One of the principles we’d most like to see baseball embrace is accountability. All too often organizations make excuses for managers who let promising young players rot on the bench while some 33-year-old hits .240 but leads the league in intangibles. They employ GMs who give a good outfielder coming off one great year $14…
It happens every year. Every year I find some way to believe. Every winter I shed my analyst’s glasses and look at my Kansas City Royals through the eyes of a fan. A fan looking for a ray of hope. A fan willing to overlook holes at half a dozen positions. A fan willing to…
Special thanks to Retrosheet Injuries to pitchers are not a new phenomenon. They date as far back as the rule change that allowed pitchers to throw overhand, and so do the attempts to restrict the workload of pitchers to a safe level. When Old Hoss Radbourne reminisced about winning 60 games (now reported as 59)…
Twenty-six years after the American League anointed the Designated Hitter rule as its savior from ten years of low offensive totals and dwindling fan interest, the debate rages: is it a necessarily evil, or just evil? Baseball’s braintrust seem intent on resolving the disparity between the two leagues, but they’ve been promising that for about…
As teams close in on the 100-game mark, enough pitches have been thrown and enough starts have been made that we can begin to draw significant conclusions from the Pitcher Abuse Points data. But before we get to that, here’s a demonstration of how PAP differs from looking at average pitch count totals: 1- 91-…
Now, more than any time in baseball history, games are won and lost in the bullpen. As such, more attention has focused on the importance of a good bullpen as oen significant difference between a playoff team and an underachieving also-ran. Whether it’s explaining the Mariners’ inability to contend despite fielding two of the 50…
Baseball Prospectus introduced Pitcher Abuse Points last summer as an attempt to measure the workloads of starting pitchers. Briefly, the system is based on the premise that each pitch above a certain threshold is incrementally more damaging than the last, with the damage growing more severe as more pitches are thrown. Our threshold is 100…
Almost one full year ago–June of 1998, to be exact–I had become increasingly frustrated at Jim Leyland’s idea of "entertainment" in what was turning into The Lost Season in south Florida. My frustration stemmed from watching as his young and promising pitchers were made to throw close to a gross of pitches on an all-too-frequent…
The Ballad of Super Joe I’m not a big fan of David Howard. Regular readers probably know that. Last year, in his first season with the Cardinals, Howard hit .245 in 102 at-bats, with four extra-base hits and 12 walks giving him a sad .322 OBP and a meek .333 slugging average. All three averages…
The Kansas City Royals are in a state of flux. The dependence on veteran mediocrity is being abolished, and the team’s commitment to youth has provided an opportunity for potential stars like The Brothers Carlos to play every day. And just as the situation on the field has changed, so has the front office, where…
Recently, Rany Jazayerli had the opportunity to conduct a brief interview with Kansas City Royals General Manager Herk Robinson. Here is the complete transcript: RJ: Let’s start with the obvious: the trade situation with Kevin Appier. HR: There’s nothing specific with Appier yet; we haven’t discussed any particular players with any of the teams that…
CHICAGO WHITE SOX The rebuilding process of a team that should have been more competitive than it was continues, as the departures of Belle and Ventura open up even more jobs. The departure of Mike Cameron leaves the centerfield job open for Brian Simmons, a tools-laden late-blooming hitter with a diverse range of skills, but…
CHICAGO WHITE SOX The Pale Hose have many concerns, but none greater than the performance of Frank Thomas. The difference between the 1990-97 version (the greatest offensive player in 40 years) and the 1998 version (roughly average production from a 1B/DH) is worth as much as six wins in the standings. I examined this issue…
Last fall, word came that Doug Blosser, a well-regarded Royals farmhand and the brother of former major leaguer Greg Blosser, had been killed in a car accident in his native Florida. He was only 21, and inconsiderate though it was, my original reaction was to reflect on what he meant as a ballplayer by looking…
Sometimes the most innocent conversations can lead to discovery. I was sitting next to the TV Tuesday night, on one of my regular long-distance chats with co-author Joe Sheehan discussing everything from the Giants’ wild-card hopes to whether the major leagues should establish a salary cap on new draft picks. The talk led to a…
A funny thing happened on the way to 62. In the midst of all the superfluous attention and asinine questions sent Mark McGwire‘s way, some reporter decided to bring up a topic that hadn’t already been beaten to death: the issue of nutritional supplements other than creatine. McGwire innocently confirmed that he took a little-known…