The big story Thursday came out of Jupiter, Fla., where the Montreal Expos walked three consecutive times. That’s an amazing feat for a team routinely near the bottom of the league in walks drawn, and an encouraging sign for those of us who expect the Expos to make at least some noise in the NL…
With his options nearly exhausted and the chance that he would forever remain three walks shy of the all-time record growing larger by the day, Rickey Henderson accepted an offer from the Padres for $300,000, payable if he makes the team. What’s unusual is that the deal contains none of the playing-time-driven incentives you typically…
What follows is not, in any way, shape or form, demonstrative evidence of anything. It’s just interesting, worth sharing and discussing, and doesn’t really mean diddlysquat. Yet. The big story this spring on the field is the effort to reestablish the strike zone as it was originally designed. The short, elongated rectangle of recent years…
Some columns go in a slightly different direction than you intended. I sat down to write a piece about the potential impacts of the unbalanced schedule on the very best players in the game. I was going to base it on last year’s winning percentage, and see what stars might have an opportunity to post…
Last week, I received a note from one of our readers, Peter Simon: Is there any chance this year’s Orioles will be the worst offensive team ever, compared to league averages? I haven’t done any statistical research of my own on it, but just looking at their lineup, things look bleak for them. The Orioles…
One of the central tenets of performance analysis is the idea that position players generally peak between the ages of 25 and 29. The evidence for this is a study initially published in the 1982 Bill James Baseball Abstract There are exceptions, and there is some evidence that players may be peaking later (or declining…
Monday morning, I spent about 15 minutes on the the air in College Station, Tex., discussing the Houston Astros. Last year, of course, the Astros were perhaps the most disappointing team in the game, stumbling from a three-year run atop the NL Central to a 72-90 record and a fourth-place finish. The team wasn’t quite…
Yesterday was another hallmark day for baseball fans, as teams throughout Florida and Arizona played the spring’s first full slate of exhibition games. And while no conclusions can be drawn from one day’s worth of baseball, enough interesting things happened to make for a fun day: In Peoria, Ariz., the new strike zone claimed its…
A project with the long, slow development curve of Baseball Prospectus has any number of heroes. Many of the names you know: Gary Huckabay, Chris Kahrl and Clay Davenport have been among the core players in the group since its inception in 1995. Other people have been less visible, but just as valuable at various…
Dodgers left fielder Gary Sheffield has demanded that the team trade him, citing a lack of appreciation by the team. It’s not just any trade demand: Sheffield has indicated that he wants to be traded to either New York team of the Atlanta Braves, and that he does not plan to report to spring training…
Reader Mac Thomason has pointed out that one of the player comments in Baseball Prospectus 2001 discussed pitchers from the current era who were locks for the Hall of Fame, yet omitted Randy Johnson from a list that included Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine. The original comment was written by me, and my…
Over the weekend, Derek Jeter and the Yankees reached agreement on a ten-year, $189-million contract that makes him the game’s second-highest player and likely cements his status as a career-long Yankee. The deal slots him about where he should be, among the highest-paid players in the game, but behind Alex Rodriguez and in a position…
I grew up in New York City, so February to me has always meant cold, hockey, my birthday and cold, not necessarily in that order. As a young player, February wasn’t a time for baseball. Hell, some Aprils weren’t a time for baseball. And even though I now live in Southern California, where Little League…
Let’s see…the last time The Daily Prospectus appeared, Alex Rodriguez was an underpaid Mariner, Florida was just another big state with 25 electoral votes, the St. Louis Rams were on their way to becoming a dynasty and Mario Lemieux was a retiree. The world…she sure do spin fast these days, eh? In our little corner…
After allowing it to lay dormant for five months, Bud Selig dusted off the report of his Blue Ribbon Committee and announced plans to implement some of the changes it suggested. The one that received the most attention was the so-called competitive balance draft. As presented by Selig, the draft would allow the teams with…
National League Dusty Baker proved to be as popular with IBA voters as he is with the national media, running away and hiding to win his first IBA Manager of the Year crown. Tony LaRussa beat out Bobby Cox for the runner-up slot, although Cox received more first-place votes than LaRussa. Perhaps reflecting a season…