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Jesse Chavez is essentially the 25th man on the Oakland A's roster. He started the year in Triple-A, got called up, got sent down, got called back up and is working as the low-leverage guy out of the bullpen. Before Thursday, he hadn't pitche...

This whole closer thing is a tough business. Perfection isn't just expected; it's demanded. Slip up once and it's a headline; slip up twice and fans are ready to trade you to Topeka. Slip up three times and your manager usually starts questioning you...

It has been a nerve-wracking 48 hours or so for the Washington Nationals. First, Stephen Strasburg pitched through some forearm discomfort in Monday's loss to the Braves, but he felt fine in a bullpen session Wednesday and will make his sched...

2012 in review Record: 81-81 (86-76 Pythagorean) 734 runs scored (4th in NL) 688 runs allowed (9th in NL) Big Offseason Moves In three-team deal, traded Chris Young and acquired Cliff Pennington and Heath Bell. Traded Ryan Wheeler to the Rocki...

2012 in review Record: 94-68 (92-70 Pythagorean) 713 runs scored (8th in American League) 614 runs allowed (2nd in AL) Big Offseason Moves Traded Cliff Pennington and Yordy Cabrera to Arizona for Chris Young. Re-signed free agent Bartolo Colon...

Some guys fly under the radar. Here are five weapons to watch on potential playoff teams: 1. Brandon Crawford's defense. I know, I get it. Maybe you live on the East Coast. You don't watch much baseball from the left side of the country. So maybe ...

Are the Oakland Athletics for real? That will be one of the most intriguing questions heading into spring. Following five consecutive non-winning seasons, the A's rode a rookie-infused pitching staff, won 94 games (20 more than 2011) and came with...

An apparently disgruntled Diamondbacks fan has undertaken to "update" Kevin Towers' Wikipedia page (via Dayn Perry of the Eye on Baseball blog). You may think it's funny, but, man, there are a lot of angry fans out there. It is worth looking at To...

From the difficult to understand department: In a three-way trade with the Oakland Athletics and Florida Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks gave up outfielder Chris Young and acquired infielder Cliff Pennington from the A's and relief pitcher Heath Be...

ESPN.com will be holding its second annual Franchise Player Draft on Thursday afternoon. It's a fun project where we gather 30 ESPN writers and TV personalities and conduct a fictional draft of every player in baseball, asking the question: Whom woul...

Eric Karabell wrote about Kevin Youkilis today and then we talked about Youkilis and two other 30-something third basemen off to slow starts, Scott Rolen and Placido Polanco. We also discussed Chris Young's injury and where Ivan Rodriguez ranks all-...

The Arizona Diamondbacks won 94 games a year ago despite having one of the weakest benches in the league. Their playoff roster included retread veterans Geoff Blum, Sean Burroughs and Lyle Overbay, weak-hitting infielder John McDonald, rookie outfiel...

Keith Law was joined by Rumor Central editor Chris Sprow for Wednesday's Baseball Today podcast . As always, there was plenty of baseball to discuss. 1. Keith and Chris share their thoughts on Jacoby Ellsbury's injury and what it means for the Red...

First base: Double trouble for D-backs. Justin Upton sat out Tuesday's game against the Pirates due to the thumb injury he suffered April 8. Manager Kirk Gibson said his star right fielder -- batting .212 without an RBI -- saw a hand specialist and w...

The Arizona Diamondbacks didn't come flying out of the gate in 2011. After a poor spring training they did win their season opener in extra innings but dropped their next three, and after getting swept by the Mets later in April they were 8-12 after ...

Welcome to the National League West, baseball's most unpredictable division. I wouldn't be surprised if all five teams finished 81-81 in 2012. Here are three fixes or action items for each club. Arizona Diamondbacks 1. Rotation (Joe Saunders...