On Effectively Wild episode 857, which aired April 7, former Baseball Prospectus staffer and founding member, and current Sports Illustrated and newsletter writer, Joe Sheehan discussed the emergence of 12- and 13-man pitching staffs, and how they’ve… Read more »
COMMENTARY
Two years ago I devised a plan to better evaluate front offices besides the typical wins and losses used by many casual fans. I perform this evaluation by creating specific metrics using preseason projected statistics and… Read more »
During this past off-season I’d been thinking a lot about why it appears major league teams can’t perpetuate success once they have experienced it. By success, I mean making it to the playoffs. There are… Read more »
It seems a majority of teams like to play the market. This can work, considering there is always the potential to find undervalued prospects, but the market is becoming increasingly efficient. By this I mean… Read more »
When I hear the name Vince Coleman, this is the first image that comes to mind. With apologies to the California Angels’ very own speedster Gary Pettis, Coleman is RBI Baseball’s premier leadoff man; all… Read more »
Groundskeepers are like offensive linemen: we often don’t notice them until they mess up. Without regular maintenance, your lovely baseball field can go from this: to this: (Let’s not forget that we’re less than a year removed from a… Read more »
Byung Ho Park, the Twins’ big free-agent acquisition this offseason, has already shown why the Twins spent the $12.85 million posting fee to negotiate with the 29-year-old Korean slugger. On March 6, Park clubbed his… Read more »
Originally published on Mattingly’s Sideburns. February is a time for baseball optimism. The heavy-lifting of the offseason is over. Free agents have found a home for the upcoming season. Pitchers and catchers are just… Read more »
Note: You can listen to Darius discuss this article on Effectively Wild Episode 812 with Ben Lindbergh and Steven Goldman. Roger Kahn’s “The Head Game” is about a series of pitching greats, one of… Read more »
What’s the single most important offensive statistic? I imagine most of us who have bookmarked Baseball Prospectus would not say batting average or RBIs. A lot of us might pick TAv or OPS+. But neither of… Read more »
The path Mike Piazza took from a high school first baseman who garnered little interest from colleges to Hall of Famer was an improbable one. Is his story one that could even happen today? Would… Read more »
As I noted a few weeks ago, batters who were at least semi-regulars in both 2014 and 2015 were less effective in 2015 than in 2014, as measured by wRC+. That seemed directionally unsurprising —… Read more »
Months of speculation finally became reality Friday evening, as the Washington Nationals traded RHP Drew Storen and cash considerations to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for OF Ben Revere and a Player To Be… Read more »
The Cincinnati Reds are two years removed from winning 90 games and making the playoffs. In fact, from 2010-2013 the Reds went to the post-season three times in four years, but were never able to get… Read more »
Welcome back to another exciting edition of 1985 vs 2015. Previously in this series, we created a new OOTP game and added the best 4 NL and AL teams from 1985 and 2015. In the… Read more »
Pirates pitchers hit more batters than any team in the majors this year, 75. They also led in 2014. And 2013. That’s unusual. The only teams to have led the majors in hit batters for… Read more »
What would a team be willing to pay Daniel Murphy? This was one of the most intriguing questions headed into the off-season. Over the past five years Murphy has been the kind of player who produced positive… Read more »
Previously in this series, we created a new OOTP 16 game feature the best teams of 1985 and 2015 and then simulated up to the All-Star break. In this post, we’ll take a look at… Read more »
In 1986, Major League Baseball moved the trade deadline from June to July 31. I am hypothesizing that more “ace” pitchers get moved at that deadline today than ever before. For this exercise, we are… Read more »
In our last post, we set up a new custom OOTP 16 game featuring the best teams from 1985 and 2015. In this post, we’ll simulate to the all-star game while taking a look at… Read more »
After the recent signings of Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto, the Giants look much stronger for 2015. As pointed out by Craig Goldstein on FanGraphs, the Giants infield looks excellent, but the Giants outfield looks… Read more »
Have you ever wanted to experience the thrill of running a professional baseball team? Lack the connections of a BaseballProspectus.com managing editor or a FiveThirtyEight.com writer? Never fear, friend, Out of the Park Baseball, now… Read more »
Welcome to the next volume of a very sporadic series of articles I call Time WARP. You can find the previous volumes of this series right here: Jim Maloney Cesar Cedeno Vada Pinson In The… Read more »
Every year, we hear about batters taking a new approach at the plate that they expect to generate better outcomes. But, as has often been shown, a lot of player tendencies are hard-wired. Players generally… Read more »
On Wednesday afternoon Ken Rosenthal reported that Todd Frazier had been traded to the Chicago White Sox as part of a three-team deal. Source: Frazier from #Reds to #WhiteSox. Three-team deal with #Dodgers apparently. — Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 16, 2015… Read more »
Aaron Hicks, OF, New York Yankees Acquired by New York in the deal that sent catcher JR Murphy to Minnesota, Hicks is a post-hype prospect who showed promise in an injury-interrupted 2015 season. He turned… Read more »
To learn a bit more about Carlos Martinez’s 2015 season, in my first post at Viva El Birdos I researched all right-handed pitchers from 1988-2015 who logged at least 162 innings in their age-23 season…. Read more »
This article originally appeared on NatsGM.com. Just prior to the conclusion of the 2015 MLB Winter Meetings, on Thursday afternoon, the Washington Nationals agreed to trade infielder Yunel Escobar plus some cash considerations to… Read more »
The following article also appeared on Baseball Prospectus. Barry Bonds was not a human being. He was a Kryptonian alien sent from another planet to destroy all baseballs. Like Superman, he was amazing at… Read more »
The A’s made a trade this week to shore up a need. They non-tended Ike Davis after a disappointing season, and traded for non-tender candidate Yonder Alonso. While Alonso is reportedly thrilled to be with… Read more »
