Newsletter Excerpt, December 30, 2019 -- "Mike Matheny and the Royals"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

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"The Royals’ biggest move this winter was hiring Mike Matheny. It’s a peculiar choice; in addition to being one of the worst tactical managers of his era, Matheny struggled to show patience with young players during his time in St. Louis. The Royals are betting a significant part of their rebuilding plan on the idea that Matheny can bring along a young core. I can more easily believe he’ll be a better dugout manager -- the Royals’ front office dragged Ned Yost up from laughably bad to almost adequate -- than that he’ll have the personality change necessary to get young players through their growing pains. This will be the most important story to watch in Kansas City this year."

Newsletter Excerpt, December 29, 2019 -- "Niko Goodrum and the Tigers"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"The Tigers have two of the top pitching prospects in the game, righties Casey Mize and Matt Manning, and both are on track to reach Comerica Park this year. Both were successful at Double-A last year, although the Tigers were cautious with Mize, shutting him down early to manage his workload. Behind those two, maybe by half a season, is lefty Tarik Skubal. Building around young pitchers can be fraught; the 2015 Mets are the only pennant winner this decade to really do so. The upside, though, of having a rotation of controllable, effective pitchers, is enticing. The 2021-23 Tigers shape up as one of the more interesting, high-variance teams in baseball."

Newsletter Excerpt, December 26, 2019 -- "100 Years Ago Today"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

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"We can look back and see how remarkable it seems that a player of Ruth’s stature would be sold, but in its time, it wasn’t strange at all. Connie Mack famously sold off the core of his back-to-back-pennant-winning A’s teams, including Hall of Famers Eddie Collins ($50,000) and Frank Baker ($37,500), after they lost the 1914 World Series. The Red Sox, prior to Frazee buying the team, had sold Tris Speaker to the Indians for $55,000 and a couple of players (one of whom, Sad Sam Jones, went on to a long career). Branch Rickey would later become known for controlling large numbers of prospects largely for the purposes of selling them -- and taking a cut of the proceeds."

Newsletter Excerpt, December 23, 2019 -- "AL in Transition"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"In the AL in particular, you have this very strange dynamic, though, where the teams that have had the most success of late have largely taken the winter off, leaving an opportunity for the rest of the field to make up ground. The Twins showed what was possible last year, signing Nelson Cruz and turning over their on-field staff while the Indians and Larry Dolan took four months off. The White Sox, the Rangers, the Angels, the Blue Jays may be looking at last year’s AL Central champs and saying, 'Why not us?'"

Newsletter Excerpt, December 19, 2019 -- "Zack Wheeler and the Phillies"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"The Phillies never tanked, but they may be a cautionary tale of a different kind. Under Ruben Amaro Jr., they tried to squeeze one more deep run from the 2008 champions well into the next decade, and failed. That may be costing them now, as they try to build out the roster in the free-agent market. The core of young players they might have projected to build around, the core that the Astros, Cubs, Yankees, and Dodgers have had, has never really materialized."

Newsletter Excerpt, December 18, 2019 -- "Jurickson Profar and the Padres"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"There are many reasons to be excited about the Padres, who should at the very least be in the deep mix for the NL’s two wild-card slots. They have two glaring challenges, though; one is 100 miles up I-5, a Dodgers team that even missing out on a big free-agent splash projects to win at least 95 games. Their floor is 90, something we saw two years ago when the Rockies were able to tie them for the NL West lead. The Dodgers set a bar the Padres may not be ready to clear."