Short Stops for a Change

Alex Belth, the multi-talented writer who founded Bronx Banter, authored a piece on the evolution of shortstops at SI.com. He refers to Patrick Sullivan's study on this subject and includes a couple of quotes from me as well as contributions from Steve Treder, Glenn Stout, Mike Carminati, and Bill James.

Cal Ripken Jr., who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday, is prominently featured in Belth's article. The focus is on offense and Belth concludes, "The slugging shortstop is not likely to disappear anytime soon." Starting with Honus Wagner and ending with a number of current shortstops, Belth asks, "Is this the best crop of hitting shortstops in history?"

Interestingly, Belth, Treder, Stout, and Carminati have all served as Designated Hitters at Baseball Analysts (see links in the sidebar on the left). Even Sully got his start here with a guest column entitled "A WARPed Study of Yankee CF and Red Sox LF." We're only missing James although he's been known to show up on our site from time to time.

- Posted by Rich Lederer, 7/28/07 at 12:05 a.m. PST

Sully's Gully

The latest coming out of Texas has the Rangers waiting until the very last minute to pull the trigger on Tex. Sticky Fingers Callahan, the team masseur, insists that Jon Daniels is going to make damn sure he gets full value here. Foxtrot Rosenthal and I exchanged emails last night about some insider-ey stuff and let me tell you, this Tex to Atlanta deal is the sweetest one on Daniels's table at the moment, but that is most certainly subject to change.

If Theo Epstein gets cold feet on Wily Mo Pena for Andy LaRoche, maybe Jonathan Broxton would sweeten the pot. You gotta just trust me here, this one makes sense fot the Dodgers. Did I mention Pena went 4-5 the other night and has a physique that any MedHead can get excited over?

If Dave Littlefield knew who Brandon Moss was, he might have a deal for Salomon Torres. Since Moss exceeded his two Minor Leaguer per other MLB team familiarity maximum, Littlefield took it off the table. He has now set his sights on Phil Hughes, who Wayne Krivsky informed him is one heck of a nice lookin' live arm.

Tampa Bay is looking to move Elijah Dukes. Aaron Schatz is working the phones to see if the Cincinnati Bengals offer of Frostee Rucker and Chris Henry will get it done.

The Red Sox are close to a deal. Don't ask me who they might be acquiring or what the terms of the deal might be. But my sources tell me something's imminent, and I would be remiss if I did not come on here and let you readers know that.

Finally, let me just say that being an insider is fun. A LOT OF FUN. But it comes with the hardship of having your inbox just absolutely inundated during times like these. Since you are my readers and I love you all so very much, and because I am configured with a moral fiber few could possibly understand (the Twins trainer confirmed this for me), I feel obliged to reply to every email. Please be sure to read all of my writings over the last six months before you email me to make sure you are not asking something I have already covered.

Be back soon!

- Posted by Sully, 7/28/07, 9:55 AM EST

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[Source: Baseball Analysts]