2011
144 posts
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…
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. Pos: Player SP: Edwin Jackson Roy-O PHOTO…
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…
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…
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…
A Brief Moment in 'Why?'
A few curiosities on this Thursday lunch hour: Why is Coco Crisp being considered for Left Field? If his defense has deteriorated to the point where ha cannot effectively play Center Field, why would a team be…
Shopping for a Hitter
A few numbers on a couple of free agents: Over the past 11 years (since 2001) Player A: .272/.343/.451, 141 HR, 415 xBH Player B: .285/.367/.510, 273 HR, 675 xBH Player A: 111 OPS+, .345 wOBA, 111 wRC+ Player B: 127…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
Royals Add Broxton, Fail to Improve
This past summer, the inside scoop from of LA was that Jonathan Broxton was a country bumpkin. He hated it in LA and would embrace free agency as a chance to relocate to more comfortable surroundings. You know you're a…
Stolen Bases Against Lefty Pitchers
From today's Buster Olney column , his Stat of the day : " Ted Lilly allowed the most stolen base attempts in 2011, with baserunners swiping 35 bags in 37 chances off of the Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw. The remaining…
AL East Notes
We shared our droning on the NL East a couple of weeks ago. Springing forth in spite of a remarkable lack of creativity, below are a few quick thoughts on recent developments in the AL East. Unlike last time, these will…
Options for the Yankee Rotation
As we learned from Ben Nicholson-Smith's engaging summary of the NYY portions of Joel Sherman's column from Friday : The Yankees have “looked into” Matt Garza, but a Cubs official downplayed the likelihood of any deal…
Thoughts on the NL East
On an evening subway ride and a couple lonely bar stools, recently, I wrote about my feelings (about the NL East)... Philadelphia Phillies do not like In light of Jonathan Papelbon 's record-setting deal with the…
2011 MLB Award Ballots
During the 3rd week of November, Major League Baseball will unveil their Major Award winners, as voted on by the BBWA. This is fun to do; we suggest you try this at home. If we could vote on the awards, our ballots…
Random Thoughts, Early November
Theo Epstein and Ben Cherington discussed potential new managers for the Red Sox before Theo left for Chicago. So, they're working off similar lists of candidates. For sure, I'm biased, but why in the world would…
All Free Agent Team
It's that time of year again. Warming up the hot stove, it's time for the All Free Agent Team. Since the end of the World Series, the only transaction that may have affected this roster was CC Sabathia re-signing with…
Top 5 Hitters of the Past 30 Years
Last month, when Manny Ramirez shamefully made it back into the news, our Already Missing Manny blog post received a bunch of page views. It was mostly a quick tour of humorous photographic moments of Manny being Manny.…
Curse of Theo Epstein?
Maybe the Red Sox are asking for "something real" because they are afraid of selling another team asset and falling into an 86-year title-less abyss. Larry Lucchino, who is in charge of the negotiations, and was spoken…
Quick Look at the Final Four
Just a few weeks ago, it was a widely believed that baseball's Final Four would include the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and a team the Phillies would defeat. After Chris Carpenter pitched himself into eastern Missouri…
Contact and Power in the Postseason
There are four playoff games today, which should be great fun to follow. In anticipation of the excitement, we thought it would be fun to check in on the players in the postseason to see which batters have the lowest…
Let's Not Blame the Umpire Too Soon
Buster Olney, sent off a tweet a earlier today saying: "Gerry Davis is the home plate umpire. In his career, Sabathia is 6-0 with a 2.19 ERA when Davis is the home plate ump." Well, that is interesting and all, but what…
MLB Division Series Sunday Recaps
Friends and visitors, let's try something a little different today. Tigers 5, Yankees 3 Series tied 1-1 Heroes: Max Scherzer silenced the Yankee bats and his critics who claimed his inconsistencies suggested he couldn't…
2011 Ex Cub Factor
The playoffs begin today. Since my favorite team, the Chicago Cubs, tanked and haven't been competitive in years, all I can do is watch and fight my jealous feelings. We're not really into gambling over here, but…
Landing Spots for Juan Carlos Oviedo
When Leo Nuñez was placed on the Restricted List for a personal reason late last week, people expected it was a family emergency or visa problem. In actuality, he was involving himself in the process of reassuming his…
