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05-21

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8

Overthinking It: The Pitches No Zone Can Contain
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-21

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1

Daily Hit List: Tuesday, May 21
by
Matt Sussman

05-21

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4

Scouting the Draft: Corner Outfielders to Know
by
Nick J. Faleris

05-21

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0

What You Need to Know: Corb Your Enthusiasm
by
Daniel Rathman

05-21

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11

Baseball ProGUESTus: Dollar Sign on the Glistening Muscle: Scouting Ballplayers in 1980s Playgirl
by
Michael Clair

05-21

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0

Transaction Analysis: Sipping on 'Gnac
by
R.J. Anderson

05-21

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7

Punk Hits: Eyes on the Prize
by
Ian Miller

05-21

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17

The Stash List: Jurickson Profar's Valedictorian Speech
by
Bret Sayre

05-21

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3

Sporer Report: Has Coors Gone Light?
by
Paul Sporer

05-21

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7

Skewed Left: The Shift's PR Problem
by
Zachary Levine

05-20

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3

Daily Hit List: Monday, May 20
by
Matt Sussman

05-20

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19

Baseball Therapy: Would the Astros' Piggyback Starters Model Work in the Majors?
by
Russell A. Carleton

05-20

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2

What You Need to Know: Cy of Relief
by
Daniel Rathman

05-20

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0

Prospectus Q&A: The College of Coaches on Catcher Framing
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-20

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1

Pebble Hunting: Extreme Strikeout Matchups
by
Sam Miller

05-20

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0

The Week In Quotes: May 13-19
by
Jonah Birenbaum, Andrew Koo and Satchel Price

05-20

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8

Fantasy Freestyle: Digging Deeper Than Deep
by
Mike Gianella

05-20

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7

Monday Morning Ten Pack: May 20
by
Jason Parks and Jason Cole

05-20

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3

Painting the Black: Surgery Comes for the Ace Reliever
by
R.J. Anderson

05-18

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11

Overthinking It: This Week in Catcher Framing, 5/18
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-17

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12

Raising Aces: Stuffing the Ballot, First Quarter
by
Doug Thorburn

05-17

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3

Daily Hit List: Friday, May 17
by
Matt Sussman

05-17

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5

Baseball ProGUESTus: On the Origin of the Switch-Hitting Species
by
Alex Speier

05-17

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0

What You Need to Know: Going the Wrong Ray
by
Daniel Rathman

05-17

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2

In A Pickle: How Great Thou Bart
by
Jason Wojciechowski

05-17

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3

Fantasy Mailbag: Sell or Hold?
by
BP Fantasy Team

05-17

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6

Fantasy Freestyle: Loosening the Trade Lines
by
Paul Singman

05-17

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0

Dissecting the Draft: Profiling Prep Arms
by
Nick J. Faleris

05-17

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12

Fantasy Starting Pitcher Planner: Week Eight
by
Paul Sporer

05-17

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0

Pitcher Profile: Scouting Alberto Gonzalez and Other Position-Player Pitchers
by
Dan Rozenson

05-16

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9

Overthinking It: The Mystique and Aura of the Other 29 Teams
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-16

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4

Daily Hit List: Thursday, May 16
by
Matthew Kory

05-16

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47

Eyewitness Accounts: May 16, 2013
by
BP Prospect Staff

05-16

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0

What You Need to Know: The Price is Not Right
by
Zachary Levine

05-16

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13

Free Agent Watch: National League, Week Seven
by
Josh Shepardson

05-16

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7

On the Beat: The Most Improved Players
by
John Perrotto

05-16

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5

Bullpen Report: Diamondbacks Settle on Bell
by
Mike Gianella

05-16

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18

The Stats Go Marching In: Catcher Framing Before PITCHf/x
by
Max Marchi

05-15

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9

Daily Hit List: Wednesday, May 15
by
Matthew Kory

05-15

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0

What You Need to Know: The Best Brew in Town
by
Daniel Rathman

05-15

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7

The Lineup Card: 10 Interesting Excerpts from Scouting Reports
by
Baseball Prospectus

05-15

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5

Pebble Hunting: The Starts That Defied FIP
by
Sam Miller

05-15

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15

Out of Left Field: Did the Dodgers Make Suckers of the Red Sox?
by
Matthew Kory

05-15

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3

Painting the Black: The Cleveland Show
by
R.J. Anderson

05-15

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5

Fantasy Freestyle: An Out-of-Tune Vogelsong
by
Jason Collette

05-15

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21

The Stash List: The Bad Teams With a Plan
by
Bret Sayre

05-14

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3

Skewed Left: Replacement Rangers
by
Zachary Levine

05-14

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6

Daily Hit List: Tuesday, May 14
by
Matt Sussman

05-14

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17

Baseball Therapy: How Reliable Are Our Fielding Metrics?
by
Russell A. Carleton

05-14

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51

Manufactured Runs: Listen to What the Heyman Said
by
Colin Wyers

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The pitches pitchers don't throw for strikes, to try to get strikes.

