CSS Button No Image Css3Menu.com

Baseball Prospectus home
  
  
Click here to log in Click here for forgotten password Click here to subscribe

Zachary Levine 

Search Articles by Zachary Levine

All Blogs

Active Columns

Authors

Article Types

Archives

06-13

comment icon

10

Skewed Left: Bayes and the Hit By Pitch
by
Zachary Levine

06-05

comment icon

7

BP Unfiltered: The Best and Worst Days of the Week for Baseball
by
Zachary Levine

06-04

comment icon

0

What You Need to Know: Petite Outfield Behind Pettitte
by
Zachary Levine

06-01

comment icon

5

BP Unfiltered: A Homer Announcer's Guide to Calling a Plunking
by
Zachary Levine

05-30

comment icon

7

Skewed Left: Bring Back the Hidden Ball Trick
by
Zachary Levine

05-28

comment icon

8

Skewed Left: The Real Future Yankees
by
Zachary Levine

05-22

comment icon

3

Skewed Left: A Somewhat Happy 40th for the Immortal Ramon Ortiz
by
Zachary Levine

05-21

comment icon

12

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

05-16

comment icon

0

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

05-14

comment icon

3

Skewed Left: Replacement Rangers
by
Zachary Levine

05-09

comment icon

5

Skewed Left: Diamond Mining
by
Zachary Levine

05-07

comment icon

2

Skewed Left: Juan Pierre's Age-Inappropriate Basestealing
by
Zachary Levine

04-30

comment icon

3

Skewed Left: Explaining Chase Utley's Stolen Base Success
by
Zachary Levine

04-25

comment icon

6

Skewed Left: The New, Just-as-Good Joey Votto
by
Zachary Levine

04-23

comment icon

10

Skewed Left: Staying Alive in the Independent Leagues
by
Zachary Levine

04-18

comment icon

0

Skewed Left: The Uptons in April
by
Zachary Levine

04-16

comment icon

4

Skewed Left: The Historical Quirks of "42"
by
Zachary Levine

04-11

comment icon

6

Skewed Left: Marlins on the Move
by
Zachary Levine

04-09

comment icon

1

BP Unfiltered: A Conversation Between Houston's General Managers
by
Zachary Levine

04-09

comment icon

1

Skewed Left: The Astros' Whiff-Prone Ways
by
Zachary Levine

04-08

comment icon

4

Skewed Left: Beating Yu Darvish
by
Zachary Levine

04-03

comment icon

6

Dissecting Darvish's Opening Day
by
Jason Cole, Zachary Levine, Ben Lindbergh and Harry Pavlidis

04-02

comment icon

2

Skewed Left: What the End of a Nine-Figure Contract Looks Like
by
Zachary Levine

03-28

comment icon

4

Skewed Left: The Future Cost of Present Improvement
by
Zachary Levine

03-26

comment icon

1

Skewed Left: Things for Fans of Bad Teams to Root for in 2013
by
Zachary Levine

03-21

comment icon

2

Skewed Left: The WBC and Dominican Demographics
by
Zachary Levine

03-19

comment icon

32

Skewed Left: Baseball's Great Unresolved Debates
by
Zachary Levine

03-18

comment icon

5

Skewed Left: Spring Stats You Can (or Can't) Believe In
by
Zachary Levine

03-13

comment icon

21

Skewed Left: Saberizing the Gold Gloves
by
Zachary Levine

03-07

comment icon

15

Skewed Left: PECOTA vs. Vegas
by
Zachary Levine

03-05

comment icon

8

Skewed Left: Life on the Inside
by
Zachary Levine

03-04

comment icon

6

Skewed Left: It's No Good to Get Old (Except for These Guys)
by
Zachary Levine

03-02

comment icon

2

BP Unfiltered: Sloan Q&A: Harry Pavlidis On f/x Tracking Data
by
Zachary Levine and Harry Pavlidis

03-01

comment icon

0

BP Unfiltered: Q&A With Graphics Editor on Data Visualization and Baseball
by
Zachary Levine

02-21

comment icon

7

Skewed Left: Arizona's Extreme Strikeout Makeover
by
Zachary Levine

02-19

comment icon

7

Skewed Left: A Meeting of the Mariner DHs
by
Zachary Levine

02-15

comment icon

13

Skewed Left: How Can the Pirates Make the Most of McCutchen?
by
Zachary Levine

02-12

comment icon

14

Skewed Left: PECOTA's Projected Bests and Worsts
by
Zachary Levine

02-07

comment icon

1

Skewed Left: Pop Quiz: Throwback Bullpen Guys
by
Zachary Levine

02-05

comment icon

12

Skewed Left: The Best Ways to Bet at the Ballpark
by
Zachary Levine

01-31

comment icon

14

Skewed Left: Farewell to Nick Johnson
by
Zachary Levine

01-30

comment icon

6

Skewed Left: The Sunk Costs of 2013
by
Zachary Levine

01-25

comment icon

8

Skewed Left: Ruben Amaro and the Rabbis
by
Zachary Levine

01-24

comment icon

8

BP Unfiltered: A Definitive Ranking of the Diamondbacks' Grittiest Players
by
Zachary Levine

