We have updated the Baseball Prospectus Manage Profile page to offer the ability to choose your preferred comment hiding behavior for both the normal article pages and the printed version of the article pages. We have gotten a number of requests from people who were often having to override the default behavior (usually because they either really love to read comments or really hate them), so hopefully the updated behavior will be more accommodating to these users.
This update got me to wondering: are there any other “simple” customizations like this that we can offer that would make you user experience much happier? Let us know in the comment thread below and we’ll definitely consider them. Please use the comment rating system to rate up any ideas you particularly like but don’t have additional input on so that we can avoid a bunch of “me too” submissions.
Among the many reasons to visit your local minor-league ballpark (the charm, the ridiculously cheap seats behind home plate, etc.) is the possibility of witnessing future greatness. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to catch several big-league stars in action before most people had heard of them: Jay Buhner, Jake Peavy, Carlos Quentin, Felix Hernandez, Edinson Volquez… I still kick myself every now and then for not having driven the hour or so to San Bernardino to check out some kid named Ken Griffey Jr. back in the day. My friends and I threatened to do just that but somehow never got around to it. I heard he ended up making something of himself.
Turning back the clock three decades to 1979, we may recall (or have heard stories, depending on one’s age) that the “We Are Family” Pirates beat Earl Weaver’s Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. We may remember great individual performances that season from the likes of Don Baylor, Ron Guidry, Keith Hernandez, and J.R. Richard.
Meanwhile, events were occurring far away from the spotlight — “down on the farm” — that would shape baseball’s future. Players and managers that later gained a certain measure of fame were busy honing their skills in the decidedly less glamorous environs of the minor leagues.
In the interest of brevity, I will provide only a partial list (courtesy of Johnson and Wolff’s indispensable Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.) of notable figures you could have seen in the minors in ‘79. There is undoubtedly a great story to go with many of these names, but for now, I offer them with minimal commentary:
Jim Tracy — Led the Texas League with a .355 batting average at Midland; funny how both 2009 Managers of the Year played minor-league ball in ‘79 (a year earlier, Tracy and Scioscia played in the same league together)
Steve Balboni — Led the Florida State League with 26 homers at Ft. Lauderdale
Again, this list is far from comprehensive, but it gives some idea of the talent you might have seen at your local minor-league ballpark back then. The salient point (isn’t it nice to have one?) is that these guys are out there doing their thing. The same holds true for any given season.
You won’t necessarily know which players will end up having careers (ask me how good I thought Mark Phillips was going to be), but chances are, if you catch even a few games, you’ll get a glimpse of someone on his way to bigger and better things. Then, 30 years later, you can tell people about the time you saw Peavy pumping mid-90s heat from six rows back of home plate with 3000 of your closest friends.
But I imagine you already have stories of your own. Let’s hear ‘em.
Every now and then, I like to peruse the physical and virtual history books, searching for players I may have forgotten about somewhere along the way. One player I recently stumbled across is Max Bishop, who manned second base for the Philadelphia A’s and Boston Red Sox from 1924 to 1935.
Bishop earned the nickname “Camera Eye” due to his propensity for drawing walks. Among players with fewer than 6000 career plate appearances, none has drawn more than Bishop and it’s not even close:
Baseball’s all-time walks leader, Barry Bonds, checks in at 121.8 BB per 600 PA in case you’re wondering. For some perspective, Dunn, owner of a career .383 OBP, would need to draw bases on balls in two-thirds of his next 359 trips to the plate to match Bishop’s walk rate. That’s kind of insane.
What’s also insane is Bishop’s career slash line: .271/.423/.366. The list of players with at least 3000 PA and a higher OBP is a very short one, indeed. Among those who trail Bishop in that category are Mickey Mantle, Frank Thomas, Edgar Martinez, Stan Musial, Wade Boggs, and… well, all but 16 players in big-league history.
