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 »
The following is the result of a “flash” draft of favorite TV Christmas specials, as conducted by Banished to the Pen staff and contributors. The picks were based solely on personal preference, and no thought… 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 »
Not long after their initial viewings of Star Wars Episode VII, Brandon Lee, Ken Maeda, Mick Carlucci, and Nick Strangis just had to convene to compare their ratings, theater experience, and likes/dislikes. Spoilers throughout.
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 »
Ben Lindbergh (of Effectively Wild and FiveThirtyEight) joins BttP editor Ken Maeda to talk about all things Star Wars, including his take on The Force Awakens, and growing up a fan of the series. After some talk about his sportswriting, spoilers start at about 12 minutes in.
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 »
It’s incredible to think about how little we actually know about baseball. Bloggers and analysts and reporters and fans all aspire to learn everything they can about the game and yet, we still look downright… Read more »
“Saint” Nick Strangis and “Frosty” Ross Bukouricz join “Reindeer” Ryan Sullivan to talk about Jason Heyward and the remaining big name free agents, then discuss Out of the Park Baseball and saddest offseason moments, and end by exchanging baseball gift stories.
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 »
Effective Dec 2022: Banished to the Pen’s set of Effectively Wild merchandise (previously at Spreadshirt) is currently not available, but official EW/FanGraphs shirts are now on sale at BreakingT. If you have a request for… 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 »
Last time, I asked about the Rule 5 Draft, and you answered by going over the 40-man roster. Are we done with that? Not quite. Why not? Are there any exceptions? Can a team have a player… Read more »
Baseball’s Rule 5 Draft was on Thursday, December 10. What’s a Rule 5 Draft? Matt Nekrich went over it last year. I’ll revisit it here. Not to be a total jerk about it, but it’s hard… Read more »
Andrew Patrick, Eric Hartman, Mike Carlucci, and Brandon Lee hold a 5-round draft of their all-time favorite Simpsons episodes.
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 »
We start wrapping up the site’s first year with Alex Crisafulli, Eric Roseberry, Ryan Sullivan, and Ken Maeda, discussing the big pitcher signings, Dusty Baker, and Coach Bonds. Then they get into their fan origin stories, an encounter with Ben Lindbergh, and the biggest post of the Banished era thus far. (Recorded on Saturday.)
During the latest Banished to the Pen podcast, we had a discussion on the Craig Kimbrel trade and the question of where we are on the spectrum of overvaluing or undervaluing closers. If you haven’t… Read more »
In a somewhat surprising development, the Pirates did not offer a 2016 contract to first baseman Pedro Alvarez by Wednesday night’s 11:59 PM deadline. He is now a free agent. The reasons this is surprising are… Read more »
In the world of sports, the catcher position is kind of weird. Catchers start each play out of bounds, facing a different direction than their teammates. On a more micro level, baseball’s most important in-bounds/out-of-bounds determination, the… Read more »
Notable tenants: Pittsburgh Pirates – (MLB) 1970-2000; Pittsburgh Steelers – (NFL) 1970-2000
Date opened and first baseball game: July 16, 1970; Cincinnati Reds 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 2. The Pirates also lost to the Reds that year in the NLCS, three games to zero.
By the time you’re reading this you’ve probably eaten your fill of turkey, stuffing, and pie. In the spirit of the holiday we asked several of the Banished to the Pen contributors what they’re thankful… Read more »