Player of the Fortnight
We haven't handed out any hardware since August 1st, when Justin Upton , Clayton Kershaw , Hideki Matsui , and Justin Verlander won Player of the Fortnight for their on-field contributions at the end of July. With less…
AL Wild Card Race
Red Sox fans in New York, presumably everywhere, are freaking out over the team's recent play and sheepish 2.0 game lead over the amazing Tampa Bay Rays entering play today. Worries over a sweep at the hands of the…
Power Without Strikeouts
Often times, when discussing baseball or evaluating the performance of players, we talk about rate stats and insightful ratios. For example, scribes and announcers will quickly mention a pitcher's strikeout-to-walk…
2011 All Twitter Team
It's doubtful, but it might be fun to keep tabs of the best team of players on Twitter. Below is our squad: C: Russell Martin @russellmartin55 1b: Albert Pujols @PujolsFive 2b: Robinson Cano @RobinsonCano SS: Jimmy…
Obsessed with Yu
For Cubs fans, the 2012 Hot Stove season began about two years ago. It's actually been a bit more of the 2009-2012 hot stove season for the starving franchise. Many of us have been fixated on Japanese standout Yu…
2011 American League MVP Race
We had so much fun last week, checking in with the contenders of the 2011 National League MVP , that we couldn't resist checking the pulse of the American League MVP race. Lately, the AL MVP race has garnered more…
Strange Findings in WAR
While calculating the average Wins Above Replacement scores as research for our upcoming AL MVP race post, we stumbled across a peculiar comparison between Boston's ace, Josh Beckett , and former Boston pitcher, Justin…
Best Hitters Against Pitch Type
An occasional glance at a few numbers on Fangraphs can quickly freshen up your bar stool baseball talk tremendously. Case in point, let's look at the best hitters against certain pitch types. For a larger sample size,…
20 under 20%
There's about a month left to this year's regular season, meaning it's crunch time for competitive owners of fantasy teams. The last time we dusted off the 20 under 20% gimmick was during the first week of the season.…
2011 National League MVP Race
So far this season, I haven't read an article discussing NL MVP candidates, but I've heard chatter for Matt Kemp , Justin Upton , Troy Tulowitzki , Reyes, McCutchen, defending winner Votto, and... I guess that's about…
The Cubs Opportunity
In the aftermath of Jim Hendry's dismissal, it's clear the Cubs are looking for a big name that is respected, from a winning background, and able to instill what he has learned into Cubs culture. Quite a few candidates…
Prepping the Stove
Cubs fans have basically been stuck in Hot Stove forever, having not gone to the World Series in the past sixty-five years. As current fans have likely noticed, the team hasn't contended since being swept out of the…
Rare and Coincidental
Speaking of rare triple plays*, makes me think of my old playing days. Let's go back 19 years, to 1992, in Highland Park, IL. I'm playing the unfamiliar position of catcher, mostly by default, but also because of the…
The Best of the Scrapheap
The month of August is a good time to keep tabs on Ben Nicholson Smith's continuously updated Players Who Cleared Waivers post. Reading it on the Subway tonight after work, a handful of pitchers stood out: Chris Capuano…
Mentality of Zambrano
This story feels so familiar. We've been through this before with Carlos Zambrano. Heck, the cubs organization has went through something similar with Sammy Sosa and Milton Bradley. Of course, Carlos Zambrano will not…
2011 MLB Attendance Trends
The last time we took a look at Baseball-Reference 's nifty " 2010 vs. 2011 Attendance " page, the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays had the most improved attendance, while crowds for the LA Dodgers and Seattle…
Ugliest Pitcher Wins of 2011
On Friday night, Jered Weaver and Aaron Harang exemplified what pitcher "Wins" are worth. Weaver wound up with a no-decision in his team's 1-0 extra inning victory over Seattle. He pitched 9 shutout innings, scattering…
Tim Lincecum, Fresno Grizzlies, April 23, 2007
Earlier today, I went to Youtube for some office background music, and Youtube suggested a video , called " Tim Lincecum ". It doesn't happen a lot, but in this instance, Youtube was right. In a couple of minutes, I…
Our Return to Dontrelle's Bandwagon
Dontrelle Willis is four games into his comeback. Carrying a 3.52 ERA and 0-1 record into his start in Houston on Wednesday night, D-Train fans have reason for optimism. According to Fangraphs , Dontrelle Willis has…
Player of the Fortnight
The last time we checked player rankings for the past two weeks, on July 10th, our Players of the Fortnight were Jose Bautista , CC Sabathia , Aramis Ramirez , and Madison Bumgarner . Let's take another look now; on the…