Bishop’s best season came in 1928, with the A’s, when he hit .316/.435/.432. His OBP ran north of .400 every year from 1925 to 1934 except one: In 1929, Bishop just missed, with a .398 OBP; he led the AL with 128 walks that year but hit .232.
Bishop was part of two World Championship squads — the ‘29 and ‘30 A’s. He didn’t distinguish himself in those series (or in ‘31, when Philadelphia lost to the Cardinals), hitting .182/.316/.182 in 18 career post-season games. However, he did play a key role in the decisive sixth game of the 1930 World Series. As John Kieran of the New York Times described it then:
…he got two bases on balls, was hit by the pitcher and scored two runs. This chap doesn’t need a bat at all. He gets on in a variety of ways. The Cardinals think he does it by political influence.
Before joining the A’s in 1924, Bishop starred for the International League’s Baltimore Orioles for several years. Baltimore won four straight IL championships from 1919 to 1922 (these were dominant teams with records of 100-49, 110-43, 119-47, and 115-52 in those years). According to an item in the February 13, 1923, New York Times, owner/manager Jack Dunn had made a “promise to sell at least three of his star Orioles before the beginning of the [1923] season.” Although Bishop was reportedly close to being sold to the Boston Red Sox in 1923, he remained in Baltimore, for whom he hit .333 with 22 home runs as the Orioles “slipped” to 111-53 (they won at least 100 games every year from 1919 to 1926).
After the 1933 season, “financial pressure [from] Philadelphia bankers” forced Connie Mack to sell off his best players (he sold Mickey Cochrane to Detroit and George Earnshaw to the White Sox). Bishop was traded with Lefty Grove and Rube Walberg to the Red Sox for Bob Kline, Rabbit Warstler, and $125,000. Bishop sputtered with his new club, which acquired him a decade too late, and he couldn’t displace light-hitting Ski Melillo at second base.
Bishop played two seasons with the Red Sox before returning to his hometown Orioles, where he served as player-manager before retiring. From there, Bishop went on to become head baseball coach for the U.S. Naval Academy; he remained there from 1938 until his death in 1962. (In a particularly cruel twist of fate, he died mere days before he was scheduled to retire, having returned to his place of birth to attend his mother’s funeral.)
The New Bill James Historical Abstract ranks Bishop as the #43 second baseman in history, nestled between Robby Thompson and Steve Sax. And now you know.
Update: The IP and ERA on the Pitcher platoon splits page has been removed to move away from lumping together nonconsecutive events. Balls in play rates have been added as well.
As many of you know we recently experienced some server trouble and have been in the process of rebuilding the statistics reports that were lost in the process. Unfortunately, the situation resulted in the CID numbers that enable users to bookmark their custom reports being lost. We have been working diligently to get everything back in order and are very close to having all of the reports previously available back online. Additionally, we have added some new, interesting and useful reports under the headings of Manager and Splits. I’ll go over a bit of what each offers below but I also wanted to say that this is just the beginning of the improvements in our statistical content and presentation, with many other revisions and installations on the horizon.Upon venturing to the statistics page you will be greeted with the following image:
For Managers we have pre-populated reports focusing specifically on either hitting or pitching as well as an overall report encompassing both. Under Splits, we have currently built two types of split data for both hitters and pitchers: platoon splits and home/road splits, each of which is available for every season dating back to 1957. For an example of the report in action, once clicking on Batter Season vs. LHP the following data surfaces:
The data above consists of every major league hitter’s production against southpaw pitchers this past season, sorted by OPS. As per usual with our reports, the plate appearance minimum can be adjusted and you have the ability to filter by both team and league. An additional filter is for the handedness of the opposing pitcher. For those unfamiliar with how that works, the picture below illustrates how one of these reports can be altered to show both opposing hands on the mound instead of just one, with the same being true for the home/road splits:
Once the (All) is selected–and in the forthcoming example I set the Min. PA to 200–all data for hitters vs each type of pitcher will emerge. The case below is still sorted by OPS, but you have the ability to sort by Name, Hand, whatever tickles the statistical funnybone. In fact, sorting by Name and then Hand affords the opportunity to view the data for an individual against southpaws right on top of his numbers against righties.
