Happy New Year, dear readers! It’s been about three weeks since I checked in here, a time during which I’ve been plowing through my winter workload, with a weeklong trip to England over Xmas and New Years thrown in as well. In the meantime, I’ve completed the entire JAWS series on the BBWAA Hall of …
From today’s Baseball Prospectus column: After nearly 48 hours of second-guessing regarding the circumstances under which Game Five was played and halted, speculation as to how the Rays could sustain their stay of execution to overcome a 3-1 series deficit, and unanswered questions about travel days and the amount of rest Cole Hamels might need …
Since we last spoke: • In Friday’s column at Baseball Prospectus, “A Tale of Two Right Fielders,” I discussed the way the spotlight seemed to find the Phillies’ Jayson Werth and the Rays’ Rocco Baldelli all night long in Game Two. Both players took unlikely routes to the World Series, and each threw out the other …
It’s all the Jaffe you can eat today. I’ve got my hand in not one but two pieces today at Baseball Prospectus. First, there’s a little something that Joe Sheehan and I cooked up, a thought experiment in which we pooled the Rays’ and Phillies’ rosters and chose up sides, schoolyard style, based simply on …
As noted in my previous post, with the Dodgers out of the playoffs, I was pretty skittish about investing much emotional energy in the remaining ALCS battle as the Red Sox stormed back to force a seventh game against the Rays after being down 3-1. Moments after sitting down to Game Seven, I was IMing …
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 …
Continue reading ‘A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns… And Comebacks’ »
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 …
Today my Baseball Prospectus column on the Mets’ bullpen woes is not only syndicated on SportsIllustrated.com, it’s on the front page of the site for the moment. For posterity’s sake, here’s the screenshot: Cutting to the chase: The sad fact is that through the first half of the season, even with [Billy] Wagner performing at …
The Yankees put on quite a show in the Bronx last night for the final game ever at Yankee Stadium. I wasn’t in attendance, alas, unlike some of my NYC-area cohorts like Alex Belth, Cliff Corcoran, Joe Sheehan and Derek Jacques, and without the anticipation of attending the game, I had a tough time summoning …
Well, my trip to the ballparks last weekend didn’t work out quite as planned, with rain washing away the Brewers-Phillies game and depriving me of my first opportunity to see Citizens Bank Ballpark. Given the way the rest of the weekend unfolded for the flat Brew Crew — including the shocking firing of manager Ned …