We have each made our division predictions now, and so the time comes when we must figure out the next step: how our predicted playoffs will go. It is worth noting I believe that I correctly predicted both the Cubs … Continue reading 2018 MLB Postseason Predictions (Daryll and Giuseppe)
While the Nation’s eyes watch March Madness for upsets like 16 UMBC v 1 Virginia, baseball had it’s own upset last season when the Cleveland Indians lost to the Yankees in the American League Division Series. The Indians went up … Continue reading American League Central Preview (Daryll and Giuseppe)
The National League West was definitely one of the best divisions in baseball last season. They graduated the eventual National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers, saw the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies make the Wild Card spots, and the team … Continue reading National League West Preview (Daryll and Giuseppe)
I don’t yet have kids – but when I do this is a moment I can only hope for: This 2-year-old Dodgers fan was very worried about @redturn2‘s injury on Monday night. (via @agr_dodgers22) pic.twitter.com/JH9nEUcPcB — ESPN (@espn) March … Continue reading Justin Turner Boo Boo Baby (Daryll)
First up in our predictions of the 2018 Major League Baseball season might be the easiest one of all to predict first place. Yet perhaps more than the team at the top, this division will play a hand in the … Continue reading National League East Preview (Daryll and Giuseppe)
Baseball would like to tell you that its waning popularity in the youth market is because it has a pace of play problem. Certainly, eliminating some of the dead time between action is a great goal to keep the attention … Continue reading Baseball’s Personality Problem (Daryll)
Attention, attention! The MLB Season opens up Thursday, March 29th. As in for ALL teams. It’s the first true “Opening Day” since 1968 – instead of a staggered schedule or even opening internationally as MLB has done over the past … Continue reading Doubleday Double Talk MLB Predictions 2018 (Daryll and Giuseppe)
MLB Pipeline released their Top Farm Systems of 2018 and it just so happens that the two teams I follow the most are the top two on the list: the Atlanta Braves at #2 and the San Diego Padres at … Continue reading The Best Is Yet To Come: Acuna Matata (Daryll)
Baseball wants to be more like hockey and less like curling. Yet things aren’t working out so well. The average MLB game time went up to a record 3 hours and 5 minutes last season, and frankly I was surprised … Continue reading MLB Needs to Speed Up Pace of Play (and Initiative to Get there!) (Daryll)
Spring Training baseball has finally commenced, and finally many of the questions that have been asked since the final out of the dramatic 2017 World Series begin to get answered. Can the Astros repeat? Can the Dodgers avenge? Is Shohei … Continue reading Baseball Games Are Being Played: What Matters? (Daryll)
There are moments in the history of franchises that alter the trajectory for years to come. In today’s modern baseball economy, often players that teams do or don’t sign end up shaping that course either directly or indirectly. Over the … Continue reading San Diego Padres Signing Eric Hosmer Is Their Jayson Werth Moment (Daryll)
Why do the simplest answers sometimes seem like the hardest to figure out? As legendary Padres closer Trevor Hoffman gets ready to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this July, baseball might be transitioning away from the career … Continue reading Are Closers like Aroldis Chapman Overrated? (Daryll)
Now that pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training is days away, and now that Yu Darvish has hopefully started the free agent pitching domino effect, what is next for the high profile free agents left? It seems likely that … Continue reading Who Will Go Next? (Daryll)
The Philadelphia Eagles surprised just about everybody by winning the Super Bowl on Sunday against the almighty New England Patriots. What some people might forget is that just a couple of years ago this team had been taken over and … Continue reading What to Learn from the Eagles Championship (Daryll)
The US economy is humming along quite nicely. Major League Baseball achieved record revenues of over $10 Billion last season. After several high drama, big market World Series, the sport is very relevant again and poised for future growth. So … Continue reading Slow Market for Free Agents? Or Something More? (Daryll)
This week the Cleveland Indians announced that they will no longer be featuring Chief Wahoo, their cartoon depiction of a hyperbolic personification of Native Americans. Ohio, in fact, does come from the Seneca word for “beautiful river”, but the logo … Continue reading The Problem with the Chief (Daryll)
Chipper Jones was inducted along with Trevor Hoffman, Jim Thome, and Vlad Guerrero, Wednesday into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. While Doubleday Double Talk strives to bring the best in baseball information, opinion, and analysis, in … Continue reading The Last Great Brave Inducted Into Hall of Fame (Daryll)
‘‘If you have a metric that never matches up with the eye test, it’s probably wrong. And if it never surprises you, it’s probably useless. But if four out of five times it tells you what you know, and one … Continue reading How to Talk Baseball in 2018 (Daryll)
Josh Donaldson and the Blue Jays agreed to a record pre-arbitration settlement Friday, and it could end up being even more of a bargain for the Blue Jays down the road. His one year $23M deal surpasses the arbitration record … Continue reading The Value of Handling Arbitration Correctly (Daryll)
Tonight the University of Georgia takes on the Nick Saban led University of Alabama. Alabama has been a model of consistency and discipline for over a decade now. They have avoided off the field distractions and sent dozens of players … Continue reading Why Do We Hate the Dominant Teams Like Alabama? (Daryll)
Pitching is probably the most valued commodity in baseball, and yet one of the hardest to predict future years and hand out big contracts for. Before 2016, David Price signed a $216M for 7 years. By the end of year … Continue reading What’s In a Role? (Daryll)
Great post to read first by my colleage Giuseppe about who he would vote into baseball’s Hall of Fame, the greatest hall of them all. In my opinion, I think the Hall of Fame is getting just a little bit … Continue reading Who I Would Vote Into the MLB Hall of Fame (Daryll)
