New System May Revolutionize Baseball Stats

Rays at the head of the class—Rockies, Marlins at the back

(NEWSER) - Report card time! Here’s how the rambunctious kids of MLB are doing so far, in Yahoo Sports’ Steven Henson’s estimation. A students—Rays, Red Sox, Cubs, Angels, White Sox Particular kudos go to the Rays, the poor kid who went to the head of the class. B students—Cardinals, Brewers, Twins, Phillies, Yankees, Athletics, Marlins, Orioles The Cardinals have a slight edge in the wildcard race. The Yankees, meanwhile, barely scrape together a B. More»

(NEWSER) - Two men named Barry—a $126-million pitcher (Zito) and an embattled slugger gunning for the home-run record (Bonds)-—went out with a whimper as the Giants lost to the Padres, 7-0. Soft-spoken ace Jake Peavy was the hero of the afternoon, with six scoreless innings. More»

First Series win in franchise history

(NEWSER) - The Rangers last night showed San Francisco that even their scores are bigger in Texas, notching their first victory in the World Series 4-2, after taking two beatings in California. Egged on by Rangers' royalty George W Bush and Nolan Ryan, the AP reports, Texas quickly slid into its comfort zone. "We wanted to get back home," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "We knew we could finally put a good game together, and we did." More»

Shouldn't Bud Selig just set matters right?

(NEWSER) - The baseball world is up in arms over the blown call that cost Armando Galarraga his perfect game. So here's a radical idea: Why can't Bud Selig just reverse the dang call? “Only a grinch would protest such a thing,” writes Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post . And “if Selig is powerful enough to have canceled a World Series, I'm guessing he is powerful enough to erase one measly infield single.” More»

'I didn't know,' says player Eugenio Velez of spelling snafu

(NEWSER) - Outfielder Eugenio Velez made his season debut yesterday when his San Francicso Giants took on and beat the Houston Astros. That’s right—Velez played the whole game blissfully unaware that his jersey pegged him as a player from some mythical, misspelled version of the City by the Bay. “I didn’t know,” he tells the AP . “Increible!” And that’s not misspelled—it’s Spanish for “incredible.” More»