Still trying to catch up on my z’s from a fun but draining weekend at SABR where my trade deadline-related work cost me face time with some folks I only get to see once a year, not to mention a handful of missed presentations and a foregone ticket to Camden Yards (when the professional meteorologist …
Whew, am I behind in my blogging. Here’s what’s not-so-new: • A Basseball Prospectus/ESPN Insider piece examining second-half strength of schedule, revisiting an earlier piece but using Hit List Factor instead of a team’s projected winning percentage. Here’s how the teams shake down: Team Season 1st 2ndBlue Jays .514 .497 .536Orioles .522 .510 .536Royals .505 …
Continue reading ‘Clearing the Bases: Post-Rickey, Pre-DC edition’ »
If it’s July, trade rumors are in the air, and if you’ve got ESPN Insider access, you may have seen that the Baseball Prospectus team, including yours truly, has been augmenting the site’s MLB Rumor Central area with some quick-hit analysis every morning, complete with bylines. Starting today, ESPN’s collecting those bits into the Insider-only …
Enough with the first-half navel-gazing. Over the course of the past two days, Baseball Prospectus colleagues Steven Goldman, Christina Kahrl and I have offered second-half prescriptions for each of the thirty teams — one or two suggestions that could improve their outlook in the short or long term, depending upon their chances of making the …
So I watched the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game this year, which is out of character with my recent history, though last year’s game at Yankee Stadium did bring me back into the fold. I couldn’t have done it without my TiVo, however, which reduced my total time expenditure to about three hours …
Continue reading ‘The All-Star Break is No Time For a Break’ »
In Tuesday’s chat, a flurry of Baseball Prospectus readers wanted to know my thoughts on the possiblility of Blue Jays’ ace Roy Halladay being dealt: Roopan (toronto): If the jays put a Halladay/Wells combo on the market – would [there] be any take[r]s. I don’t believe a mid-market team like the jays can afford to …
On Sunday the baseball season reached its midway point in terms of total games played, and this week at Baseball Prospectus and ESPN Insider, we’re using that as an opportunity to examine how our PECOTA forecasts have held up over the course of the first half. Yesterday, Christina Kahrl examined team-level performances. The top six: …
I’ve got another Baseball Prospectus/ESPN Insider twin killing today, this time devoted to players who might be left off the two leagues’ All-Star teams. By midnight tonight, the All-Star balloting will have ended, and on Sunday the starting lineups will be announced. Inevitably, deserving players will be left out in the cold (even after managers …
The Baseball Prospectus/ESPN Insider soup du jour is a roundtable devoted to dissecting the performances of a few unlikely first-half heroes. ESPN editor Matt Meyers, columnist Buster Olney, BP colleagues Kevin Goldstein and John Perrotto and I discussed whether the work of Red Sox shotstop Nick Green, Mets pitcher Fernando Nieve, and Rays utilityman Ben …
Today’s Prospectus/Insider twofer covers the Phillies’ odd home-road split: On Sunday, the Phillies fell to the Orioles for their second consecutive sweep and third straight series loss at the hands of an American League team. Though they remained atop the NL East, the defending world champions finished their latest homestand with a 1-8 record, their …