Billy Hamilton's speed is an 8. The last time Hamilton was the topic on Up and In, I seem to recall Jason and Kevin agreed that if there were a number higher than 8, Hamilton would have it.

I think this is a great concept and I think BP has the chops to do it well. I like this first article very much. Thanks!

My first reaction to this was "Oh,'Ian the Vegan' is reviewing cookbooks." So...I get that you won't be testing the recipes, but is it really fair for you to take potshots at the chicken and fish dishes? Of course, what you're really doing is commenting on the design of the books. Good on you, and it is lighthearted fun. I know the (most recent?) Phillie cookbook is pretty easy to find in bookstores throughout the metro Philadelphia area. Or is that from the Flyers? Oh dear, they do all blur together, don't they?

Living in Philly, my first reaction to your comment was "Carlos Ruiz." You could canvas all 2 million people in greater Philadelphia and probably not find anyone who isn't on board the Chooch train. His work ethic is lauded regularly by the team in the booth and the fans loved him long before he discovered the ability to hit this year. I know I'm just picking one example but I think the announcers are pretty good about praising hard workers in every major league franchise. Jose Altuve, anyone? I am not belittling the question of non-English speakers at all. I think it's a valid thing to investigate. But for whatever reason, Hispanics particularly seem to be respected for the effort they expend. I couldn't comment on the Asian imports, because I don't get a chance to see local broadcasts of NYY, BAL, LAD, SEA, etc, where they have been on the roster for years.

I started reading BP well before KG came on the scene and I really didn't have much want for prospect info. Kevin's articles and the podcast changed that. Big credit to you, Kevin, for making the information entertaining and helping educate me in the process of turning a kid into a MLB contributor. I am a dedicated fan of the podcast and I hope BP has plans to provide a long-form replacement rather than rely on the daily short show. (The fantasy focus show doesn't grab me. Your mileage may vary.) As several folks have stated, you've instantly created a batch of new Astros fans. I'll count myself among them. I have to say, Luhnow seems to be grading out at 60 or 70 so far. I have a brother who lives in Houston, so I have an excuse to come next year's BP event. Congratulations and please keep us posted on how you're liking your new gig.

I was looking for the "like" button on this article. Very cool!

I know it's a bit glib, Jason, but... "What were you drinking?" ...Hey, you're the one who mentioned the Up and In podcast. :-)

Another Dodger fan here. I give it a 5. I'd rather the Gboys lose but if they are going to win a game, a perfecto is pretty cool. Fun stuff.

This is helpful and the writing is engaging. Good work, Colin.

Well, Sam, you ask a good question: "Was he just good for his time, or would you be impressed if you saw him pitching today?" Pretty much all of the deserving HoF guys could amaze and stupify us today. I saw Mickey Mantle in his last season and he was still hitting balls about a mile. Marichal, Koufax, and Gibson - total studs. Henry Aaron in his prime would probably drive Verlander nuts just like he did to Koufax. There's a reason Bob Gibson is revered as an all-time great. I'd love to see in-their-prime Ichiro or Barry Bonds in the box against him. He was one tough guy to face. Yeah, I'd be impressed.

But what I really want to know, Sam, is whether you think Mark Trumbo is any good as a ballplayer. :-)

Awesomely quick response to my suggestion. Thank you! Now if you could do something about getting some of those Nats off the list... :-)

Two suggestions: - Consider separating into two lists. One for "out for the season" and the other for players who may be back this year. - The current sort order appears to be "Return date, descending". It's not intuitive at all. Even "Return date, ascending" makes more sense to me. Please consider a different sort order. Perhaps "date put on DL, within team". Many of us are fans of specific teams and it would be much more convenient to see all the injuries in one place rather than have to scan the whole list.

lode. mother lode.

Giants retort: Fantasy team hopes Steph Bee was just forgetful Sandoval can mash

Might want to fix this: "teams employed shifts around 3,800 times in 37,000 plate appearances, roughly one percent of the time." That's looking like 10%. Should it be 380 times?

Thank you. I appreciate the quick turnaround!

Greg Holland is rated in the PFM based on his 21 projected saves. I came to this page to see how the closer role had been allocated, because Broxton is in KC and I'm wondering if he's a better call. I see no closer, no Broxton, and no Greg Holland. Needless to say, this is not helpful. My draft is happening now (luckily we're slow and it will run for days) but I have no clue how to analyze the Depth Chart info for the KC relief corps BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ANY. Please keep the PFM info and Depth Chart info consistent. If you need to yank Holland out of here because things are in flux with Soria going down, do something similar for PFM. Give him 162 saves or zero or something. Thanks.

