USATSI_8772268_168381517_lowres

Top-Five Offseason Trade Candidates For Brewers

As the waiver trade deadline comes to a close on Monday, the focus across the baseball community will turn to September call-ups. The Cubs are reportedly poised to promote Javier Baez — who, contrary to popular belief, is not a failed prospect and is hitting .315/.378/.522 with 13 homers in Triple-A this year — while […]

USATSI_8715959_168381444_lowres

Contention & Building Through The Bullpen

The notion of market inefficiency flooded the baseball lexicon following the publication of Moneyball in 2003. It chronicled the unlikely success of the Oakland Athletics, a small-market team that built contending rosters through identifying gaps in market value. That is, the Athletics needed to uncover under-appreciated skill sets and construct a roster around them. The Athletics blazed a trail that […]

USATSI_8669083_168381444_lowres

Jean Segura and Managing Expectations

Public perception is driven by how one performs compared to expectations. A sardonic cliche in the United States holds that one should “always under-promise and over-deliver.” If co-workers and managers don’t expect anything more than shoddy work, they’ll be impressed by mediocrity. Inflate expectations and/or perform exceptionally well from the beginning, mediocrity suddenly becomes unacceptable. Jean […]