AGRI Biz

It happens every year. An established veteran suffers from injuries or a heralded youngster isn't up to the task at hand. An overlooked rookie or a career benchwarmer gets some at-bats at the starter's expense and suddenly finds his groove. A good game becomes two good games, and a few days later is labelled a bona fide hot streak. By the end of the week, he appears on fantasy rosters nationwide, and ...

There’s no question that Joe Mauer’s contract extension is good for Major League Baseball. Rumors had been swirling for months that Mauer, the unquestioned best catcher in the game, would command more money than the Minnesota Twins could afford, and would inevitably be playing his home games in Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium by 2011. The extension Mauer signed yesterday will keep him at Target Field through 2018. The deal is a ...

The St. Louis Cardinals are having internal discussions about trading pitcher Rich Hill to the Philadelphia Phillies for Roy Halladay, according to sportswriter extraordinaire, Evan Bruschini . High-ranking members of the Cardinals’ front office told Bruschini that the team is putting together an offer centering around lefty Hill and right-handed Halladay, but are first making sure that such a deal would truly improve the team. “Wait a minute,” Brushini’s source said, “This ...

The stratification of wealth between Major League Baseball teams is reaching endemic proportions. For the amount he spent on the Yankees two years ago, George Steinbrenner could have paid the Florida Marlins’ players nine times over and still had enough left to buy himself a nice yacht. The obvious solution is the implementation of a payroll cap like those used by the NBA and NFL. But fans who bemoan the monetization ...

Any fan of sabermetrics or the Boston Red Sox knows that Jacoby Ellsbury was something of a defensive liability in 2009. For those of you who arenÆt hip to the latest statistical trends, Ultimate Zone Rating is currently the best available method of measuring fielding, providing an estimate of how many runs a player saved (or cost) his team with his glove. EllsburyÆs -18.6 UZR (meaning, his defensive gaffes allowed about 19 ...

If I were to tell you that a player had averaged 25 homers a year over five full seasons in the Major Leagues, where in the batting order would you place him? What if I were to mention that, discounting one injury-marred season, he put up a .496 SLG with a .215 ISO in that time span? ôWell,ö you might be thinking, ôI suppose it would depend on who else was ...

Whenever the Baseball Writers Association of America goofs up a vote, most of the complaints seem to start the same way: ôI donÆt understand.ö I donÆt understand why Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were not elected to the Hall of Fame. I donÆt understand why Andre Dawson is 10.9 percent worthier of enshrinement than he was last year. And I definitely donÆt understand why anyone voted for David Segui. I realize that ...

Pots atop the Hot Stove have been boiling furiously over the past few days. Jason Bay signed with the Mets. Adrian Beltre signed with the Red Sox. Matt Holliday is nearing a contract with the Cardinals. The marketÆs best offerings are suddenly disappearing. Lost in all this was the news about the Cleveland Indians. After three months of ranking among the most stagnant teams in baseball, the Tribe has quietly signed two free ...

Music and baseball go together like Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan. The nature of the game (frequent breaks in the action) means the fans have to be kept happy somehow; playing background music is a great way to increase fans' patience. But it goes deeper than that. Preschool students learn to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," and millions of kids nationwide grew up thinking the last words to ...

Well, it's January 1st, and as always, people around the world are resolving to better themselves in the year ahead. Some people will resolve to lose weight, some people will resolve to think more about others, and some people will resolve to read my articles more often (I hope). The principle doesn't apply very well to baseball; if executives thought about improving their teams only once a year, they'd be fired pretty ...