2012
62 posts
2013 Hall of Fame "Ballot", Part I
This year's Baseball Writers' Association of America Hall of Fame ballot is the most crowded in over 65 years, when 95 players received votes in 1945 . Before we get to this year's fun, here's a glimps at the 1945…
Hall of Fame Potential by Game Score
There are six Starting Pitchers on this year's Hall of Fame ballot: Rk HOFs JAWS 1 Roger Clemens 73 99.0 2 Curt Schilling 46 61.4 3 David Wells 40 39.1 4 Jack Morris 39 35.1 5 Woody Williams 14 24.2 6 Aaron Sele 15 17.5…
Exciting Times for the Mets and Blue Jays
It sounds more and more likely that this Travis d'Arnaud for R.A. Dickey trade is going to happen. d'Arnaud: power and a strong arm Travis d'Arnaud is a top quality prospect, and the Mets fans should be pleased to land…
Last Night of Winter Meetings
This can be one of the best nights of the offseason. The following is our attempt to document the evening for posterity. *** According to this Jeff Wilson piece in the Fort Worth Star Telegram , Nolan Ryan thinks…
Rumors, Transactions, and Winter Ball
Here's what's been happening lately in the world of baseball... Julio Teheran gave up 1 hit & 1 walk in 5 2/3 innings two nights ago for Tigres del Licey. licey.com/archivos/Boxsc… #Braves — Bobby Aguilera…
Ichiro's Next Stage
The day Ichiro Suzuki gets inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, will be a bright day for Baseball History. Ichiro has been a classy gentleman and ambassador for the game of baseball to…
What's Up with Mike Scott?
Surely, there are others who woke up this Thanksgiving morning and started looking at pitching stats from 1982. I'm starting a pitching project from 1982-present, and thought I'd share some early morning musings. Thirty…
Aramis and the Composition of Cano
Over the past few weeks, a bunch of stuff has been on my mind, and occasionally I'll try to document it somewhere, so that I won't forget it. Sometimes, it's a solitary tweet, like my shout out to Aramis Ramirez on…
The Robinson Cano Dilemma
A debate among New York Yankees fans has been heating up over the past few days: the debate to trade Robinson Canó , or extend his contract, to a nine-figure deal, keeping him in the Bronx for the next several years.…
2010 - 2012 All Defensive Teams
Last time around , we looked at the 2012 All Defensive Teams when ranking players by various defensive statistics, such as Fielding Percentage, Defensive Runs Save, Ultimate Zone Rating, and more. Sadly and insatiably,…
2012 All Defensive Teams
Major League Baseball announced the 2012 Gold Glove award winners last night. As a suggested prerequisite to the information below, please check out Joe Posnanski's brilliant juxtaposition of the Gold Glove and Fielding…
Pitching Under the Radar in 2012
Armed with a 97 mph fastball, Pedro Strop achieved the 2nd highest Groundball rate and 3rd highest GB/FB rate ratio among 263 pitchers who threw over 1,000 pitches in 2012. His fortunate-to-lucky 83.2% LOB% and .275…
Justin Verlander's Velocity Chart
Courtesy of Brooks Baseball , via the essential Getting Blanked , we present Justin Verlander 's velocity chart from last night: While this may not be out of the ordinary for the bionic Justin Verlander, please keep in…
Hunter Pence and the RBI
Entering the 2012 campaign, Hunter Pence had been around a 3 to 5 Wins Above Replacement guy, throughout his five year career. This season, Hunter Pence combined career lows in Batting Average, On Base and Slugging…
So What's the Scenario?
"Funny how falling feels like flying, even for a little while." - Bad Blake Bud Selig should be ashamed of himself. Losing the One Game Playoff is cruel to emotionally invested baseball fans. If what happened to the…
Postseason Brackets
Sitting in my office, minding my own business, and messing around with 2012 Park Factors , my colleague asks me for help filling out his MLB playoff brackets for a pool he's in. Not many people do baseball brackets, and…
Wins Above Replacement / 600 Plate Appearances
Look in the mirror. You'll see a person who would click on an article titled: Wins Above Replacement / 600 Plate Appearances . Anyone with an opinion on what it is "to blog" will say that readership numbers vary…
Defensive Runs Saved per 9, since 2010
This post could simply be an excuse to expand on a tweet like: " Maicer Izturis has cost the Angels more than .53 Runs per 9 innings at Shortstop this season. http://bit.ly/izturis #DRS " Simplicity is one reason we…
Who Should Win the MVP?
