If Twitter Had Deleted Scenes

Have you ever watched deleted scenes to any of your favorite movies? There's a reason the scenes didn't make it into the final cut of the film. Usually, they're mundane scenes that are either poorly written, don't quite fit with the pace of the film, or have any other multitude of problems. Sadly, I'm afraid this post may live up to similar standards of excellence.

Coal for the Hot Stove

We did this 367 days ago. It was so much; we had to do it again.

Below is our suggestion for a 25-man roster comprised solely of current free agents, as of Dec 31, 2011.

Basic Appreciation for Edgar Martinez

As we noted in our last post, one stat never tells the whole story. Nonetheless, it is widely believed that the most important offensive statistic is On Base Percentage. As readers of Moneyball may remember, outs are a baseball game's most valuable commodity. A team gets only twenty-seven outs per game, and each one is precious. OBP is baseball's most treasured offensive statistic because reaching base is the act of avoiding an out.

Last Year's Best Roster Additions

The final days of December are just a bit past the midpoint of baseball's hot stove season. Many big purchases have been made, while a few marquee prizes still shine in the sales brochures produced by their agents. This season, Prince Fielder, Ryan Madson, Edwin Jackson, among others, will make many millions of dollars after Christmas.

Instead of the usual guessing game as to who will end up where, let's take a quick look back at the 2011 season. Which players changing teams added the most to their clubs?

Extra Base Hit Leaders by Position

 Below are the 2011 batting leaders for each position, as measured by extra base hits. For historical significance, we included the last person at his position with more in a season.

Check out the "best since" surprises at 2nd Base, Shortstop, and LF.

A Brief Moment in 'Why?'

A few curiosities on this Thursday lunch hour:

Shopping for a Hitter

A few numbers on a couple of free agents:

The Remains of Willis and Cabrera

Shortly after news broke of the Marlins' most recent transaction - trading Burke Badenhop to the Tampa Bay Rays for minor league catcher Jake Jefferies, the estimable Keith Law tweeted:

Badenhop is tough on righties 

"And with the Badenhop trade, the Marlins no longer have any of the six players acquired for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis."

That's interesting, but a little besides the point is that some of the six players were traded for players the Marlins still have, including Jefferies. Law's keen observation stands to point out that the Marlins could still have Miguel Cabrera. Granted, some of the past few years in South Florida have been lean. Without a steady, money-spending fan base and a couple dozen more corporate sponsors, it would have been terribly hard to sustain a payroll with an extra $66 million parked on first base.

Quickly, I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at the Cabrera/Willis for Maybin/Miller & Co swap four years ago.

Since the trade on December 7, 2004:

Average Game Scores for 2011

Messing around on baseball-reference, on the second night of baseball's winter meetings, I ranked starting pitchers by average Game Score in 2011. "Unhiding non-qualifiers for rate stats" makes the list particularly interesting by noticing successful, young arms with limited experience.

Tuesday Morning Winter Meetings Update

Earlier this Summer, I thought the days leading up to the trading deadline in late July was the best time of year to read mlbtraderumors. Whenever I thought that, I was mindlessly forgetting about the Winter Meetings.

Yesterday, and the next few days are really the crème de la crème time for rumors and blockbuster transactions.

Early this morning, I loaded up mlbtr on my blackberry's browser. On the subway, I read through their first page of rumors and jotted down some notes.

2012 Hall of Fame Sneak Peek

The unofficial kickoff to the Winter Meetings was today, when the Golden Era Veterans Committee submitted their ballots on the Hall of Fame candidacy of ten individuals: former players Ron Santo, Gil Hodges, Ken Boyer, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat, Allie Reynolds, Luis Tiant, and executives Charlie Finley and Buzzie Bavasi.