AGRI Biz

If in spring training last season, you had told me the Philadelphia Phillies would be without closer Brad Lidge for the first week or two of the regular season, I would seriously be worried. Now if you told me Lidge might miss one or two weeks at the start of season, I would say so what, no big deal. Funny what a difference a year makes. In an interview with MLB.com’s Todd ...

I am really starting to believe that there is something to Huston Street’s odd year, even year trend. In odd years, Street has been really good since entering the league in 2005. In odd years, Street has a 2.53 ERA with a 0.95 WHIP. In even years, Street has a 3.52 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. So as you can see, Street has been much better in odd years than even ...

Am I the only one who is confused by how Major League Baseball hands down suspensions? Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants hit Prince Fielder in the back on purpose at the beginning of spring training but didn’t get suspended. Joba Chamberlain of the New York Yankees has thrown at the head of Kevin Youkilis on numerous occasions, but nothing ever happened to him. But the Seattle Mariners’ Cliff Lee throws over ...

I will put this next post into the “I didn’t see this one coming” category. In a very surprising move, the Washington Nationals have released outfielder Elijah Dukes. Dukes was supposed to be the Nationals’ starting right fielder in 2010. What was the reason for the release? Nationals’ manager Jim Riggleman called the release purely a “baseball related” decision. There are a lot of things I am buying in this world and this ...

I just wanted to follow up the Ryan Westmoreland story I covered on Monday.   Yesterday, he underwent brain surgery to remove the cavernous malformation in his brain. Here is the statement that was released by the Boston Red Sox following his surgery: “According to the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Red Sox minor league outfielder Ryan Westmoreland today underwent successful surgery to remove ...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that I thought the Washington Nationals would send phenom Stephen Strasburg down to the minors to start the season. Now, it’s looking more and more likely that thought is going to come true. According to Jim Duquette of the Sirius XM’s MLB Home Plate show, Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo is leaning towards sending Strasburg to the minor leagues to start the season. While nothing ...

When the news broke this morning that the Minnesota Twins signed one of their regulars to a contract, I am sure every Twins fan was hoping it was Joe Mauer who was signed to that contract. Unfortunately, for Twins fans it was not Mauer who was signed this morning. Instead they will have to settle for five more years of Denard Span. According to Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune , the ...

If you asked 100 baseball fans ranging from casual to knowledgeable to list the 10 or 20 best offensive baseball players from 1997 to 2007, how many would write down Brian Giles? I am guessing not to many. The reason I posed the above question is because Giles retired this week with very little fanfare. Is Giles a Hall of Famer? Absolutely not. But he was a really, really good player ...

When the Tampa Bay Rays sent Scott Kazmir to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last August, Sean Rodriguez was an afterthought in the trade. As a matter of fact, he was the ever so famous “Player To Be Named Later.” Now it looks like Rodriguez might be paying dividends for the Rays. It’s hard to put a lot of stock in a player’s spring training performance, but Rodriguez is off to ...

Free agent pitcher Kiko Calero must have had the worst medical records of anybody this offseason. That is the only logical explanation I can think of for Calero not being able to sign a major league contract. After posting a 1.95 ERA, 10.4 KÆs/9, and a 1.10 WHIP in 60 innings with the Florida Marlins last year, I thought Calero would have many suitors this offseason. It was clearly not the ...