A few quick links from earlier this week before I head off on my European vacation: • In Wednesday’s New York Sun, I wrote about the demise of the Mariners. A couple of early paragraphs were apparently cut, one for space reasons, the other because the transition kinda sucked. Warts and all, here’s the director’s …
Exhilarating and exhausting week here at Futility Central, full of travel, deadlines, and media: • On Monday (Labor Day), I worked from home and watched most of Pedro Martinez’s comeback outing, which I then discussed with Joel Blumberg on WGBB SportsBreak, which aired later that afternoon. As I said during the discussion, I was quite …
The D.C. appearance was great, last night’s Yankees game — first time I’ve been on hand for a player homering twice in one inning, as Alex Rodriguez did — was even better. Tonight I’m headed to Philadelphia for a TV appearance to promote It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over. At 6:15 PM, I’ll be on …
Move over, Murray Chass. Ignorance has a new best friend, and his name is Jon Heyman. In a recent SI.com mailbag piece, Heyman decided to ape the senile New York Times sports columnist by parading his reactionary view of sabermetrics: Regarding your NL MVP candidates, how about those two guys in Florida? Yes, the Marlins …
Just a quick and somewhat overdue note here to publicize a rapidly approaching talk and signing to promote It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over: the Baseball Prospectus Pennant Race Book. With our editor Steven Goldman on the 15-day DL with the Dreaded Gamboo (get well soon, Steve), Clay Davenport and I will take the ball …
Continue reading ‘Mr. Pennant Race Book Goes to Washington [BP Unfiltered]’ »
Guy: It’s August 31. Have you got waiver trade deadline fever? Other Guy: (checks thermometer) Nope. Guy: But… but… some teams need second LOOGYs! And third pinch-hitters! MIGUEL CAIRO may be headed back to St. Louis. Other Guy: (breaks out into a cold sweat) Better drink a beer and go straight to bed. Guy: I’ve …
Continue reading ‘Clearing the Bases – Long Day’s Journey Into Night Edition’ »
In the Hit List a couple weeks back, I suggested that the Padres’ release of David Wells may have been premature, and that given their rotation woes, a couple teams were likely to target the big man: Lowering the Boomer: a 5-1 run snaps the Pads out of their post-break funk, but the return of …
Continue reading ‘For a Fat Man, He Didn’t Sweat Much (Redux)’ »
Tuesday’s Replacement Level Killers piece was still on my mind when I sat down to write this week’s Hit List. Here’s what I had to say about the Dodgers: For those who thought Juan Pierre deserved a spot on the Replacement Level Killers, he was left off due to his surprisingly robust VORP (on the …
In today’s edition of Prospectus Hit and Run, I provide an updated taste of a chapter I wrote for the recently-released It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over: the Baseball Prospectus Pennant Race Book: In a pennant race, every edge matters. The late-season heroics of one individual may turn a close race into a tale of …
Just a quick note to let you know that I’ll be hosting a chat at Baseball Prospectus today at 2 PM Eastern. Hit List, JAWS, Yankees, Dodgers, Brewers, Mets, It Ain’t Over, pennant races, sausage races, the World Series of Cockfighting, the Simpsons, whatever’s on your mind — drop by and as a question or …