TRADE OF THE WEEK "This will improve us defensively. We were concerned we were too one-dimensional. If we’re going to struggle to score runs, we’re probably going to have to do as much as we can to prevent them." —Billy Beane, Athletics GM, on trading outfielder Jeremy Giambi for utility player John Mabry "The message…
Nevertheless, in the wake of the most bizarre deal we’ve seen in a very long time, I couldn’t help myself; I peeked around. Now, I have a lot of respect for Rob Neyer, and for Rob’s work. As a fellow product of the analysis revolution of the ’80s, I suspect we share a basic philosophy of trying to inject some element of quantitative analysis to provide better qualitative commentary. That said, I think any attempt to quantitatively assess the trade of Jeremy Giambi–regardless of your opinion of Win Shares and their utility–ignores two basic problems.
Ok, so Mike Piazza says he’s not gay. Bobby Valentine says that MLB’s ready to deal with an openly gay player. Mike Timlin says he’s already knowingly played with a gay player. Steve Phillips says that statistically, you’d expect a gay player in every clubhouse. He also encapsulates a lot of good thinking on the subject by saying “Who cares?”
I wouldn’t say I’m going through the motions on this one, but I know that half the country is already gone for the weekend, and the other half is just waiting for the boss to give the signal. I’m headed to Fresno myself, in part to see my friends and their new baby, in part to catch the Grizzlies in their new park on Saturday. I’m writing this as packing activity goes on around me.
I wouldn’t say I’m going through the motions on this one, but I know that half the country is already gone for the weekend, and the other half is just waiting for the boss to give the signal. I’m headed to Fresno myself, in part to see my friends and their new baby, in part…
Hard as it may be to believe, I’m going to spend less time than usual on this column, despite the large number of interesting things to talk about. Sexual Orientation Ok, so Mike Piazza says he’s not gay. Bobby Valentine says that MLB’s ready to deal with an openly gay player. Mike Timlin says he’s…
When Jose Canseco finally announced his retirement last week, I thought little of his case for Cooperstown, citing him as a one-dimensional player, with too much of his value wrapped up in a five-year span. However, after reading Joe Sheehan’s Tuesday edition of the Daily Prospectus, I slowly began to rethink my position.
I know I’m supposed to write about the Jeremy Giambi trade. It’s one of the strangest moves we’ve seen in a while, it involves a GM whose praises we’ve been singing for years and a player whose abilities we’ve promoted. Acquiring John Mabry makes no sense from any standpoint for the A’s, a fact I’m sure Chris Kahrl will address in the next Transaction Analysis.
Drafted out of a Baltimore high school in June 1993, Ken Cloude was the Mariners’ top pitching prospect by 1996 and participated in the Mariners’ mound chaos of the late 1990s. Now 27 years old, Cloude is trying to resurrect his career following Tommy John surgery in 2000 and after missing the entire 2001 season with a torn Achilles tendon.
Drafted out of a Baltimore high school in June 1993, Ken Cloude was the Mariners’ top pitching prospect by 1996 and participated in the Mariners’ mound chaos of the late 1990s. Now 27 years old, Cloude is trying to resurrect his career following Tommy John surgery in 2000 and after missing the entire 2001 season…
I know I’m supposed to write about the Jeremy Giambi trade. It’s one of the strangest moves we’ve seen in a while, it involves a GM whose praises we’ve been singing for years and a player whose abilities we’ve promoted. Acquiring John Mabry makes no sense from any standpoint for the A’s, a fact I’m…
When it comes to baseball-related discussion, there are few topics that pique my interest more than ones involving the Hall of Fame. What is the definition of a Hall of Famer, after all? Does anyone really know? If Kirby Puckett is now enshrined in Cooperstown, does that mean Al Oliver should be too? How much…
Before claiming any success for any measure in predicting injury, we must fundamentally recognize that any PAP-style metric will be positively correlated with raw pitch counts. Pitchers with high pitch count totals will tend to have high PAP totals. If a PAP function provides no additional insight into which pitchers will be injured that pitch count totals alone, there is no reason to add the added complexity of a PAP system to our sabermetric arsenal.
Like the Mafia, or bandits like the Dillinger Gang, baseball is organized into loosely affiliated families and crews. Buddy Bell was an old associate of the Hart caporegime, so when he was out of work, he could fall in with some of his old partners in crime in Cleveland.
In my book, you can’t be an All-Star based on six weeks of good play. I absolutely hate that standard for picking All-Stars, and yet every year, we hear that some guy coming off the hottest month of his life should be an All-Star over an established star playing a bit below his level.