Rich at Baseball Analysts takes a look at Milwaukee Brewers phenom and leading (what, there are others?) National League Rookie of the Year candidate, Ryan Braun. In case you’ve missed it, Braun is hitting a robust .343/.388/.663 so far. Big deal, right? Um, yeah…
To put Braun’s numbers in historical perspective, he is on pace to produce the highest AVG, SLG, OPS, and OPS+ of any first-year player in the modern era. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound native of Southern California is in elite company with such greats as Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, Albert Pujols, Frank Robinson, and Ted Williams.
Sure, but is he …read more

Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time. Seems Babe Ruth’s granddaughter wants MLB to bestow upon Ruth the same honor it has given Jackie Robinson. She wants the Babe’s number retired throughout baseball.
Slippery slope, meet can of worms.
The unfortunate truth is that whenever you honor someone in this way, you also make a judgment on everyone else. In San Diego, for example, Steve Garvey’s number 6 is retired essentially because he hit a home run in a playoff game. Garvey spent most of his career with the Dodgers, who have not retired his number. Among Padres, he …read more

My wife asked me an interesting question the other day: If I could meet any baseball player and talk to him for a while, who would it be? She said I could pick one current player and one player from throughout history.
The historical player was tough. Ted Williams immediately jumped to mind, but I ended up going with Jackie Robinson. It’s sort of an obvious choice, but it seems to me that baseball fans owe him a great deal of gratitude. I wouldn’t even want to say much other than thanks.
For the current player, I had an easier time. Absolutely …read more