I think the "Inside the Park" blog is a great idea. I look forward to it.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this article can be summed up as "Clayton Kershaw is the Tom Verducci of pitchers." Or is it just left-handed pitchers?

Where a player is drafted does not indicate his worth as a prospect. Some players are drafted sooner or later than their prospect value. Signability, character concerns, and differences in scouting all may enter the picture. Kevin could expound on this much better, I'm sure. I would recommend, though, that you consider listening to the Podcast. This is the sort of topic that Jason and Kevin talk about at some length.

Just don't stop writing, Jason. Reading your stuff is like drinking a warm mug of surreality first thing in the morning. I love it.

Given the prodigous nature of the chats at BP, I'd far rather have them start a bit late and run for NN hours than have them start on time and done in a smooth 75 minutes. Please encourage epic chat sessions. I tend to forget they are happening and read them after the fact. Have you ever read a one hour chat log? It takes about ten minutes. Nice long chats really are a value-add. I just want to make sure you know they are appreciated. Thanks!

You wrote: "WS is the new weighted set, with (30 - n) average Hall of Fame hitters thrown in." Did you mean (23 - n)? Your idea is interesting and I think I see why you are doing it. It pretty clearly pushes all the JAWS norms toward the average hitter and as long as that's what you *want* to do this will certainly accomplish it. I'm not sure I buy your rationale for pushing all the positional norms toward the mean, but for now I am thinking of it as an interesting exercise that is not yet finalized. Fun stuff. Thanks!

Wait a minute...look at those user numbers. Nick has had a BP account for a bajillion years longer than Jay? And turkey legs are great. I love seeing little kids eat 'em. Reminds me of the old saying, "Never eat anything bigger than your head."

You should talk, Hemingway. If it offends you so much, here's a suggestion. Don't. Read. It. Sheesh.

You are missing the fact that he was under contract with CWS until the end of the 2012 season. Ozzie and FLA both didn't want to wait. They paid to make it possible for him to manage in Miami in 2012.

It's nice to read some optimism about the Dodgers. I really do hope the pitching is coming together and I would love for Gordon's 2011 to be a step forward and not small sample size pixie dust. But I think expecting Loney to be league-average is delusional. Haven't we suffered enough years of "maybe he'll hit better"? Let's make Loney someone else's problem. I'm sure there's some team out there that will see Loney's September and decide he's a bargain from the scrap heap. I won't begrudge them one point of his .310 obp in 2012.

As a Dodger fan, I like Bowden's sentiment. Get Loney out of LA and put in someone who can hit. From that standpoint, a Fielder/Pujols signing makes sense. It does seem to be a stretch to think the Dodgers would be allowed to drop a $150-200M commitment on anyone during the off-season, though.

You'd be better off picking up Boggs or Madson or other guys who may be getting saves if a nominal closer gets fired.

Love the typo - Corey Hurt. :-) How appropriate!

The autoformatter ate the end of my last sentence. I had written: This is what a Replacement Player is (statswise) for {league} / {position}. I think it's a great idea.

That first paragraph. Yes. If you really want to emasculate Chass, have a publicly available web page that says, "This is what a Replacement Player is for //."

Are you allowed to say that? I thought all the Joe Sheehan fanboys had coopted the phrase "worth my subscription" and copyrighted it or something. Oh, my bad. They copyrighted "the only reason I subscribed" and "won't be renewing." Nice piece, SG. I think all of BP has stepped it up this spring and I am enjoying the huge amount of content you all are providing. Well done!

Give some thought to Travis Lee. Scouts loved him, he crushed the minors, he had a gorgeous swing. He never did much in the bigs. He certainly got chances.

Princeton Junction has an NJ Transit/Amtrak stop. It's not much of a cab ride from there to Marketfair on US1. Just check train schedules for the trip home - Princeton Junction is used a lot by commuters but I don't know how many trains stop there northbound in the later evening. You won't need a taxi back to the station - someone will give you a ride (yes, I'm volunteering). ...Or you could rent a car for a day...then you don't have to care about train schedules. ...Or see if one of the NY-based folks can give you a ride... Karl in Philly

In a previous blog post, the Philly situation was discussed at some length. We Philly folks will have to settle for a road trip to Princeton this year. Frankly, I don't mind. The previous Princeton event was a full house and a lot of fun. (The pizza was only so-so but the price was right.) As long as we get a decent crowd and lots of good baseball talk, I'll drive the hour+ each way.

