Some days, the thoughts just don’t come in clean… I’m watching the Devil Rays/Blue Jays game, and home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley has screwed it up royally. In the fourth inning, Luke Prokopec beaned Aubrey Huff with a fastball right off the earflap. It didn’t look intentional-there’s no history of bad blood, and purpose pitches tend…
Chris Kahrl examines transactions involving seven teams from June 2-3, 2002.
The 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.
Every 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.
Analyzing PAP (Part One) Analyzing PAP (Part Two) PAP^3 is the name for the new system for measuring pitcher abuse via pitch counts introduced in Baseball Prospectus 2001. Though it shares a similar name and goal with a system previously introduced by Rany Jazayerli, it was developed independently, and replaces the older system. The two…
We constantly hear teams bellyache about their inability to sign free agents. To a certain extent, they have a point. A team like, say, the Expos, probably couldn’t afford to pay, say, Darren Dreifort $55 million over five years. And boy, could they use a right-handed rehab partner for Scott Downs. Every year the shrewdest…
The 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…
(Ed. note: The following is a reprint of an article that ran one year ago, on the day of the 2001 draft.] Right now, 30 major-league organizations are making decisions that will impact the success of their franchise over the next few years, and in some cases, for a decade or more. Unlike the football…
Quotes from May 27-June 2, including quotes about steroids, contraction, the Yankees and more.
Chris Kahrl examines trades involving 11 teams from May 30 to June 1, 2002.
So, what’s this whole humidor thing about, anyway? What are the effects of storing baseballs in a 40% humidity environment?
The biggest effect you would expect is that heavier balls hit in the air wouldn’t carry as far, and that appears to be the case. The most obvious impact is in the home-run rate at the park:
(Note that the numbers for the last five seasons do not include interleague games. I was working with the STATS Major League Handbook’s park data, which sensibly excludes those games.)
So, what’s this whole humidor thing about, anyway? What are the effects of storing baseballs in a 40% humidity environment? The biggest effect you would expect is that heavier balls hit in the air wouldn’t carry as far, and that appears to be the case. The most obvious impact is in the home-run rate at…
‘ROIDS, ‘ROIDS, ‘ROIDS, ‘ROIDS "If he [Ken Caminiti] wanted to address that [crap], he should have said it when he had the MVP award in his hand. ‘I thank my mom; I thank the steroids that I took.’ It’s the timing of it. Cammy’s a good dude, but it’s hypocritical to come back now and…
Chris Kahrl analyzes transactions involving 13 teams during May 28-29, 2002.