Blue Bird Banter

Photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images Steve Garvey is on the Classis Baseball Yada Yada Yada Committee Ballot. Garvey played 19 seasons in the MLB, the first 14 with the Dodgers and then 5 with the Padres. Career he hit .294/.329/.446 with 272 home runs and a 38.0 bWAR. He received MVP votes nine times, winning it in 1974 and second in 1978. He won four Gold Gloves … [Read more...] about Hall of Fame Poll: Steve Garvey

Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images Taking a look at Bichette’s 2024 season. Coming into this season, after five years in the MLB, I thought we knew what Bo would give us this year. An OPS in the low .800s, OPS+ in the 120s. Defense that’s not quite as good as you’d expect, given his athletic ability, but after we consider his offense, we can live with it. We knew there … [Read more...] about The season that was: Bo Bichette

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images We have used this idea for the last couple of years. The idea is to go through some of the top free agents, use the contract FanGraphs suggests they will get and have a poll asking if we would like to sign him for that amount. Nick Martinez is #22 on Ben Clemens’ list at FanGraphs and #17 on Keith Law’s list at the Athletic. Martinez … [Read more...] about Free Agent Poll: Nick Martinez

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images Next up should be John Donaldson, but I don’t know enough about him to discuss his candidacy for the Hall of Fame. He played a few seasons in the Negro National League for three decades (1908 to 1940), but his stats, for the most part, aren’t part of the numbers that made it to pages of Baseball Reference. Next would be Carlos Gonzalez, … [Read more...] about Hall of Fame Polls: Curtis Granderson

Photo by Scott Iskowitz/Getty Images We are having an epic snowstorm. No one in their right mind would be out on the roads today. Of course, I’m playing squash in a few minutes, but no one would accuse me of being in my right mind. This year is Mark Buehrle’s fourth time on the ballot. His vote started at 11.0%, then 5.8%, 10.8% and 8.3% last year. It doesn’t look like … [Read more...] about Hall of Fame Polls: Mark Buehrle