Hi, everyone. I hope you all had a good Labor Day weekend.
Of course, I’m an A’s fan, so every weekend’s been good to me lately. And yet, even with the continuation of The Streak, I’m beginning to get the same feeling in the pit of my stomach that I did when Jeter made the flip to nail Giambi last year. Yeah, 19 in a row is tremendous, but if Oakland can do it, so can Anaheim or Seattle–and there’s still plenty of time. Sure, it’s better to be in first, but I’d feel considerably better if they could shred out another four or five wins immediately after this run ends.
“Now I’m kind of wondering what’s next. I went to sleep with `Karate Kid’ and woke up to Peter Gammons, which was a little frightening.” –Doug Mientkiewicz, Twins infielder, on falling asleep in front of his TV Thursday August 29th
[Just after midnight Eastern time Friday morning, the Prospectus staff starts discussing the coming agreement]
Derek Zumsteg: It appears that if the owners gave in right now, just said “sure, we’ll take your last offer”, they’d have won more in this negotiation than in any previous one since free agency. Why did the players move so far? Are they that afraid of the NLRB and implementation? Do they believe that if they give in this time, they’ll be able to win it back in four years when it’s apparent none of this did any good for competitive balance?
I’m baffled.
To wrap up our series on the merits of the four-man rotation, let’s look at some of the ancillary benefits of making the switch:
The four-man rotation simplifies a starter’s between-start schedule. Most teams have their starters throw on the side once between starts, but no one really knows whether it’s better to throw on the second day after a start, or the third. It’s not even clear whether starters should throw only once. In Atlanta, Leo Mazzone has had continued success doing things his way: he has his starters throw twice on the side between starts instead of once. (He does this because he feels it gives the starter the same increased sharpness that comes from working on three days’ rest.)
This week’s question comes from Sam Grossman, who writes:
What percentage of “quality starts” results in Ws, Ls and NDs for the starting pitcher? What about Ws and Ls for the team?
Has this been consistent across time (effect of bullpens, etc.)?
Transaction Analysis, August 22-25, 2002.
I asked Prospectus authors if they thought there would be a strike and if there would be playoffs this year. Everyone said there would be playoffs, and a few thought there wouldn’t be a strike. Consensus among the strike-heads seems to be it’ll be short and sharp, a 7 day 1985-style strike. I could use…
Some people don’t like the fact that the Prospectus has focused so strongly on the economics of baseball this year. I don’t blame them. Personally, I don’t really care about how much money players and owners make. When I see newspaper articles that focus on what players make what money, I turn the page. I…
OK, so we’re 48 hours from an entirely different type of DTs, and the whitespace on ESPNEWS is becoming far more pronounced than it already is. Let’s dive in…. Ted Frank wrote a piece yesterday piercing holes in the luxury tax proposal put forth by the MLBPA. Today, Doug Pappas aerates Ted a little bit….
Since I have a case of writer’s block that could cause Stephen King to cut back to a novel a week or so, I thought I’d lean on some administrative announcements today. We’re working on getting player cards up again. We realize they’ve been down a while, and we’re kind of rolling that project up…
The MLBPA’s luxury tax proposal is bogus. There, I said it. The press coverage of the labor dispute, which has been sorely lacking in its failure to question the revenue/loss numbers of the owners, has been just as lacking in its failure to identify that the MLBPA has made a luxury tax proposal that will…
I recently sat down for lunch with a very old friend of mine with an affinity for baseball, finance, and philosophy. Lunch took about half an hour, and the ensuing conversation took about two hours. Since I’ve mentioned him before in this space, and he’s fond of his privacy, we’ll call him “Dave” for purposes of this column.
DO WE REALLY KNOW THAT HIGH PITCH COUNTS ARE BAD? "It’s an absolute shock. He has never even had a twinge in his shoulder or elbow." —Jeff Torborg, Marlins manager, on A.J. Burnett‘s "acute bone bruise" that may sideline him for the season "We didn’t see this coming. He has been a workhorse all year….
I recently sat down for lunch with a very old friend of mine with an affinity for baseball, finance, and philosophy. Lunch took about half an hour, and the ensuing conversation took about two hours. Since I’ve mentioned him before in this space, and he’s fond of his privacy, we’ll call him "Dave" for purposes…