Fantasy drafting Distracts from everything But today, haiku!

I gather you did not read the Pirates top 11 summary. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=12400 Kevin has Sanchez as a 4-star prospect and 4th in the Pirates' system. If you had read that, it is hard to imagine KG rating Sanchez a whole lot higher than he did, and you would have set your expectation that he wasn't going to be in the top 50, much less top 30. Or did you read the Pirates' section and decide that KG would change him to a 5-star prospect and bump him way up the list over the winter?

Hey, you've seen one lefty ace wearing red pinstripes, you've seen 'em all.

...and what looks to be quite a lineup. I hope the MarketFair B&N prepares for a decent turnout that plans on hanging out for a few hours (as I remember the bum's rush we got in Philly). It sounds like a great event - I'm planning to drive up from Delaware County, PA.

Ditto for Adam Jones. I think they're both supposed to be Tav.

The pitching W's add up to 82. I'm guessing that'll be corrected in an update.

One wonders if Young has already told the Rangers that he would waive the no-trade clause unconditionally. Or are his feelings not hurt *that* much?

As another Philly attendee (every year), I would suck it up and head to Princeton if the event were there. Edison is too much for a weeknight. I made it to the previous Christina/Steven Princeton event and agree with Steven that it was well attended - we did fill the room. I'd like to think we'd need a bigger room in Princeton if there is no Philly event as part of the book tour.

I'd like it if someone (ideally the original author, but at minimum a BP writer) would provide an update. In this case, it would fun and possibly enlightening to read someone's off the cuff thoughts regarding how things actually have played out over the past 10 years. Montreal to Northern Virginia? Fun. Contract the Twins? All they've done is been a playoff team every year. 2001 lockout/strike? Yeah, I think it would be fun to get Gary to comment on his article ten years later.

Props for the subtitle. I think it's tough not to read any article with "Vortices of Suck" in its intro/title.

Richie wrote: "As you allude to in your final sentence, of course steroids helped the using players. They build strength, a very useful baseball attribute, and repair fatigued muscles, again very useful (especially for relief pitchers). Seriously arguing "gee, we don't if steroids helped much" is factually akin to saying cigarettes are good for you." No one knows how or how much illegal p.e.d.'s help a baseball player. Dismissing that lack of knowledge is a mistake. There is plenty of evidence that players improved only marginally through their use of p.e.d.'s - for example, the list of people who tested positive includes gobs of guys that you and I would agree are replacement-level fodder. The 'roids didn't turn them into Babe Ruth, thus we can safely conclude that there is a limit to what a p.e.d. can accomplish. Given that we don't know how much effect the drugs had, it is careless or fallacious to conclude that a p.e.d. user must be excluded for that usage. Following your logic, we better exclude Mickey Mantle for using greenies; after all, we don't know how much effect they had on his performance. Sorry but that dog doesn't hunt. Note that I am not saying that the p.e.d.'s were nothing. There were effects on guys' baseball performance. We simply do not know what they were. Really. As for "gambling is less deleterious to the sport..." I suggest that is totally incorrect. Your "financial milieu" should take into account the artificially lower salaries of younger players. They are even the most vulnerable to poor judgement, as well as the ones who could have a financial incentive to, um, hedge their bets, as it were.

More of this, please. The pitcher/batter head game is one of the fun things about watching baseball. It's about time someone started looking at pitch sequences, even if just to recount them as good stories or anecdotes. What makes this article particularly good is that Will has done a great job of getting into FRod's head. When you're casually watching a game, you might consider factors like guys on base in guessing what's coming next. FRod just wanted to find something he could throw for strikes that day. He didn't care if there were 10 baserunners. Nice job.

Nice job on the Santana references, Ben. Caravanserai is a terrifically underrated album, btw.

"...and the Diamondbacks dropped their third straight game in a row." But were they consecutive? Sorry. Couldn't help myself.

I look at Howard and wonder if he is David Ortiz or Mo Vaughn. It is spooky to put $100M on the line with the assumption that the answer is No.

