Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:09:04 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Christina Kahrl :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Christina+Kahrl istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/la-or-chicago-could-be-headed-toward-inter-city/86217/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST In the latest issue of Vanity Fair, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg noted that his greatest fear is that he might be in City Hall eight years without seeing a subway series. Perhaps the exact opposite fear can be found in network headquarters and Major League Baseball's offices, because while New York's already shut out of the American League playoff picture — and if the Mets bullpen has anything to say about it, New York might be absent from the entire playoffs — there's nevertheless the... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/quality-starts-power-keys-to-mets-revival/85263/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST For a first-place team, the Mets have given their fans a thrill ride. However much it may lack last season's sense of certainty, it's beginning to promise a much happier ending. Keeping the drama stoked for more than five months already has been a fluid roster that has been cause for alarm all season long, forcing GM Omar Minaya and his staff to adapt and overcome all season long. Perhaps even more reassuring is that fact that a month ago, the Mets were beginning to look especially desperate... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/mets-playoff-odds-better-than-yanks/83467/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The trading deadline has passed, and although both New York ball clubs had major holes that needed filling, only the Yankees were active, while the Mets were not. No sooner had the deadline passed than both teams found themselves suddenly handicapped with hope-crushing injuries. The Yankees have lost Joba Chamberlain for an unknown length of time, potentially crippling an already-wounded rotation. Meanwhile the Mets got "precautious" with closer Billy Wagner, placing him on the disabled list... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/using-old-school-methods-rays-reshape-the-al-east/82609/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST It would seem that the specter of a Yankee-free October is getting more realistic with every passing day. That the Red Sox would be gunning for the division title is no surprise: No one's going to accuse the owner of the Red Sox, John Henry, of letting his brief stint operating the Marlins encourage him to make any post-title teardowns, not when the tens of millions more that come with contention and playoff appearances are at stake. But something else Florida-related is putting the Yankees in... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/braves-have-the-options-mets-lack/81124/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Ranking neither first nor second in the National League East as the season moves into its latter half, you would think that the Mets and Braves would be despairing of their lots. This is a season following a year in which neither team, perceived powers in their division, made the playoffs; and a season following busy winters for both ball clubs, where each team added big-name talent and committed themselves to win now. While the failure of both teams to rule the roost is a disappointment to... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/shrewd-offseason-has-paid-off-on-the-south-side/79874/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The American League's slate of contenders coming into the season seemed reasonably set, at least to a lot of mainstream analysts. The Mariners had enhanced their bid to challenge the Angels in the West, the Yankees and Red Sox were supposed to do their usual six-month duel in the East, and the Central was supposed to be a tilt between those 1,000-run Tigers and the sabermetrically savvy Indians. Whereas all of these assumptions have proven false, perhaps the biggest surprise, for stat-heads and... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/barry-bonds-treatment-of-pujols-helping-cards/75900/ Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 EST You can call Albert Pujols all sorts of things: a world-class slugger, an RBI guy, a feared player. Or, you can use the usual spread of compliments that are automatically associated with one of the game's best power-hitters. But what happens to all of that, should he get the dreaded "Barry Bonds treatment?" In Sunday night's ESPN broadcast of the Cubs-Cardinals rubber match, broadcaster Joe Morgan bemoaned this latest development, citing 33 walks — including nine intentional walks — as a new... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/will-we-see-another-photo-finish-in-the-nl/74023/ Wed, 2 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Baseball fans might have to get into the habit of being spoiled. Last year, because of the playoff format that includes three divisions plus a wild card team, the National League provided an unprecedented slate of four equally active and equally thrilling races for October action. Mets fans may forever rue the September fade that put their club on golf courses weeks early while the Phillies played their way into October as the NL East's division champs, but the Cubs similarly managed to... