Mel Antonen

Will Ken Griffey Jr. win unanimous election to the Hall of Fame?

Nationals Orioles
Will Ken Griffey Jr. win unanimous election to the Hall of Fame?
Hall of Fame ballots for the Baseball Writers' Association of America are in, and so the burning question between now and Jan. 6, when the results will be announced, is whether outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. will be the first player to be elected unanimously. Griffey, who played primarily for Seattle and Cincinnati, is in his first year of eligibility. There is no legitimate argument for not voting for Griffey. He's one of the best centerfielders of all-time. He was born in Denora, Pa., same...
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Mel Antonen

The tragic story of Pete Rose

Nationals Orioles
The tragic story of Pete Rose
The Pete Rose story is tragic, and I feel for Pete Rose. His whole life has been given to baseball. He defines the Cincinnati Reds much like Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Sparky Anderson. He is the all-time hits leader with 4,256, played in six World Series, a ton of All-Star games and won three National League batting titles. Seven times he led the NL in hits. He made teams better. His enthusiasm for the game was contagious. His persistence and determination to win was a lesson for all...
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Mel Antonen

The rising cost of a strong bullpen

Nationals Orioles
The rising cost of a strong bullpen
With David Price and Zack Greinke signing contracts worth more than $200 million, do you think the price of starting pitching is skyrocketing this season? Check out the cost of bullpen help. The Orioles and Darren O'Day held a press conference Tuesday at Camden Yards after O'Day, 33, signed a four-year, $31 million contract to stay in Baltimore. Others teams, such as Washington, San Francisco and Atlanta, wanted to sign O'Day, who stabilizes the Orioles bullpen's setup role with Brian...
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Mel Antonen

Which AL East teams are most improved after baseball's Winter Meetings?

Orioles
Which AL East teams are most improved after baseball's Winter Meetings?
NASHVILLE - When was the last time you heard or read this sentence? The Detroit Tigers have a strong bullpen. As the Winter Meetings end, the Tigers are the American League team with the most dramatic makeover at this point in the offseason. And the Boston Red Sox are right there in the argument. When the Tigers dominated the AL Central with four titles from 2011 to 2014, the problem for manager Jim Leyland was always a thin bullpen. Who knows what the Tigers would have accomplished in those...
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Mel Antonen

With Winter Meetings in the books, a look at the NL East

Nationals
With Winter Meetings in the books, a look at the NL East
NASHVILLE - And the winner of the most improved team in the National League is - drum roll, please - the Arizona Diamondbacks. As the Winter Meetings conclude, the Diamondbacks, who had 79 wins last season for a 15-win improvement from the previous year, have added balance to the NL West. No longer is the division a two-team race between the Giants and the Dodgers. "They have so many good young players," Giants manager Bruce Bochy says. "They play solid defense. They score runs and now they...
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Mel Antonen

As Winter Meetings near end, second basemen are coming and going

Nationals Orioles
As Winter Meetings near end, second basemen are coming and going
NASHVILLE - The news of the third day of the winter meetings involves second basemen, one that's going home and another that's leaving home. Ben Zobrist signed a four-year, $56 million contract with the Chicago Cubs, partly because he wanted to be close to home and family in Eureka, Ill. Neil Walker has no choice but to leave his family roots in Pittsburgh after the Pirates traded him to the New York Mets. Zobrist has played in the south with Tampa Bay and on the West Coast with Oakland. He...
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Mel Antonen

Adjustments possible, but Torre says no major changes coming to replay in 2016

Nationals Orioles
Adjustments possible, but Torre says no major changes coming to replay in 2016
NASHVILLE - Joe Torre, the chief baseball officer of Major League Baseball, likes how instant replay has become part of the game and he doesn't see any major changes coming for 2016. "We're going to probably make adjustments or tweaks to it as the technology gets better," Torre said Tuesday on the second day of the Winter Meetings. "The Super Slow Mo gives us a better picture and we can see more things. The fact that we overturned 50 percent means that managers are getting more comfortable...
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Mel Antonen

Are Dodgers stockpiling closers or preparing to deal relief arm for a starting pitcher?