Corey Patterson and the Damage Done
In essence, this is a Corey Patterson post, but I'm really just throwing together a bunch of memories, emotions, and feelings, to see if it gets us anywhere. Going back to the 2nd of June 1998, Corey Patterson came to…
Change of Pace Update
About 12 weeks ago, the day after the Wedding of the Year, we did this study to see which pitchers have the largest difference in average velocity between their fastball and change-up. Today, we are increasing the…
MLB Pitchers with Best Stuff
We did this a few months ago, when there was such a small sample size, it was almost a waste of time. Tonight, we'll be looking at the Fangraphs Pitch Value Leaderboards to determine who has the best stuff. No hyperbole…
Looking Back at Opponents' OPS Leaders
Expanding on our last post , looking at pitchers’ Opponents' OPS, here is a historical look at Oops leaders of this millennium. In our constant quest to find the best pitching in baseball, this time, only pitchers…
MLB Opponent OPS Leaders
Joe Posnanski published an inspired blog post on Friday. If you're into looking at baseball from different point of views, or just wonderful writing, check it out . In his usual enlightening and entertaining prose, Joe…
Mark Worrell's Pitching Motion
The Orioles called up Mark Worrell for their bullpen the other day. He didn't fare very well in his first game, versus the Red Sox, allowing two hits and a walk, without retiring a batter. I hope he gets another chance…
Is Brandon Morrow Elite?
He shut down the Yankees We've been fans since he was a prospect in the Mariners organization. A flame throwing right-hander who threw strikes with a plus slider? Sure, let's go check him out. He had some arm trouble,…
Regards to Brett Anderson
Get Well Soon, Brett Anderson . He's one of our favorites, as is the awesome Susan Slusser. From her SF Chronicle piece : Genevieve Ross / AP Brett Anderson's left elbow didn't respond to rest, rehab and platelet-rich…
Jose Reyes: "No Hay Amigo"
Jose Reyes shows a different side here. Hey, it's a contract year. He's gotta show every tool, if he's going to take his talents somewhere to get more than $140 mill. Have you heard Jose Reyes drop Reggaeton rhymes? Big…
Best Free Agent Position Player Bargains
Last week, Adam Bernacchio of Ghost of Moonlight Graham fame penned a piece titled " The Five Best Free Agent Bargains From This Offseason " on MLB Daily Dish . Casey Kotchman was a good catch for the Tampa Bay Rays…
Grounders and Popups in the First Half
We did this a couple of weeks into the season , and hope to have more meaningful data to share when looking at pitchers from the entire first half of the 2011 season. We're looking at pitchers with a minimum of 50…
Player of the Fortnight
It's been over two months since we gave out any hardware, so we're overdue for another edition of Player of the Fortnight. For the uninitiated, here is a link to our last entry , where the winners were Lance Berkman ,…
Mixed Emotions
This could get personal and may ramble on, but in the meantime, I'll try to be concise while struggling through the mixed emotions of joy, pain, sadness, sorrow, hope, and something extra. Joy Livan is getting larger...…
Masato Watanabe Hit an Inside-the-Park Homerun off Yu Darvish Today
Once again, thank you to Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker for keeping us informed about Japanese baseball. Regular readers of this space know we are enamored with Yu Darvish. We hope the Cubs eschew the desire to take…
Cubs WAR by Acquisition Type
Last Monday, Adam Darowski, of Beyond the Box Score , tweeted the Baseball-Reference WAR data of Red Sox players acquired via Free Agency. Most valuable Red Sox (B-R WAR) who were acquired as FAs: Ortiz (2.3 WAR),…
Hyperbole, I has It
Walked into the office this morning to see Hall of Fame writer, Peter Gammons, tweet this : From one who knows pitching:"The command and stuff Pineda gets from that angle is uncanny. He could end up better than Felix"…
Cuba's Modern Baseball Centennial Celebration
One hundred years ago, on this day in baseball history, according to NationalPastime.com : 1911: Armando Marsans and Rafael Almeida become the first Cuban natives to appear in a major league game as they both make their…
John Buck Abuses His Prerogative
Up here in New York, the city is already buzzing with locals rushing to get out of town, while tourists from around the globe ask for directions to the Fulton St Subway or Central Park. People are embarking on their 4th…
Happy 83rd Birthday, Yo-Yo
Pompeyo "Yo-Yo" Davalillo was born in the oil producing town of Cabimas, Venezuela 83 years ago today. He was 8 years old when his brother, Vic, was born in the more agricultural and picturesque Churuguara. Vic…
Looking for Arms?
