Also, I don't care what your Baseball ideology is, if you see a 6'10 left handed kid who throws in the upper 90's, you do whatever you can to convince the front office to take him. Let the player development staff figure out the rest.

The Diamond Mines site is incredible! I can't stop reading these reports. On David Cone, who we know falls into the Mussina/Darvish category of multiple pitches from multiple angles; "Needs another pitch". hahahha

Are there any lingering issues with his wrist? Hand issues can pose a big problem for hitters. Also, his approach is not what I would call patient. A putrid .325 OPB% last season. I see him as more of a Mike Pagliarulo type player. Decent defender, who will provide a bit of pop offensively. Other than that, does not really offer much else to his lineup.

Without a doubt he was using a "substance". MLB network had a still photo where you could clearly see that his glove side arm was absolutely glistening, while his throw side arm was dry as a bone. He also kept tapping his index and middle finger on his forearm. As a side note, Eck had an absolutely moronic line of argumentation against Morris. "Your not even in the Hall of Fame yet". What does that even mean? He is paid to give his opinion. What does being in the Hall or not being in the Hall have to do with anything?

Ben, I think the best frames are those where the catcher beats the ball to the location as opposed to reacting and/or stabbing at the ball. In a way that is not at all unlike a good outfielder getting to a spot on a fly ball; the catchers who are good at receiving appear to exhibit a similar approach. Your thoughts?

1. Left. The San Diego catcher does a terrible job and pulls the down and away with his frame. 2. Right. Although I like both frame jobs. Not much movement by either. 3. Right. Dodger catcher does a bad job with the old college style of framing. 4. Left. Cervelli is an excellent receiver now and frames really well. 5. Left. D-back catcher is very lazy with this pitch, collapsing his throw hand leg. Too much movement. 6. Left. Nice job by Ross here. The A's catcher has far too much body movement and actually leans forward from the waist on this pitch. 7. Right. Both catchers look awkward here. Not really a good job by either. 8. Left 9. Right. 10. Left.

Just made the purchase due to my Baseball Prospectus addiction.

“My job is to get on base, especially with the way our lineup is right now,” Gardner said. "[Robinson] Cano’s hitting behind me, so I need to get on first base, and stay right there. It’s not a case of me trying to get on and steal second and leave first base open. I’m trying to leave that hole open for him.” Got it! Thanks Ben.

Sam, do you think hitting Cano in the 2 hold behind Gardner has caused Girardi to be a tad reticent about sending Gardner more?

I watched the second game (after the Yankees and NY Rangers games were over) and I thought it was pretty entertaining. Not the "cleanest" baseball but entertaining nonetheless. Something has to be done about Major League benches though. MLB needs to raise the roster limit to 26. Too many roster spots allocated to bullpen arms.

The 86' Indians are a fun Strat-o-matic team. Good offense, Nixon and Hall to use off the bench, a matchup pen, a "ringer" #1 (Swindell....only had 9 starts) and a decent #2 for strat purposes(Schrom 1.29 WHIP). I believe Snyder had a big throwing arm...a -3 or -4 if I remember correctly.

Great article. I caught my senior year in college because our #1 broke his leg and our backup got thrown out of school. My best friend was a 4 year starter at another school and had a great reputation as a receiver. He told me to focus on keeping body movement to a minimum when receiving. Look at how little movement Molina makes with his body. He does not collapse his glove hand side on pitches to his throw side and he does not collapse his throw side leg on pitches to his glove side. Also, look at how he keeps his shoulders firm and perpendicular to the pitch flight.

I just don't get these last two moves by Cherington. He does all that good work with getting rid of those bad contracts, only to come right back and shell out 78 million for 3 years of Napoli and Victorino?!!? Very questionable moves.

I was really quite stunned when Dusty sent the runners in the 6th. They had very little chance of actually stealing the bag, and I did not see much gained from a succesful theft anyways. If you watch the play, Posey double-clutched and still hosed the runner. Just foolish.

Also, the computer needs to be set up in the corner to Anderson's right so that "walker bys" (for lack of a better term) can not see what you are doing on the comp. Terrible location for those who spend 40% of their day reading BP, Fan Graphs, strat-o-matic, chateau heartiste and Freakonomics.

Gio's mechanics remind me of Jimmy Key (difference being Gio's 92-95 heat).

So sick of the whole Nolan Ryan thing. Ryan did not throw 200 innings untill he was 25.

All they had to do was make him the #5 starter and started his season on April 14th against Cincy. You would have saved him two starts from the begining without gimmicks. Furthemore, there was a day off and a rain out at the end of May/early June where you could have skipped him there (as what typically happens with #5 starters). Lastly, they could have just kept him as the #5 following the All-star break, saving him another start there. Again, this plan is gimmick free(no Joba or Hughes rules) and you would have saved him four starts.

Matt, I am just not that impressed with that potential 2013 version of the Red Sox lineup. Inglesias will most likely be a glove first guy, Middlebrooks is not a middle of the order guy (does not have much plate discipline .325 OBP, and lacks the speed to sustain a .335 BABIP), and Ross is a nice hitter, yet his skills are a dime a dozen. My point is, if the Sox want to compete they will need to get some legit production from LF and 1B as opposed to just finding players who "don’t actively hurt the team".

Boy, thid site is really declining. In my Joe-verse, Sheehan, Silver, Kahrl, Huckabay and even Funck are still BP writers.

Great idea ethanwitte. I would also love to see the same analysis done on Burnet.

Yeah, Olney is just lost most of the time.

Looking at his Pitch f/x pitcher profile, Blanton throws his change 19% of the time. This is a pretty high frequency. I remember back in the 2010 Bill James Goldmine, Bill (writing about Javy Vaszquez) attributed some of his issues (despite high K to BB ratios) to how he overused his change which tends to elicit hard contact. Sam, do you think this is also the case with Blanton?

Nice article R.J. I think it behooves the Crew to try to unload Hart and the 10 mil due next season. Perhaps Grab some young bullpen arm(s) in return because I would also try to unload K-Rod. Aoki is a great bargain, I would hold onto him for the 2013 & 14 seasons.

Great point NYYanks. Sidebar; Ryan never threw 200 innings until he was 25 (284). This fact always makes me laugh, whenever I hear an old cantankerous baseball writer talk about how Ryan's aproach with young pitchers (no pitch counts et al) is so "old School".

These profiles are awesome. I am watching Yanks-Sox and pulling up each hitter as they come to the plate. Thanks

I dont understand why people do not see that the Yanks need to upgrade at Catcher. Martin is killing them there this year. .243 TAV, and a -0.3 FRAA. With Romine now being the new N. Johnson/C. Pavano, and with Montero in Seattle the Bombers do not have an internal answer. They need to take a run at Suzuki, and then see if they can flip Martin to someone like Washington, and at least get a mid tier prospect before he leaves for FA this offseason.

Funny Stuff. Moyer's write up sounds like something King wrote in "Dark Tower".

Polishwonder, Do you remember a few years ago, McCarver during a Fox broadcast was shocked when then "guys in the truck" told him that teams on average score more runs in an inning when they lead off with a homerun rather than a walk? I always thought with the growing popularity of this great site and others such as THT, F-graphs, etc... that those covering games would be more informed. This is obviously not the case.

Actual laughter elicited.

Nice article, but what is with the numbers under each BP Subsciber's name? Are we in Ayn Rand's "Anthem"?