Amongst hitters with at least 200 plate appearances against a specific handed pitcher, Joe Mauer posted the highest OPS with the mark accrued against righties. I know, a real shocker that Mauer led. Garrett Jones proved pretty darn potent vs northpaws as well. Now, I know there is a glaring omission here in that the actual handedness of the batter is missing. Believe me, this is merely temporary and we are well aware. Additionally, the ideal splits report would incorporate EqA instead of OPS, but in the meantime the triple slash rates and the raw tallies should be really fun to investigate, and by exporting to CSV you can create your own handy-dandy spreadsheet of platoon or home/road splits. Alas, that will also be corrected moving forward to include PA instead and the BA/OBP/SLG and perhaps EqA to boot. So these are not perfect yet but they will be improving moving forward and remain very useful in the time being.
Another sortables splits report that we will work to implement involves numbers with runners on base or the bases empty. The managerial data works a little differently than the individual splits in the sense that the reports are comprised of numbers commonly associated with tendencies and strategy, but numbers that do not fall solely on the shoulders of the skipper. For the report focusing on the hitting aspect of managerial data, you can find records on stolen base attempts for each specific base, the successful rate of sacrifice bunts, double steal attempts and successes, how often batters swung on a steal attempt, how often the ball was put in play on steal attempts as well as pinch-hitter data. For the pitching side, reports look like this:
The underlining of Cincinnati was unintentional, but looking at Dusty Baker we can see that the average pitch count for his starters was 98.8, second highest amongst this group to Terry Francona. On 89 different occasions Baker’s hurlers surpassed the 100 pitch threshold, two of which included starts in excess of 120 pitches. Charlie Manuel let his starters toe the rubber for greater than 120 pitches. The report also includes quality and blown quality starts, with the latter referring to how often a pitcher left the game with a QS recorded only to have the bullpen allow bequeathed runners to score. The IBB column should be self-explanatory and the column directly to its left counts the number of relief outings with nary a run being scored. Like I mentioned, not everything in the managerial reports is solely the responsibility or the result of contributions from the skipper but the stats should work in conjunction to one another to identify tendencies.
So, again, you can now find sortable Splits and Manager reports on our Statistics page, as well as just about all of the reports added over the summer–the batter standard and team/year reports are yet to be added back. The bottom line, however, is that we are working on new and cool features to enhance our statistical presentation and content and this serves merely as a starting point. Thank you all for your patience on this front, but changes for the better are certainly in the works.
It’s the time of year where we get Ridiculous Trade Rumors (RTR). You know the kind … one fanboy throws up a post about what his team should do, suggests trading mediocre player A and marginal reliever B for some team’s superstar. There’s a couple flavors of these:
A) The Overrating My Stuff Trade: Wherein Fanboy completely overrates his own team’s players and underrates the players of other teams.
B) Ignores the Economics Trade: This year, we could call that the “So what if my team has no payroll room? We’re getting Roy Halladay!” trade.
C) They’ve Done It Before Trade: Two past trading partners are linked tenuously from past dealings, leading to a rumor that they “like dealing with each other.”
D) Sabermetric Genius Trade: Someone throws an obscure stat up, presto chango, and they come up with a trade. There’s also the “small sample size” version of this, where random endpoints get involved.
Look, I could go all day with these, but you know what I mean. We’re seeing them everywhere. My favorite so far came from Lone Star Ball, where a commenter (”Josey Wales”) suggested that the Rays should add in a high quality arm in order to even up a deal of Nelson Cruz for Carl Crawford. I’m sure you’ve seen some RTR’s around the web, so add ‘em in and link ‘em up.
The “eternal option” is ended. I’d expected that the Sox would go “one more year” and be willing to cut Wakefield, but this one makes sense in every respect.
