one that ends up being a major consideration at times, particularly when a game is on the line in the late innings. Bill James has held that the prototypical pinch hitter is a left-handed line-drive producer, able to take advantage of the natural excess of right-handed relievers...
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Dan Haefeli, writing for the Rising Apple, builds a strong case debunking the cloud of suspicion that hangs over the head of Mike Piazza suspecting the former Met catching great of using steroids over his career. Piazza, baseball’s all time home run hitting catcher, failed to accrue the votes needed to be elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame in last year’s vote. Preliminary projections indicate...
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A team official told Adam Rubin that Ruben Tejada is planning to return this month to a fitness and nutrition program near Ann Arbor, Mich. on Jan. 13. The 24-year old infielder spent four weeks in November at the program. With the increasing likelihood that Tejada enters camp this Spring as the everyday shortstop, I asked some of our writers how they would feel about that scenario playing out....
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A source told Adam Rubin of ESPN New York the breakdown of the two-year deal Bartolo Colon signed with the Mets. His salary is $9 million in 2014 and $11 million in 2015. Using arbitration estimates from MLB Trade Rumors, Rubin calculated the Mets current payroll to be at $85.9 million. That number is just a shade below the $87 million figure that Sandy Alderson tossed around to reporters before...
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Sandy Anderson still has at some shopping to do, according to a report on ESPN New York, who spoke with the Mets general manager. “We’re still looking,” Alderson said about the bench. “It depends on what happens in the middle infield as to whether we need someone else on the bench. And as for how things look in the outfield, we’ve got people who can provide us some...
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The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! Russ Hodges’ broadcast of Bobby Thomson’s home run is the most famous call in Major League Baseball’s long history. On August 11, 1951, the Dodgers held an insurmountable 13 game lead over their arch enemies. Down the stretch Brooklyn played well, 26-22. The Giants, however, were a team possessed. They went 37-7 and New York’s 2 NL teams...
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