Places like ESPN.com and MLB.com are great sources for baseball news and scores, but they don’t always go as in-depth as they could. Here are 7 of my favorite niche baseball sites. I frequent these blogs and sites several times a day. They cover topics such as trade rumors, prospects, statistics, and more. You’ve probably heard of a few, but certainly not all of them. So here are my 7 favorite baseball sites:
- MLB Trade Rumors — By far the best source for trade and free agent rumors. The site is run by Tim Dierkes and is always the first place to find the latest rumor news. They post several stories a day (almost too much to keep up with), and provide several other features such as a weekly chat and a weekly blog rundown.
- Fangraphs – There are two aspects that I love about Fangraphs: their blog and their stats. Fangraphs provides awesome analysis with their daily blog posts, and they have statistics for every player that you won’t find anywhere else — stats like UZR, wOBA, and WAR.
- Cot’s Baseball Contracts — Cot’s Baseball Contracts has the most thorough and up-to-date contract details for every player of every team. If I ever want to find out how much a player is getting paid or how long until he becomes a free agent, I head to Cot’s.
- Baseball Reference — Baseball Reference is another great source for finding player and team statistics. They also have nearly every Minor Leaguer’s stats.
- Minor League Ball – John Sickels is constantly sharing his take on the top prospects in baseball. Right now, he’s going through his top 20 prospects for every team. If you want to learn about the top prospects in the game, John has the skinny.
- Circling the Bases — Another great sources for the latest rumors. Good writing and interesting topics come with each blog post.
- MLB News and Rumors — Why bothering visiting all of these sites when I can visit just one? MLB News and Rumors takes the RSS feeds from the top baseball blogs and sites and puts them into one place. They have sections for news, prospects, rumors, analysis, and more. They even have pages for each team’s top blogs. The site is also a great source for finding new baseball blogs.
That’s it. I hope you enjoy these websites as much as I have.
The 2009 National League Rawlings Gold Glove winners were announced today. Here are the winners:
| Position |
Player |
Team |
| C |
Yadier Molina |
St. Louis Cardinals |
| 1B |
Adrian Gonzalez |
San Diego Padres |
| 2B |
Orlando Hudson |
Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 3B |
Ryan Zimmerman |
Washington Nationals |
| SS |
Jimmy Rollins |
Philadelphia Phillies |
| OF |
Michael Bourn |
Houston Astros |
| OF |
Matt Kemp |
Los Angeles Dodgers |
| OF |
Shane Victorinio |
Philadelphia Phillies |
| P |
Adam Wainwright |
St. Louis Cardinals |
This is Hudson’s fourth award. Rollins wins best shortstop for the third season in a row. Wainwright, Zimmerman, Kemp, and Bourn are all first time winners. When MLB Trade Deadline made their picks, only Gonzalez, Zimmerman, and Molina were selected from the actual winners.
The Oakland Athletics acquired second baseman Adam Kennedy from the Tampa Bay Rays for a player to be named later or cash. Kennedy, 33, hit .280/.321/.372 in 365 plate appearances last season. The Rays signed Kennedy to a minor league contract after being released by the Cardinals this winter.
Kennedy gives the team a veteran to fill in for the injured Mark Ellis. The second baseman will likely be outrighted when Ellis returns.
The New York Mets roster is starting to take shape:
- The Mets cut seven players. Five players were released: IF Jose Valentin, LHP Ron Villone, RHP Nelson Figueroa, IF Andy Green, and C Rene Rivera. Two players were optioned: OF Cory Sullivan and RHP Carlos Muniz.
- Jeremy Reed will serve as the team’s fifth outfielder.
- Pedro Feliciano will be the only lefty in the bullpen.
- Bobby Parnell is likely to make the team’s bullpen.
- Four candidate will vie for two bullpen spots. The candidates are Brian Stokes, Darren O’Day, Fernando Nieve, and Elmer Dessens (the longshot of the group).
With the recent declaration from New York Mets manager Jerry Manuel that he would like to see Daniel Murphy bat second, the look of the Mets lineup is starting to take shape. Here is the lineup that Amzin’ Avenue forsees:
1. Jose Reyes, shortstop
2. Daniel Murphy, left field
3. David Wright, third base
4. Carlos Beltran, center field
5. Carlos Delgado, first base
6. Ryan Church, right field
7. Brian Schneider, catcher
8. Luis Castillo, second base
As far as the 25-man roster goes, the Eddie Kranpool Society takes a look at what the opening day roster for the Mets might look like.
Over 20 scouts from over 10 teams went to watch Japan pitcher Yu Darvish face the Chicago Cubs in an exhibition game. Darvish, 22, did not disappoint. The right-hander threw two scoreless innings while hitting 96 mph on the radar gun. Darvish also threw his slider and two-seam fastball, but the appearance of his curveball is uncertain.
Darvish has shown no signs of interest in make the jump to Major League Baseball anytime soon, but when he does, he’ll certainly draw a lot of interest.
Royals Review did a nice job of collecting the projections the starting rotation candidates of the Kansas City Royals. Greinke and Meche look solid, but after them things get a bit ugly.
Note: You’ll have to read the article to find out the difference between Horacio Ramirez and Ho-Ram.
Jon Weisman over at Dodger Thoughts recently posted thirteen questions from a quiz given to rookie Dodgers players in 1969. Do you have the mind of a baseball player? Go check it out.
Beyond the Boxscore has a video of San Diego Padres minor league pitcher Mark Worrell and his funky delivery.
According to sources, the Ricketts family has been selected as the winning bidder to purchase the Chicago Cubs from the Tribune co. The bid is worth $900 million. Tom Ricketts is a member of the founding family of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and the chief executive of InCapital LLC.
Apparently Ricketts is a huge Cub fan, which should be great for the team. Passinate fans deserve a passionate owner.