The last time we publicly looked for arms , we used our 12-team H2H league as a case study and concluded with the decision to stick with Marc Rzepczynski . He didnn't last long on the team and turned into Carlos…
Respecting Honus Wagner
One hundred years ago, Honus Wagner was a 37-year old shortstop on the Pittsburgh Pirates. He would still be very productive for a couple of more years. No doubt the Yankees are hoping their 37-year old shortstop, Derek…
Darvish vs. Murton 2011
Nothing says "Saturday Night" like two-week old video from a Japanese baseball game. The following shows the promising Yu Darvish facing the established Matt Murton .
Kemp and Lopes 20/20 First Half
Earlier today, I tumbl'd this tweet from @STATS_MLB : Matt Kemp joined Davey Lopes (1979) as only #Dodgers w/ 20HR & 20 SB before All-Star break since team moved to LA in 1958. #MLB I was 8 when rooting for this guy…
McCourt Lifestyle: "Put it on the Underhill's"
From Larry Behrendt’s awesome work , sharing the inside scoop on the Dodgers debacle... There is no doubt: Commissioner Selig should reject the Dodgers-Fox contract, seize control of the Dodgers, and sell the team to a…
Cubs Outfield Defense, Misnomer
Photo by Bob Busser In the shadowy right-field corner of Wrigley Field, Jeff Baker tepidly reached out with his glove for a high flyball off the bat of Mark Teixeira . Since there is next-to-no foul territory in the…
Cheryl Miller Looks Like...
The SATs were a month or two ago, I think. For all the young adults out there who've been thinking about this stuff, here's something: Cheryl Miller is to Lois Einhorn as Chris Rock is to Mr. Finkel. Finkel is Einhorn.…
Time to Shine: Andrew Miller
Earlier today, we started hearing whispers and rumblings that Andrew Miller was going to get called up. He has a contract clause allowing him to opt-out of his deal if he's not in the Majors by June 15th. What we don't…
Cuban Preselections
This is an exciting time for über cyber-scouts out there, especially when talking about the difficult to chronicle Cuban talent. Courtesy of a website called "CUBADEBATE. Contra el Terrorismo Mediático: Círculo de…
2017 Future Star: Daniel Vogelbach
Yesterday, we took a brief look at the Cubs' 2nd Round selection from the June Draft: Dan Vogelbach. He's still just an unsigned amateur, and may end up accepting a scholarship from the University of Florida if the Cubs…
Have You Seen Dan Vogelbach?
Chicago Cubs 2nd Round pick, Dan Vogelbach, is an 18-year old first baseman from Bishop Verot High School in Florida. Looking at the MLB site of the Cubs' Draft , we see Vogelbach is listed at 250 lbs, and he won't turn…
Love and Baseball
For all you youngsters out there, this is the only way it's acceptable to propose at a ballgame... Goosebumps. As Harry Caray would say, "Ah, young
My Own Private Mississippi
This was an interesting weekend. One of my best friends, Colonel Mustard , visited with his lady-friend, Honey Mustard, on Friday night. We went to an outstanding new Thomas Keller restaurant in the Lower East Side…
Drop the Kid, Take the Cannoli
One line that has always stayed with me is oddly lovable and disarming Clemenza's "Leave the gun, take the cannoli." The following video is not at all reminiscent of any moments in The Godfather , but non sequitur seem…
Looking for Arms
Sorry we've been silent all week over here. Last weekend, I started a research exercise on players by age yet have gaps in the under 23 and over 33 groups. We still share some of our favorite photos, books, and films,…
Next Big Hitting Debuts
Over the past three weeks, we've seen the MLB debuts of Eric Hosmer , Brandon Guyer , Julio Teheran , Jose Iglesias , Pete Kozma , and about nine other guys. Baseball-Reference, of course, keeps a record of Major League…
Why Not Travis Banwart?
