While I was bushwhacking my way through the flora of the Wind Rivers range in Wyoming (as opposed to the bushwhacking I might have been doing back in New York City), good ol’ Will Carroll invoked a recent conversation of ours to lead off one of his Under the Knife columns at Baseball Prospectus: It …
Just a quick note to thank everybody for their responses to the Gary Sheffield series thus far. It’s been a blast to write, and I’ve learned a ton while researching his career, challenging my own thinking on his various controversies as well as that of others. As I’m leaving town today for my annual trip …
Continued from Part I Unlike the upstart Marlins, who had begun the process of dismantling their team once they’d won a championship, the Dodgers still carried a perennial expectation of success when Gary Sheffield arrived. The team had been leading the NL West when the 1994 strike hit, they won the division in 1995, then …
Alex Belth already shed a clump of hair over this yesterday, but Sunday’s Yankee loss — capping a sweep by the Angels in which the Bronx Bummers scored just four runs — contained yet another rally-hampering sacrifice bunt from Derek Jeter. In the bottom of the third with nobody out, the Yanks were up 1-0, …
Those of you looking for the follow-up to Monday’s Gary Sheffield piece will have to wait until later this week, as I’ve got multiple out-of-towners paying me visits over the next several days. I don’t know if it’s just the August blahs, that lots of my regular readership is on vacation, or that my new …
“There aren’t five hitters I’d rather see swing the bat than Gary Sheffield, but there aren’t five ballplayers I’d less rather root for…” Back in December, as his handshake agreement with George Steinbrenner appeared to unravel, I wrote those words about Gary Sheffield, along with several others even less favorable. I stand by the first …
My email forwarding doesn’t seem to be working (grrrr) so until further notice, please use jayjaffe@nyc.rr.com. If you’ve sent me something since 6 PM Friday, I’d appreciate it as well if you would resend it to that address. Methinks I’m going to be in the market for a new web host soon.
As I wrote in my review of The Numbers Game the other day, much of Alan Schwarz’s book revolves around Bill James. He not only pops up in conjunction with nearly every development in the statistical landscape of the past 30 years, but Schwarz often references him in discussing the work of his precursors, from …
In last year’s smash hit Moneyball, author Michael Lewis wove a compelling narrative about how a statistically-oriented revolution that took hold in the early ’80s among baseball followers had finally penetrated the front offices of a major-league team, the Oakland A’s. In doing so, he brought a stereotypically nerdy take on the game, called sabermetrics …
Continue reading ‘Stat Crazy After All These Years: The Numbers Game’ »
In the hectic week and a half since my latest Baseball Prospectus piece, a look at the prospects the Yankees have traded over the past decade, several of them have popped up in the news. Having already mentally dog-eared their profiles and accomplishments, I figured I’d share what I’ve found. The first up is none …