It’s in the nature of a project like Baseball Prospectus to have some extremely good insights and some yakkers that we’d rather forget. One of my esteemed co-authors once came up with a great argument that Bryce Florie could be the best pitcher in the American League in the near future, and I thought that…
Beginning today, Transaction Analysis moves to a three-day-a-week schedule. Look for Chris Kahrl’s wit and wisdom Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at Baseball Prospectus. ANAHEIM ANGELS Activated LHP Kent Mercker from the DL; optioned OF/1B-R Chris Hatcher to Edmonton; placed RHP Mike Fyhrie on the 15-day DL (elbow inflammation). [8/11] Purchased the contract of RHP Eric…
Wednesday’s column on the Pedro Martinez/Ramon Ortiz duel speculated on the game’s possible place on a list of 2000’s top combined Game Scores, since the two pitchers had combined to post a 160. Game Scores are a simple measure of the quality of a start, first published in the 1988 Baseball Abstract and calculated as…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Released RHP Ken Hill; activated LHP Jarrod Washburn from the DL; optioned RHP Brian Cooper to Edmonton; recalled RHP Ramon Ortiz from Edmonton; outrighted OF-R Edgard Clemente to Edmonton; purchased the contract of IF-R Keith Johnson from Edmonton. [8/7] Purchased the contract of 1B/OF-R Chris Hatcher from Edmonton; returned LHP Jarrod Washburn to…
Everybody’s favorite whipping-boy/wonder-agent, Scott Boras, found himself in the news a few times in the past week. Boras is a lightning rod for criticism for no reason other than that he’s damn good at what he does. An agent is supposed to represent the interests of his client; that’s all. The real or threatened consequences…
Rick Ankiel is living up to the hype. With his performance Monday night, he lowered his ERA to an impressive 4.01 and, more impressively, has now struck out 130 batters in just 119 innings pitched. To put that in perspective, 78 pitchers in history have struck out at least a man an inning while qualifying…
When I was heading to Edison Field for last night’s Angels/Red Sox game, I fully expected to end up on my feet cheering for a great performance by a Dominican right-hander. I just didn’t expect to do it twice. Anaheim’s Ramon Ortiz outpitched Boston’s Pedro Martinez in what has to be one of the season’s…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Placed RHP Troy Percival on the 15-day DL (shoulder pain). [8/4] Placed RHP Seth Etherton on the 15-day DL (shoulder tendinitis); recalled LHP Juan Alvarez and RHP Lou Pote from Edmonton. [8/5] Despite Percival’s struggles, from the well-publicized nine blown saves or the control problems or the taters or the ERA creeping towards…
Hey, maybe they are America’s team, because I ended up getting a lot of thoughtful and articulate email from Braves fans defending the acquisition of B.J. Surhoff. Several of them tackled the subject of whether or not I gave the Braves a fair shake as far as what B.J. Surhoff gives them, especially in comparison…
In this era of digital cable and lightning-fast Internet connections, it’s quite easy to stay in touch no matter where you are. But a couple of times a year, I make a concerted effort to get away for a few days and pay as little attention to baseball as I can. I find that the…
ACHIEVEMENTS "I always get nervous before I pitch. It was more excitement than nervousness, though. It felt like a playoff game." — Tom Glavine, Braves pitcher, on becoming the third active pitcher with 200 wins "Not many players have done that. I saw Niekro win his 200th. I saw Maddux and now Tommy. Hopefully, we’ll…
Recently we’ve been running a series by Gary Huckabay in which Gary evaluates major-league fielders using a combination of the available metrics and his own visual observations. Defense has proven difficult to quantify, and without a "killer app" for the task, we’re left with a combination of flawed tools. One of the problems with evaluating…
Just read your "Doctoring the Numbers" piece on the sucking Rockies. It would be good to see how non-Rockies teams fare on road trips. Perhaps fatigue, stinky underwear, the cumulative effects of restaurant food or some other aspect that builds over a road trip makes all teams hit significantly worse later in a road trip….
First off, I’d like to thank Rabbi Pesach Wolicki for a great idea, which is to include info on batter handedness like so: 2B-R is a right-handed-hitting second baseman. As always, I’m grateful for yet another sensible suggestion from our readers. ANAHEIM ANGELS Placed RHP Al Levine on 15-day DL, retroactive to 7/31 (elbow inflammation);…
When Jim Bowden announced the Barry Larkin signing, he managed to darken the mood slightly by admonishing the fans that they were getting exactly what they wanted…and that they’d have to pay for it. He told fans that ticket prices would be going up, perhaps as early as this season, because of the deal. In…
As I mentioned the other day, 16 teams made moves before the trade deadline to improve their chances in 2000. Of course, that means 14 others didn’t, 14 teams that haven’t had much success this season. Still, amidst the wreckage of a 65-97 campaign can often be found the pieces of next year’s playoff contender….