Slate’s Josh Levin has surveyed the experts, and it’s pretty clear: if you want to really know what you’ve got in a young prospect, you gotta inspect his butt.  The scouts’ consensus: if you have a flat butt, you’re just not gonna make it in this game because it means that you’ll never fill out…

One of the reasons sports journalism gets disrespected so much is that it is standard operating procedure for sports writers to simply repeat evidence-free and even counter-factual assertions about things with little regard for how easily disprovable or unprovable the assertion may be. Case in point: the “no one will ever reach 300 wins again”…

Brian Roberts, who had to overcome a back injury to open the season on time, was forced from Friday afternoon’s game against the Blue Jays due to a strained abdominal muscle. It’d be a big blow if the Orioles lost their second baseman for any length of time, though they are better covered now with…

Part of the reason why the Indians were willing to trade both Victor Martinez and Kelly Shoppach last season is that they have stud catching prospect Carlos Santana waiting in the wings at Triple-A. Acquired from the Dodgers in mid-2008 as part of the Casey Blake deal, Santana was initially expected to begin this season…

As was mentioned in the recaps this morning, Chipper Jones hurt his oblique in yesterday’s loss to the Cubs. He was originally listed as day-to-day, but Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports that he got a cortisone shot today and because of whatever voodoo accompanies cortisone shots he’s out until at least Monday, and may miss…

A’s prospect Grant Desme made headlines back in January for abruptly quitting baseball to join the priesthood and when Mark Emmons of the San Jose Mercury News caught up with him earlier this week the 24-year-old former outfielder said: “I didn’t even realize it was Opening Day.” “I know it’s hard for some people to…

I won’t run this feature every day because, let’s face it, you can go many days in a row without finding examples of bonafide manhood, but I have one for today at least. Brandon Inge, Detroit Tigers’ third baseman. I’m watching him in the Indians-Tigers game right now. It was 39 degrees and windy at…

Oakland designated Jack Cust for assignment over the weekend to clear space on the 25-man roster for several out-of-options players, but he’ll likely remain in the organization and head to Triple-A after clearing waivers yesterday. Perhaps if the A’s would have waived Cust a month ago another team would have had the budget space to…

Japanese schoolgirl pitcher Eri Yoshida* — fresh off her tutoring session with The Knuckle Knuckle King — has signed with the Chico Outlaws of the independent Golden Baseball League. Yoshida will be the first woman to play professional baseball in the U.S. since Ila Borders played in the Northern League and Western Baseball League in…

So sayeth the Boston Herald: Now, here’s something you haven’t read about the Red Sox $68 million man Josh Beckett: He’s engaged to a rocket scientist! It’s supposed to be on the DL, but we hear the Sox starter popped the question to Holly Fisher around Valentine’s Day when they attended the Daytona 500 together.…

In my Twins preview I wondered how Target Field will play this season. We get a chance to see it in action on Monday. But based on Henry Schulman’s excellent walk down AT&T Park memory lane in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, we shouldn’t necessarily take what we see in the early going at face value:…

Through three games the White Sox’s offense has scored 12 runs while batting .154, and manager Ozzie Guillen is already threatening changes after the lineup combined for 12 strikeouts last night: When we built this club, I didn’t want people to strike out, and we did too much. If they continue to strike out like…

Hank Aaron, as almost all former players of a certain age do, shakes his head at the kids today: Hank Aaron watches games these days and is perplexed as batter after batter tries to jack pitches out of the ballpark, obsessed with the long ball that made Hammerin’ Hank famous. “I don’t think they understand…

I’ve always wondered how trade talks actually happen. Who calls who first? Are the conversations frank or is there this whole dance like when you go to buy a used car or something? Thankfully Nats’ GM Mike Rizzo writes a column over at MASN today explaining how it all goes down. After reading it it’s…

It’s not necessarily major surgery, but the mere fact that the words “renovation” and “modernize” are being used regarding Camden Yards makes me feel really really old.  Among the stuff they’re doing now and over the next year or two: New seats; New toilets; New concrete on the concourses; New roof on the B&O Warehouse;…

Reviewing the box score of Monday’s White Sox-Indians game reveals that only Paul Konerko and Alexis Rios were credited with home runs. According to John Kass of the Tribune they missed one in the men’s room off the third base line upper deck concourse: “So I kicked the door, just to get a reaction. I…

Despite a 3.75 ERA, 51 saves, and 231 strikeouts in 233 innings as a reliever over the past four seasons C.J. Wilson campaigned for a spot in the Rangers’ rotation this spring, won the third-starter gig, and tossed seven shutout innings Thursday in his first start since way back in August of 2005. Wilson was…

Mariano Rivera has been a major league pitcher since 1995. In those 15 years, I can recall exactly zero instances of him being critical of someone in the press. The man does his job, takes a shower, goes home and does it again the next day and doesn’t let the petty affairs of the mere…

Remember the brawl in the U.S. Cellular Field stands at that Cub-Sox game last June?  A White Sox fan named Rubin Lopez does because he was arrested, allegedly beat up by the off duty cops who served as security guards at the game and had his career as a Cook County corrections officer royally screwed…

After capturing a spot in the Tigers’ rotation this spring Dontrelle Willis made his 2010 debut Thursday with a Quality Start, allowing two runs over six innings in a no-decision. Willis has come a long way after not being able to throw the ball over the plate for the past two seasons, tossing 54 of…