Staff Ballots As many of our readers were submitting their ballots for the Internet Baseball Awards, 13 Baseball Prospectus staffers went into the polling booths themselves, voicing their opinions on who should win the major baseball awards this year. Here are the results: National League MVP Player Ballots (First) Points Barry Bonds 13 (13) 182…
Joe Sheehan Mat Olkin Keith Woolner Jeff Bower Jeff Hildebrand Michael Wolverton Derek Zumsteg Rany Jazayerli Clay Davenport Dave Pease Gary Huckabay Chris Kahrl Greg Spira Joe Sheehan American League MVP 1. Jason Giambi, Athletics 2. Alex Rodriguez, Rangers 3. Bret Boone, Mariners 4. Roberto Alomar, Indians 5. Jim Thome, Indians 6. Edgar Martinez, Mariners…
The Baseball Prospectus staff is divided in their World Series predictions. The only consensus is–and we’re not guaranteeing this, Lou–that the series will stretch into next weekend. Jeff Bower:: Nobody has ever gotten rich picking against the Yankees in the World Series. The advent of the wild card and the expanded postseason means that even…
The Baseball Prospectus staff discussed this week’s playoffs. Mariners/Indians Joe Sheehan: Indians in five. Derek Zumsteg: Okay, I’ll bite–you’re mad. The Mariners have a slightly better offense, a bullpen an order of magnitude better (with Cleveland’s stats including their pre-John Rocker goodness), and a better rotation. The Indians are talking about using a three-man rotation,…
THE DEBATE CONTINUES The Dowd investigation was both sloppy and biased against Rose, and it doesn’t come all that close to proving what it claims to prove. Yes, someone was betting on baseball games. But it easily could have been Paul Janzsen, Rose’s chief accuser making the bets for himself rather than for Rose. Perhaps…
TRANSACTION ANALYSIS For the love of God! Where is Transaction Analysis?!? Please Chris, take mercy on my soul and post a new Transaction Analysis! –AC Well, it should hopefully warm your heart to hear that TA is gearing up for daily coverage of the trading deadline action, starting on Friday. Sorry about the quiet period,…
(Ed. note: The unofficial kickoff to Rumor Week got the staff here at BP riled.) Rany Jazayerli: The following deal is about to take place: Kansas City trades Jermaine Dye to Oakland, which trades Mario Encarnacion, Jose Ortiz, and a pitcher to Colorado, which trades Neifi Perez to… Do I need to finish the sentence?…
With half the season down and the good half to go, the Baseball Prospectus staff has assembled its mid-season awards. Take these with a few grains of salt, and enjoy the second half of the season. (Numbers in parentheses indicate number of ballots on which the player appeared, then number of first-place votes received.) AL…
ON STADIA As you state, prior to 2000 teams that moved into new stadia tended to be good ones. You might check attendance figures for this season at Comerica Park. Granted the weather has not been good, but allowing for unoccupied season tickets counted as attendance, it’s hard to claim that fans are flocking to…
With almost five weeks of baseball behind us, let’s take a look at offense in the major leagues to see what, if any, impact the changes in the strike zone are having. Ball Four and Strike Three First, here’s the basic walks and strikeouts information (through May 2), and the comparable information for April of…
Free Erubiel Durazo! Last I looked, Erubiel Durazo had more HR and RBI than Mark Grace, despite being the backup and being banished to the minors for a time. It’ll be amusing to see how long the D’backs will stubbornly play Grace. They are unwilling to admit they made a mistake, no matter how much…
Changing the Game I’m doing a term paper on the subject of competitive balance, and I was hoping you could help me out. What, if anything, should be done to improve competitive balance in baseball? What do you make of Bob Costas’s Fair Ball proposal (a salary cap and floor combined with increased revenue sharing…
Each edition of the annual Baseball Prospectus covers more than 1,600 players, with full Davenport Translations and comments. Even with that kind of blanket coverage, every year players who miss the cut for the book make the cut in spring training, finding their way onto major-league rosters. Our staff has collected DTs and player comments…
National League East JeffBower ClayDavenport JeffHildebrand GaryHuckabay RanyJazayerli ChrisKahrl KeithLaw AtlantaBraves 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 New YorkMets 2 2 2 3 2 1 3 FloridaMarlins 3 4 3 2 4 4 4 MontrealExpos 4 5 5 4 3 3 2 PhiladelphiaPhillies 5 3 4 5 5 5 5 MatOlkin DavePease JoeSheehan MichaelWolverton…
American League East JeffBower ClayDavenport JeffHildebrand GaryHuckabay RanyJazayerli ChrisKahrl KeithLaw New YorkYankees 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 BostonRed Sox 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 TorontoBlue Jays 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Tampa BayDevil Rays 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 BaltimoreOrioles 5 5 5 5 5 5 5…
It’s the Management, Stupid As an investment analyst and former economics student, I particularly enjoyed your use of risk/reward concepts in this column. It has been proven time and time again that economic efficiency is greatest where good management is rewarded and poor management is punished. This is the beauty of our system of economics….