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Ben Lindbergh 

Ben Lindbergh

Ben Lindbergh is the Editor-in-Chief of Baseball Prospectus. He writes regularly for ESPN Insider, has contributed to four BP annuals and Extra Innings: More Baseball Between the Numbers, and served as assistant editor of Baseball Prospectus 2011 and editor of the two-volume Best of Baseball Prospectus collection. He formerly worked as a baseball analyst for Bloomberg Sports, and has interned for multiple MLB teams. He was inducted into the Baseball Writers' Association of America in December of 2011.

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05-22

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2

Overthinking It: Better in Baltimore
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-22

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1

BP Unfiltered: Kevin Towers on Catcher Receiving Skills
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-22

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 208: Refunds for Losses/More Catching Questions/DHs and Defensive Positioning/Most Pitchers in an Inning
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-21

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 207: Reevaluating Patrick Corbin/Baseball and Redheads
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-21

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8

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

05-21

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6

BP Unfiltered: Former MLB Umpire Jim McKean on Catcher Framing
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-20

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1

BP Unfiltered: Brandon McCarthy on Catcher Framing
by
Ben Lindbergh

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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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 206: When Does it Make Sense to Fire Managers?/What We Think about Hot Streaks
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

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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5

BP Unfiltered: Jeff Keppinger Finally Works a Walk, and a Disar Awards Update
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-17

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6

BP Unfiltered: The Longest Plate Appearance of the Week, 5/17
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-17

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 205: Catcher Framing Questions/A Hypothetical Pitching Problem/Post-Start MRIs
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

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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1

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 204: The Yankees and Luck/How We Watch Baseball/Consuming Scouting Reports
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-15

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 203: Strikeouts and Defense/Shortest Pitching Careers/Novelty All-Star Games/World Series of Worst/Rooting Against No-Hitters
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-14

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2

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 202: Bryce Harper Hits the Wall/Albert Pujols' Pain
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-13

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12

Transaction Analysis: The Cubs Keep Rizzo
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-13

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7

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 201: Drafting Age-25-and-Under Starters/Still No No-Hitters
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-10

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13

Overthinking It: This Week in Catcher Framing, 5/10
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-10

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1

BP Unfiltered: The Longest Plate Appearance of the Week, 5/10
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-10

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14

Overthinking It: Where the Value of Robot Umpires Ends
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-10

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11

Overthinking It: The Sub-Replacements
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-10

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 200: Will Leitch on Media, Fans, and Media and Fans
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-09

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 199: Pitchers Putting on Sunscreen/The Astros and Clubhouse Chemistry
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-08

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1

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 198: Hitters with the Yips/Power vs. Contact/Starlin Castro's Future/Reinhart-Rogoff and Sabermetrics
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-07

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14

Overthinking It: Evaluating Early-Season Experiments
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-07

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0

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 197: Our Incredibly Premature All-Star Picks
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-06

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 196: The New Scott Kazmir/The Future of the Angels
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-03

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10

Overthinking It: This Week in Catcher Framing, 5/3
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-03

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 195: Bad Body Language/Upgrading Bullpens/Steroids and the Children/BABIP and Bad Luck
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-02

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4

Overthinking It: Three Months in Marco Scutaro's BABIP
by
Ben Lindbergh

05-02

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2

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 194: Outlawing Endless Games/Would Baseball Be Better Without Playoffs?
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

05-01

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1

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 193: AAA Teams vs. the Marlins and Astros/The Braves and Strikeouts/Pickoffs and Pitch Counts/John Farrell and the Jays/Non-Superstar HOFers
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

04-30

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3

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 192: Stephen Strasburg's New Injury Scare/The Underhyped Manny Machado
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

04-29

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4

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 191: The Significance of the Blue Jays' Slow Start/Justin Upton and Internet Gloating
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

04-26

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57

Overthinking It: This Week in Catcher Framing, 4/26
by
Ben Lindbergh

04-26

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 190: The Ike Davis Enigma/Trading Prospects Straight Up for Stanton
by
Ben Lindbergh and Will Woods

04-25

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8

Overthinking It: Why Jose Valverde is Still Getting Saves for Detroit
by
Ben Lindbergh