Buster Olney got it started early this morning... In the wide open AL Cy Young race, the frontrunners from here look to be: 1. Felix Hernandez. 2. Verlander. 3. Weaver. As of today. — Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) August…
Cutting it in the Mexican Leagues
In 1974, David S. Ward won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for The Sting , and was nominated in 1994 for Sleepless in Seattle . The Sting has to be David Ward's best work, but in many ways, Major League was his…
Prepping the Hot Stove
At this time of year, baseball fans of leading teams spend a few minutes now and then daydreaming of postseason possibilities. Summer is easier to let go of when Autumn strikes if your baseball team is in contention.…
Grading the Trade Deadline of 2008
Everyone says you can't judge trade deadline, or draft class, winners and losers immediately, but baseball pundits still crank them our for major publications, like Sports Illustrated or ESPN . The reasons for the…
2013 Hall of Fame Ballot
There's a lot of exciting stuff we could be talking about right now. Namely, Ichiro Suzuki was just traded to the Yankees. Ryan Dempster was almost traded to the Braves. Perhaps most notably, the Tigers upped the ante…
Player of the Fortnight
We're a little more than two weeks past the All Star break. So, it's as good a time as any to hand out some virtual hardware. About a month ago , our winners were Carlos Beltran , R.A. Dickey , Trevor Plouffe , and Yu…
Fun with Platoon Splits
We still have time for one more All-Star break statistical post before the second half of the season begins with this afternoon's Diamondbacks/Cubs game at Wrigley Field. The other day, someone on Twitter asked if…
MLB Attendance Trends
Since the All-Star Game is the proverbial midway point of the season, let's take a look at per game attendance trends of each Major League club, compared to last season. After the chart below, we'll try to make some…
First Half MLB Awards
It's the All-Star Break. Time to see how our MLB Awards ballots would look if voting on performances of the first half. AL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award 1. Mike Trout , Angels Trout has many reasons to smile…
Stars Shine Brightly in MLB Futures Game
The greatest part of the MLB All-Star break in recent seasons has been the Future's Game. With the boredom of Home Run Derby, and occasional apathy towards the All-Star game, this rare look at the best prospects in the…
Heaven Help Tim Lincecum
A couple of weeks ago, in the Czech Republic / Portugal match, Cristiano Ronaldo clanked an open shot off the post at the tail end of the first half. Visibly frustrated, the well known footballer and model looked and…
Checking in on OOPS
A year ago, we looked at leaders in Opponents' OPS , then again with historical perspective . Recapping what we learned last season: Opponents OPS Leaders (ERA Qualifiers) 2000 AL: Pedro Martinez , Red Sox .473 NL:…
Clearing the Notebook
It's hard to believe the first time we cleared the notebook of random thoughts was almost three years ago, in July '09. About twenty months later, in March '11, we did it again . We're officially accelerating at glacial…
Freddie Freeman's Line Drives
Freddie Freeman 's rate stats this season are just a bit off. A .259 batting average and .313 on-base percentage pale to his rookie .282 and .342 rates. Aside from that minor blip, things are looking good for the…
Should Jesus Montero be Sent Down?
In June, Jesus Montero played in 23 games - catching 8, serving as designated hitter 14 times, and drawing a pinch-hit walk on June 24. Unfortunately, his June splits are a crime scene. In June: 2 BB, 24 K's, 1 RBI, 0…
Evaluating the Final Vote
All Star Game 2012 Final Vote time is upon us ( ballot here ). The only politics we like to discuss are voting for baseball (Hall of Fame, Gold Gloves, etc., not the ESPY's) and entertainment awards (Oscars and Golden…
Player of the Fortnight
As a professional scout told me years ago, to check which players are playing at the top of their game, all one needs to look at are stats from the past two weeks. While Major League Baseball announces winners of Player…
20 under 20%
Faithful readers will know this is the fourth time we've looked at ballplayers with favorable prospects and are under-owned in most fantasy leagues. The first time we did this, in April 2010 , we unearthed Jose Bautista…
Trade Targets for Contenders
The new playoff format gives more teams hopes of making the postseason, which decreases the number of sellers at the trading deadline. If there is a silver lining for truly terrible teams, like the Cubs and Twins, it's…
ICYMI, Last Night was Draft Night!