Nationals Orioles
Are Dodgers stockpiling closers or preparing to deal relief arm for a starting pitcher?
NASHVILLE - After the first day of the Winter Meetings, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the team that made a big deal and created the biggest set of questions. The Dodgers lost starter Zack Greinke to Arizona and had arranged a trade for Cincinnati's lefty closer, Aroldis Chapman - until domestic abuse allegations surfaced Monday night, putting the deal in jeopardy. The Dodgers have gone from having the best one-two punch in the rotation - Clayton Kershaw and Greinke - to having the potentially...
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Mel Antonen

The price of pitching continues to rise

Nationals Orioles
The price of pitching continues to rise
NASHVILLE - Baseball's Winter Meetings return to Nashville, the place where Kevin Brown made contract history in December 1998, signing a seven-year, $105 million contract to pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The news of Brown's contract, which beat the previous record of the Mets' seven-year deal worth $91 million for Mike Piazza a few months earlier, stunned the meetings and the general thought was that the industry was going broke. Brown also got 12 airline trips a year for his family to...
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Mel Antonen

What does Zack Greinke signing with Arizona mean for the NL West?

Nationals
What does Zack Greinke signing with Arizona mean for the NL West?
Does Zack Greinke's signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks mean that we've seen the biggest shocker move of the offseason? Does it mean that the Winter Meetings next week in Nashville are going to be without drama? Hardly. The Diamondbacks have been hinting all offseason that they were going to make a push for pitching and subsequently a push to challenge the Dodgers and Giants in the National League West. And while the general consensus is that Greinke was choosing to sign with the Dodgers or...
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Mel Antonen

Heading into the Winter Meetings, some questions and answers to contemplate

Nationals Orioles
Heading into the Winter Meetings, some questions and answers to contemplate
As the Winter Meetings approach, here are some questions and answers to ponder: Q: Are the Red Sox crazy for signing lefty David Price for $217 million, which averages $31 million a year and basically $1 million a start, complete game or not? A: They aren't crazy, but they are tired of losing. They won the World Series in 2013, but they have finished last in the American League East in three of the last four seasons. The fan base is restless, and given they have a huge local TV market,...
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Mel Antonen

Did Jordan Zimmermann join a Tigers team on the rise or in decline?

Nationals
Did Jordan Zimmermann join a Tigers team on the rise or in decline?
As expected, Jordan Zimmermann is gone from the Nationals. He's agreed to a five-year, $110 million contract with the Detroit Tigers, his first chance to pitch in the American League. But what kind of team are the Tigers going to be next season? They could either be an aging team in need of a rebuild, much like the Philadelphia Phillies, or a team planning to return to first place in the AL Central with the addition of Zimmermann. Zimmermann, who turns 30 in May, will slot No. 2 in the Tigers...
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Mel Antonen

Will teams be hunting for pitching bargains during holiday shopping season?

Nationals Orioles
Will teams be hunting for pitching bargains during holiday shopping season?
The holidays are arriving, as well as the bargain-hunting shopping season. Who doesn't like a good deal? Baseball teams are no different, especially when it comes to pitchers. The only ways to upgrade a pitching staff is to sign a free agent, trade prospects or go for the lightning-in-a-bottle route, hoping that a pitcher can get healthy or shake off a bad season, much like the Orioles did with Miguel Gonzalez, the Pirates with Francisco Liriano or the Twins with Phil Hughes. The Orioles need...
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Mel Antonen

Should Jake Arrieta have won the NL Cy Young Award over Zack Greinke?

