May 2011
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…
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