Redskins Searching In Reverse
January 29th, 2008
The Washington Redskins now have coordinators of their offense and defense, but they still don’t have a head-coach.
I tried to think about just how backwards this style of assembling a staff really is. Here are a few analogies I came up with, that represent a situation that makes as much (or little for that matter) sense as hiring coordinators before a head-coach. Read the rest »
Adam Jones Flying East
January 28th, 2008
Adam Jones was yanked off of his Venezuelan winter-league team this weekend by the Seattle Mariners’ front-office. It’s believed that the decision to bring Jones back to the states is the first of several steps that will result in his being traded to Baltimore as the center-piece of a deal that would net the Mariners Erik Bedard in return.
Jones was mighty candid with reporters after leaving a game early to end his winter-league stay. He said that he would be flying to Baltimore for a phsyical, and he talked about how flattered he was to be the focal point of a trade that will swap him for one of the game’s best pitchers. Read the rest »
Minor Coaching in the Minors
January 26th, 2008
Ryan Minor was a guest on my show, Minors and Majors, today. He was named yesterday to the Delmarva Shorebirds’ coaching staff, which means he’ll serve as a coach in the Baltimore Orioles’ minor-league system at the a-ball level.
Minor is best known for being the third-baseman who replaced Cal Ripken Jr. in the Orioles’ lineup to end Ripken’s consecutive games streak at 2,632 straight games. A two-sport star at Oklahoma, Minor also played major league ball in Montreal. Read the rest »
Stage Set: Patriots to collide with the Giants
January 21st, 2008
Phillip Rivers’ gutsy performance wasn’t enough, and Brett Favre had one of his worst games of the season. Both will be watching the Super Bowl from the comfort of their own recliners in a couple of weekends.
The New England Patriots’ win in the AFC title-game surprised nobody. The New York Giants’ victory in the NFC championship game surprised everybody. Read the rest »
Orioles: MacPhail Will Get it Right
January 17th, 2008
Andy MacPhail is more than just a smart baseball man. A former President/CEO of the Chicago Cubs and the architect of two World Series winning teams in Minnesota (1987, 1991), MacPhail is the embodiment of who you would want running your baseball team.
The son of a former President of the American League, the 54-year-old is currently embarking on his most challenging task yet. MacPhail, hired last June as the new Chief Operating Officer of the Baltimore Orioles, is responsible for turning around an Oriole-franchise that has been driven into the ground over the past several seasons. Read the rest »
Grant’s Glance - Tuesday Jan. 15th
January 16th, 2008
Where to begin? Oh, I know.
Pacman Jones - How knuckle-headed can somebody be? He is the kid that parents and teachers try to help, but who keeps getting into more trouble. How hard is it to saty out of trouble? Stay home, play madden, and eat hot-pockets all day. Pacman, word to the wise … nothing good happens at strip clubs. Stay out of them. Try e-harmony! Read the rest »
Orioles: Meet Luke Scott
January 16th, 2008
I’ve always found Luke Scott to be vastly under-rated. He has hit at every stop he’s made, and even slugged for the cycle last July while with the Houston Astros. What’s kept Scott from becoming a legitimate player and a household name has been a lack of opportunity, which is going to change this spring when he wins the left-field job in Baltimore.
Traded to the Orioles with four other players for former AL MVP Miguel Tejada in December, Scott has never had an every-day starting job for an entire season with any club. The closest he has come was a 2005 stint at AA-Round Rock, and in that season the 29-year-old belted 31-homers and drove in 87-runs. Read the rest »
Orioles: Bedard and Roberts still on block
January 14th, 2008
The word in Baltimore is that the Orioles are still fielding phone calls inquiring about the availability of both Erik Bedard and Brian Roberts. Most people you talk to about potential suitors for the two all-star talents will tell you that there are obvious front-runners for each.
The most likely club to land Bedard is still the Seattle Mariners, who have enough prospects to acquire the left-handed ace. Seattle is also hungry enough to pull the trigger on a deal, with General Manager Bill Bavasi ravenous to end a four-year playoff drought. Read the rest »
Grant’s Glance
January 12th, 2008
Been a while since I’ve done one of these but I figured it was time. Here’s some quick thoughts on a couple of key sports topics from the last few weeks…
WVU Hires Bill Stewart — I get that he did a magical job in leading the Mountaineers to a thrilling victory in the Fiesta Bowl. The 42-28 score was similar to what most people predicted, the only difference was that we all thought Oklahoma would score the 42. Thanks largely to Stweart’s tutelage and motivational tactics, West Virginia played great and won big. Read the rest »
Minors and Majors - January 12th
January 12th, 2008
I just finished up with Minors and Majors, my show on XM Satellite Radio’s 24-7 baseball channel. Today’s broadcast was a fun one, as I was joined by four enjoyable guests and was able to take some calls on variuos hot stove topics. I also gave a couple of thoughts on Roger Clemmens’ ongoing saga, and discussed Goose Gossage’s finally being elected to the Hall-of-Fame.
Jay Jaffe, a contributor to BaseballProspectus.com and the founder of his own site, futilityinfielder.com, was my first guest. I talked about the Hall-of-Fame voting and about Clemmens with Jaffe, who has made a career studying the numbers of players and ranking them with their counterparts throughout history. Read the rest »