The grammar police are taking the night off. There's not much form here, just free flowing notes I took down during the first night of the 2012 Rule 4 Draft. Great moment for Houston The rumors of Carlos Correa…
MLB Pitchers with Best Stuff
The quantitative bounties found in Fangraphs linear weights help us understand most of the who, what, how, or why certain things happen on the field. It is important to remember that pitch values are not a predictive…
June Swoons and Stars or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love BABiP and K/BB Rates
It's June 1st, and that can mean many things. for one: regression. Below are a couple of arrangements of players, as squads, whose April/May performances stand out from the norm. Potential June Swoons C: Carlos Ruiz ,…
Change of Pace
We did this a few times last year, and it seems to have fairly decent predictive qualities for future success. We are looking at which pitchers have the largest discrepancy between their fastball and change-up average…
Best and Worst, with Stats
It started this morning. Checking out a few things on leaderboards, I noticed that Jamie Moyer , a personal favorite, had an unsightly 1.75 WHIP. Yet, his BB/9 was a better than average 3.14. Naturally, his H/9 was…
State of the Disabled List
Jason Martinez, of the remarkably comprehensive website MLBdepthcharts.com , tweeted a keen observation on Sunday: According to my calculations, there are 166 players on the DL. #Padres lead league with 14. #Rangers…
Thoughts from the Air
A view from the cockpit. It's Saturday morning, and I'm flying from New York to Chicago, with aspirations to see the Dodgers at Wrigley this afternoon. Thinking back on recent days around baseball, developments have…
N.Y. Mets Clowning Out West
Fans of the New York Metropolitans haven't had much to celebrate in recent seasons. Their last winning record was 89-73 in 2008, after Jerry Manuel took over for Willie Randolph midseason. Compared to the doom and gloom…
Pujols Knows Futility
It's been well documented that Albert Pujols is struggling to adapt to the American League. Most of us know he has yet to hit a homerun. After a base on balls in the 8th inning of tonight's game, he's currently in an…
MLB Facts and Opinions
Statistical observations of this young season should all be accompanied with a small sample size warning, and this exercise is no different. Today, we're checking the pulse of Major League Baseball, in power rankings…
2012 MLB Predictions
Spring is the time of rebirth and hope. This is the most hopeful time of year. Baseball is Spring. Hope is in the air, unless you're a realistic fan of teams from Houston, Oakland, Chicago, or Baltimore. In towns all…
Non-Displaced Fracture of the Orbital Floor
From Lynn Henning's update on Miguel Cabrera 's injury: Neither the Tigers, nor Cabrera, expect that last year's American League batting champion will miss Opening Day, April 5 at Comerica Park. Am I in the minority…
Spanning the Blogosphere
Featuring quotes and whispers from sites around the globe. Freddy Garcia could use an attitude adjustment, as he does not at all appear to be pleased that his team is trying to get better by bringing back one of the…
Notable Recent MLBTR's
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Don't mix grain and grape. While reading the indispensable Mlbtraderumors.com , I jotted down notes from tidbits that for one reason or another jumped off the page. As they say on Tosh.O ,…
Fantasy Baseball: Catchers
At this time last year, I was readjusting to life in NYC after a three-week holiday in rural Bali. Two years ago, I wrote this piece from Valdelagrana, Spain. It's easy to miss Valdelagrana... Our criteria this year…
Miami (Dade) Baseball Alumni
A discussion at work, about collegiate sports in Florida, had me saying that Miami Dade Community College was a really good baseball school. With a little digging on baseball-reference , something completely pointless…
Blake Beavan's Poor Pitch Selection
Reconnaissance work on Starting Pitchers for the upcoming season brought me to Blake Beavan of the Seattle Mariners. Beavan is not, yet, expected to win a spot in big league rotation, but he’s 6’7” 240 lbs. and he…
College Hoops, Top 5 from 1990-Now
All right folks, it's not baseball, but it adds to another favorite sport: College Hoops. We are doing this. Please add to the discussion. What is your Top 5 lineup for NCAA hoops of players from 1990 - today? This is a…
Jesus Montero in the Tools of Ignorance
Yahoo posted this AP picture on their site from yesterday: Mariners fans, and Jesus Montero fantasy owners, hope he protects his bare hand on defense. There was no corresponding story on yahoo, but at least we see Jesus…
What Will the Braves Do?
The Braves had a terrible collapse last September. People outside of Atlanta don't hear much about it because (a) the Red Sox had a worse collapse, (b) the media loves to report on Boston teams, and (c) even Braves fans…
Favorite Catcher: Wilson Ramos
Anyone who follows on Twitter or knows me personally knows we are big fans of Wilson Ramos and were on edge for the two days he was kidnapped. We were fans when the Twins foolishly traded him for Matt Capps . We…
Bo Jackson, Home to Home
One of today's SB Nation pieces by Rob Neyer sent me to his final ESPN.com piece from a year ago, which brought me childhood memories of Bo Jackson. Neyer included a Youtube link with amazing Bo Jackson footage, but…
A Few Good Stats
The Society for American Baseball Research celebrates SABR Day each year on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. We took part by spending a little time on Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs, ultimately sharing a quick…
Prince and his Power
One of my stranger collections are the undeveloped ideas, explorations, and arguments that lay in the tenuous existence of this blog's nebulous Saved Drafts folder. Archived like time capsules, these drafts may house a…
MLB's 24 Under 24
Some of you may have participated in a Major League Soccer promotion called 24 under 24 . As the name implies, MLS is highlighting 24 of their brightest young stars, under the age of 24. Fredy Montero is a beacon of…
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