Strikeout propensity is to modern baseball as obesity is to modern healthcare. The number of players and teams fighting serious strikeout problems at bat is large, and it’s growing, just the way the number and… Read more »
Andrew Friedman’s bare feet alighted cautiously on the hardwood floor next to his bed, but there was no shock of cold. He stood, fumbled for his slippers, wandered to the kitchen and opened the cupboard…. Read more »
The Orioles have been a good, if not great offensive team for three years in a row now. Despite a mediocre ability to get on base, the Orioles finished the 2014 season 9th in batting average, 3rd in slugging, 6th in OPS, and 1st in home runs. The O’s were middle of the pack in getting on base, as many of their full time players are impatient at the plate and embrace a free swinging approach. This approach has worked well for them over the past 4 seasons, averaging 207 home runs, 717 runs, and a .734 OPS per 162 games.
Fans of mediocre teams have, from time immemorial, dreamed of trading all their high-priced talent for prospects, and then “giving the kids” a chance to show what they can do in the majors. But this is better in theory than in practice, just ask the 1998 Marlins (54 wins) or 2003 Tigers (43 wins). After losing 106 games in 2011, the Astros hired GM Jeff Luhnow, who promised to rely heavily on advanced metrics to rebuild the entire franchise, from the farm system out.
After reading the preview by Ted Berg to begin the chapter on the Mets in the 2015 Baseball Prospectus Annual, it took me back almost 6 years ago to August 15th, 2009, a day that… Read more »
I remember the first time I laid eyes on Dwight Gooden. It was 1985 and he was on the cover of one of my dad’s Sports Illustrated magazines. It’s a wonderful photo, depicting a man… Read more »
For most of his baseball career, Xander Bogaerts has been an extremely successful player, whether it’s been in the low or high minors. He’s also always been a highly touted prospect, primarily praised for his… Read more »
Injuries poisoned the Diamondbacks’ 2014, so their last-place finish did not necessarily represent the true talent level of the team. That didn’t stop new Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa from starting the postseason early by cleaning house. GM Kevin Towers was fired and replaced by Dave Stewart, who played for LaRussa on the late-80s/early-90s A’s. Manager Kirk Gibson and bench coach Alan Trammell were fired the day after Stewart was hired and Stewart later hired A’s bench coach Chip Hale to manage the team for 2015.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that home runs are your favorite part of baseball. Well, at the very least, one of your favourite single occurrences during a game. Do not… Read more »
The Braves didn’t wait until after the World Series to start their off-season moves, firing general manager Frank Wren Sept. 22nd and naming John Hart interim GM. Hart later accepted the position of president of baseball operations, working with assistant GM John Coppolella. Hart has led a series of trades that saw several key Braves leave town in exchange for prospects and young major leaguers. He acknowledged there was an eye toward 2017, when the Braves will move to Cobb County and open SunTrust Stadium, without trying to ”strip down” the team.
Staff writers Nick Strangis & Scott Kushner join Ryan Sullivan to talk about coaching college baseball, the Braves’ off-season and stadium move, and pace of game.
If you told me at the end of 2013 (5.19 ERA) that Phil Hughes would have a chance to win a Cy Young, I would’ve told you, no way. If you told me in 2012… Read more »
During the course of my appearance on the BttP podcast, we touched upon the specifics of covering a minor league team. I thought I would share something I originally wrote during the 2012 season that… Read more »
Before we begin the “unboxing,” if you will, I’d like to mention the two major personnel changes the Royals have made this offseason. Essentially, they have replaced Billy Butler with Kendrys Morales and replaced Nori Aoki with Alex Rios. Let’s make a quick comparison:
Rickie Weeks going to the Mariners yesterday moved a lot of eyebrows, raising some, furrowing others. Weeks’s deal will be worth $2 million for one year, according to Jim Bowden. To the casual fan, this… Read more »
We think about the Rockies and get all depressed so you don’t have to
This might be a scary thought to consider if you’re a Red Sox fan or if you’re a member of the Red Sox front office. Most of us, including me, perceive Buchholz to be a… Read more »
A nice thing about baseball cards is that they strive for conformity and are mostly the same size. Upwards of 500,000 commons won’t even take up much space in a closet if you have them… Read more »
Episode 87: “Baseball and the BCS/Halladay vs. Lee/Does the ‘Success Cycle’ Still Exist?” – November 22, 2012.
We soldier on. Check out yesterday’s entry, on the Phillies. And give the preview podcast itself a listen. Run Production How do they score runs? Are they notably home-run dependent? Notably light on power? Is… Read more »
If there’s one sport out there accessible to the gaming crowd, I believe it’s baseball. Baseball has everything gamers want; insane eccentricities, naturally occurring pauses, one-on-one interaction, and big stars, and more. To that end, if there are any gamers out there trying to get into baseball and wondering which team to support, I’ve created a handy guide for such an endeavour. Being a gamer and a baseball fan myself, I’ve tried to align this to existing gamer tendencies. I’ll lay out a brief background and a few facts about each team, then tell you what kind of gamer they’ll appeal to, and give a few examples of what the good and bad of following a team will feel like playing. I hope you enjoy it!
Episode 25 – The Secretly Successful White Sox System?/Starlin Castro’s Makeup Concerns – August 21, 2012.
EW Episode 26 – The Return of Brett Anderson, Oakland’s Playoff Rotation, and the Financial Future of Stephen Drew – August 22, 2012.
The San Diego Padres agreed to terms with James Shields very late on Sunday night, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. Shields’s new contract will be worth between $72 million and $78 million over… Read more »
On Monday, Effectively Wild launched its annual team preview series, a staple of the podcast that has drawn new listeners in droves each of the last two springs. This year, Banished to the Pen will… Read more »
Spring 2015 marks the third set of the Effectively Wild podcast’s daily team previews, and our first year of written companion pieces. The order of EW’s previews is determined by PECOTA’s win-loss projection for the… Read more »
Staff writers Mick Reinhard and Stephen Shaw join Ryan Sullivan to talk about covering a minor league team, the basics of StatCast, and the Yankees.
Episode 23: Benching Bryce Harper/Why We Were Wrong About the White Sox – August 17th, 2012.
Episode 24: The Rays Are Rolling/Assessing the Angels’ Strange Season – August 20th, 2012.
The top fantasy second basemen for 2015.
The Baltimore Orioles announced a trade on Tuesday afternoon, sending AA catcher Michael Ohlman to the St. Louis Cardinals for cash considerations. Ohlman was designated for assignment when the Orioles acquired Travis Snider from Pittsburgh… Read more »
If there’s one sport out there accessible to the gaming crowd, I believe it’s baseball. Baseball has everything gamers want; insane eccentricities, naturally occurring pauses, one-on-one interaction, and big stars, and more. To that end,… Read more »