The Oakland A's rotation has taken a big hit in the last few days. We've been picking the A's to win this year since the start of the season. They lost Dallas Braden for the season over a month ago. In the past couple…
Minute Maid Madness
While the Astros are not good this year, the hits just keep on coming from Minute Maid Park. Just last week, we shared this video of the Astros fan escaping from security after running on the field . Soon after that,…
MLB Bullpen Rankings
In February, we judged every Major League bullpen from the micro perspective . We looked at individual player stats like FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), HR/9, and K:BB ratio from 2008, '09, and '10, plus Marcel…
First Cubs Game
It's hard to believe that this is when it started getting serious. This is the first Cubs game I ever attended: May 9, 1986 San Diego Padres Batting AB R H RBI BB SO BA OPS WPA Bip Roberts 2B 4 0 3 0 0 1 .206 .515…
Rolling Stone's "Happy 70th, Bob!"
And now, for something completely different... Happy Birthday! This month's cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine has a Happy 70th Birthday cover for Bob Dylan, with a headline that promises an article on the 70 greatest…
Pork Chop, Baseball's Homerun King
This is a bit blurry, but it is an awesome example of the little tidbits and anecdotes that we embrace from the game of baseball. This comes from the outstanding Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Source: Jeff Idelson's…
The Great Fan Escape - Astros Game May 13, 2011
It's unclear how long the powers that be will allow this video to exist, so we took 2 minutes from our normal itinerary to share. I'm paraphrasing, but as loyal Astros fan Osh put it, "Looks like that hill in center…
The Doormats of the National League
It is early in the season, but this Cubs fan feels no optimism. At the moment of this writing, the Cubs are sitting comfortably in 4th place of their division. They are one and a half games ahead of Milwaukee and two…
Pitch Value Leaderboards
No time nor use for rhetoric tonight. The following are current 2011 leader boards for Fangraphs' Pitch Type Linear Weights , Pitch Values. The statistic shown is total runs saved above average. Best Fastball Tim Hudson…
Cubs' Lineup is For the Byrds
Mike Quade's lineup card for today's game has Marlon Byrd batting third for the 22nd time this season. Your third spot is traditionally used for your best hitter. How am I supposed to get excited for the Cubs, when…
Two Cubans and a German Walk into a Bar...
Old photographs are great. They provide a grasp on history that fosters the telling and retelling of stories that should never die. We found this great piece of history on Tumblr, but it's from Dave at Shorpy . It is a…
More on Royals Sensation Aaron Crow
And the hits keep coming from Aaron Crow . Last night, he pitched a scoreless eight inning in a tie game, striking out 1 and allowing 1 hit, keeping his season (and career) ERA at 0.00. What I really wanted to share was…
Streaming Pickups
One of the things we've been trying to do a lot around here is differentiate this space by trying different things. Well, let the track record be darned as we try another renewable post topic.* Presumably, the best…
Baseball's Most Underrated Players
An Eduardo Perez tweet yesterday asked "Who do you guys believe is the most underrated player in the majors?" This discussion is overrated and needs a fresh take. Without showing any boring math, we feel the need to…
Change of Pace Review
This is not new, but it's alarming how more and more discussion topics must be relevant to the moment, and the moment is constantly shortening. Years ago, we could discuss something that happened in the first week of…
2011 Team Attendance Trends
The invaluable baseball-reference.com has a little-known page that compares team attendance from 2011 and 2012 on a game-to-game basis . As the B-R writers explain on the page: "We take the number of home games through…
Astros Future Wallace Bros.
