Kuzul

Last summer, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Henderson is one of the greatest players of all time, and an easy choice for voters.

Rice was a more difficult choice, making it after more than a decade on the ballot. But plenty of worthy candidates remain on the outside looking in.

In Bill James’ book about the Hall of Fame, he suggests that fans often try to make cases for players they grew up watching, and liked.

We should focus more on the best players we can put in, rather than simply making a case for a player because we can.

Sure, we can make a case for Keith Hernandez. But there are plenty of players much better than Keith Hernandez not in the Hall of Fame.

So that’s what I did here. I decided to take a look and determine the best player, at each position, that is eligible (sorry Pete, Joe, and Eddie) but not in the Hall of Fame.

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With the major league baseball draft about two weeks away, there are many teams still scrambling around trying to figure out what to do.

High School versus College? Power bat versus Pitcher? Immediate help or projection player?

High school or prep telent is looked upon as what is their ceiling. There is a lot or projectibility here, whereas college talent usually has almost all their tools in order. They basically need some refinement.

Those teams which usually pick at the top of the draft (also known as the worst teams) usually go for the best talent but longer term projects, since one player is not likely to help the parent club very soon.

But like the Tampa Bay Rays of three years ago, you can build a nice foundation with picks, get better, and still have that one last top pick to put you over the top.

The Washington Nationals have that opportunity this draft with their second No. 1 overall pick in consecutive seasons.

Top high school players could take up to five or six years to make an impact, whereas many recent top picks have shown that highly rated college players (namely pitchers) can make a parent team better much sooner.

Because of the time involved in development, the MLB is more of a crap shoot, as players need to master various levels before making “The Show,” and then become the biggest test of all.

Many more “can’t miss” prospects taken very high in the draft often miss badly, sometimes due to lack of ability to adjust to the many levels and just plain not having the ability to actually play baseball.

That means no baseball instincts. I feel it is always better to take the best baseball player over the best talent over athelticism.

This years draft presents a plethora of prep talent, but also word that many teams will try ot take lesser talent in hopes to sign them on the cheap.

Presented are some keys to developing a major impact through the draft.

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After the first 44 games of the 2010 baseball season, the Tampa Bay Rays find themselves twenty games over .500 and six games ahead of the New York Yankees – who, oh by the way, have the third best record in baseball – in the AL East.

Strange things are afoot in Major League Baseball, and not just in Tampa Bay. Here is a look at the Top Ten Most Shocking Statistics in Baseball so far in the 2010 season.

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This season is Roy Halladay’s first in the National League after spending his entire career to this point with the Toronto Blue Jays. Given his early start, Halladay may prove to one day be one of the greatest inter-league crossovers of all time. But this begs the question: who are the best players to have played in both the American and National League.

Of course, in a very literal sense, the greatest player to ever play in both leagues was Babe Ruth, who spent the last 28 games of his career with the Boston Braves. For our purposes, we’ll only look at players with significant miles logged in each league.

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Baseball uniforms sure have changed over the years. From the flannel material to cotton to polyester, baseball players have adorned numerous types of fabric for the sake of team unity. But it is not just the uniforms themselves that dictate a player’s appearance.

Players have gone to many lengths to alter their look on the field, adding their own personal twist to their daily gameday attire. Over the years, players have pushed the limit with their changes and looks. Some have worked while many others have not.

Major League Baseball has even gone as far as to regulate some of the different looks players have tried to implement. While MLB may not always be ahead of the curve, we offer the 10 worst uniform looks in baseball.

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It always hurts to see a batter struggling to hit at the plate. It is always annoying to see a batter swing at pitches they have no business swinging at. It is just as annoying for a hitter’s average to drop 100 points in a season.

These are the hitters who just cannot catch a break this season. They’ve hit in the past, but suddenly cannot find the ball. Some are struggling yet not doing terribly, others are just playing horrendously.

These are the 10 baseball players whose bat has, to be blunt, just went dead.

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Earlier this week, I asked a question on my twitter account: “Is there a better young pitcher/hitter combination in baseball than Tommy Hanson and Jason Heyward?”

Jordan from OriolesProspects.com, and @oriolesprospects on twitter, responded with Matt Wieters and Brian Matusz. The question and answer sparked both of our interests, so we decided to construct an article in which Jordan would make the argument for his Orioles, and I would make the argument for the Braves.

We both made our arguments a bit differently. Jordan went with an actual rating system whereas I just posted their numbers. You be the judge, comment below and gives us your thoughts or hit us up on twitter and voice your opinion. I’m @Ben_Duronio and Jordan is @oriolesprospects, as previously mentioned

Here is what we both had to say:

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The MLB All-Star Game has been an event of diminishing returns in recent years. The ratings have plummeted and general interest has waned over the years, leaving the Mid-Summer Classic has nothing more than a blip on the radar.

The MLB All-Star Game once had significant meaning to the players and fans who saw the best of the best square off for the only interleague matchup outside of the World Series.

Pete Rose’s collision at home plate. Reggie Jackson’s moonshot. Cal Ripken’s home run. All were memorable moments from a game that is losing those moments and overall attraction.

The MLB All-Star Game needs a face lift. Here are five ways to make it happen.

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Yesterday, I took a look at 10 thus-far successful pitchers whose impressive starts I attributed to luck and declared that they would be unable to maintain their good fortunes for the rest of the season (click here for that article).

While I admittedly got some schadenfreude out of it, it was kind of depressing; as one commenter observed, the list was “almost every breakout pitcher this season.”

In the interest of fairness (and not seeming like a complete raincloud), here is a list of 10 starters who have sputtered out of the gate, but whose peripherals indicate that they’ll soon get back on track.

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