KNOWING THE STRIKE ZONE "To be in a class with Babe Ruth, you can’t ask for anything more. Walks have been underappreciated. It’s lost in the stats sheets. It lost its appeal somewhere. Another thing lost in the stats is on-base percentage. That’s the most important thing in baseball. If nobody’s on base, nobody scores."…
One of the things that unifies baseball fans is poring over boxscores, a tradition that goes back more than 100 years. In the past decade, that poring tends to occur less with a newspaper and more online, but the tradition remains. I’m on Day 2 of what will be eight days of sharing a single…
(Ed. note: BP co-founder and starting second baseman Gary Huckabay launches a new column this week. Look for 6-4-3 here at Baseball Prospectus Online every Friday.) When it comes to any organized endeavor, there are a number of things that can cause a much-deserved sinking feeling in the pit of one’s stomach. In baseball, the…
Some of you may remember a play from the 2000 postseason that generated a lot of discussion. It occurred near the end of Game 3 of the NL Division Series between the Mets and the Giants. With one out in the top of the ninth, the Giants’ Armando Rios was on second base representing the…
Following the 1995 season, Alan Benes was ranked by Baseball America as the top pitching prospect in the game. He had a solid rookie season for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1996 and continued his development into one of the best young pitchers in the majors in 1997. Benes suffered a torn rotator cuff in…
While watching the Twins beat the White Sox–again–on Saturday, I was mightily impressed with their outfield defense, and not just because Torii Hunter made the play of the weekend. Jacque Jones is a center fielder playing left field and Matt Lawton is an underrated defender in right. All three players had above-average range factors in…
Changing the Game I’m doing a term paper on the subject of competitive balance, and I was hoping you could help me out. What, if anything, should be done to improve competitive balance in baseball? What do you make of Bob Costas’s Fair Ball proposal (a salary cap and floor combined with increased revenue sharing…
ANOTHER WEEK WITH THE BEST PLAYERS OF OUR TIME "When I hit it, I couldn’t believe I hit it. Everything was in slow motion. It looked like it was stopped in midair. Then I saw it went past those people and I thought, ‘Wow! I did it!’ " —Barry Bonds, Giants outfielder, on hitting his…
Gary DiSarcina has been unable to play so far this season, but his swinging spirit lives on in the DiSar Awards. The DiSars, named in the honor of the Angels shortstop who once stated it was his desire to go through an entire season without drawing a walk, are given to the player in each…
I have a nasty spring cold, my allergies are acting up, I broke my glasses, and I’m in the process of moving. I’m still probably feeling better than Brad Fullmer, but that doesn’t do much for me. For those of you east of the Rockies who are gainfully employed, that’s a reference to last night’s…
Last day we’ll deal with this, I promise. One thing I probably should have included in yesterday’s column was a brief explanation of how park factors are calculated. A lot of the mail I received attempted to tie Veterans Stadium’s high walk park factor to the composition of the Phillies’ staff. While that seems to…
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six First, let’s recap the complete Top 40 lists for each publication, along with the grade for each player: Baseball Prospectus Baseball America John Sickels 1. Nick Johnson 1 1. Rick Ankiel 6 1. Corey Patterson 5 2. Rick Ankiel 6 2. Pat Burrell…