MLB 40-Man Roster Analysis
Mar. 30, 2012
Major leaguers come from everywhere. Brandon Beachy was a nondrafted free agent, Travis Hafner is from North Dakota and Mariano Rivera is from Panama. However, they are the exceptions. Where do the rest of the players come from? [...] Continue Reading »

2012 Major League Preview And Predictions
Mar. 14, 2012
Our predictions for the 2012 Major League season. [...] Continue Reading »

Three-Year Lefty-Righty Splits For Each MLB Park
Mar. 13, 2012
Most major league ballparks affect righthanded and lefthanded batters differently, so teams cannot necessarily rely on an overall park factor when searching for players most ideally suited for playing 81 games at home each year. Here you'll find righty/lefty hitting averages for all 30 parks during the past three seasons. [...] Continue Reading »

Extreme Home-Road Splits By Big League Regulars
Mar. 13, 2012
Some parks play better for offense than others, and some players take advantage of (or are penalized by) their surroundings moreso than others. To identify some of these players, we present the top 30 most dramatic positive and negative home/road OPS splits since 2009. [...] Continue Reading »

Home Parks Affect Fortunes Of Talented Youngsters
Mar. 13, 2012
A handful of top prospects, including Jesus Montero, Jarrod Parker and Yonder Alonso, will feel the effects of switching home venues after recent trades set them up in new ballparks. Also, find out which major league parks are most friendly or unfriendly when it comes to home runs and other safe hits by both lefthanded and righthanded batters. [...] Continue Reading »

Rays Now See Possibility Of Surviving In St. Pete
Mar. 9, 2012
It wasn't that long ago that the idea of the Rays as preseason favorites to reach the World Series seemed as unlikely as the team moving out of its longtime domed home at Tropicana Field. [...] Continue Reading »

Rays Have Great Expectations For 2012
Mar. 9, 2012
Executive vice president Andrew Friedman passed on opportunities to leave town. Manager Joe Maddon extended his contract. Starters Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann are both—surprisingly—still there, as is center fielder B.J. Upton, along with the rest of the core of their squad. But there is something very new, and very different, in Rays camp this year: Expectations. [...] Continue Reading »

Preseason Top 20 Rookies List
Mar. 8, 2012
Our free list of the Top 20 rookies for 2012. [...] Continue Reading »

2012 Preseason Top 20 Rookies
Mar. 8, 2012
Our picks for the top rookies of 2012 with analysis [...] Continue Reading »

Trade Lets Yonder Alonso Go Home To First
Mar. 8, 2012
If anyone asks Yonder Alonso what part of his European vacation last December was the most memorable, the answer won't be the sights and tastes of Spain or the soccer match played by his favorite futbol team, Real Madrid. No, the No. 1 scrapbook moment was the phone call informing Alonso he'd been traded to the Padres. [...] Continue Reading »

For 2012, Mariners Want Jesus Montero To Focus On Hitting
Mar. 7, 2012
For 2012, the Mariners want Jesus Montero to make a splash as a hitter. Catching will largely come later. [...] Continue Reading »

Freeman Ready To Help Lead Braves Next Youth Movement
Mar. 22, 2011
For the second time in as many seasons, Atlanta general manager Frank Wren entered spring training having penciled a rookie into the starting lineup. What's more, Wren also opted to walk the proverbial tightrope without a net, meaning the options should Freddie Freeman falter are not considered certainties to stop a freefall at the infield's first turn. [...] Continue Reading »

Opportunity, Ability Dictate A Pitcher's Role
Mar. 17, 2011
Once upon a time, an American League team had a hard-throwing righthander who had started his entire career—until he was moved to the bullpen, where he struck out more than a batter an inning, held opponents to a sub-.200 average and helped his team get to the World Series. The Rangers face that crossroads now with Neftali Feliz, but four years ago, the Tigers were in a similar position with Joel Zumaya. Or maybe not so similar. [...] Continue Reading »

Living For Present, White Sox Keep Sale In Bullpen
Mar. 17, 2011
Chris Sale was supposed to move back to the rotation this year, but the big league clubs needs have trumped that idea. [...] Continue Reading »