01-22

comment icon

8

Skewed Left: The Best of FDR's Baseball Correspondence
by
Zachary Levine

01-17

comment icon

2

Skewed Left: Washington's Winning Way with Trades
by
Zachary Levine

01-15

comment icon

14

Skewed Left: Filling the Free Agent Voids
by
Zachary Levine

01-10

comment icon

2

Skewed Left: Murphy, Morris, and Using the Full 15 Ballots
by
Zachary Levine

01-09

comment icon

5

Skewed Left: The Worst Parts of Last Season's Best Teams
by
Zachary Levine

01-03

comment icon

9

Skewed Left: Has Baltimore Been Busy Enough?
by
Zachary Levine

Go to Archives...

<< Previous Author Entries No More Author Entries

This is a BP Premium article. To read it, sign up for Premium today!

June 13, 2013 5:00 am

Skewed Left: Bayes and the Hit By Pitch

10

Zachary Levine

Ian Kennedy, Zack Greinke, and the probabilistic approach to determining intention.

When home plate umpire Clint Fagan made the decision not to eject Zack Greinke for hitting Miguel Montero with a pitch, and a subsequent decision to eject Ian Kennedy for hitting Greinke with a pitch, he was answering a couple of probability questions that umpires and eventually Major League Baseball will have to face.

It’s not a question of whether the hit by pitch was intentional or not. You’re never able to answer that question. The probability that the act was intentional from the point of view of the umpire/disciplinarian is never 0, even on the most innocuous-looking play, and it’s pretty much never unless Cole Hamels is just begging for a suspension.

The rest of this article is restricted to Baseball Prospectus Subscribers.

Not a subscriber?

Click here for more information on Baseball Prospectus subscriptions or use the buttons to the right to subscribe and get access to the best baseball content on the web.


Cancel anytime.


That's a 33% savings over the monthly price!


That's a 33% savings over the monthly price!

Already a subscriber? Click here and use the blue login bar to log in.

Why Wednesday, dissed in the corporate world, stands alone as the best day of the week for baseball.

Happy Wednesday.

Read the full article...

This is a BP Premium article. To read it, sign up for Premium today!

June 4, 2013 5:00 am

What You Need to Know: Petite Outfield Behind Pettitte

0

Zachary Levine

Yesterday, the Yankees elected to stick Lyle Overbay in the outfield and survived. Tonight, Matt Moore will try to survive a date with Miguel Cabrera and the Tigers.

The Monday Takeaway
As the time ticked away toward Andy Pettitte’s return to the Yankees, they had plenty of options for which hitter they’d have to send down to make room. And it was as much a philosophical question as it was one of performance.

Remove Lyle Overbay and you’d probably lose him to waivers, but it was the position-prudent thing to do. Mark Teixeira was back, and how many first basemen do you need? Send down David Adams and at least you’re preserving a roster with four outfielders.


The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

The Orioles and Tigers announcers give a clinic in how to determine intent and stick up for the good guys in 15 seconds.

After the Tigers hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning this afternoon Jason Hammel hit Matt Tuiasosopo with a high breaking ball on the first pitch of the subsequent at-bat and Hammel was ejected.

Read the full article...

This is a BP Premium article. To read it, sign up for Premium today!

May 30, 2013 5:00 am

Skewed Left: Bring Back the Hidden Ball Trick

7

Zachary Levine

A trick play worth trying.

Among the game’s many unquantifiable mysteries—up there with how many extra wins or losses a good or bad manager contributes to a team—is how many wins a season baseball teams pass up because of decorum.

It’s probably a small number. Talent, plus some small deviations for statistical noise and fluctuations in #TWTW, is still what determines the standings. But I would venture to say that it’s a non-zero number. In other words, teams are too nice to each other or have too much respect for the game.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

This is a BP Premium article. To read it, sign up for Premium today!

May 28, 2013 5:00 am

Skewed Left: The Real Future Yankees

8

Zachary Levine

Why the players who are destined to be Yankees aren't the ones they once were.