Know that rule in fantasy where it’s always better to trade two or three good players for one great one? Sounds like that’s what the Rangerswould like to do.
There’s no chance Alex Anthopolous is going to get “fleeced” as Richard Griffin suggests. It’s not like he wasn’t there for all the previous discussions of trading Roy Halladay. AGM’s talk to GM’s, so this is hardly a “new guy” thing.
Brian Cuban can’t be happy about this. He spends most of his time on his show kvetching about the Pirates ownership.
Jim Hendry talks to a lot of people. A Bradley deal is going to be a hard one, but eating some of the deal might be good PR for the Ricketts’.
I once heard Omar Minaya say the first thing he looked for in a hitter was RBIs. It was a few years back, so nice to see he’s moved to slugging. (Wait, I thought Newsday was going pay only?)
UPDATE: The book is now available, in both print-on-demand hard copy and PDF for immediate download, which works very well on the Kindle DX. Click here for more information and ordering. There’s a couple samples on the page which give you an idea what to expect.
A lot of you … ok, a couple … have asked about a project I hinted at a couple times during the last year. The Carroll Guide to Sports Injuries is almost ready to come out, likely this week. (I’ll add a link over to the Football Outsiders store and to Amazon once it’s available.) It’s a reference guide to the 100 injuries that most often occur in sports. If you have a son or daughter playing sports, this is something you’ll want to have handy just in case. I think writers and announcers will like it as well, since it’s a quick and easy guide, organized by body part and severity.
If you’d like to check out more of my non-baseball writing, pick up a copy of the Pro or College Basketball Prospectus, where I was honored to be asked to contribute again this year. With the Pro article, I worked with Kevin Pelton to elucidate the issue of microfracture surgery in the NBA. (Mets fans seem to be avoiding having to worry about this topic so far.) For the College version, I looked at the fatigue factor for high school players who are on the court nearly year-round now.
I was thinking about Brooks Kieschnick the other day (don’t ask) and got to wondering why more teams don’t employ — or at least try to employ — two-way players, guys who can provide some utility on the mound as well as at the plate and in the field. Granted, it’s difficult enough to acquire the skills necessary to survive at the big-league level as a hitter or a pitcher, but given the modern tendency toward larger staffs (and hence smaller benches), wouldn’t it make sense for teams to try and develop another Kieschnick?
Aside from the challenges inherent in actually developing a two-way player, there is also the matter of risk, which always accompanies innovation. Perhaps, like batting the pitcher eighth, this falls into the novelty category and it will never gain widespread acceptance because if it doesn’t work (or is perceived not to work, a la Boston’s “closerless bullpen” from a few years ago), the public — not to mention the folks responsible for implementing such an idea — won’t soon hear the end of it.
It’s amazing the things that can kill innovative thinking.
Looking back further, I’m reminded of Rick Rhoden, who once served as DH for the Yankees in a June 1988 contest against the Orioles (he batted seventh, grounding to third and driving home Jay Buhner on a sac fly in two trips to the plate, both against Jeff Ballard… an excellent pitcher against whom to deploy another pitcher as DH, but that’s a story for some other day). Rhoden was — and still is (he has played golf profesionally for many years since retiring from baseball) — a tremendous athlete who might have been able to help his teams in multiple capacities had it not been for childhood osteomyelitis that resulted in limited range of motion in his right leg.
Earlier in his career, while a member of the Pirates, Rhoden teamed with Don Robinson, another good hitting pitcher. (In 1982, Pittsburgh’s pitchers outhomered its center fielders — one of the many joys of starting Omar Moreno every day).
Robinson, who battled injuries throughout his career, might also have made a good two-way player if not for his own chronic leg problems. He hit .231/.252/.330 in 665 plate appearances, knocking 13 home runs in the process. Not great, but certainly respectable for a guy who wasn’t employed to do that sort of thing. Presumably Robinson could have honed his skills and gotten better results had hitting represented a more significant part of his job.