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/ushering-in-a-new-breed-of-baseball-gm/64433/ Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST For years, the overdrawn dichotomy between new-school statistical analysis and old-school player scouting was the subject of too much spilled ink. The release of Michael Lewis's controversial "Moneyball" and its advocacy for Athletics GM Billy Beane inspired the strident rejoinders fired off by scouting-dependent press outfits like Baseball America, innumerable beatwriters, and screeds like "Built to Win," the mercifully short, dull book co-authored by Braves GM John Schuerholz. Consistent with... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/phillies-have-slight-edge-in-a-slugfest/63841/ Wed, 3 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST The Rockies might be tired after Monday night's mayhem in their extra-inning win over the Padres, but they're still one of the hottest teams in baseball — going up against one of the other hottest teams in baseball, the Phillies. Both teams looked like they were out of it only a month ago, and both managed to knock off their divisions' defending champs to make it into the playoffs, the Phillies as the NL East winners, the Rockies as the senior circuit's wild card team. LINEUPS This matchup... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/unlikely-national-league-contenders-alive/63418/ Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST By the time you read this, there will be only five games to play. Only last September, the Senior Circuit gave fans a photo finish, as the Phillies surprised even themselves by getting back into the race for the NL wild-card race. The Astros mounted a seemingly impossible rally in the NL Central to win nine straight with three to play, only a half-game back on the desperately slumping Cardinals. This year, the Phillies are again making a late charge. But this time it's being mounted... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/nl-west-gets-wild-for-playoff-spots/62742/ Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST With the Cubs on the spot, and on top of the NL Central, audiences are enjoying some easy drama, even if this September stretch itself has all of the grace and execution of a sack race, as each division team finds new ways not to lose pace. But there's another great race in the Senior Circuit that is the NL West, where three teams have a real shot at winning the division. To make matters more interesting, all three face the threat of going home if they don't also keep pace with the streaky... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/improved-pitching-is-carrying-tribe/61899/ Wed, 5 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST All season, the always-frustrating Indians have been going toe-to-toe with the 2006 AL pennant- winning Tigers, moving ahead or behind two games in the AL Central, while the White Sox and the Twins have both faltered. But that deadlock, which stretched from opening day until August 24, has withered away within the space of two weeks: a 9–1 kick by the Indians has opened up their lead over the Tigers to six games with 25 games left to play. Only three of those games will be against Detroit... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/rebuilding-and-contending-now-go-hand-in-hand/61024/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST With the increasing industry understanding of how valuable almost-ready prospects are, the old alchemy of front office management is no longer the absolute truth. Teams once accepted that ditching veterans and turning to the youngsters represented a resignation that this year's regular season was done. Nowadays, teams understand that trusting the youngsters who have already proved their readiness no longer represents running up the white flag. It instead implies the teams' own willingness to go... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/how-these-races-measure-up-to-the-greats-of/60757/ Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST As the season progresses, baseball's pennant picture is supposed to gain clarity — not become even more confused. Perhaps it's the addition of the wild card, or perhaps it's the spread of an industrywide parity that would warm NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle's heart. Whereas once the commissioner of baseball infamously — and weakly — cited cooked studies and postseason wins as a reflection of the lack of competitive balance, we have lively title races in all six divisions. If six — plus the... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/when-moneyball-stops-working/60256/ Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST It's August in Oakland, and that's meant stretch drive excitement year after year since 1999, Billy Beane's second season in the general manager's chair. The Athletics' run of success has been fueled by great finishes. Once the calendar flips over to August, Oakland's stretch drives for the last eight years have involved winning at a .637 clip in the season's final two months from their more stolid .549 pace beforehand over that same stretch. But not this year, not with the A's mired in third... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/trade-deadline-gone-but-moves-to-be-made/59789/ Fri, 3 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST The July trading deadline has passed, and as has become all too common, despite an immense volume of activity, very little actually got done. The Rangers moved a superstar slugger and a fragile closer, but generally speaking, teams settled for minor improvements. Avoiding risk remains the rule of the day in the post-"Moneyball" environment. Nobody wants to risk being the next Lou Gorman, the man who traded Jeff Bagwell before his debut for moderately useful middle reliever Larry Andersen, and... