We’re putting more in the hands of our six remaining contestants, as they pick their topic from baseball history this week.
Pudge’s milestone, Mauer’s hit parade, a full-up Fenway, plus news and notes from around the leagues.
A conversation with the journeyman about adapting, reading, and having a sense of humor.
The senior circuit’s sweet 16 draft crops, reviewing the top picks and the late-round surprises.
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…
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…
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…
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…
Sabermetricians are often accused of not enjoying the game of baseball and instead just caring about the numbers. But it’s entirely possible to love both. And in the best case scenario, the numbers can help us even further appreciate our enjoyment of the game. A great way to experience that best case scenario is to…
In March 2002, Baseball Digest said we were living in “the era of the shortstop.” After all, the late 1990s ushered in a crop of offensive-minded shortstops like Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Tejada, Derek Jeter, and Nomar Garciaparra. The article included the Royals‘ Neifi Perez, but given the benefit of hindsight, I’ll leave him out of…