2011 Top 20 Rookies
Mar. 16, 2011
As much as Baseball America loves prospects, we love rookies more. It's when prospects turn into big leaguers, when they turn the tassel, walk across that stage and graduate from minor to major leaguer. These 20 players are the ones we want to never again appear in a Prospect Handbook. [...] Continue Reading »

One-Time Top Prospect Andrew Miller Embraces A Second Chance
Mar. 16, 2011
Andrew Miller is in this position because he chose to be. In that, the 25-year-old is unique. [...] Continue Reading »

Every Year There Are Some Rookie Surprises
Mar. 16, 2011
Scan our postseason rookie rankings through the years and you'll find the point at which dozens of elite prospects turned into productive big leaguers. You can find this year's Top 20 Rookies. But it's important to take a look back as well. [...] Continue Reading »

Maturity Has Drabek Ready For Toronto's Rotation
Mar. 16, 2011
Kyle Drabek's long road to the majors appears ready to finish up in Toronto. [...] Continue Reading »

Predicting The Season
Mar. 24, 2010
For this year's predictions on how each team will finish, we've turned to our friends at FanGraphs (fangraphs.com), who have used their proprietary system to break down the batting, fielding and pitching of each team. This data is the aggregation of thousands of projections of individual players, and for each category it's expressed as runs above average. [...] Continue Reading »

2010 Top 20 Rookies
Mar. 17, 2010
Our predictions of the top rookies for 2010, led by No. 1 rookie Jason Heyward. [...] Continue Reading »

Giants Look For Charge From Future Battery
Mar. 15, 2010
Giants top prospects Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner form the most highly touted battery in baseball. But they had trouble holding a charge last year in the late-summer heat. [...] Continue Reading »

Mariners' Zduriencik Blazes Trail For Scouting Directors
Mar. 12, 2010
Jack Zduriencik has helped paved a path for other scouting directors with his impressive moves since taking over the Seattle Mariners general manager's job. [...] Continue Reading »

GMs Need More Skills Than Ever Before
Mar. 12, 2010
It would be wildly inaccurate to say that the job of the general manager has become unrecognizable over the last 10 years. The goal remains the same: accumulate the best talent available within a budget in an effort to compete for the short and long term. The most important skill remains talent evaluation and the ability to distill the right kinds of information from diverse sources. The constituencies, too, are largely familiar, with GMs accountable to owners, fellow front-office workers, players, coaching staffs, agents, the media and the fans. Yet while those fundamental elements of the job remain the same, the job of major league general managers has taken on a different complexion and additional dimensions over the past 10 years. [...] Continue Reading »

Weiner Becomes The Friendly Face Of The Union
Mar. 10, 2010
Michael Weiner, who became the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association in December, is so nice and so well-liked—and is seen as such a departure, in terms of personality, from his predecessor, Don Fehr—that it sometimes becomes necessary at times for Weiner and his associates to minimize his niceness. [...] Continue Reading »

From Hero To Castoff, Lee Starts Over In Seattle
Mar. 10, 2010
After being the hero of the Phillies' playoff run, Cliff Lee now finds himself starting over in Seattle. [...] Continue Reading »

Revenue Sharing Is Making An Impact
Mar. 2, 2010
It may not be well understand by fans of the game, but Major League Baseball's revenue sharing is reshaping the game and its competitive balance. [...] Continue Reading »

Questions Abound On Opening Day
Apr. 6, 2009
Jonah Keri's annual season preview migrates to BaseballAmerica.com as he looks at the big question facing every major league team this season. [...] Continue Reading »

American League Preview
Mar. 20, 2009
Our take on how the AL will shake out in 2009. [...] Continue Reading »

National League Preview
Mar. 20, 2009
Our look at how the senior circuit shapes up this season. [...] Continue Reading »

Top 25 Rookies
Mar. 6, 2009
This year's BA staff picks for the top rookies in the major leagues looks a lot like the top of our Top 100 Prospects list, and like that list is led off by Matt Wieters and David Price. The bumper crop of catching prospects in the minor leagues probably won't make its full impact for another season or two, while this season's big infusion of talent will come in center field. Players on this list meet the major league standards for rookies: [...] Continue Reading »