In 2008, Ichiro Suzuki, regarded as one of the fastest players in baseball, stood at first base with second base empty a total of 262 times. From 2006 to 2008, Ichiro has been thrown out by the catcher on only 9.2% of his attempts, one of the best rates in history. Despite this, he only…
One of my favorite essays on any topic is Nate Silver‘s “Is Barry Bonds Better Than Babe Ruth?” from Baseball Between the Numbers. Rather than rehashing the same tired arguments about how much harder it was to hit a home run in Ruth’s time or how much better the competition against Bonds was almost a…
Geoff Young recently used a BP Unfiltered post to come clean about his unrequited man crush on David Eckstein, setting off a wonderful comment thread in which readers described the players that they consider “guilty pleasures” – those that may not be stars, but are fun to watch nonetheless. Reading through the comments, I was…
755, .406, 56. Each of those numbers probably triggers an image in your mind’s eye. The timelessness of baseball’s statistics is what makes baseball such an appealing sport to so many people, and what keep us interested long after the heroes of our youth have retired. Of the major American team sports, baseball is the…
How telling can the prototypical ace-versus-slugger meetings be when they’re so infrequent?
The latest news on the walking wounded and the broken-winged.
Stephen Strasburg’s daunting task of following in the footsteps of the few, the first, and too often, the ill-fated.
The most asked-about player in yesterday’s chat gets a good going over.
The AL East gets even tighter, holding four of the top five slots, but the Rangers and Angels start their own tango in the standings.
Cameron Maybin is working his way back, Chris Carter swings a hot bat, and a Cubs prospect whose offense is catching up to his defense.
Middling moves and piddling results among some mid-level teams in the senior circuit.
The number of teams that could use an assist on their pitching staffs includes an unusual suspect.