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Oakland A's

No Home For Holliday

Summer is nearly upon us, which means three things are about to heat up: the weather, the A’s, and trade rumors surrounding Oakland’s best player. This year, that player is Matt Holliday, who’s been an Athletic for a grand total of 57 games.

Despite being free of Colorado’s purple jerseys and dinosaur mascot, Holliday appears less than thrilled to be spending his contract year in Oakland. In his brief time here, he’s followed the basic formula of an old Clint Eastwood western:

Categories
MLB General

Legends of the Fall: Part II of V

 Spring bowed to summer before summer submitted to autumn, and the most marvelous postseason in Baseball history postseason began.

 In the American League, the 101 win Yankees, champions of the American League East, were matched with the determined Minnesota Twins, a team consumed with reaching the World Series after falling one step short against Anaheim a year prior.

Categories
MLB General

Midseason "Moneyball" All-Stars – American League

By Ryan McGowan

Like my colleague Trevor Freeman, Michael Lewis’ Moneyball is one of my favorite books.  For any baseball fan, the inside story of Billy Beane’s quest to change traditional thinking and manage a baseball team based entirely on analyzing statistics and turning the conventional wisdom upside down is a fascinating read.  Looking at the 2006 season up to this point, I have chosen a 25-man American League All-Star team that accomplishes the major goals of any team driven by a Moneyball philosophy.

In no particular order, these goals are:

1. Find players who get on base (high on-base percentage, or OBP) and hit for some power (the combination of the two produces a high on-base plus slugging, or OPS, the golden statistic of Moneyball).
2. Pay no attention to fielding statistics.
3. Spend as little money as possible.