The Lexington Legends of the South Atlantic League are one of the more exciting teams in all of minor league baseball and probably the most prospect rich club in the Houston Astros' organization. Notable prospects on…
Player of the Fortnight
We're sufficiently into the season now to aptly resume our favorite sporadicly recurring Player of the Fortnight series. The background of the Player of the Fortnight Award is recapped in its inception post . To recap…
Ryan Zimmerman's DL Stint w/Charlie Sheen
The Washington Nationals have an 8-7 record in this young season.* They have managed to actually have a better record since Ryan Zimmerman went down with an abdominal injury. They went 3-5 with Zimmerman and 5-2 without…
3-Pitch Stars, NL Edition
We're looking at Fangraphs's remarkable pitch value data today in an effort to find pitchers with the highest cumulative score of their three best pitches. Although we're still in the midsts of small sample size…
Grounders and Pop Ups
It's still a bit early for any 2011 statistic to mean very much in the grand scheme of things, but it can be insightful to get a head start looking at certain statistics that aren't printed in The Sporting News . In…
Change of Pace
Which pitchers have had the largest difference in average velocity between their fastball and change-up? According to fangraphs : National League Travis Wood , Reds 90 - 78 = 12.1 Daniel Hudson , Diamondbacks 94 - 83 =…
Chatty Subway
The fourth car of the #5 express train this morning was abnormally chatty. A few individuals encroached on my commuting solitude with their annoying and incessant pre-8am conversations. I don't really have much baseball…
The Old Expos Roundup
Like many things in life, I never appreciated the Expos as much as I should have while they were around. I'm glad there is baseball in the Nation's capital, but did it have to come at the expense of the beautifully…
Replacing Ryan Zimmerman
Often times, we'll hear fantasy pundits opine as to whom look to as a replacement for a recently injured player. We do it a lot over here, too. This time, it's personal, as Ryan Zimmerman was the 2nd Round pick of our…
Already Missing Manny
It was only three days ago. Manny Ramirez just retired this past Friday, and we already miss him. Manny, you may have been a selfish jerk, a cheater, and a first-class weirdo, but you were always interesting and one of…
Baby Steps with Peripheral Stats
It's too early in the 2011 season to find much meaning in comparing player statistics, especially pitchers, the league leader in Innings Pitched has just 16. Predicting future pitching performance is one of the more…
Recent Seats
I've been fortunate enough to go to the Knicks/Nets game last Wednesday and the Yankee game this past Saturday . I'm just sharing here, but these were the views from my seats. I won't bore you with any more incessant…
And with that, Volstad is Dropped
Public out of respect announcement: this is a relatively boring and self-centered fantasy baseball "my team is so, blah, blah, blah, ish" rant. It beats working at Sears. Patience is, um, a virtue. Patience is a rare…
20 under 20%
Last season, our highly esteemed 20 under 20% post unearthed such luminaries as Gio Gonzalez , Colby Lewis , and the incomparable Jose Bautista . Together, we set sail, in search of rare finds that may help any fantasy…
The Procrastinator's Guide to a Season Preview
The Almost-1-Week-In look at 2011 Some of this is old news to many people, although we've updated a few points here and there recently. We're simply identifying moments or themes to anticipate and appreciate this…
The Spring Training Load Out
We've really taken to this free-flowing style of writing, since clearing our notebook a couple of days ago. Before we get to any reading, a quick heads-up, our next rotoprofessor post should probably be posted sometime…
Ranking Pitchers by Win Projections
Awesome reader Gavin emailed a question in today. He writes... In a real simple season long pool. All it is, is u take 20 pitchers, u get 1 point per win and whoever has the most accumulated wins at the end wins. Have…
Clearing the Notebook
Here is a quote I read that struck me as a poignant piece of advice to writers, particularly if you're like me and you have an idea, think about it, read about it, maybe write a little bit about it, then leave it. And,…
Root for the Local Kid: Mark Trumbo
An awesome reader on Rotoprofessor , named John, left an enlightened comment on our Rookies post. He writes : "What about Mark Trumbo ? Had a good spring. Has an opportunity. Any chance he sticks with the Angels after…
Inaugural Post on Rotoprofessor
Hey folks, so we've never done this before... The Braves are reloading, and Freddie Freeman is a big part of it. I wrote a fantasy article, for Rotoprofessor.com, taking an in depth look at the projected 2011 Major…
Today's Birthdays vol 2
We got such a positive response to our birthday post last week, and today is a monumental birthday, that we decided to do it again. This is going to be a long one, September 23rd is a monumental day for the great game…
Notes Flying to Hong Kong
The following is a collection of notes that I typed into my blackberry a couple of weeks ago amid a 30+ hour trip to the first stay of our trip in Nusa Dua, Bali. Earlier today, my friend asked for details about the…
Today's Birthdays
In our most recent latent form of narcissism, here's a quick glimpse at people who share a birthday
Seven Stories with Branches
"Did you ever hear of the Seattle Seven? That was me... and six other guys." - The Dude, The Big Lebowski , 1998 There are seven active Major League managers with less than four years of experience. They're a tight…
2011 Roto Sleepers and Busts
A quick note before we get started. We'll likely be offline for the next couple of weeks because we'll be going on a two-week before-the-season-starts getaway to the other side of the world. I'm not sure if they have…
Keep Your Nose Clean, MiggyCab
Earlier this evening, I read about Miguel Cabrera's apology from Tribune New Services. It sparked me to comment right away that I hope Cabrera cleans himself up and resumes his Hall of Fame career. As a courtesy to you,…
Patience and Power
We were looking for active players who are patient, have dynamic batting skills, and are young enough to be relatively dependable. So, the criteria we chose were: - Minimum 500 career Plate Appearances - Minimum 13.5%…
Traveling Man
Sitting on a balcony in South Beach, Miami, staring across the Atlantic Ocean, with a purple haze funk in the air, my thoughts take me to Spring Training. I'm looking forward to my good friend's wedding this weekend,…
Roto Top 100 Board (W.I.P.)
