Via my boy Alex Belth comes this fantastically irreverent Slate piece by Charles P. Pierce on Manny Ramirez’s return to action: Then, back in May, the test results came back. A chorus of moaning arose from the Church of the Perpetually Outraged. (This week’s sermon: “What about the children?”) But he slowly but surely made …
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 …
A couple weeks back, on one of my Boston “Young Guns” radio spots, I joked with host Chris Villani about Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury being the new Juan Pierre. Yesterday, Rob Neyer’s got a blog entry ruminating on that prospect, and concluding that while he’s been a disappointment, time is on the 25-year-old Ellsbury’s …
Stuff from my latest three pieces at Baseball Prospectus: • In “Conquering the Cubs,” the latest edition of my “Pair Up in Threes” series, I examine the Brewers, Cardinals and Reds, all of whom are atop the Cubs in the NL Central race, a major surprise given that our PECOTA projection had the Cubs at an …
For the past two years, I’ve been appearing nearly every week on a Toledo, Ohio ESPN affiliate, WLQR 1470 AM, as the guest of Norm Wamer for the show “The Front Row.” It’s my favorite media hit of the week, as Norm and I have a great rapport, and generally at some point during our …
Last week’s WWZN Young Guns radio hit, discussing Russ Ortiz’s short-lived lead over namesake David in the 2009 home run rankings, the possibility of the Blue Jays remaining factors in the AL East, the sudden power outbursts of Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, and other fun stuff. The segment was recorded via iPhone while I …
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 …
A fistful of links from the past couple of weeks, none of them having to do with steroids or A-Rod (we’ll get those in another post. Maybe.)… • Baseball Prospectus 2009 is shipping from Amazon.com and on the bookshelves of your local retailer. I’ve had a copy in hand since last Friday, and it’s as chockfull …
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike passed away today at age 76. While he didn’t write often about baseball, and while I’m no expert on the rest of his oeuvre, his career line includes one memorable home run of a piece: “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu”, his account of Ted Williams’ final game, written in 1960 …
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 …