Fantastic stuff. This is the sort of sanity check a BP reader wants for their chats with casual fans who wouldn't know WARP from a fungo. "Everyone knows" Smoltz is a HoF'er but when a name like Buehrle or Peavy pops up, it's nice to have some basic ammunition for the conversation. Even if the answer is, "Yeah, it could happen" or "He's a real longshot" it's nice to have a bit more than just some comment about he hasn't won 200 games or whatever. Thanks, Jay.

"...just wanna help the ballclub..." "...gonna play 'em one day at a time..." Hey, Ned, just remember the rose goes in the front, big guy.

I saw Willie Davis play also and heard Vin Scully call games with Davis in the lineup throughout the 60's. The whole time Willie was in LA, I thought of him as the prototypical CF. Not counting that superhuman guy playing for the hated Jints, Willie Davis was about as good a center fielder as there was in the National League. And, yeah, he was fast. Maury Wills was the leadoff hitter but everyone back then (even kids like me) knew that Willie was the fastest player on the team.

Pavano's ERA should take a nosedive this year with the improved MIN defense behind him, shouldn't it? That meshes with the Siera/ERA difference pretty nicely.

Why would BP guess that Polanco will bat second? Did Charlie Manuel come out and say that would be his spot in the order? Barring additional information, I'd think it's a no-brainer to continue to bat Victorino second. Polanco will be batting further down in the order.

Aaron Poreda - 93 k's in 32 innings. My, my! And 60 walks. Can we nickname him Nuke?

I came up from south of Philly for the Princeton feed. It was great and I'd do it again. Try not to have it on a weeknight. That really makes it tough when it's almost 2 hours each way and work beckons the next day.

Yes to the roundtables, please. Maybe you can have some regular panelists with a guest or two chiming in. The long form interviews work best with people who have track records. Costas, sure. Nuke Laloosh, not so much. Front office and media types seem to be the best of your long format stuff.

I think this is the right idea. More fantasy content doesn't mean "at the cost of less something else." It means more fantasy content - it could even be in a separate area so people who find it uninteresting don't have to be bothered by it. I'd pay an extra $10/year for sure.

RE: Ryan Wheeler's pretty swing One of the prettiest swings I have ever seen was Travis Lee's. When I'd see him take BP, I'd marvel at how fluid and effortless it seemed, and how the ball rocketed off the bat. I'm no professional scout, but I remember reading numerous opinions by the pros with similar thoughts. It was really disappointing that he never translated that swing into major league success. He turned into a multi-team perennial project/disappointment and his career was a big pile of "if-only." So when I read a comment about a prospect's nice swing, I make a mental note. Will he develop into a star or will he be Travis Lee II? Thanks for the great work, Kevin. Baseball in January. Life is good.

Hmm, I've been playing roto with a great group of guys for a long time, but Scoresheet sounds intriguing. I'll read up on it.

It doesn't seem odd to me at all, because I don't think the goal is to save money, per se. They get multiple years of Halladay (with some cost certainty) instead of one year of Lee. Lee wants some sort of big contract and doesn't have the long-term track record of Halladay. Any team would prefer Halladay for equal cost, and to get several years of him is is a clear improvement.

Your superficial reaction to the large amount of analysis and data presented on this page suggests that you spend too much time around newspaper beat writers or something. I can't think of another reason for you to ignore the many points made in the above discussion. To conclude that Will is "being different for the sake of being different" while completely bypassing his clear statement that Carpenter's DL time was a factor, is disingenuous. To skip Haren's better WARP3 and K/9 scores so you can call Will's judgement "embarassing" smacks of willful ignorance. And to ignore the acknowledgement that there's not a lot to separate the top few pitchers doesn't reflect well on you.

From the calculation paragraph: "Home game, so raise by 4% to get 5.43."

I live in Philly but grew up in L.A. so this series is going to be all sorts of fun for me. I think Jay's bottom line is spot on: the Dodgers have the right kind of lineup to give the Phils' pitching a problem. And they have the LHP's needed to neutralize big hunks of the Phillie attack. On the other hand, we could just as easily see 7 games with 10-9 scores. Both of these teams can rake.

Reminds me of T-bone Shelby on the '88 Dodgers. He was on fire for a few weeks, including a 20+ game hitting streak. After the ASB, not so much. At least his fielding was good.

