AGRI Biz

At the end of Spring Training, The A's surprised everyone by designating Cust for assignment, ultimately sending him down to Triple-A Sacramento. The A's had a healthy Eric Chavez and decided it was best to have him as the DH. Cust, who was released and then re-signed over the offseason, sat at his locker, dumbfounded, quietly taking it like a man as he fielded questions from reporters. Then, after letting ...

Our Top 75 Starting Pitcher rankings return, and it couldn’t come at a better time.  Many of the top pitchers in baseball are lined up for two-starts this week.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of attractive one-start options as well.  Let’s take a look at how things fall (two-start options are in bold): Roy Halladay - Philadelphia Phillies - at SF, vs. NYM Felix Hernandez - Seattle Mariners ...

Through the first 18 games, the Mets are at .500, and it is like the season is starting fresh. They still don’t have Carlos Beltran, but they do have Ike Davis and a healthy Jose Reyes, and some of the struggling players like Jason Bay and David Wright appear to be on the verge of breaking out. So I thought I’d take a quick look at some advanced statistics to see ...

Before the season began I wrote the "Fantasy Baseball: Top Value Picks at Each Position" The players I calculated as solid value picks were as follows: SP- Ryan Dempster RP- Mike Gonzalez C- Chris Iannetta 1B- Garrett Jones 2B- Kelly Johnson 3B- Jorge Cantu SS- Alcides Escobar LF- Josh Willingham CF- Nate McLouth RF- Jason Kubel Here is an update on how all of these players are doing. Some are absolutely killing the ball and some have had very rough starts to ...

If actor John Houseman were alive today, I'm sure he'd modify his Smith Barney commercials to fit the Houston Astros: "The Houston Astros: they win ballgames the old fashioned way...they EARN them!" A few weeks ago a reader named Clayton Elkins thought I was being far too pessimistic regarding the Astros' slow start and referenced a Jim Rome quote. Being in a sour mood and not having listened to Romey in ...

August 10 was the highlight of the 1969 season for New York Yankees fans. New York's other team, the beloved New York Mets, would not have its greatest moments until October. The day that Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson, and Gene Michael hit consecutive home runs in the sixth inning against Oakland made a pedestrian New York Yankees season memorable. The Yankees finished fifth, ...

The New York Yankees are the most successful franchise in all of sports. Playing in the Bronx, the Yankees garner attention and support from millions of fans all over the world. These fans represent every race and social class. Over the years, numerous celebrity and famous people have been spotted wearing Yankee apparel or catching a game in Yankee Stadium. Even though there are many famous Yankee fans, these are ...

To most he is known as Ron Gardenhire. To his players he is simply, Gardy. He is what is commonly known as “a player’s manager”. However, this is not always a good thing.Most “player’s managers,” or “players coaches” in other sports, are not usually all that successful. But there are exceptions. Joe Torre has been able to toe the line between success and also being a manager the players love. You could ...

  Despite Craig Stammen's second consecutive strong start, the lights-out performance of the bullpen, and even Nyjer Morgan's clutch hitting, the Nationals lost 4-3 in a 13-inning thriller to the Dodgers. The loss drops the club back to .500 and saw them squander a chance to beat one of the best pitchers in the National League, Clayton Kershaw. It all came down to the bottom of the 13th inning. The Nationals were down one ...

Watching former Pirate Tom Gorzelanny pitch for the Chicago Cubs the other night against the New York Mets was heartbreaking. And that was in spite of the fact that he lost (two of the four runs scored against him in 5.2 innings were unearned). Gorzelanny is a pitcher in the Ross Ohlendorf-mold: cerebral and skillful, but more prone than the average Pirate to injury. "Overwork" in 2007, his second year, clearly ...