Month: August 2014

KANSAS CITY — Let’s start with this: Wins Above Replacement – that famous WAR statistic that has inspired so much war in the baseball community – has been manna for Mike Trout fans the last two years. It utterly confirmed what they (me among them) knew about Trout. 1. He was the greatest player in…

KANSAS CITY – Every time Alex Gordon steps to the plate at Kauffman Stadium these days, fans chant, “M-V-P, M-V-P,” which is fascinating on so many levels. Let’s start with the most basic of those. At the moment, Alex Gordon is hitting .281 with 16 home runs and 59 RBIs. Nothing at all about that…

KANSAS CITY – Some years ago, guess it’s been almost 20 years by now, I wrote one of those columns that I suspect just about every young columnist writes … and later regrets. I’ve written many of those kinds of columns, of course — I believe that comes with the territory of always trying to…

You probably know that one of Bud Selig’s big objectives as commissioner of baseball was to even the playing field – that is, to give the small-market teams a chance to contend. A luxury tax was instituted. Wildcards were added to the playoffs. The amateur draft had numerous rules changed. Sure, many people thought it…

Here’s another video essay, this one about tennis. Your browser does not support iframes.

So, you might know, I work for NBC Sports. And NBC Sports is a television operation. I don’t think I need to go through the amazing roster of broadcasting talent at NBC — you know all the names. Costas. Michaels. Emrick. On and on. Point is: They sure as heck don’t need me doing television….

So, you may or may not (or may) have noticed that production on this site has gone way down. There is a reason for this – well, actually there are a lot of reasons. The main reason is that we have some pretty cool things brewing at NBC Sports that will come out over the…

When the Detroit Tigers traded Doug Fister to the Washington Nationals back in December for a a middling left-handed pitching prospect and some change, it was, well, baffling. Here we are a few months later, and it’s no longer baffling. Yes, it’s self-destructive. It’s ruinous. It’s loony. It might be the trade that changed the…

Before we began talk about why Thursday felt like SUCH a disastrous day for the Kansas City Royals – and, possibly, your hometown team too — we should probably offer two qualifications. One, Major League trades are hard things to pull off. They sound so easy on talk radio and fantasy leagues. But in real…