Nationals
Should Jake Arrieta have won the NL Cy Young Award over Zack Greinke?
Jake Arrieta, the former Orioles pitcher with the Chicago Cubs, is this year's National League Cy Young Award winner, but this is another award I don't get. Arrieta was the best second-half pitcher in baseball and he's a reason the Cubs won the wild card game. But should he win the NL Cy Young Award? I don't think so. I was one of the 30 voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America who cast a ballot for this award. People asked if this was the most difficult vote among the...
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Mel Antonen

Explaining my BBWAA vote for AL Manager of the Year

Orioles
Explaining my BBWAA vote for AL Manager of the Year
I was in the minority in the voting for the American League's Manager of the Year. I was one of two voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America to cast my first-place ballot for New York's Joe Girardi, who led the Yankees to a wild card spot in the playoffs. Texas' Jeff Banister, with 17 first-place votes, won the award followed by Houston's A.J. Hinch and Minnesota's Paul Molitor. Banister led the Rangers to the AL West title. This was the most intriguing Manager of the...
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Mel Antonen

Will busier-than-usual GM meetings turn into wild offseason of wheeling and dealing?

Nationals Orioles
Will busier-than-usual GM meetings turn into wild offseason of wheeling and dealing?
The general managers meetings concluded this week in Boca Raton, Fla., and while these gatherings are usually for fact-finding missions, there were plenty of trades. Perhaps it is because of the turnover - one-third of the bosses that make the trades - are new to teams this year. We anticipate that the GM meetings could launch a wild and crazy offseason. So here are the talking points after a week of talking in Boca Raton: * There is a never-ending speculation that the Nationals will trade...
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Mel Antonen

Predictions for BBWAA awards, some of which are very tight races

Nationals Orioles
Predictions for BBWAA awards, some of which are very tight races
Pitcher Jake Arrieta dominated in the season's second half, posting a 0.75 ERA and finishing with 22 wins and a 1.77 ERA for the Cubs. The Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw had a 2.13 ERA and led the National League with 301 strikeouts. So Arrieta and Kershaw are the top candidates for the NL Cy Young Award? Think again. The numbers for Arrieta and Kershaw are impressive, but they are overshadowed by the Dodgers' Zack Greinke, who had 19 wins and won the NL ERA title with a 1.66 ERA. That's why the...
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Mel Antonen

Looking at the latest Hall of Fame ballot

Nationals Orioles
Looking at the latest Hall of Fame ballot
The latest baseball Hall of Fame ballot is in the mail to eligible voters - and this time, there is a new twist. The Hall of Fame cut the number of eligible voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America, so how a smaller electorate will affect the voting is yet to be determined. Last year, there were 549 ballots cast, meaning that 412 votes - 75 percent - were needed to make Cooperstown. This year, 475 writers are eligible for ballots. The ballots are due Dec. 21 and results will be...
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Mel Antonen

Breaking down the local free agents and who might be interested in them

Nationals Orioles
Breaking down the local free agents and who might be interested in them
The free agent season has arrived and the two local nines will look different in 2016 given their free agent list and the value of those players on the open market. The Nationals and Orioles won't be able to keep everyone. Every team needs pitching and the list for free agent starting pitchers is long, so how will that affect the market? The Orioles need rotation help and stability in their outfield corners. The Nationals, with new manager Dusty Baker, have to fix their bullpen and decide how...
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Mel Antonen

Everything you need to know about Dusty Baker (including some things you probably never thought to ask about)

Nationals
Everything you need to know about Dusty Baker (including some things you probably never thought to ask about)
Dusty Baker, who has managed the Giants, Cubs and Reds, will be introduced Thursday as the Nationals' new manager, replacing his good friend, Matt Williams. The Nationals wanted an experienced manager and they got it: Baker has managed 20 seasons in the big leagues. Here's what you need to know about Baker: * Baker's given name is Johnnie B. Baker, but his mom gave him the nickname Dusty when he was a kid for an obvious reason: He was the type that was constantly playing in the dirt. *...
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