Horsehide Chronicles

How much do you know about Bobby Richardson?

Not much, I'm guessing. Richardson had a couple of seasons in which he hit .300, but he ultimately retired with a pedestrian .266 average and a pedestrian .634 OPS. A modern baseball fan doesn't think of him as one of the titans of the game.

This winter, Robinson Cano will be the biggest, most expensive name on the free-agent market, which is just the sort of player the big-market, deep-pocketed New York Yankees have been known to land.

But will they? And more importantly, should they?

Cano, of course, actually is a Yankee. At least, technically speaking. For now.

The first two games of the 2013 World Series have been headlined by leather.

Gather up the last 10 World Series champions, and you'll be holding a fascinating collection of narratives.

There were the slump-breakers. The 2004 Boston Red Sox, 2005 Chicago White Sox, 2008 Philadelphia Phillies and 2010 San Francisco Giants all snapped lengthy title droughts.

Here's what'll go down in Cleveland once the season ends. The Indians will exercise Ubaldo Jimenez's $8 million club option. Jimenez will then exercise his right to decline, however, as stipulated in his contract.

The Free Agent Market could be open for business as early as next Monday, and while it had appeared to be shaping up late in the regular season, it turns out that it was far from settled. 

Pricey contract extensions for Hunter Pence and Tim Lincecum, as well as rumored $100 million asking prices for Shin-Shoo Choo and Jacoby Ellsbury, indicate that teams may have to ante up big dollars for the best players on the market.  

Careful: The question posed above might just be a trick one. But we'll get to that in a bit.

First, let's remind readers what Carlos Beltran and David Ortiz have done so far this October in helping get their respective teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox, to the 2013 World Series.

There's one pitch that might be powerful enough to keep the Boston Red Sox from winning the World Series.

That pitch is Michael Wacha's changeup. 'Tis a thing of great power and beauty, and it will soon be on display in the World Series.

We know the when and half of the who, but we don't yet know the where.

Of all the ways the Los Angeles Dodgers could have pictured their 2013 season coming to an end, Clayton Kershaw getting rocked in a must-win game probably never crossed their minds.