(Ed. note: Today marks the debut of Keith Woolner as a featured columnist here at Baseball Prospectus. Each Wednesday, he’ll be answering a statistical or sabermetric question from one of our readers. Click here to submit a question to Keith.) This week’s question comes to us from Thomas Berman, who asks: Mike Hampton hit his…
(Note to anyone trying to send me e-mail: it probably will bounce for the next 12 to 48 hours. Thanks for your patience. –JSS) Walking through the parity league… Robb Nen has been alternating dominant seasons with so-so ones since 1996, but his early results so far indicate that the streak may end. Ten baserunners…
Tom Wilson has been one of the best-hitting catchers in minor-league baseball for a number of years, offering the tasty combination of patience and power. However, all that has gotten him is two days of major-league service time, during which he didn’t have an at-bat. Now 30 years old, Wilson is with his fifth organization,…
FIRST WALKS "When I go to the plate I’m only thinking about hitting and putting the ball in play. I go to the plate thinking aggressive. If it happens, I’ll take it, but I’m not going to change my game." —Alfonso Soriano, Yankees infielder, on drawing his first walk of the year "Now that the…
I’ve been writing "D"P for a little over a year now, and in that time I’ve run into occasional writer’s blocks of various sizes. Missing a day or turning out a column with which I’m not happy irks me terribly, while enhancing my admiration of someone like Rob Neyer, who has cranked out daily, high-quality…
With almost five weeks of baseball behind us, let’s take a look at offense in the major leagues to see what, if any, impact the changes in the strike zone are having. Ball Four and Strike Three First, here’s the basic walks and strikeouts information (through May 2), and the comparable information for April of…
Last night’s scene at the Metrodome in Minneapolis was a blot on the Twins’ great start. Some imbeciles in the left-field seats decided that the sixth inning would be a good time to test their arms, and began throwing objects at Yankees’ left fielder and ex-Twin, Chuck Knoblauch. As bad as the incident was–and I…
The early season can be a dangerous time for analysts and fans trying to make sense of player performance. There are sample-size issues, quality of opponent problems (especially this season), and a host of other reasons to look at April numbers with a skeptical eye. Compounding these problems is the natural tendency of batting averages–often…
Free Erubiel Durazo! Last I looked, Erubiel Durazo had more HR and RBI than Mark Grace, despite being the backup and being banished to the minors for a time. It’ll be amusing to see how long the D’backs will stubbornly play Grace. They are unwilling to admit they made a mistake, no matter how much…
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…