Pick 6 – Chicago White Sox Selection: SP Kevin Millwood The Chicago White Sox are a team quietly ascending, and while they don’t command the flash or fanfare of a Washington Senators or a New York Yankees, there’s a method to their madness. Last offseason was filled with noise—smart draft picks, strategic acquisitions, and the headline-grabbing trade for Chuck Knoblauch to stabilize the infield. This is a club on the...
Pick 5 – Baltimore Orioles Selection: 1B Richie Sexson If there’s a unifying theme to the early portion of this draft, it’s this: the teams picking high have holes everywhere. And Baltimore might be the most baffling puzzle of the bunch. For years the Orioles have hovered in that uncomfortable middle zone—too talented to bottom out, too flawed to break through—and now find themselves staring at a roster that needs just about...
From Bay to Desert: How the Former Giants Became the Diamondbacks — and Why Arizona Was the Home They Needed All Along When the final out settled into Tony Gwynn’s glove in Game 5, and the Arizona Diamondbacks spilled out of the dugout as newly crowned champions, the story wasn’t just about a title. It wasn’t just about Rondell White’s heroics, or Scott Karl’s artistry, or the bullpen’s quiet ruthlessness. It was about a team that...
The Cincinnati Reds didn’t flame out. They didn’t choke. They didn’t collapse under pressure. They simply hit a wall — a big, calm, desert-colored wall with “Arizona Diamondbacks” painted across the front in letters large enough to be seen from orbit. Now the question becomes:What do you fix when your team was good enough to win the World Series… but didn’t? This isn’t surgery.This is a tune-up. But make no mistake —...
There are losses, and then there are the kinds of losses that sit in a city’s chest like a weight, refusing to move no matter how many deep breaths you take. The Cincinnati Reds didn’t simply fall short in the World Series — they crashed headlong into a reality they weren’t prepared for. Not because they weren’t good enough. Not because they didn’t fight. But because, for the first time all postseason, they ran into a team that...
Pick 4 – Los Angeles Dodgers Selection: SP Bartolo Colon If there’s a team in this draft that defies easy categorization, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are a paradox wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in a .500 record. On paper, they look like a club that should be contending. In reality, they spent 1996 drifting somewhere between “not bad” and “not quite enough,” buoyed by a roster full of recognizable names who didn’t quite...
Two Columnists, One Championship, and Absolutely No Agreement on Anything The Arizona Diamondbacks are the 1996 World Series champions, which means two things: Phoenix gets its parade. Jack Fairchild and Kate Prescott get to argue in print again. We sat both of them down with the box scores, the coffee, and the emotional residue of five games of baseball, and let them discuss what really happened. What followed was… exactly what you’d...
Pick 3 – Colorado Rockies Selection: 1B Todd Helton Every so often in the DBL, fate decides to flex its narrative muscle. It happened when Don Mattingly slipped on the pinstripes, a union so natural it felt preordained. And now, in 1996, we get a sequel: Todd Helton to the Colorado Rockies—the most inevitable pairing since the league first shuffled its draft cards. With the top two arms off the board, the Rockies are staring at the cleanest...