Back when I was making the rounds to promote Baseball Prospectus 2008, I invariably spent some amount of time discussing our PECOTA projection that calls for the Tampa Bay Rays to win 88 games. Mind you, this is a club that hasn’t topped 70 wins in any of its 10 seasons to date, one that …
Bleary-eyed but satisfied, I’ve got a two-fer today in the form of my first New York Sun piece of the year, and the first regular-season Hit List (both of which are free as opposed to subscriber-only). The Sun piece is about the absurd glut of young talent in the NL West, which figures to be …
It’s no secret that Murray Chass is — how to put this delicately? — hopelessly out of touch. Once upon a time he was a groundbreaker, pioneering coverage of the business side of baseball back in the 1970s. For that he received the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the Hall of Fame equivalent for writers, back …
The Baseball Prospectus staff predictions went up over the past weekend, though most of them (including mine) were in the can by Opening Day. Here are the American League ones, and here the National League ones, with the oddball questions as well. My slice of the pie: American League AL East AL Central AL WestYankees …
Without question, the coolest toy I ever had was my Legos. From the time I was three until about age 14 or 15, I loved those colorful, interconnecting blocks. I graduated from the basic interconnecting bricks to the expert sets, with joints and gears. The auto chassis was my favorite; I once took a chunk …
The flip side to my aforementioned aversion to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium is my willingness to brave the elements for an early season game, particularly if the company is good. Last year, Jonah Keri and I endured a snow-filled sufferfest amid a horde of Bleacher Creatures, so it was virtually automatic that I’d accept …
My work in It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over was singled out for praise in, of all places, the Christianity Today website in a rundown of spring baseball books (IAO is out in paperback): Turning from We Would Have Played for Nothing to the latest installment from the high priests of statistical sophistication, ‘the Baseball …
Clearing out some notes as I breathe a heavy sigh of relief at the passing of my final Fantasy Baseball Index update deadline and sit down to watch the Yankees’ second game of the year — my first chance to see the on my big new TV… • As eager as I always am for …
Continue reading ‘Clearing the Bases: The Clipboard Edition’ »
Happy Opening Day, everybody! Though I spent most of my afternoon slaving over my final Fantasy Baseball Index spring update deadline — interrupted by a fun radio hit for KOGO in San Diego, where I ran down the likelihood of several Padres’ players scenarios this year — I Tivoed the Dodgers’ opener, which I was …
I have but a few simple rules in life. One is never to be arrested while wearing adult diapers. Another is never to write a book where I’ll be forced to defend charges of casual racism and homophobia on a media tour. So on the latter note, it’s been several months since I got my …