04-25

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 189: Should Chad Billingsley Have Had Surgery Sooner?/Brendan Ryan, Robert Andino, and the Mariners
by
Ben Lindbergh and Paul Sporer

04-25

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19

BP Unfiltered: Pitcher BABIP and Age
by
Ben Lindbergh

04-24

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7

Overthinking It: Yadier Molina's Maybe-Amazing Powers of Defensive Positioning
by
Ben Lindbergh

04-24

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 188: The Yankees and PECOTA/Earned Run Ratio/Least Likely MVP Candidates/When to Trust 2013 Stats
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

04-23

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2

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 187: More About Velocity Loss/Baseball Players and Appendectomies
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

04-22

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2

BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 186: Deceptive Starters/Matt Harvey's Improvement/The Blue Jays and Waiver Claims
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

04-21

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2

BP Unfiltered: Desmond Jennings Doesn't Need Your Assistance
by
Ben Lindbergh

04-19

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4

BP Unfiltered: The Startlingly Selective Yuniesky Betancourt
by
Ben Lindbergh

04-19

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15

Overthinking It: This Week in Catcher Framing, 4/19
by
Ben Lindbergh

04-19

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BP Daily Podcast: Effectively Wild Episode 185: Trading International Bonus Pool Space/Shortening the Time Between Pitches
by
Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

04-18

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Overthinking It: Brett Gardner Gets Aggressive
by
Ben Lindbergh

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May 22, 2013 11:20 am

Overthinking It: Better in Baltimore

2

Ben Lindbergh

The Orioles don't have the record they had this time last year, but they're a stronger team.

On Tuesday night, the Orioles flashed some of their 2012 magic against the Yankees at Camden Yards, winning on a 10th-inning walk-off homer hit by Nate McLouth that brought an end to a battle of the bullpens. For last season’s Orioles, who went 16-2 in extra-inning games and 29-9 in games decided by a single run, winning one-run games with walk-offs was a way of life. For the 2013 Orioles, who entered last night 3-3 and 6-6 in such situations, respectively, those victories have been as difficult to come by as they are for the typical team.

“Run differential” was the frequent refrain in any conversation about the Orioles’ success in 2012 and outlook for 2013. Good teams tend to outscore their opponents by a comfortable margin. The Orioles, who went 93-69, outscored their opponents, but barely—their run differential was that of 82-80 team. Some said it was luck and assumed it wasn’t sustainable, while others credited a good bullpen and Buck Showalter, both of whom the O’s brought back.

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The Diamondbacks GM on the importance of catcher receiving skills.

A former minor league pitcher, pitching coach, and scout, Kevin Towers served as the General Manager of the San Diego Padres from 1995-2009. After spending 2010 as a special assignment scout for the Yankees, he was hired as the GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks, a role in which he remains today.

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Ben and Sam answer listener emails about refunds for team losses, catcher receiving, defensive positioning, and more.



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Ben and Sam discuss whether they've underrated Patrick Corbin, then talk about whether there's a bias against redheads in baseball.



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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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A former umpire and umpire supervisor weighs in on the influence catchers have over calls.

Jim McKean worked as an MLB umpire from 1973-2001, serving on three World Series crews. He became one of MLB’s umpire supervisors after retiring from active duty and has since served as an umpiring consultant for ESPN. He offered his thoughts on the influence a catcher’s receiving skills can have on an umpire’s calls.

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What the cerebral Diamondbacks starter thinks about the importance of framing pitches.

Diamondbacks starter Brandon McCarthy is known as one of baseball’s most thoughtful, analytical pitchers; two years ago, he famously embraced advanced statistics and remade himself as a pitcher by perfecting a two-seamer that helped him get groundballs more often. As a result, he’s pretty popular on the internet. I asked him to provide the pitcher’s perspective on the importance of pitch framing and receiving skills.

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May 20, 2013 5:00 am

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

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Ben Lindbergh

Catching instructors and coordinators comment on the importance of receiving skills.

While working on a feature on catcher framing for Grantland, I spoke to many catching instructors and coordinators about what makes a good receiver, what receiving skills are worth, and to what extent they can be improved. Many of their most interesting insights didn't make it into that story, so I've collected them here.

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Ben and Sam talk about the circumstances under which they'd feel comfortable recommending that a manager be fired, then discuss different beliefs about hot streaks.



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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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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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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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