There’s a story about Gene Bearden in Veeck as in Wreck that I’ve written about before. As a 27-year-old rookie in 1948, the knuckleballing Bearden posted a 2.43 ERA in 37 games and 29 starts for the Indians, winning 20 games and finishing second to Alvin Dark in Rookie of the Year voting. But he couldn’t sustain his success. In Bearden’s sophomore season, Casey Stengel, who had managed Bearden during his successful 1947 PCL campaign with the Oakland Oaks, was hired to manage the Yankees. Stengel, the story goes, knew that Bearden’s knuckleball “usually dipped below the strike zone after it broke, which meant that [he] was totally dependent upon getting the batter to swing.” So he instructed his hitters not to swing at the knuckler until there were two strikes, forcing Bearden to elevate it or throw his unremarkable fastball or curve. The scouting report spread around the rest of the league, Bearden became more hittable, and his walk rate rose. Working primarily out of the bullpen, he posted a 90 ERA+ from 1949 on and was out of the majors after 1953.

It’s an interesting story, and the stats mostly support it. Bearden was probably due for some regression, Stengel’s advance scouting aside—his BABIP in 1948 was some 40 points below the AL average (low even for a knuckleballer), he walked more batters than he struck out, and he allowed only nine home runs in 229 1/3 innings. But in 1949, his walk rate rose by more than two batters per nine, and he allowed 11 runs in nine IP against the Yankees, posting a lower strikeout-to-walk ratio (0.17) against them than he did against any other team. (Admittedly, Bearden struggled against the Yankees in 1948, too. The Yankees were good.)

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May 21, 2013 8:55 am

Daily Hit List: Tuesday, May 21

1

Matt Sussman

You may look at today's Hit List, but please don't touch it. (It's infectious.)

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May 21, 2013 8:28 am

Scouting the Draft: Corner Outfielders to Know

4

Nick J. Faleris

With less than a month until draft day, which players are making names for themselves in the corner outfield market?

This year’s draft class offers an interesting blend of talent at the outfield corners, particularly at the prep ranks, where we find a dynamic cross-section of thumpers, pure hit tools, and a little of everything in between. At the collegiate ranks, some of the top talents include current infielders and center fielders that project better to a corner at the next level, with perhaps the best current corner outfielder in the class representing one of the biggest displays of helium over the past 12 months.

Cream of the Crop

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May 21, 2013 5:00 am

What You Need to Know: Corb Your Enthusiasm

0

Daniel Rathman

Last night, Patrick Corbin continued his breakout season in dominating fashion. Tonight, Max Scherzer will try to contain Carlos Santana and the Indians.

The Monday Takeaway
When members of the Baseball Prospectus staff submitted our breakout-player predictions back in February, only two pitchers, Matt Moore and Mike Minor, made the list. With Moore off to an 8-0 start and Minor sporting a 51-to-12 K:BB, those were fine choices. But if we were to do it over, a third lefty, the Diamondbacks’ Patrick Corbin, would undoubtedly join them.

Corbin took the Coors Field mound yesterday with a 1.52 ERA through eight assignments, a number that was scrutinized by those skeptical of his emergence as a mid-rotation stud. The southpaw’s strikeout rate had increased modestly, from 18.9 percent last year to 19.5 percent in the early going of 2013, but his walk rate had climbed more significantly, from 5.5 percent to 8.1 percent. His opponents’ BABIP was .259. He had stranded 89.2 percent of the runners who reached base. All of those are often indicators of impending regression.


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Safe for work, if your workplace permits nearly nude baseball players in tastefully draped towels.

Most of our writers didn't enter the world sporting an @baseballprospectus.com address; with a few exceptions, they started out somewhere else. In an effort to up your reading pleasure while tipping our caps to some of the most illuminating work being done elsewhere on the internet, we'll be yielding the stage once a week to the best and brightest baseball writers, researchers and thinkers from outside of the BP umbrella. If you'd like to nominate a guest contributor (including yourself), please drop us a line.

