Lowering the Bar As far as Tony Perez’s Hall of Fame credentials go, here’s another way to look at it: Was anybody outside of Cincinnati a Tony Perez fan while he was active? You know, little kids emulating his stance around the schoolyard? Cherishing his baseball cards? I don’t think so. The same goes for…
At the midway point of the season, BP’s staff sees four awards as runaways and two as crapshoots. Here’s a look at our panel’s voting for the big six honors. AL MVP (5-3-1, first place in parentheses) Alex Rodriguez 46 (8) Pedro Martinez 15 (2) Jason Giambi 9 Ivan Rodriguez 9 Carlos Delgado 5 Edgar…
Orthodoxy I enjoyed your idea about a weekly schedule for pitchers, although I’m not convinced. I just don’t see it becoming a norm because it would be hard to groom youngsters in this fashion and I think limiting pitch counts would just be an effective way of keeping your starters healthy, though the all-closer staff…
The Strike Zone Revisited Your response to the mailbag question on umpires included a thought I’ve been having regarding the use of technology in calling games. I was actually getting ready to mention that to several friends when I saw your answer. It seems to me that some pitchers get the "close" calls near the…
The Strike Zone Not that I care about increased offense (I love baseball all the same), but no one in baseball looks at the strike zone, or how it is called. It’s obvious some umpires have a more liberal strike zone than others, and I was wondering if any of you know of any empirical…
The Yankees and The Red Sox In your most recent AL East Notebook you compared the Wiltons of the Yankees lineup to their current Equivalent Average. The overall Yankee lineup is 125 points of EqA behind what was expected, and this may indicate some more run production in the future. Have you checked the Red…
Wrigley Field You know, you’re absolutely right when you said that the Cubs should have been punished because of the lax security around the bullpen, which could have prevented the brawl. You’re right the Cubs shouldn’t allow their fans to get hammered beyond comprehension (maybe instituting a "No Beer after the Seventh Inning" rule at…
Pat Burrell The recent injury to Rico Brogna highlights a baseball development that, until now, has been only surmised: Terry Francona and the Phillies front office are hopped up on goofballs. Are they waiting for Ron Gant to break his leg before announcing that Kevin Sefcik will now be the full-time starter because he can…
Keith Law: According to ESPN.com, Baylor just pinch-hit for Scott Downs … with Daniel Garibay. This, on top of a lineup without Eric Young, Henry Rodriguez, Mark Grace, or Shane Andrews, and that had Jeff Huson leading off until Nieves subbed for him in the third. Jeff Erickson (of Rotonews): Ugh… my guess is that…
Scary. That’s the only word to describe the imaginations of the Baseball Prospectus readership. When we announced Big Exciting Contest #3, "Pick the player you will not have on your fantasy team," we certainly had no idea we’d see the kind of responses we did. So, a couple rounds of therapy and some shock treatment…
American League East JeffBower ClayDavenport JeffHildebrand RanyJazayerli ChrisKahrl KeithLaw DavePease StevenRubio JoeSheehan MichaelWolverton DerekZumsteg TotalPoints New YorkYankees 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 53 BostonRed Sox 2 2 2 1 3 2 2 2 3 2 2 43 TorontoBlue Jays 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 1 3…
National League East JeffBower ClayDavenport JeffHildebrand RanyJazayerli ChrisKahrl KeithLaw DavePease StevenRubio JoeSheehan MichaelWolverton DerekZumsteg TotalPoints AtlantaBraves 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 55 New YorkMets 2 2 4 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 40 PhiladelphiaPhillies 4 3 2 4 4 3 2 2 4 3 3 32…
DiMaggio vs. Williams I just finished reading an essay in George Will’s book, “Bunts” concerning the ’41 season and the rivalry between Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. Will, along with most other historical and modern analysts of the ’41 season, clearly feels that Dimaggio’s 56 game hitting streak was a “greater” achievement than Williams’s ’41…
The BP crew discusses the implications of a rumored plan to redistribute baseball’s teams.
Valentine’s Day is behind us, and pitchers and catchers are well into their late-winter preparations. And while Mike Piazza and Ismael Valdes stretch, throw, catch and hit, fantasy players around the world are also gearing up for some springtime action. With all the preparation involved in playing games like roto or Scoresheet, the players we…
Wednesday, the San Diego Padres acquired left fielder Al Martin from the Pittsburgh Pirates for pinch-hitter John Vander Wal and two pitching prospects, Geraldo Padua and Jim Sak. This received a surprising amount of attention from our staff. Chris Kahrl: Looks like time for another round of condolences. Al Martin? How does he help the…