It's a lazy Saturday morning. The Albert Pujols drama is still somersaulting from the sounds inside my mind. I've been trying to put my thoughts on why it would be good for the Cubs if he resigned with the Cardinals for…
Pirates Manager: The Before Picture
Some of you may have seen this in Jason Stark's NL Central report card article . We don't agree that " when all a team does is pretty much stand pat, it's grade needs to reflect that. " The Reds were a good young team.…
MLB Bullpen Rankings
Editor's Note: These were our preseason rankings. Our updated team rankings can be found here . Where does your team rank in our preseason rankings of every bullpen in Major League Baseball. Off and on, the past few…
Super Bowl XLV Prop Pool
If you're having a little get together for the game today, or are even watching it with more than one person, you may find enjoyment in creating a quick prop pool that everyone can fill out. I've done this before for…
Looker, Better than Belly Itcher
Overcoming the inertia of our humble, little blog space can often be embarrassingly challenging. We're usually lucky enough to find a few minutes each day to look into something, but finding a way to entertainingly…
Last-Minute Team Off the Street
The last time we brought in some coal for the hot stove was December 29th. It's even colder here in New York the last week of January. When we discussed the hot stove late last year, we were able to put together a…
2011 Fantasy Rankings: Catchers
The silver lining surrounding the Bears season ending today, is that we're one step closer to baseball season. This offseason, we've focused more on baseball history and hot-stove circumstances. Very little time has…
Stark, Underrated Response
Jayson Stark unveiled his All-Underrated team of active players today on ESPN.com. Stark is a modern-day BBWAA icon for his baseball musings on ESPN's website, magazine, and TV networks. He's into nuances of the game…
Throwing Strikes or Effectively Wild?
Warning: This post includes a lot of numbers, some observations, and unfortunately very few conclusions. Last month, we looked at pitchers with extraordinary abilities at missing bats in the zone . Tonight, in the…
Remembering Pavano the Yankee
Yankee fans have many reasons to have negative feelings towards Carl Pavano . Even fans who do not embrace advanced baseball statistics in general, or Wins Above Replacement in particular, can agree that…
No Pressure, Starlin!
Is it fair to compare 20-year old Starlin Castro with 36-year old, 5-time World Champion, future Hall of Famer, Derek Jeter ? Well, Jeeze, um, I guess we'll pick, um... Castro? It's quite likely that we will not see…
Bored? Have Fun with WPA/LI
Since an anonymous poster recently said our Managerial Coaching Tree study seemed "kind of boring", we thought we'd liven things up with a fairly advanced stat, Situational Wins. How could anyone find Stump Merrill…
The Hit King, Matt Murton
Many of us always wanted the Cubs to give Murton a chance to blossom as a lefty mashing 4th Outfielder. They gave him a chance to play, but I think the team should have shown just a bit more patience with Matt Murton .…
Baseball's Managerial Trees
It was over a month ago that we started taking an in-depth look at managerial trees. We've heard much about the NFL coaching trees of Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells, Chuck Noll, and even Marty Schottenheimer. For a while,…
2011 Hall of Fame Voting Results
Congratulations to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven ! Blyleven for the Hall peeps could start backing Raines I suspect that many of the people who fought for years to get Blyleven into the Hall will now use their…
Triple-Slash Triple Crown Winners
The last time someone won the Triple Crown was over forty years ago, when Carl Yastrzemski did it for the Boston Red Sox in 1967 with a .326 average, 44 Homeruns, and 121 RBI. A year earlier, Frank Robinson had just won…
Phish: Meatstick Throwdown & Sneakin' Sally
This isn't sports related, but here is how we brought in 2011... IMHO, Allen Toussaint's " Sneakin' Sally through the Alley " was the best song from the following night, 1.1.11. All the other Meters fans in the audience…
Beat Green Bay
Phish was spectacular, ringing in New Year's last night. It was so good, in fact, that we're going back again in about an hour. Before heading to the Garden, we need to get out our picks for the final regular season…
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)