Michael Clair is a writer and comic. His baseball writing can be found at Old Time Family Baseball and The Platoon Advantage. Find him on Twitter @clairbearattack
 


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May 21, 2013 5:00 am

Transaction Analysis: Sipping on 'Gnac

0

R.J. Anderson

The Angels claim a much-needed utility infielder from the Yankees, who acquire a much-needed utility infielder from the Rockies, who don't do anything.

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May 21, 2013 5:00 am

Punk Hits: Eyes on the Prize

7

Ian Miller

A non-scout goes undercover at Evans Diamond to evaluate the potential 1-1 draft pick.

I saw Mark Appel pitch once before. It was early last season, down on The Farm, AKA Sunken Diamond, when it looked for all the world like he would be selected first overall in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft.

His stuff was electric. Fastball sat in the mid-90s and his slider absolutely unfair. It was there, and then it wasn't. To his opponents—mostly good-enough college hitters whose careers would end when they received their diplomas—it must have seemed like the ball was teleporting, Nightcrawler-style. Here it comes, the BAMF! It's in the dirt, six inches off the plate.

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May 21, 2013 5:00 am

The Stash List: Jurickson Profar's Valedictorian Speech

17

Bret Sayre

With the Rangers' top prospect moving up to the big leagues, Wil Myers takes over his spot atop the list.

"Fellow prospects, rehabbers, suspension servers and major leaguers awaiting the roles you were meant to fill,


The Stash List has not only been a place for all of us to be highlighted for our potential, but a community for the nearly famous. As we toil the baseball earth searching for a path to glory, we are subject to its whims. The injuries we played through, the bus rides we shared, the per diems we blew through at fast food joints, the dizzy bat races (ALL THE DIZZY BAT RACES)—it all leads to this.


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May 21, 2013 5:00 am

Sporer Report: Has Coors Gone Light?

3

Paul Sporer

Opposing pitchers haven't fared quite as badly in the thin air of Denver in 2013 as they have in past years, but that doesn't mean you should lower your start-sit bar.

Patrick Corbin’s filthy, complete-game gem on Monday night in Coors Field drew a chorus of Twitter facepalms as many fantasy managers shied away from the excellent-thus-far-but-still-unproven lefty in the terrifying Denver venue. Of course, if they read last week’s Two-Start Planner, they would’ve had Corbin in their lineups, as I gave him a full “Start” recommendation despite the risk associated with Coors. Back-patting aside, I’ve been keeping a close eye on Coors Field this year and as I mentioned in the aforementioned Planner “it really hasn’t been as scary as it was last year,” and we may need to lower our threshold for starters to consider when they’re traveling to Denver.

It’s not like the Rockies offense has completely fallen off, either. Their 5.02 runs per game is the National League’s best clip and baseball’s second-best, while their 5.55 runs per game at home also tops the NL and checks in third overall behind Detroit (6.20) and Texas (5.58). Last year, the Rockies were scoring six runs per game at home—baseball’s best by half a run—so the competition hasn’t been as fierce when opposing pitchers toe the slab in Coors Field. But it hasn’t been anywhere near easy, either, and yet we are seeing a lot more success from the starters facing the Rockies.

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May 21, 2013 5:00 am

Skewed Left: The Shift's PR Problem

7

Zachary Levine

The shift is here to stay, but to be embraced, it has to be rebranded.

In 50 years, and that may be a conservatively distant estimate, we will hear much less talk about defensive shifts.

First of all, there might not be baseball in 50 years. It’s why I’m always hesitant to answer questions that start with “will we ever see,” because “ever” is a really, really long time compared to the current lifespan of baseball (unless it isn’t).

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May 20, 2013 9:59 am

Daily Hit List: Monday, May 20

3

Matt Sussman

This hit list is wack-ey

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Considering the pros and cons of an innovative experiment.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article in which I suggested that teams might benefit from going to a model that gets rid of the traditional starting pitcher. Instead of having five men who are expected to go 6-7 innings over 100 pitches, I suggested a model in which three pairs of pitchers each throw 50 pitches, and on the third day, they would pitch again, in fulfillment… I should stop there. I argued that a team that committed to that model could leverage a group of (cheap!) pitchers who were good for a couple innings, but not for six. In this way, a team could get the same sort of results that they might expect from having a bunch of pretty good starters, but for a fraction of the (David) Price.

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