Did you know that some umpires are more steal-friendly than others? I have to admit, that possibility had never crossed my mind until a recent discussion on Usenet’s rec.sport.baseball mentioned a couple of articles in previous years’ STATS, Inc. books that addressed the relationship between umpires and stolen-base percentage. The earlier of those two articles…
With sincere apologies to the late, great Allan Malamud… On June 21, Bobby Cox brought John Rocker in to start the ninth inning with the Braves trailing 3-1. It was Rocker’s third appearance since his recall from Richmond, and he was brutal: one out, four walks, a hit and five runs. Since then, Rocker has…
By now we’ve all heard the predictions of doom for Major League Baseball. Many sportswriters have solemnly declared that the player compensation structure of the game is fundamentally broken and that only a few teams can compete these days. The 1998 season was declared to be a model of what we would see in the…
CHICAGO WHITE SOX Recalled LHP Jesus Pena from Birmingham (Double-A). [9/12] It seems strange that Jesus Pena was not called up sooner. Kelly Wunsch is the only left-hander on the roster assigned to late-inning relief, what with Mark Buehrle usually having to come in early to help staunch the bleeding whenever one of the starters…
Who’s the best Cy Young candidate on the Braves? ERA GS CG ShO IP W-L Tom Glavine 3.62 31 3 1 214.0 19-7 Greg Maddux 3.09 32 6 3 230.1 17-8 As I write this, I don’t have updated Support-Neutral or VORP data. Suffice to say Greg Maddux has extended his lead over Tom Glavine…
Taking a cue from Chris Kahrl’s latest NL Central Notebook, what should teams in the AL West be doing as the season winds down? Anaheim Angels Mike Scioscia’s troops have had a surprising run, but still find themselves six games back in the division with two teams to climb over and five-and-a-half games behind in…
He won’t set any home-run records this season, nor will he get close. He’s not going to be the MVP, and it would be hard to argue that he’s enjoyed this season as much as the last two. Nevertheless, this is probably the best season of Sammy Sosa‘s career. Yup. Better than his award-winning, crowd-pleasing…
It’s good to be back. It’s good to be anywhere but within the clutches of the Russ Branyan Fan Club, actually. These were no benevolent captors, let me tell you. You don’t know pain until you’ve been forced to watch every one of Rey Ordonez‘s 2,212 career plate appearances. I tried to put on a…
BOSTON RED SOX Acquired RHP Hector Carrasco from the Twins for OF-R Lew Ford. [9/10] Signed RHP Steve Ontiveros. [9/11] Increasingly desperate times call for increasingly desperate measures, but neither of these moves are bad so much as slightly embarrassing. By Michael Wolverton’s Reliever Evaluation Tools, Hector Carrasco had not done the Twins any favors,…
All the many positive and exciting things that happened this weekend were overshadowed by the horrifying event of Friday night. Red Sox reliever Bryce Florie was hit in the face by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Ryan Thompson. Florie suffered a broken orbital bone and damage to his right eyeball, and…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Activated RHP Tim Belcher from the DL; transferred RHP Seth Etherton from the 15- to the 60-day DL. [9/7] Now that Seth Etherton’s season is over and the Angels will have to waste two starts out of five watching timeservers Tim Belcher and Scott Karl get hammered, I suppose it wouldn’t be the…
SAVE THE WATER COOLERS! "That’s just me. I don’t try to please anyone. I show emotion sometimes. This was one of those cases." — Mike Hampton, Mets pitcher, who threw his glove, a towel, his cap, and punched a water cooler leaving the game after walking Pat Burrell "I like everything Mike Hampton does. I…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Recalled LHP Juan Alvarez from Edmonton. [9/5] Juan Alvarez rejoins the mix for a left-handed reliever job in next year’s bullpen. While I think the Angels are best off with Mike Holtz and Bryan Ward, if Ward struggles, Alvarez can slip in. While none of this may sound that significant, how they perform…
Who has the best record in baseball? OK, the White Sox. Who has the biggest lead in any division? OK, the Cardinals. But do you know who has the second-best record and second-biggest lead? The San Francisco Giants. The mid-payroll, mid-talent, picked-in-the-middle-of-the-division San Francisco Giants are playing just shy of .600 ball and have just…
Previous articles in this series: Introduction Second Base Third Base Shortstop This is the fourth in a series of rankings of major-league defenders, highlighting the top ten and bottom five at each position. The ratings are a combination of Zone Rating, Range Factor and my best (and admittedly grossly flawed) assessment of the job they’re…
In keeping with a previous theme, what can the teams in the NL Central accomplish in the time remaining to them? St. Louis Cardinals The Cardinals have the next four weeks to sort out a few mission-critical issues if they want to help themselves going into the playoffs. First, they have to use the time…