August 2011
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…
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)