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/time-for-cubs-to-turn-to-homegrown-talent/58797/ Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST This time of year, if a team that's in a race for a playoff spot has a crying need or two, and it hears enough howling from the bleachers and the broadsheets, it usually does something about those needs. Sometimes the move is genuinely meaningful, and sometimes it's just a matter trying to quiet the show-me critics and prove that the team acknowledges having a problem. In some instances, a team just flat-out makes a mistake, failing to resolve its problem (or problems). Enter the Cubs, a team... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/al-teams-playoff-odds-show-its-anyones-year/58248/ Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST The All-Star break might be seen as a time to rest and celebrate stardom at the Midsummer Classic, but what it really represents is a pause that gives teams the opportunity to take stock of what kind of season they're having. In particular, they can gauge whether they have a shot at contending, and, perhaps most important with regard to longterm planning, whether they should be buyers or sellers at the end of this month. This can mean dealing talent for prospects to help retool for a club's... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/who-are-this-seasons-worst-regular-players/56682/ Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST We're nearing the halfway mark in the season, and as teams begin to ponder whether they'll be buying or selling, and weigh their status as contenders or acknowledged pretenders, a look at the other side of the equation is in order: identifying problem positions that teams will need to address because of the drag those positions have placed on a team's performance. Using the Value Over Replacement Player measurement, who are the worst contributors to their team's lineups, and can or should... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/yanks-arent-only-ones-with-a-damaged-staff/56137/ Fri, 8 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST Mired in the four-team pack that trails the Red Sox in the AL East, the Yankees have been able to blame a goodly amount of their early-season failures on their rotation woes. Between injuries and ineffectiveness, Joe Torre has had to pencil in 11 different starting pitchers, with Roger Clemens likely to become the twelfth sometime soon. Now, admittedly using 11 different starters through your first 57 games isn't something you plan on, but are the Yankees' rotation woes really that remarkable?... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/rookie-of-the-year-races-not-what-was-expected/55431/ Wed, 30 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Coming into the 2007 season, there were some easy favorites for the Rookie of the Year award in each league. In the American League, Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka and Royals third baseman Alex Gordon got considerable build-up from almost every analyst. In the National League, I joined several of my colleagues in promoting Diamondbacks center fielder Chris Young as the sleeper candidate behind Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki or Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff. The local teams even had their... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/angels-quietly-show-how-to-build-a-club/53656/ Wed, 2 May 2007 00:00:00 EST What does a team have to do to get some respect? The Angels haven't had a lightning-rod bestseller like Michael Lewis's "Moneyball" written about them. That's understandable — a lot of what general manager Bill Stoneman and manager Mike Scioscia do is just great talent management. As the Yankees and Red Sox know, you don't build to win this year, you build to win every year, and as the Angels begin to get in gear with more of their regulars coming back off the disabled list, the team is lining... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/small-gap-in-nl-central-getting-smaller/52737/ Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST It's the early days, so we can't get too wrapped up in the results of the games played so far, but events are already afoot in the National League Central that might make it even more tightly knotted up. Winning 83 games was good enough to crown the St. Louis Cardinals division champs last year, and that invitation to postseason play was all they needed to upend a few apple carts and win the World Series. When the season began, the Central was still seen as a division where 85 wins would be... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/tigers-offer-a-lesson-in-roster-management/41861/ Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Who are these guys? It might seem to be a strange question to ask of a team that's in the World Series, but many fans can be forgiven if they look at the Tigers, collectively scratch their heads, and have trouble trying to sort out Ramon Santiago from Alexis Gomez.The Detroit Tigers have been cooling their heels for days since last weekend's elimination of the Oakland A's in the American League Championship Series, giving a roster with an interesting mishmash of nonames, veterans, and budding... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/dumb-luck-bad-decisions-have-backed-as-into-corner/41486/ Fri, 13 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Down two games after two, the AL West champion Athletics are hardpressed to get the American League Championship Series back to Oakland. Traveling to Detroit for as many as three games, the Athletics have started experiencing what the Yankees already had to endure at the Tigers' hands, and it's something that doesn't comfortably fit among the usual truisms about what wins in the postseason. The Tigers aren't winning with great pitching, and they're not winning by doing the little things... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/twins-banged-up-rotation-tries-to-hang-on-against/40790/ Tue, 3 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Some in the Fourth Estate see this as the clash of two diametrically opposed philosophies on the subject of team-building: The "Moneyball" A's versus the "old school" Twins. Both are caricatures, and the teams actually have more similarities than differences. Both general managers, Oakland's Billy Beane and Minnesota's Terry Ryan, manage their limited budgets effectively, especially when it comes to avoiding expensive free agent mistakes in their bullpens. Both oversee organizations with fine... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/cardinals-stumble-into-tricky-padres/40805/ Tue, 3 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST The National League's playoff slate features a rematch of one of last season's Divisional Series matchups. But where last year's Padres were the league's postseason punchline with their division-winning 82–80 record, this year's Cardinals are the definition of a team that backed its way into October, winning only 83 games and limping in with a 25–33 stretch record during the season's final two months. The key word is limping, because the Cardinals were positively gutted by injuries this season... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/other-fish-in-the-sea/40407/ Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Every baseball season winds down to some inevitable off-season bloodletting. Most of the attention goes right to the bottom line, as disappointed or budget-minded teams let free agents-tobe walk away. However, the more fundamental changes are likely to arrive early in the coming hot stove league, as the 30 big league organizations consider or reconsider their managers and general managers. Only after the clubs sort out who belongs to their 2007 brain trusts can we can expect the mayhem of the... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/question-marks-surround-many-rosters-come-october/40001/ Wed, 20 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Who's playing in Detroit? Who's going to start a Game Three in the A's postseason series? Who can Tony La Russa turn to in filling out his lineup card in St. Louis? Surprisingly enough, every contender still has questions to resolve with less than two weeks to go in the season. Beyond the Yankees' and Mets' different questions about who will play in the outfield (it isn't likely that the Bombers will lend Omar Minaya one of their spares), let's touch on the unresolved issues among the other... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/october-baseball-in-detroit-is-looking-more/39610/ Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Although much attention was given to the Tigers losing three of four games to Minnesota this past weekend, this was a debacle that's been at least a month in the making. Including this weekend's setback for the Central-leading Tigers, it's their meager 10 wins in their last 32 games, and how they've been playing down to that level instead of being merely unlucky that should be the real source of concern. Winning only 10 games in a little over a month is how you go from boasting baseball's best... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/measuring-the-influence-of-the-wild-card-manager/39169/ Wed, 6 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST The margin for error in the wild card races in both leagues is narrowing to nonexistent, which puts every player and every play under the microscope. But perhaps more than anyone else, it's the managers who will be in the spotlight. The AL wild card race is down to a death match between the Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins, while the NL's wild card still has eight teams within five games of one another. Like the players they rely upon, every manager does some things well and some... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/resurrected-phillies-shift-to-buyers-from-sellers/38375/ Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST On the morning of July 30, the Philadelphia Phillies seemed out of it. They were eight wins behind the Reds in the National League wild card race, and there were eight teams between them and the Reds. The starting pitching was in shambles — Jon Lieber and Randy Wolf were both coming back from injuries, and former middle relief ace Ryan Madson had been wildly inconsistent as a starting pitcher. In light of those sobering facts, that very day Phillies GM Pat Gillick dealt star right fielder Bobby... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/breaking-down-the-als-contending-rotations/37984/ Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST The races to the AL wild card and Eastern division playoff slots are in full swing, with the Yankees, Red Sox, Twins, and White Sox in the best positions to advance. The four teams are all knotted up around 70 wins with 45 left to play, and all four rank among baseball's top offensive ballclubs. However, the distinction between these teams' rotations — and more importantly, who's in those rotations during the next seven weeks — might be all of the difference between an October trip to destiny... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/firing-blanks-in-the-mild-mild-west/37355/ Fri, 4 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Two-thirds of the way through baseball's long season, across both leagues, all nine teams in the Western Divisions are still in the hunt for a division title — and also the wild card slot in the National League. Through Wednesday's games, the best record of any western division team is 57–51 (Oakland), and the worst is San Francisco (52–56). It's the sort of spread that would make the late NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle, as passionate a parity partisan as ever there was, a new fan of the... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/giants-happy-to-take-blue-jays-leftovers/36710/ Wed, 26 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST It's usually a matter of international cuisine when you observe that one man's garbage is somebody else's dinner, but sometimes it works for baseball deals, too. The margins in the wild-card races only seem to be getting more slender as we get deeper into the season. With time getting short, every team that still sees itself in contention is looking to seize any available advantage. This made it particularly strange when one of the teams in the AL playoff hunt — the Toronto Blue Jays... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/closers-get-the-credit-but-they-dont-put-out-many/36467/ Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Baseball's closers attract a tremendous amount of attention, from fans during the season, and from general managers during the winter before. As dramatic figures in the game go, they get to be heroes one night, goats the next.No single position on the diamond attracts as much speculation over whether a specific failure might completely de-rail a pitcher's career. Whether it's Mitch Williams after his historic moment against Joe Carter in the 1993 World Series, Byung-Hyun Kim against the Yankees... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/deadline-deals-draw-line-between-buyers/36344/ Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Baseball's annual trade deadline has always been one of the game's unique entertainments, and with two weeks to go to the 2006 edition, speculation is rife about what teams need and what they might find. The modern twist is the advent of the wild card: now we have more teams that see themselves as buyers rather than sellers in the race for the eight playoff spots. The AL playoff picture is complicated by the fact that four different competitive races involve nine different teams (10 if you... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/second-half-schedules-may-make-the-difference/35857/ Wed, 12 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST When baseball created its three-division format — ominously enough,for a 1994 season doomed to be shut down by the game's most bitterlyfought labor confrontation — one of the advantages it brought was an unbalanced schedule that would capture some essence of the game's old format, when clubs played in eight-team leagues. With more playoff spots available and more teams looking to reach October, head-to-head play allows rivals to manage their own destinies, and with the added fun of a wild card... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/its-not-the-rbi-that-counts-but-how-you-get-it/35433/ Wed, 5 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Who produces runs? One of the largest differences of opinions between people within the game and analysts outside of it concerns the utility of the RBI in describing a player's value. Some announcers and players (and arbitrators) treat it as a hallmark of quality, while statheads of no lesser stature than Bill James have called it little more than a statistical footnote. In the wake of the nonsense about how the White Sox won it all last season with speed and defense - when they really won with... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/race-for-nl-central-may-hinge-on-whos-not-playing/35204/ Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST With the season approaching its halfway mark, most of the divisional races have already shaken out pretty well. Every race has its element of drama, but the NL Central features suspense that the other divisions lack, because to a great extent, the eventual winner might boil down to a few questions: who's hurt, when will they be back, and how good will they be once they arrive? Will the returns of stars like Chicago's Derrek Lee, Houston's Roger Clemens, and St. Louis's Albert Pujols alter the... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/dissecting-three-of-baseballs-biggest/34045/ Wed, 7 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST A third of the way into the season, the scale of a team's disappointing play can start to move from being just a passing funk to a defining theme. Perhaps no teams have been more disappointing in the early going than the Atlanta Braves, the Oakland A's, and the Cleveland Indians. Atlanta and Oakland are the darlings of different segments of the baseball industry - the Braves among old-school sensibilities, the A's among a younger generation - but both were expected to contend for division... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/early-season-surprises-hang-hopes-on-schedule/33300/ Wed, 24 May 2006 00:00:00 EST When the baseball season began eight weeks ago, who could have predicted that the Detroit Tigers would have baseball's best record at the end of May? Who would have said that Detroit would take the mantle from the Cincinnati Reds, who would be giving the Cardinals a race in the NL Central? Few, if any, could have expected the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies to be contending in the NL West. And perhaps quite a few Yankee fans didn't expect their team to be looking up at Boston in the... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/crop-off-the-farm-will-cure-what-ails-you/32478/ Wed, 10 May 2006 00:00:00 EST With Victor Zambrano's elbow beyond quick repair, and with rookies Brian Bannister and John Maine already disabled, everybody is proffering theories as to how the Mets can solve their pitching woes. Where will Omar Minaya and Willie Randolph find replacements? The answer lies in how well the team can help itself by grooming tomorrow's rotation in today's bullpen. The answer lies with Aaron Heilman, and then sorting out how to replace him in the bullpen. History provides plenty of encouragement... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/young-nationals-struggle-through-red-tape/31672/ Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST As baseball settles into its second season in the nation's capital, you can see how the Nationals are starting to fit right in. Perhaps controversy is endemic to Washington, regardless of whether you're talking about politics, Dan Snyder's Redskins, or baseball. Some level of dysfunction seems to go with the territory. Superficially, everything seems to be going well. After coming into town with a 67-95 ballclub, the new Nationals gave the locals a competitive brand of baseball last season... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/rediagnosing-this-seasons-mislabeled-ballclubs/30457/ Wed, 5 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST If the 2005 season proved anything, it was that the pundits and prognosticators who flood the press every April are really just taking stabs in the dark. Most analysts had the world champion White Sox and NL champion Astros finishing third in their respective divisions. When the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles mounted early assaults on their divisions, everyone backtracked to explain why they were the "real thing," only to watch them plummet back to earth in the season's final... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/burden-of-history-weighs-on-astros-and-white-sox/21865/ Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST One hundred and three years is a long time to wait, but between the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros, it's just long enough to prepare for a league pennant and a shot at a world championship. The American League champions made their last appearance in the Fall Classic in 1959, but their most recent triumph predates even the infamous Black Sox scandal of 1919. Their counterparts from Texas, meanwhile, are making their first Series appearance after 44 years in the business - a major league... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/al-championship-should-hinge-on-pitching/21366/ Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST The claim is that this is the "speed" series, because both teams have reputations for manufacturing runs with their speed. But the White Sox put up 24 runs in their three-game sweep of Boston in the ALDS, and the Angels didn't really do the little things all that well in their sloppy series against the Yankees. But after last night's 3-2 loss in Game 1, it's the Sox who will need to find every little advantage they can. Here's an in-depth look at how the remainder of the series should play out... CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/this-time-around-nl-championship-series-matchup/21309/ Tue, 11 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST While fans will have to get used to the idea that we won't have a Red Sox-Yankees confrontation in a Championship Series this year, we do get a rematch in the National League. The Astros have been sold short before, but where the American League's Divisional Series match-ups both featured mismatches between potent offenses and strong rotations, the NLCS takes the idea to its most extreme: a strong Cardinals lineup and a durable rotation is pitted against the best pitching trio in baseball and... JOHN ERHARDT & CHRISTINA KAHRL http://www.nysun.com/sports/2005-mlb-division-series-preview/20964/ Tue, 4 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST The extended drama of the long regular season has now given way to the concentrated drama of the playoffs, starting with four short, best-of-five series. The most important thing to remember about these short series is that anything can happen: a premier player just needs to have a fairly common 1-15 slump, and his team goes home. With that in mind, here are Baseball Prospectus's predictions for the four Division Series matchups. To help rate them, we'll use a Baseball Prospectus metric called...