Bryce Harper made his major league debut on April 28, 2012. It took 11 days for someone not only to project his future as a New York Yankee but also to put an outrageous salary number on it. Thirty-seven days later, ESPN wondered in its Yankees coverage about Harper’s future in pinstripes.

It’s a bit of an industry, making projections on who’s going to be a New York Yankee. Felix Hernandez was a future Yankee forever until the Mariners made sure that he wasn’t. Just this week, that infamous Royals graphic placed Mike Trout on the Yankees already. And the terrific New York Daily News-er and 80-grade Internet troll Andy Martino gave his Mets followers a little “FY” treatment regarding Matt Harvey.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Ramon Ortiz wasn't the starter the Blue Jays wanted, but he was the one they needed.

Ramon Ortiz turns 40 tomorrow, and I didn’t get him anything. That’s probably okay. Nobody else did, either, and that’s what makes the end for him so much harder to watch.

We remember the end for the great ones, whether they went out on top like Chipper Jones and seemingly Mariano Rivera, or with nothing left, like Willie Mays. And by the way, we got them something.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

This is a BP Premium article. To read it, sign up for Premium today!

May 21, 2013 5:00 am

Skewed Left: The Shift's PR Problem

12

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).

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

This is a BP Premium article. To read it, sign up for Premium today!

May 16, 2013 5:00 am

What You Need to Know: The Price is Not Right

0

Zachary Levine

Tampa Bay is holding its breath after David Price left yesterday's game with an injury. Tonight, Yu Darvish will attempt to make Omar Infante whiff at the dish.

The Wednesday Takeaway
The traditional rules of pitching depth aren’t supposed to apply to the Tampa Bay Rays, the story goes. If one of the young homegrown arms goes down to injury or if one ceases to be affordable, you just order another part from the factory in Durham, N.C., and repeat as necessary.

That theory is really being tested this year. In April, they broke a 1,207-game streak of not using a starting pitcher signed as a major-league free agent when they needed to go scraping for Roberto Hernandez to replace James Shields.


The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

This is a BP Premium article. To read it, sign up for Premium today!

May 14, 2013 11:36 am

Skewed Left: Replacement Rangers

3

Zachary Levine

A team that has often struggled with poor pitching in the past has done an excellent job of supplying arms from within.

The leader of the last Rangers pitching staff to lead the league in runs allowed was Rick Honeycutt, so you know it’s been a lean few decades. Complemented by Frank Tanana, Charlie Hough, Danny Darwin, Mike Smithson and an able bullpen, that Honeycutt-led staff allowed 609 runs in 1983—11 years before the Rangers’ move to their current, hitter-friendly ballpark.

That’s an ambitious example to follow for this Rangers team, which currently leads the league in runs allowed per game, chased by another team hardly helped by its home park, the Yankees. Ultimately the third-place Tigers may catch them, helped by the more neutral Comerica Park, but that’s not really the point here. It’s that this is so unlike the construction of any Rangers team we’ve seen in this generation of the offensive explosion and immediate aftermath. This season, Texas is living at the league median on offense, eighth in runs scored per game.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

This is a BP Premium article. To read it, sign up for Premium today!

May 9, 2013 5:08 am

Skewed Left: Diamond Mining

5

Zachary Levine

What scouts saw in Rick Ankiel and others.

Through the first-ballot Twitter account of Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson and others, we’ve already seen snippets of the best of the Hall’s Diamond Mines scouting report database—an online version of the exhibit that recently opened in Cooperstown to honor scouts. We’ve been introduced to glowing reports on Moeller High School star Ken Griffey Jr. and on Auburn’s Vincent Edward Jackson, whom scout Kenneth Gonzales correctly predicted would win the 1985 Heisman trophy and would become a standard for the incomparable in baseball. We’ve seen Albert Pujols called overweight in four different sentences in one paragraph and Craig Biggio lauded as a future major-league catcher, though one whose bat might not play in the big leagues.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Juan Pierre is too old and bad at getting on base to steal this many bases. But he's doing it anyway.

On a Miami team that’s going to stand out on leaderboards for all the wrong reasons, Juan Pierre finished the weekend with 11 stolen bases, one ahead of Pittsburgh’s Starling Marte for the NL lead. The story of a 35-year-old with a .280 on-base percentage who might lead the league in steals isn’t bringing fans to the ballpark, but it is one of the most interesting stories on a Marlins team without many of them.

It’s been 12 years and six address changes since Pierre won his first stolen base crown. He was then a member of the Rockies, a team on which you wouldn’t expect to find a top basestealer, given the ease of hitting home runs in pre-humidor Coors.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

<< Previous Author Entries No More Author Entries