May 18, 2013 10:06 am
Ben Lindbergh
The best and worst framers of the week and the season, plus framing-related links.
Framing-related links of the week
It’s been an eventful week for framing on the internet. If you're here because you’re interested in catcher receiving skills, you might also want to take a look at these three articles:
Estimated historical framing: More great work by Max Marchi, who used Retrosheet pitch-by-pitch data to estimate framing performance going back to 1988. He also took a look at how receiving skills age. Next on his to-do list: estimated framing for minor leaguers, and the quantification of game-calling.
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May 17, 2013 11:02 am
Ben Lindbergh
The latest on the longest season-starting walkless streaks.
It’s appropriate that Jeff Keppinger’s first walk of 2013 was a game-winner. After 140 plate appearances without one—150 dating back to the end of last season—it would’ve been a shame if the walk we’d all been waiting for hadn’t helped the White Sox win.
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May 17, 2013 7:34 am
Ben Lindbergh
Starling Marte makes Bobby Parnell throw 13 pitches.
Last Friday, I started a new series in which I'll be breaking down, marveling at, and ruminating on the longest plate appearance of the preceding week. This is the second installment of that series. The inaugural edition featured a 12-pitch showdown between Mike Moustakas and Chris Sale that remains exactly as interesting as it was when it was published, so if you want to watch that plate appearance, click this link. If you’ve already seen it, or you’re interested only in the latest longest plate appearance, read on.
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May 17, 2013 5:00 am
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
Ben and Sam answers listener questions about catcher framing, a very unusual reliever, and cautionary MRIs.
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May 16, 2013 1:09 pm
Ben Lindbergh
Yankee magic is universal, as it turns out.
There’s a strange thing that happens to normally rational baseball writers when discussing the Yankees. People who would normally question every assumption and demand to see some empirical proof blindly believe that the Yankees have mastered the dark art of picking up past-their-prime players and restoring some of their former success. The only evidence is anecdotal, so we know we’re being naughty and going off the reservation, sabermetrically speaking. But like Luke Skywalker, we’ve searched our feelings, and we know it to be true. And we’re only kind of kidding.
When the Yankees traded for a struggling Ichiro Suzuki last July, The Great Grant Brisbee—after acknowledging the absurdity of what he was about to say—wrote this:
May 16, 2013 7:00 am
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
Ben and Sam team up for a simulpodcast with Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs and FanGraphs Audio to discuss whether the Yankees have been lucky, the best way to watch baseball, and the value of old scouting reports.
May 15, 2013 5:00 am
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
Ben and Sam discuss listener emails about whether rising strikeout rates make defense less valuable, whether the worst teams should face off at the end of the year, and more.
May 14, 2013 9:59 am
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
Ben and Sam talk about how a player's willingness to crash into walls affects their expectations for him, then discuss whether Albert Pujols can improve if he keeps playing.
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May 13, 2013 7:35 am
Ben Lindbergh
The Cubs take another step toward contention by locking up their slugging first baseman for several more years.
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May 13, 2013 5:00 am
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
Ben and Sam draft starting pitchers age 25 and under, then discuss whether there's any significance to the fact that we haven't seen a no-hitter yet this season.
May 10, 2013 4:24 pm
Ben Lindbergh
The best and worst receivers of the week and the 2013 season so far.
No intro section this time; I should have a couple framing-related features on the way early next week, which I don't want to tease too much. Let's get right to the leaderboards and frames of the week.
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May 10, 2013 12:25 pm
Ben Lindbergh
Starting a new series with a 12-pitch battle between Mike Moustakas and Chris Sale.
I’ve always loved long plate appearances. If one of the best thing about baseball is the batter-pitcher matchup, and one of the other best things about baseball is that it has no clock or appointed time for anything to end, then it stands to reason (sort of) that double-digit-pitch batter-pitcher matchups would be the absolute best thing about baseball. So each Friday, I’m going to highlight the most extended sequence of the seven-day period from the previous Thursday-Wednesday. If there’s a tie, I’ll pick the most interesting plate appearance.
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Ben Lindbergh is the Editor-in-Chief of Baseball Prospectus. He writes regularly for ESPN Insider, has contributed to four BP annuals and 
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