The Atlanta Braves reputation in Major League Baseball took a major hit this week, when disgraced former GM John Coppolella was put on MLB’s permanent ineligibility list. Additionally they were stripped of 13 prospects, saw special assistant Gordon Blakely suspended … Continue reading Atlanta Braves Disgraced Following Scandal (Daryll)
After the very entertaining 2017 season capped off by a great playoffs and World Series, it was hard for me to say goodbye to baseball. So when a chance came for me to arrange my work schedule to allow for … Continue reading Fall Baseball in Arizona (Daryll)
The Houston Astros stand alone as 2017 Major League Baseball World Champions. After an incredible World Series, they beat the Dodgers in Game 7 Wednesday night as so well told here by Giuseppe. We all know that only one team … Continue reading When Hope Turns to Memory (Daryll)
We knew it would come to this. It just had to, didn’t it? Great article over at fivethirtyeight.com that has a ranking of the Top 20 World Series games ranked by win probability added – which is basically a stat … Continue reading It All Comes Down To This (Daryll)
Managerial great Earl Weaver summed up last night’s game years ago when he said this about baseball over 30 years ago: “You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. … Continue reading “You Can’t Kill the Clock…”Game 2 World Series Recap (Daryll)
Can we stop saying anything negative about Clayton Kershaw in the post-season? He absolutely dominated Tuesday night in Game 1 of the 2017 World Series, going 7 strong and striking out 11 while giving up just one lone run. He … Continue reading Dodgers Dominate in Game 1 (Daryll)
Sports Illustrated saw this coming in 2014. I saw it coming in March. Now, the Astros have advanced to the World Series to face the Dodgers after winning a thrilling Game 7 Saturday night in Houston. The Yankees will most … Continue reading Astros Advance to the World Series! (Daryll)
The best team in baseball in 2017 is headed to their first World Series since 1988. The Dodgers throttled the Cubs 11-1 to mercifully end the NLCS and advance in 5 games. They hope to follow in the 2016 Cubs … Continue reading Dodgers Moving On to the World Series (Daryll)
Why baseball? Amidst all the other forms of entertainment that we can access at speeds and volumes never seen before in human history – why do I choose to spend October evenings staring at a TV screen watching two teams … Continue reading Why Baseball? It’s All Connected (Daryll)
It all starts tonight, the most wonderful time of the year with no apologies to Christmas. Baseball Playoff time of course! Even though I don’t have a team in the race this year, that can actually be better for my … Continue reading 2017 Daryll Playoff Predictions (Daryll)
Playoff baseball is nearly here, with just a couple days of mostly inconsequential games this weekend. The Rockies have a 2 game lead over the Brewers for the second Wild Card spot and the Red Sox are 2 games up … Continue reading The Playoffs Are Coming! (Daryll)
This past week with just his 8th home run of the season, Kansas City’s Alex Gordon set a new single season home run record for all of Major League Baseball. It was the 5,694th home run, breaking the previous home … Continue reading What Matters Anymore? (Daryll)
Baseball sure is a funny game. That 162 game season is a long one – and a team that looks amazing one month is dreadful the next. Take the Los Angeles Dodgers of 2017. It wasn’t so long ago we … Continue reading WINdians continue their way, Dodgers only dodging wins… (Daryll)
Since the dawn of baseball beginning with Abner DoubleDay in the Elysian Fields with the formation of the National Association of Baseball Players in 1871, people have been trying to figure out how to know to measure just who is really … Continue reading Keith Law Wants You to Know About Smart Baseball (Daryll)
The reigning American League MVP is Mike Trout – and the reigning National League MVP is Kris Bryant. In 2017 Bryant had a WAR (Wins Above Replacement) rating of 7.7, while Trout scored 10.5. What that means is that Trout … Continue reading What’s in a Wild Card Spot? How About An MVP Award (Daryll)
The Wild Card playoff berth, since being introduced in 1995 to Major League Baseball, has produced 5 World Series Champions. This includes three straight from 2002-2004 (Angels, Marlins, Red Sox) as well as the 2014 San Francisco Giants. It grew … Continue reading The NOT So Wild Card Race (Daryll)
The end of July is coming – and that means that teams should know by now whether they are going for the playoffs or not. The problem is – with those two wild card spots and some teams zigging when … Continue reading Pennant Race Prediction Check Up (Daryll)
What people can miss about leadership is when it is shown by indirect actions. You expect leadership to be someone calling an inspirational meeting – telling their peers that they will do whatever it takes to lead the charge, fire … Continue reading Unselfish Leadership on Display in Atlanta (Daryll)
Baseball is not above the occasional joke every once in awhile. Perhaps less of a joke than a moment that makes you just shake your head and appreciate the spontaneity of sports all at once. For truly sports (NBA is … Continue reading Scooter Gennett Makes History (Daryll)
It is strange to say it, but it was almost an inevitable truth that someday Albert Pujols would hit 600 home runs. Saturday night he did so by hitting a Grand Slam to secure an Angels victory. AND THERE IT … Continue reading Albert Pujols Hits 600th Homer in Grand Fashion (Daryll)
Cal Ripken Jr played in 2,632 consecutive games. Lou Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive games. This is another record that will likely never, ever be broken. As discussed by Giuseppe, the Atlanta Braves star Freddie Freeman was hit in the … Continue reading Being a Superstar Isn’t Easy (Daryll)
I decided one day I just didn’t want to go to work. I had made some plans with my girlfriend to get away for the weekend, but had been hesitant to tell work about it. I was a couple years … Continue reading Not Showing Up For Work is Not Okay (Daryll)
Matt Harvey convinced Manager Terry Collins to keep him in the game for the 9th, but the Kansas City Royals tied the game, then won it in extra innings for their first World Series Championship since 1985. It was only … Continue reading Rebuilds Provide Short Window of Winning (Daryll)