Um, No. Bowden was the decision-maker and he was the right person to be blamed for the things that happened under his watch. Rizzo seems to be running the Nats effectively. It would be nice to believe that ownership is noticing and is encouraged by Rizzo's leadership. But who the heck knows what the top brass will do...

Uh, CK, that would be Adam LaRoche not Andy.

Posting this here but not related specifically to this piece. Deciding which writer to leave out is getting really hard, really fast. The contestants are doing great stuff. I hope the BP team considers giving us a week with no elimination at some point. The reason is purely selfish. I'd just like to read more from these folks and that would give us an extra week of material to help distinguish their content. Getting down to one from here is going to be brutal. Something for the contestants to consider going forward - the typos and misuse of words will start to matter. Because frankly we in the peanut gallery are going to need ways to pick "A better than B." And stupid stuff is an easy out for us. Keep the quality high and make it hard on us.

Thumbs up from me. But that ending. "...he has the skills to be one of the premiere pitchers in baseball." You just finished writing 2000 words demonstrating that he doesn't have the skills to be a premier guy. You quote KG, "...no wipeout offering...he'll always need a good defense..." You mention the scouting reports saying that he's got three OK pitches. His major skill is his exceptional ground ball rate. I think you did a good job of showing that his ground ball stuff makes him an asset on a MLB staff. If that's your definition of premier, OK. But your little ending suggested, "Move over, Doc Halladay," and that just isn't there based on the article you wrote. I really liked your article, so I'm picking nits. One last nit: it's "premier." The word you used means "opening night." :-)

There are other editors besides those who work at BP. All of the contestants likely know someone who could review a submission for readability. So crazy-long sentences and similar obvious mistakes are poor writing, plain and simple. If the contestant can't self-edit, he should get help. As for "tips for future articles," I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the contest. Once the person has a locked-in gig at BP, it makes sense. Until then, one of the goals of Idol is to see what is rooting around in the mind of the contestant.

Nice article, Tim. Have someone with some English chops give your stuff a thorough look before you post it. Data is plural. "Data suggest" is correct. In the comment to which I'm replying, "their" should be "there." Having said that, I agree with the comments that think this is a fine column. I just don't want you to distract people with little things that detract from the good content. Good luck in the Idol competition!

Ibanez is hitting in Philadelphia, in a fine lineup and a hitter's park. It's definitely possible that Ibanez is a scouting signing. It's also only 6 weeks into the season, so maybe it's a small sample size, too. Still, no one will take away those 13 HR. I still think it's weird that the Phils went for a left-handed hitter to replace Burrell. So far, they look like geniuses. We'll see if the production continues for three years. So far, so good, though.

If Schilling goes into the HOF, then they need to put in David Wells, Orel Hershiser, Dennis Martinez and a host of other 200+ game winners. Curt belongs in the Hall of Very Good, not the Hall of Fame.

Nate - I'd always heard that PECOTA was done with a mondo Excel spreadsheet and some macros. Was that true for the 2009 numbers? If so, I can imagine the tech folks are asking you to take it apart verrrrrrrry carefully so they can put it onto something a little more bulletproof. Thanks for the update, guys!

You've gotta add his two lines together to get total IP. It's 95 innings. The K is already totaled. So 72 in 95.

Living in Philly, we know the experience of Jay and Yankee fans. Our new ballpark was an excuse for the Phils to gouge us massively. Every ticket went up at least $5 that first year. And the way they allocated the seats, well, let\'s just say they didn\'t handle it particularly well. And now that they actually won, we all know that the new tickets will be crazy expensive. Everyone expects at least another $5/ticket bump. So I feel your pain. It really is ridiculous and I hope the Yanks draw about half the fans of last year. Fwiw, I am glad Yankee Stadium was torn down. It looked every bit of its age, even where it had been spiffed up. And frankly, the revamp back in nineteen-seventy-whatever was an abomination. I got to see one game in Old Yankee and it was amazing compared to what just got torn down, imo. So good riddance to that. I hope Citi Field (such a time honored name, eh?) is at least an enjoyable place to see a game. Assuming you can find a seat that isn\'t $85 for an obstructed view.

Gillick is retiring in Philadelphia, too. I imagine Ruben Amaro, Jr. has the inside track there. But ownership in Philly has always loved going for the big names, so I wouldn\'t cross them off the list right this second.