Our long dreadlocked drama is over. MLB.com and ESPN report that after more than four months of arduous negotiations and more spin than the 2008 presidential election, Manny Ramirez has returned to the fold. From MLB’s Ken Gurnick and Barry Bloom: The deal was closed, pending a physical, at a meeting in Los Angeles attended …
I’ve got a pair of articles at BP and ESPN Insider focusing on young players whom PECOTA forecasts to break out, which in terms of our forecasting system means improving their productivity at least 20 percent relative to their three-year baseline. From the hitters piece (BP and ESPN): Not every top prospect hits the ground …
In today’s Hit and Run column at Baseball Prospectus, I take up “The Curious Case of Jeff Kent”, who retired last week: There’s no crying in baseball, which may or may not explain why Jeff Kent’s stoic facade crumbled during the press conference in which he announced his retirement last week. A notoriously gruff and …
Aside from being busy, busy, busy with Baseball Prospectus 2009 work, I’ve done a couple of articles for BP that have been, or will be, mirrored over at SportsIllustrated.com. The first is on the AL MVP race, using BP’s Wins Above Replacement Player metric to evaluate the cases of the top-ranked candidates. The BP version …
I have saved the closing words for Preacher Roe, who soon will be eighty-three. Roe is retired but vigorous in West Plains, Missouri, and proud that every one of his grandchildren has gone to college. “I know one of these days the good Lord is going to come calling,” Preacher says, “and when that happens …
Well, my Dodgers-in-six prediction isn’t looking so hot these days. Here’s what I’ve been up to since then: • My rundown of the first two games of the NLCS, with a statistical look at the Phillies’ reliance on the home run ball for their scoring. • Some notes for Game Four that foreshadowed Derek Lowe’s early exit …
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The SportsIllustrated.com version of my NLCS Preview is up now, complete with, like, three grammatical corrections even. Talk about a value add. I actually had no idea how long the piece was, word-count-wise, but ESPN’s Rob Neyer counted it up in the service of giving me a nice shoutout in a blog entry($) today: 5,408 …
My National League Championship Series preview is up at Baseball Prospectus, and it’s free (it’s supposed to be mirrored on SI.com as well, but that link will have to wait). In the intro, I included a hat-tip to one of the storied rivalries of my youth. I don’t remember the 1977 wildness (recounted here and …
On Saturday I watched the Dodgers win their first playoff series in 20 years. I watched the Brewers win their first playoff game in 26 years. And I welcomed home my wife after an eight-day business trip, just in time to join me on the couch for the latter as I waved my Brewers towel …
I’ve got an article in today’s New York Sun about the war of attrition being fought over the NL West and NL Wild Card playoff spots. As I conceived the piece, in thinking about the recent struggles of the Brewers and Mets I was reminded of a great old quote. Had I been able to …