You didn’t ask, but here are the top 24 players selected in the 35th annual Sun Baseball League draft. Probably not much different than your league’s results, but we fantasy ballers like to compare and contrast. And No. 1 …

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I’m not yet ready to explain why … but the Los Angeles Angels are horrible. Like, 72-90 horrible. How do I know this? From looking at their players, ahead of the fantasy draft. I play in a 12-team league in which we draft two-deep at every position on offense. That means 24 of the 30 […]

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Maybe serious fantasy baseball owners have known about this all along. I tumbled to it last year, and it saves a lot of time when you’re trying to figure out who does what in Major League bullpens. The Closer Monkey. That is the name of the website — closermonkey.com … where you can get the […]

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Eleven years ago, I made the 320-mile drive from Southern California to Phoenix to see the U.S. play Canada in Pool C competition of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. I should have stayed home. Dontrelle Willis was torched and the U.S. lost 8-6 to Canada in the “world cup” of the stick-and-ball game. Which it […]

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It isn’t true I oppose every baseball rule change. Just nearly all of them. Baseball’s rules should be treated with great reverence. Change them not at all unless some compelling need arises. Making the intentional walk “automatic” is not a change that really needed to be made. It’s not like fans, players and owners were […]

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The Los Angeles Dodgers and their TV policy is right out of 1963. That was when the Dodgers televised nine games every year — the nine played in San Francisco. Oh, wait. Except those were in black and white. The handful of games that get on to most Southern California cable providers … those are […]

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I do New York Times Sunday crosswords. Only. If that sounds arrogant, given how difficult those monsters are, I plead guilty. But I also readily concede that I solve one — and “solving” a crossword puzzle means 100 percent accuracy — about once out of 20 puzzles. All it takes is one wrong letter … […]

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Results of the Baseball Hall of Fame voting were released today, and three players were elected to the Hall: Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. One of those guys … all for it. The other two … a little creepy, leaving me a lot worried about where this is headed. And here is […]

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I recently mused about the significance of a big contract for an athlete who had spent years as a marginal player. Being part of a cash-soaked sport but not really being part of it for a decade-plus. First, Rich Hill, Dodgers pitcher. Now, Justin Turner, Dodgers infielder. The former is getting $48 million over three […]

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Two remarkable events occurred this month involving major North American sports leagues. The NBA and Major League Baseball agreed to new collective bargaining agreements with their players. Before the old CBA ran out. No weeks or months of acrimony between deadlocked players and management. No games lost to a strike or a lockout. No seasons […]

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