MLB

Grading the First Month of Bryce Harper’s 13-Year Contract

May 1, 2019
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Grading the first month of a 13-year mega-contract is essentially akin to evaluating a football team on their performance on the first three plays of the game. It’s such a small sample size of production, but it still counts, and who isn’t interested in breaking down the performance of the face of the sport after one month? A quick look at Bryce Harper’s year-to-date stats per Baseball Reference: Harper’s six…

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Power Ranking all of Baseball’s $100 Million Contracts

April 14, 2019
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Twenty years ago, Kevin Brown made baseball history when he signed the sport’s first $100 million contract; technically, a seven-year, $105 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now? There have been 85 such deals, the most recent being Ronald Acuna’s eight-year, $100 million extension. For a long time, Alex Rodriguez held the honor of baseball’s loftiest contract at $252 million, and then he one-upped himself with a $275 million…

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Can Mike Trout Become the Greatest Baseball Player Ever?

April 10, 2019
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For close to one hundred years, Babe Ruth has been the standard by which all baseball players are judged. His 714 home runs and .690 slugging percentage are the crowning achievement of his greatness, and he even had a stellar pitching career before transitioning to a full-time hitter. Since then, we’ve called Willie Mays the best all-around player, Ted Williams the best hitter, Barry Bonds the most dominant player over…

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SwartzSports 2018 National League and American League All-Star Game Rosters

June 16, 2018
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Embed from Getty Images We’re still a month away from Major League Baseball’s mid-summer All-Star Game, but it’s a fine time to evaluate which players have the edge to getting special invitations. For the sake of this article, I’ll play the role of the MLB commissioner, executives, and the fans, meaning I get final say in determining who makes the All-Star teams. It’s not merely an exercise in selecting the…

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Power Ranking Top 40 Active MLB Players With Best Chance for the Hall of Fame

May 28, 2018
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Embed from Getty Images The baseball world was dealt a shocking blow recently with the news of Robinson Cano’s 80-game suspension for PEDs. A career .305 hitter with a strong likelihood of reaching 3,000 hits, this was a harsh reality check for Cano’s Hall of Fame chances. He was probably on track for Cooperstown, but now faces an uphill battle to regain his respectability. Based on historical averages, you can…

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Evaluating Hall of Fame Odds for 10 Active Major League Pitchers

June 18, 2017
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Embed from Getty Images This isn’t your father’s Hall of Fame. At least not for starting pitchers. There’s a good chance no pitcher will again crack the 300-win plateau, a mark that has been achieved 24 times throughout the sport’s history. Even 250 wins is a rare accomplishment at this point. The ageless Bartolo Colon leads all active pitchers with 235, CC Sabathia is next at 230, and then it’s…

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Handing Out MLB Awards at the Quarter Mark of the 2016 Season

May 23, 2016
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It’s been an unusual first quarter of the season in baseball. We’ve had the Cubs jump out to arguably the hottest start by any team in baseball history. We’ve had the continued Mike Trout vs. Bryce Harper debate, as well as legitimate consideration that either Clayton Kershaw or Jake Arrieta is, right now, the most dominant pitcher in major league history.  Below I will take a look at the individual…

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SwartzSports Guide to Complete 2016 MLB Predictions, Standings & Awards

April 6, 2016
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AL West: Texas 1, Houston 2, Seattle 3, Los Angeles 4, Oakland 5 Last year’s surprising AL West champion is my pick to repeat, thanks to a strong young core led by Rougned Odor and Joey Gallo. The Astros have the most young talent of any team in the league, with Carlos Correa, already a popular MVP pick, and Dallas Keuchel, last year’s Cy Young winner. They should be in contention…

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Why New Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. is One of the Biggest What Ifs in MLB History

January 7, 2016
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99.3 percent. That’s the percentage of ballots that listed Ken Griffey Junior for the Baseball Hall of Fame, breaking Tom Seaver’s record for the highest percentage in MLB history.  When it comes to accomplishments, there are few players in Griffey’s generation who have achieved more. In fact, in the history of the game, there haven’t been many to do what Griffey did on the baseball diamond.  Just look at his…

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Philadelphia Eagles Fall to 1-3 | SwartzSports Podcast 9

SwartzSports Podcast 9: Philadelphia Eagles Fall to 1-3, NFL Awards, MLB Postseason ­ In the ninth SwartzSports podcast, Cody and Bryn Swartz recap yet another Philadelphia Eagles loss, this one a three-point loss to the Washington Redskins.   Where do the Eagles go from here? Should Chip Kelly have cut Caleb Strugis after the game? Which players deserve quarter-season awards, both good and bad?   There’s also a little bit…

October 7, 2015
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