HOUSTON – Ronel Blanco awoke on Monday anonymous, another big right-hander blending into the Houston Astros’ heralded pitching pipeline. He worked at a car wash in the Dominican Republic before receiving a $5,000 signing bonus from an organization that cornered the market on inexpensive improbabilities. Blanco did not pitch until he turned 18. Houston signed … Read more
Welcome to spring training, one of the great inventions in history. You may think we’re kidding. But ask anyone who had to pick up a snow shovel in the last week if they think we’re kidding. It may be tempting to say: What about the wheel? What about the microwave? What about the iPhone? What … Read more
The Hall of Fame is made for players like Adrián Beltré. As a pure hitter, reliable slugger and slick third baseman, Beltré had few peers: No other infielder in the history of baseball has 3,000 hits, 400 homers and five Gold Glove awards. Beltré, now 44, was a lock for the Hall of Fame. As … Read more
By Andrew Baggarly, Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon Yoshinobu Yamamoto has yet to stand on a major-league mound, but that hasn’t deterred an abundance of baseball executives and talent evaluators from describing him as one of the most talented pitchers on the planet. He’ll certainly be paid like it. The Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed … Read more
On Friday morning, Robert Herjavec was tracking to be on time for a 9 a.m. flight out of John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif., until his 5-year-old twins, Hudson and Haven, announced in the car that they were hungry. Herjavec, a Canadian businessman and star of “Shark Tank” and “Dragons’ Den,” was traveling solo … Read more