Over the last three years, R.A. Dickey has basically been my favorite* baseball player. A couple of weeks ago, he was traded from my favorite baseball team, the New York Mets, to the Toronto Blue Jays. I could break down the trade for you from a sabermetric perspective, point out the wins and losses each […]

[Author's Note: It appears that just about any article can be given a title that relates to a song in my iTunes library. Bonus points for choosing something from Craig Finn's ouerve on a slighly Minnesota-leaning blog?] Big news, everybody. The Indians and Nick Swisher have ended their long courtship (seriously, it sounds as if […]

For the second year in a row, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim* have come out of Anaheim nowhere to sign the biggest name on the free agent market, inking former MVP Josh Hamilton to a five-year, $125 million contract. Everyone's shocked, including

I’m sure I won’t be the only person writing this piece, and I may not be the only TPAer writing this piece, and I may not even be the only TPAer writing this piece for TPA, but here I go anyway: can we view the three-sided Shin-Soo Choo/Trevor Bauer trade in a way that makes […]

As you may have heard (either out in the mean streets of the World Wide Web, or even earlier today here at The Platoon Advantage), the Diamonbacks, Reds, and Indians made a sweet three-team deal. The major pieces are Shin-Soo Choo and Jason Donald heading to Cincinnati, prospect Didi Gregorious, reliever Tony Sipp, and huge […]

Just as parents today must be careful not to coddle their children too much, baseball fans must avoid coveting their favorite prospects. This tendency to prospect overvaluation makes sense, though. After finally learning that signing pricey and mediocre free agents and ignoring the perfectly apt replacements in the minors was the wrong way to go […]

I went on a cruise. I came back alive. Here, then, are five supposedly fun things baseball teams should never do again. 1. Sign Michael Young to a $16 million per year, five-year deal after his age-29 season that doesn't actually kick in until he's 32. It's supposedly fun because Young was a nice 3.5- […]

Every year, one of my favorite parts of the Hot Stove season is watching the reports roll out on various "untouchable" players. Whether these are reports from industry sources, or even the GMs themselves, it's always entertaining to hear about how highly a team values one of their own players, especially when that kind of […]

Here is some news that, as an aside, doesn’t make me entirely happy as an A’s fan who enjoys his team winning and having easy teams to beat up on in the American League West. The news is that the Rangers have put Josh Hamilton contract talks on hold to pursue Zack Greinke. You can […]

Source: Cubs have told Marmol he’s trade candidate but they won’t “give him away.” December 3, 2012 OK? OK. Upcoming tweets: Braves have told Tommy Hanson he’s trade candidate but they won’t “trade him to Seattle” Angels have told Albert Pujols he’s first baseman but they won’t “bat him eighth” Yankees have told Alex Rodriguez […]

If there's anything the last three weeks of baseball transactions have taught us (besides the fact that Jeffrey Loria is a big jerk), it's that a third baseman is a valuable commodity. Evan Longoria signed a big-time extension to remain a Ray until 2022, and then David Wright re-upped with the Mets until 2020. Longoria […]

I love Denard Span. I think he's one of the most underrated players in baseball, and one that was under team control for three more years at insanely low prices, even considering the first two would have been arbitration years ($4.75 million for 2013, $6.5 for 2014, and a no-brainer team option for $9 in 2015).  […]

As you may have noticed, I (Jason) have been attempting to write more here on good ol' TPA. I owe Bill and Mike a lot and I haven't really been handling my obligations lately. Tonight, though, I had to spend five hours proofreading a book for my wife, so I was unable to write a […]