And now for a Futility Infielder first: it’s time to get biblical. Like most observant Jews, I spent a good portion of last Thursday at services for Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. I didn’t go there with the intention of thinking about baseball, or at least no moreso than I usually do while …
As promised, here’s the ballot I cast in the Internet Baseball Awards. Most of my choices are informed by various metrics at Baseball Prospectus, among them Value Above Replacement Player (VORP), Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP), Support Neutral Lineup Adjusted Value Above Replacement for starting pitchers, Reliever Expected Wins Added, and the recently introduced Win …
The Internet Baseball Awards voting ends tonight at 11:00 PST. Make your picks for all the major awards and you might win a free subscription to BP. At the very least you can reacquaint yourself with the great banner I designed for the IBA a couple of years ago. You can’t put a price on …
For just the second time in the last eight years, the American League Championship Series will proceed without the Yankees, who were eliminated Monday night with a dispiriting 5-3 loss to the Angels. The breaks didn’t go their way, they made some key mistakes (including the manager, who stood idly by as Mike Mussina was …
Back with the bullets because my gun is still loaded… • After speeding through 18 innings of Astros-Braves, I was worried I might be as blasé about the night’s Yankees game, much as I had been after watching the finale of the Sox^2 game on Friday. I was even more worried the Yankee Stadium field …
What an amazing day of watching baseball. Saturday night, as the Padres worked the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, somebody on BP’s mailing list said that they smelled three Game Fours on Sunday. The Padres didn’t convert, ending their season with a sweep by the Cardinals as befitting the …
David Laurila of the Red Sox Nation website recently interviewed me on the topic of — what else? — Mind Game as part of a five-part series (part one, with Steve Goldman, is already up). Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, and relief aces were some of the topics I addressed. Here’s a sample: RSN: …
More bullets, because time isn’t on my side today: • The weather last night at Yankee Stadium looked awful, conditions hardly befitting the swing game of a playoff series. Play was never delayed, but the field looked to be fairly waterlogged. Players were slipping, players had a very difficult time holding onto the ball, the …
My travel to Philadelphia precluded me both from commenting on Game Two of the Yankees’ series, which they lost 5-3, and from seeing any of Thursday’s playoff action, a bit of a shock to the system given the two baseball-saturated days I had enjoyed before that. Some random bullet points about the postseason thus far: …
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Just a brief note to announce that I’ll be joining Steven Goldman and perhaps other Baseball Prospectus authors for a pair of bookstore appearances this week, one on Thursday evening in Philadelphia, the other Saturday here in New York City.