BP Unfiltered

Nine Frank Robinsons

Fielding a lineup with nine Frank Robinsons.

"A good manager has to accept a ballplayer's incapabilities, because you can't have 9 Frank Robinsons" -Earl Weaver bit.ly/10HdfZD

— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) January 19, 2013

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Wezen-Ball

Earl Weaver & Stan Musial, Together

A quick look back at an early 1952 game.

March 8, 1952, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Spring training. The defending World Champion New York Yankees are facing 1951's third place St. Louis Cardinals in the first test of new player-manager Eddie Stanky. Stanky's main goal is to try and get a good feeling for his new squad—especially the young kids who have been toiling away in Omaha and the rest of the minor-league system—but there's little doubt that he wants to make a respectable showing in his new role.

With an eye towards the future, Stanky pencils in 21-year-old Earl Weaver at second base. Weaver has already played 540 games at various levels of the Cardinals' minor-league system over the last four years, but his time to make it to the big leagues may be running out. Not only has Red Schoendienst been holding down the keystone since 1946 (and will stay there for St. Louis until he's traded in 1956), but new manager Stanky is also on the depth chart up the middle. It's a cruel joke for the man called "the Eddie Stanky of the Cardinal organization". If Weaver can't make a big impression this spring, who knows what will happen to him.

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BP Announcements

Michael Clair's Charity Baseball Blogathon for Doctors Without Borders

A worthy cause needs your help now.

At 11 AM on Saturday morning, Michael Clair started blogging about baseball at his excellent site, Old Time Family Baseball. He won't stop blogging until 11 AM on Sunday, by which time he will have published 48 posts, one for each half-hour interval. None of the posts is pre-written; he's doing it live. So far, he's memorialized Earl Weaver, searched for the next Vin Scully, broken down bad baseball movies to liveblog later, and diagrammed Jeff Karstens' amusing anatomy. He's doing this not because it's how he relaxes on weekends, but because he wants to make some money for a worthy organization, Doctors Without Borders. Sure, some might say it's time we took the Doctors down a notch—you wear a white coat and save some lives, and suddenly you start to believe the borders everyone else observes no longer apply to you—but Michael raised $2000 for them in his first annual charity blogathon last year, and now he's back and aiming for at least $3000. (Next year, one assumes, he'll be dreaming of 4000.)

But that, as they say in the infomercials, 's not all. Michael's 24 hours of blogging are just the start: after that, he's got a full day of guest posts by other baseball writers lined up (including yours truly, Larry Granillo, Jason Wojciechowski, and some others you might recognize from BP's past). He's also raffling away prizes for those who donate, including free subscriptions to Baseball Prospectus, gift certificates to MLB.com and Ebbets Field Flannels, a copy of Out of the Park Baseball, some good baseball books (including Best of Baseball Prospectus), some so-bad-they're-good baseball movies, and more.

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BP Unfiltered

Daily Draft Video: Weekend Flashback (Andrew Pullin)

Daily Draft Video Weekend Flashback takes a look at today's top prospects before they were pros.

Andrew Pullin was listed as a "prospect on the rise" in this year's Philadelphia Phillies Top 10 Prospects here at Baseball Prospectus. Today’s Draft Video Weekend Flashback features this up-and-comer in pre-draft action.

Andrew Pullin (2B/OF) out of Centralia High School (Fords Prairie, WA); drafted fifth round (188th overall), 2012. Prior to signing with the Phillies, Pullin was committed to attend the University of Oregon. Video from the 2011 Area Code Games scout workout at Blair Field (Long Beach, Calif.).

Pullin at bat for Marucci Elite at the 2011 WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Florida (hosted by Perfect Game USA).

BP Fantasy Podcast

Episode 24: 20-90 Scale

Jason and Paul are joined by Lord Todd Zola to talk player valutations and draft mechanics.

So, we recorded and realized we forgot to cover Rafael Soriano. Our thoughts -- he'll be very good with the Nationals and their bullpen should be stupid good this season. It sucks if you own Storen. 

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fantasyhour@baseballprospectus.com

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@jasoncollette

Total show time: 1 hour , 53 minutes

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BP Daily Podcast

Effectively Wild Episode 122: PECOTA Projects Elite Draft Picks from the Past/Should Scouts Fear FIELDf/x?

Ben and Sam discuss PECOTA's projections for top draft picks from 2007 and talk about whether FIELDf/x and comparable technologies will ever pose a threat to scouts.

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BP Announcements

Announcing the Greg Spira Baseball Research Award

Announcing the rules and procedures for nominations for the inaugural Greg Spira Baseball Research Award.

Rules and Procedures for Nominations for the 2013 Greg Spira Baseball Research Award

The Greg Spira Baseball Research Award Committee (www.SpiraAward.org) has announced the rules and procedures for nominations for the inaugural Greg Spira Baseball Research Award. The winner of the Greg Spira Award will receive a cash prize of $1,000. The committee will also recognize two additional writers with awards of $200 for second place and $100 for third place.

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Wezen-Ball

Casey at Bat in the Twilight Zone

A review of a first season episode of "Twilight Zone".

The original run of Twilight Zone is filled with classic episodes dealing with substantial or clever topics. The truth of beauty. The loneliness of time. William Shatner's sanity. "The Mighty Casey", Rod Serling's only foray into the world of baseball, is not one of those episodes. In fact, some even call it one of the worst episodes in the show's history.

The story deals with Mouth McGarry, the manager of the Hoboken Zephyrs, the worst team in the major leagues ("If we win one game, we have to call it a streak!"). One day, a strapping, young pitcher with a record-setting fastball, a cartoonish curve, and a Bugs Bunny slowball named Casey joins his team. The catch? Casey is a robot. He's an odd man, never smiling, but on the mound he's the greatest there ever was. Suddenly, the Zephyrs are the best team in the league. That is, until the day Casey gets beaned and sent to the hospital.

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