Still, on the final day of the 1984 regular season, Robinson must have enjoyed himself in Philadelphia. In the first game of a doubleheader, he struck out the side in order in the ninth to notch his 10th save of the year. Then in the nightcap, he went 1-for-3 with an RBI while batting third and playing left field.
There may well be solid reasons for not trying to develop two-way players — the necessary skill set is hard to find and develop (guys who are good enough at either are already doing either), we might look like idiots if it doesn’t work, etc. But it seems to me that a player that can fill multiple roles with a single roster spot should have value.
Besides, having someone on the bench who might work the seventh or pinch-hit for whoever worked the seventh is just plain fun. I like to think there’s still room for that in baseball.
When the Red Sox acquired Jeremy Hermida from the Marlins this afternoon, in exchange for young lefthanders Jose Alvarez and Hunter Jones, they brought on board a 25-year-old outfielder whose promise has thus far outshown his production. After a strong 2007 campaign where he hit .296/.369/.501 with 18 home runs, Hermidia has seen his numbers decline over the past two seasons, most notably his SLG, which bottomed out this year at .392. Theo Epstein talked about the hopes he has for his new acquisition in a conference call earlier this evening.
Epstein on the trade: “This is not a blockbuster. It’s a value trade and a chance to get a guy with unfulfilled potential at a reasonable cost. I don’t think we can draw grand conclusions about our offseason, or the offseason in Major League Baseball, with this one transaction. It’s just a small move, and I’m sure that there will be increased activity with a lot of clubs once we get to the general managers’ meetings.”
On Hermida’s health issues: “That’s one of the things that has held him back and has prevented him from reaching his potential. But most of the injuries that he has had have been soft-tissue types of injuries, nothing that should be chronic — nothing structural that should impair him going forward. Often times, young players, when they get hurt early in their careers, it really hampers them. As they move closer to their prime, and mature a little bit, some figure out how to stay on the field and that helps them to reach their potential. Others don’t. We’ll see what happens with Jeremy.”
On Hermida’s declining production: “I just think he hasn’t really put everything together offensively yet. If you look back at 2007, as a 23-year-old, he had a really solid season and was starting to fulfill the promise he had showed in the minor leagues. He’s got a lot of offensive tools, and he’s got a sound approach and a good swing, and he’s got some power. I think that the last two years there were high expectations, and it didn’t come together for him. He was nagged by some small injuries, and his performance certainly hasn’t been as good the last few years as it was in 2007. I can tell you that that’s the reason we were able to acquire him today. Had he maintained that performance, or had linear progression from 2007 until today, there‘s no way we would have been trading for him today, let alone in this kind of a deal. So, he‘s a guy who needs to figure it out, and needs to get straightened out, to reach his potential, and I think that there‘s a chance that he will. It may not happen, or it may not happen with us, but we‘ve had really good scouting reports on him, and we like the way that he controls the strike zone, and we certainly liked him a lot as an amateur and throughout his minor league career. Taking those factors, we thought it was certainly a reasonable deal.”
The team went all-in on an extended strategy based on getting CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. Say what you will about Brian Cashman or the Steinbrenner family, it worked.
It’s the Series that capped the season, a real fall classic that comes at just the right time. 2009 didn’t have drama or records, but it was a combination of talent, market size, and economy that pushed the World Series and the playoffs to solid TV ratings and a mindshare that competed with the NFL. Who’d have thought we’d be talking about a ratings surge in one sport and a possible apocalyptic strike in another and have the positives going to baseball?
Maybe Joe Girardi does overmanage. Maybe Alex Rodriguez really is a choker Centaur. Maybe the new Stadium doesn’t have ghosts. What they all have now is a new championship banner and a set of rings on the way. Whether this was for George (as Selig said) or for their fans, #27 was memorable.
(Congrats to Hideki Matsui on the World Series MVP. Well deserved and a nice going away gift, perhaps. I still would have voted for Chase Utley, but I won’t quibble with Matsui.)
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