Lost between the Mike Hampton and Alex Rodriguez signings was Monday’s annual Rule 5 draft. The major-league portion allows teams to select players left off 40-man rosters for $50,000, with the caveat that the player must be kept on the 25-man roster all season or be offered back to his original team for $25,000. The…
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH "We added a horse. His leadership in the clubhouse will be very important for us in the next eight years. It’s a tough place to pitch. We didn’t come in there and sell Mike Hampton how it was pitcher’s heaven." — Dan O’Dowd, Rockies GM, on signing starter Mike Hampton to an…
Bud Selig went to Washington to do what people do in Washington: lie. He went to Congress to cry poverty and insist that the only thing that can save baseball is some fundamental change in the game’s economic structure. While this made great copy–most media outlets ate it up like hungry curs given below-grade dog…
I decided to break down this year’s Hall of Fame candidates by VORP. A full description is available at http://www.stathead.com, but the measure is essentially the number of runs contributed by a player beyond what a replacement level player at the same position would contribute in equal playing time, adjusted for park and league. Note…
Ballots for the Hall of Fame were recently mailed to voters. Over the next few days, we’ll comment on the candidates, their merits, and their chances, and follow that up with the second Internet Hall of Fame ballot to be hosted by baseballprospectus.com, where you can vote for your candidates. Chris Kahrl I’m in favor…
(Ed. note: Mark McKinniss submitted a short piece to the Baseball Prospectus staff in the wake of the BBWAA awards. If you have something you’d like to have published here, send it in the body of an e-mail to info@baseballprospecus.com. We regret we cannot respond to all submissions, but we will read every one.) He…
NEW HARDWARE "It hasn’t sunk in yet. I don’t have trophies up in the house. I don’t keep pictures of myself. I don’t brag about my accomplishments. This is something that is a fantasy." — Jeff Kent, Giants infielder, on winning the NL MVP "I wanted to thank [Mark McGwire] first before anybody else because…
(Note: this contest is over, and the winner is being determined now. We’ll print the best of what we got early next week.) The Hot Stove League is now open for business. It’s a time for would-be contenders to improve themselves, for GMs to make moves and for sports-radio callers to second-guess them. It’s a…
Baseball Prospectus 2001 Do you know when next year’s book will be published? Will it be available again for advance purchase from Amazon? Also, will your group of authors be posting any analysis of the Arizona Fall League on the web site? –MT We expect the book to be available at the end of January….
In The Baseball Book 1992, Bill James condensed each team into a box. Each box comprised a summary of the team’s 1991 season, a general prognosis for 1992, a look at the teams’ best prospects and a bunch of other nuggets, most of them for fun. For each team, though, he designated one player as…
I wondered if any of you had any opinion on Scott Boras’s assertions that Alex Rodriguez will hit 778 HR. Rob Neyer pooh-poohed the idea in his column, but I don’t think it sounds unreasonable at all in today’s climate. –DS Well, as I’m sure you know by now, Rob has explained his take on…
Previous articles in this series: Rotation of the Decade MVP of the Decade Outfield of the Decade Infield of the Decade Fittingly, we end our yearlong Team of The Decade extended coverage with your choices for the bullpen. Winning more than double the points of the second place finisher, the Reliever of the Decade is…
Revisiting baseball predictions is a tricky prospect. If the predictions are based on a specific methodology, then revisiting them is necessary: doing so helps to modify and improve the methodology. Otherwise, the pundit is just whistling in the dark. Most baseball predictions, of course, aren’t that systematic in their origin. A writer looks at rosters…
HACKING MASS | Team-by-Team Results | 2000 Rosters | Results By Position It’s that time of year again: the leaves are turning, the chill of autumn is in the air, and the stiffest of the stiff are being recognized for a job vigorously done. Here are the results of this year’s HACKING MASS extravaganza. Roundup…