Prospectus Feature: The Arizona Fall League
11/07As mentioned in yesterday's Daily Prospectus, one of the best perks of an Arizona Fall League trip is seeing the players up close. Watching a Josh Karp curve fall off the table or seeing Chip Ambres staying back long enough to drive the ball enhances a fan's enjoyment of the game immensely. With that in mind, here are a few player observations from my recent trip to Arizona.
Prospectus Feature: Evaluating the Dowd Report
10/31When I've written about Peter Rose in the past, I get tons of email from readers, and many of them point to Bill James as a prominent, intelligent Rose defender who presents "a compelling argument." In the past, I've referred readers to the Dowd Report, which is available online at www.dowdreport.com. This has proved to be an inadequate response.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Player Cards
10/28The Player Cards are back! First, let me emphasize that these player cards are an ongoing project. I fully expect to be able to make future revisions to the cards themselves and the glossary without having to take everything down again. Some of these changes--like a full set of translated statistics for every player, to go with their actual statistics -are already in the works. Others -like extensions to the glossary- will follow the questions from readers.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: The Curse of The Budbino
10/11The exploding gas tank that is interleague play just toasted one team's playoff hopes, launching a less successful team into the post-season.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Breaking Balls: A Stroll Through the Mailbag
10/10We missed all four division series predictions here at Baseball Prospectus. I predicted that the A's would beat the Twins in "Three. Four max." The email immediately started to flow in.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Touring the Minors: Organizational Overview: Los Angeles Dodgers
8/23Even as they take the lead in the wild card race, the Los Angeles Dodgers are dying. Only Jim Tracy's magic keeps the Dodgers from seeing how chronic their situation is. In Tracy's short time as a major league manager, he has demonstrated a gift for turning others' garbage into gold. Just as Chavez Ravine (park factor 91) makes Dodger pitchers look better than they are, it conceals just how well Tracy has done with the hitters he has been given.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Breaking Balls: Unbalanced
8/08People complain that it's unfair to some teams chasing the wild card. Perhaps, but with "natural rivalries" and bizarre interleague schedules, fairness has already been tossed out the window.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Touring the Minors: Organizational Overview of the St. Louis Cardinals
8/07Before the Chuck Finley deal, the Cardinals had only one hitting prospect. Now they have none.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Baseball’s Brave New World
6/21To test your mettle, we're offering a quiz on contraction. Let's see how closely you've been paying attention and how well you understand the new math that Major League Baseball has unveiled during its current round of labor negotiations.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Touring the Minors: Goin’ Through Mobile
6/12If there's no such thing as a pitching prospect, why can't we keep them off our lists?
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Draft 2001: The First Round
6/05The First-Year Player Draft concludes today. The annual allocation of teenaged baseball talent is a decidedly inexact science, especially in a year, like this one, with no clear top tier of players. Just for fun, let's take a look at the first round of last year's draft and get an idea of how well that crop is doing.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Sifting Through the Discount Bin
6/05Every year the shrewdest teams reach into the dollar store bargain bin, hoping to find the mint-condition Boba Fett Blaster (still in its original packaging!). Modest success means finding a warm body who will ensure you don't have to sign the next Kevin Young to a mega-contract. All it takes is finding a player a hair above replacement level and you've done your job while potentially saving a few million bucks in the process. If you're really smart�and let's face it, lucky�you find that rare gem who offers a major improvement over your incumbent. Better still, finding a bargain lets a team use its resources for other needs. The 10 players below all make $4 million or less this year.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: 6-4-3: Rounding the Bases
5/24Ok, so Mike Piazza says he's not gay. Bobby Valentine says that MLB's ready to deal with an openly gay player. Mike Timlin says he's already knowingly played with a gay player. Steve Phillips says that statistically, you'd expect a gay player in every clubhouse. He also encapsulates a lot of good thinking on the subject by saying "Who cares?"
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: The Daily Prospectus: Heading Out
5/24I wouldn't say I'm going through the motions on this one, but I know that half the country is already gone for the weekend, and the other half is just waiting for the boss to give the signal. I'm headed to Fresno myself, in part to see my friends and their new baby, in part to catch the Grizzlies in their new park on Saturday. I'm writing this as packing activity goes on around me.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: Jose Canseco and the Keltner List
5/23When Jose Canseco finally announced his retirement last week, I thought little of his case for Cooperstown, citing him as a one-dimensional player, with too much of his value wrapped up in a five-year span. However, after reading Joe Sheehan's Tuesday edition of the Daily Prospectus, I slowly began to rethink my position.
continue reading chevron_rightchevron_rightProspectus Feature: The Daily Prospectus: The Trade
5/23I know I'm supposed to write about the Jeremy Giambi trade. It's one of the strangest moves we've seen in a while, it involves a GM whose praises we've been singing for years and a player whose abilities we've promoted. Acquiring John Mabry makes no sense from any standpoint for the A's, a fact I'm sure Chris Kahrl will address in the next Transaction Analysis.
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