As promised, today’s Prospectus Hit and Run column, “Night of the Living Dodgers,” finds me examining the threadbare state of the team’s pitching staff, one with an all-too-high count of zombies: Rewind to the winter, when the Dodgers let Randy Wolf, who’d just set personal bests for starts, innings and ERA+ while finishing 11th in …
In today’s Prospectus Hit and Run, I tackle the disappointing performance of the ever-enigmatic Javier Vazquez, who was once again pounded on Saturday. He’s carrying a 9.78 ERA and has allowed eight homers in his 23 innings. What’s more, he hasn’t gotten past four innings in either of his past two starts. The boos are …
A bit groggy here after a long week which began with a fun ballpark trip to a Baseball Prospectus event in Baltimore — one which included Orioles president Andy MacPhail, six BP authors, and XM Radio hosts Mike Ferrin and Grant Paulsen — and was capped by having stayed up past 2:00 AM on each of the …
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Keyed by Tim Kurkjian’s observation that there are no currently active starting pitchers who are locks for Cooperstown, today’s Prospectus Hit and Run is devoted to examining which active pitchers have the best shot, using both JAWS and more traditional credentials. Before digging into the names, consider the following: The Baseball Writers Association of America …
In the wake of Joe Mauer agreeing to an eight-year, $184-million contract extension with the Twins, I wrote a piece on Mauer’s Hall of Fame chances vis-à-vis JAWS, using his PECOTA projections to fill in the blanks because his major league career consists of five seasons and change. Amazingly, he’s already 31st in all-time WARP …
Amid all of this recent book promo hubbub, I’ve actually gotten to do some writing: • Last week, I noted the introduction of the ESPN Insider TMI blog. Today I’ve got another piece there, this one on Ozzie Guillen’s stated desire for the 2010 White Sox to be more aggressive on the basepaths. There’s a longer …
Having delved too deeply into Frank Thomas’ career to deal with two Hall of Fame cases in one piece, today I’ve got a look at Tom Glavine’s case for Cooperstown. Even with his 305 wins, I was actually surprised at the strength of his case on the traditional merits: Glavine made 10 All-Star teams, and …
Last week, Frank Thomas officially called it quits, not a huge surprise given that the 41-year-old slugger, who bopped 521 home runs in his career, didn’t play at all in 2009. Today I’ve got a column at Baseball Prospectus celebrating his career, his Hall of Fame case, and his place in history: It’s no stretch …
Yikes, it’s been awhile since I checked in here. First off, I’m told that Baseball Prospectus 2010 left the warehouse on Monday and should be making its way to Amazon or your local brick and mortar retailer of choice. More on the efforts to promote the new book in an upcoming post. As for the …
In today’s Prospectus Hit and Run, I examine the fates of Orlando Hudson and Randy Wolf after the Dodgers failed to offer them arbitration, thus surrendering the right to first round draft picks and supplemental first round compensation picks in each case, hardly chump change. The decision wasn’t out of step with the industry trend; …