This is the second in a series of rankings of major-league defenders, highlighting the top ten and bottom five at each position. The ratings are a combination of Zone Rating, Range Factor and my best (and admittedly grossly flawed) assessment of the job they’re doing. The Top 1. Troy Glaus, Anaheim. Glaus is ridiculously athletic…
This is the first in a series of rankings of major-league defenders, highlighting the top ten and bottom five at each position. The ratings are a combination of Zone Rating, Range Factor and my best (and admittedly grossly flawed) assessment of the job they’re doing. The Top 1. Bret Boone, Padres. Boone has a very…
Before I left Baseball Prospectus to go to KPMG Consulting in 1998, I would occasionally write a piece on defense. Now, I would always get a bunch of mail about articles, but none, including those in which I would personally insult huge segments of the population, drew as much mail–both really angry and effusively gushing–as…
"No one ever got fired for buying IBM." That one sentence, popular in corporate IT shops from about 1960 to 1990, spoke volumes to the problems American business faced during that period. The importance of information technology was growing rapidly and the understanding of the obstacles to successful use of IT in increasing efficiency was…
Oakland Athletics: Acquired OF Bip Roberts from the Detroit Tigers for a PTBNL. I have a great deal of respect for Billy Beane. He’s a competent, confident young executive who has an idea of his goals for the A’s, and he’s got a plan attain those goals. But everybody has a bad day. To say…
Today, we take a quick glimpse into the Oakland A’s farm system at two more gems from Billy Beane’s Amazing Offense Factory, and that rarest of creatures, the A’s pitching prospect. Bring your cameras. Eric Chavez, 3B Born 1978 Age 20 Year Team Lge AB H DB TP HR BB R RBI SB CS Out…
Top Ten Teams 1. Atlanta Braves: All this, without particularly sterling performances from Andruw Jones or John Smoltz. Wow. 2. New York Yankees: Depth, walks, power, a nasty bullpen, and rotation. This is what the Baltimore Orioles had in mind — they just did it with old, bad players. 3. Houston Astros: Rotation depth is…
Rany takes the easy ones; we want to cover a couple of interesting guys you may not have heard as much about: Adam Riggs, a longtime second baseman in the Dodger chain with a little pop, and Octavio Dotel, one of many pitching prospects around the minors who could be great, or could be injured…
As most of you know, the Phillies and infamous Scott Boras client J.D. Drew failed to reach an agreement before the deadline last Monday, and as a result, the Phillies have forfeited their rights to sign him, and Drew now goes back into the draft. Not surprisingly, Drew has been almost universally pilloried, being painted…
We’re getting close to the end of the vile hockey and basketball seasons. Normally, I find both of these sports to be roughly as interesting as a night watching the WB. But I was in a bad mood, having just been blown out in a softball game where no matter what we did, an irritating…
I spent the last few days looking at tapes. Primarily boring tapes. Tapes of people playing defense. I really believe that the average baseball fan can get a lot more enjoyment out of watching the game if they understand the actual ‘fundamentals’ that we’ve all been told since the age of 5 (for me at…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Outside of non-rookie Todd Greene and spring training monster Troy Glaus, the Angels aren’t going to be the beneficiaries of significant help from their farm system. Glaus is a defensive whiz with legitimate bat speed and the potential to develop a ton of power. He won’t be developing it in Anaheim, where half…
The Atlanta Braves’ offense was almost as formidable as its pitching staff last year, scoring 791 runs – the second highest total among teams playing in oxygenated atmospheres, and only four fewer than San Diego. A large portion of that was due to the excellent performance of the hitters in the Braves’ leadoff slot. Kenny…
Mo Vaughn finally got ticked off enough this week to publicly vent over the upcoming treatment he expects from Dan Duquette and the Red Sox front office. “They’re trying to use my arrest for drunk driving against me,” said Vaughn. (Vaughn, as you may know, was acquitted of drunk driving charges, in a verdict which…
This winter, we at the Baseball Prospectus have been very fortunate in that some very busy people have been generous enough to give us some of their time. Recently, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane spoke with our own Gary Huckabay about the philosophy and future of the Oakland A’s. GH: Mr. Beane, you’ve been…
Harry Caray wasn’t the best technical broadcaster in the world. Others had a smoother delivery. Harry’s pronunciation was such that you wondered if the Cubs would purposefully avoid acquiring players like Doug Gwosdz or Mark Grudzielanek. In later years, he had clearly slipped due to advancing age and the ravages of ill health. But who…