As 2017 has drawn to a close, we’ve used the holiday week to highlight some of the quality work of our writers and staff at Baseball Prospectus. In that same vein, the new year is a perfect to recognize the great work done at our local affiliate sites as well. As you celebrate the final…
Last week, the Braves lost a dozen July 2 signings from 2016 and 2017, all notable six- or seven-figure bonus players, including the system’s ninth-best prospect Kevin Maitan. They also had their contract with Korean prospect Ji-Hwan Bae voided, were banned from signing top 2019 prospect Robert Puason, had significant restrictions applied to their international…
Deuteronomy has all sorts of things to say about debt and usury, but somehow leaves out Wild Card games. When you’re managing the Wild Card game, all you care about is advancing. Elimination games carry crazy leverage, the highest leverage, and you can’t fret over pulling a guy who isn’t pitching well. The Division Series,…
Like so many Japanese men of his generation, Shingo Furuya was a company man. Fresh out of college with an economics degree, he joined the Hanshin Electric Railway Company and devoted his life to it: worked ridiculous hours, floated through reorganizations and sideways promotions. It’s how he became the manager of one of Hanshin’s corporate…
There are dozens of medium-impact moves that litter the months between the playoffs and spring training, and most of them don’t give us the opportunity to see something new. For example, without much fanfare the Padres signed right-hander Trevor Cahill away from the defending champion Cubs for a relative pittance: only one year and less…
A Box Full of Things to Fill Holes By: David G. Temple He entered the house for the last time of the night — and only to pick up his bag and his phone. “Hey,” she said. “There’s still that big box of baseball cards in the guest room. I need you to take care…
We need to talk about defense. Well, not really defense, but how we measure defense. OK, not really how we measure defense, but what we do with it after we measure it. A couple of weeks ago, Matt Winkelman wrote something that questioned how defensive metrics were structured, specifically around the question of how we…
About a year and a half ago, Baseball Prospectus revealed a suite of catching stats that formed the basis for our industry-leading valuation of catchers. These new stats would shape how we perceived and discussed catcher value, but they also opened the door to better understanding the performance of pitchers. Two key statistics—CSAA and CS…
The date is June 21, and Justin Verlander has just struck out Mitch Haniger for the first out of the fifth inning. It was his 10th strikeout of the game, and if it wasn’t vintage Verlander that’s only because he didn’t throw his (once) devastating changeup, instead relying on a curveball with more drop than…
Let’s start here. In the now. After a shellacking at the hands of the Dodgers on Sunday, the ever-honest, 40-year-old Bronson Arroyo admitted that persistent shoulder pain might force him to call it a career. The guitar-strumming beanpole who forced us to consider the term crafty righty has made a habit of outrunning the jaws…
