Eric at Rays Anatomy has a fun post up debating the relative merits of B.J. Upton and Robinson Cano. I’m pretty squarely in the Upton camp on this one. Cano is a terrific young player, but much of his value is tied into batting average, and second basemen don’t always age well.
Upton, meanwhile, just posted a 136 OPS+ as a 22-year-old, which is ridiculous. In the history of baseball, 48 players have been that productive at that age. Only 11 of those seasons have come in the last 30 years:

Jack Clark, 1978, 152 OPS+
Eddie Murray, 1978, 140
Rickey Henderson, 1981, 150
Cal …read more

My latest article at Hardball Times, Revisiting the 1973 draft, is now up for your viewing pleasure. Dave Winfield was drafted as a pitcher? Eddie Murray as a catcher? Who knew…

Rain Delay’s comment about Rafael Ramirez got me thinking (uh-oh!). Even though his numbers never were great, Ramirez had a knack for swinging at and hitting the worst pitches imaginable, at the most inopportune times. As a fan of the opposing team, I hated to see him come up in close situations because he was so unpredictable. In a given at-bat, Ramirez literally might do just about anything.
One game that stands out for me occurred when Ramirez played for the Houston Astros. His team faced the Dodgers on June 3, 1989. A friend and I watched the game on television, …read more