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Scrotos posted:Can someone with archives dig up the book list we made in the MLB Recommend me books thread that I made last summer? There wasn't an official list. Here's the thread if someone wants to make one.
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| # ¿ Mar 8, 2011 00:30 |
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| # ¿ May 24, 2013 21:04 |
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With Hosmer and Moustakas particularly, their weaknesses are plate discipline/pitch recognition and they both had some serious underperformance in the low minors before last season. In that case, AAA time is probably warranted for consolidation purposes and to make sure they won't start swinging at everything when they see good breaking pitches and advanced pitch sequences and so forth. There isn't a set path for these things, it varies by organization and player.
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| # ¿ Mar 8, 2011 20:11 |
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Oodles of Wootles posted:The AL typically has more offense because of the DH. Similarly, the NL is regarded as more of a pitchers league because they don't have a DH. I've never heard of a differentiation between fielding in leagues, unless people decide that the NL has better fielders because there are less runs (because there is no DH). The NL has historically been a bit more of a speed and fielding league, even going back before the DH, for a variety of small and largely institutional reasons.
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| # ¿ Mar 10, 2011 19:05 |
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Gee Wizard posted:Like what? Is this some kind of self-perpetuating cycle, where you need speed to compete against the other teams? - The aforementioned tilting of minority players to the NL, which didn't really even itself out until the 70s and 80s. - Parks more conducive to small ball in the NL. - Money. Players have been paid on dingers and ribbies for 85 or 90 years, and even just one team spending a lot more to get those guys (read: the Yankees) can tilt things. - Just random luck. The NL has ended up with a lot of generational pitchers and the AL has ended up with a lot of generational sluggers over the course of baseball history. - AL teams exploiting the efficiency of walk and dinger guys better. - A bit of what you're suggesting, that at some point it just became The Way and conventional wisdom led teams to build "NL style" in the NL and "AL style" in the AL. Most of these effects have washed out, and much of the difference that is left is indeed an illusion created by the DH.
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| # ¿ Mar 10, 2011 19:20 |
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The Mets also have much better television announcers than radio (Wayne Hagin really sucks), as do the Dodgers in innings 4+ for games west of the Mississippi.
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| # ¿ Mar 13, 2011 08:16 |
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Magicmat posted:Vin Scully works the whole game, and only games in Colorado and west, thank you very much. He works the whole game on television but only the first three innings on the radio.
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| # ¿ Mar 13, 2011 08:42 |
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R.D. Mangles posted:What's the current sabermetric thinking about righty-lefty match-ups? Instinctively, I would think that you'd want your best pitcher out there regardless of situation, and throwing out a bad LOOGY instead of leaving a better righty out there is generally a bad idea (the Will Ohman Connundrum). At the same time, I understand that certain hitters do have significant righty/lefty splits and it might be the best move in a high-leverage situation, but overall is this a sound strategy or an ingrained part of over-managing? It makes sense in certain situations. Letting, say, Curtis Granderson hit in an important AB against a RHP that is anything short of one of the best guys in the league is completely insane. He's historically been a great hitter against righties and slightly better than a random pitcher against lefties. You have to have a really great reason not to deploy a LOOGY against him in the big spot. The overriding problem is that managers have created very rigid roles for bullpens, then fit the players into the roles and the roles into the games whether or not it makes sense or not. One of these roles is that you just have to have a LOOGY, even if it's a guy too good for the role, not good enough for the role, or capable of pitching more than the role allows. That's just bad managing in general and not something limited to the LOOGY per se. Side note: Will Ohman also isn't terrible as LOOGYs go. jeffersonlives fucked around with this message at Mar 15, 2011 around 07:39 |
| # ¿ Mar 15, 2011 05:52 |
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I CHALLENGE THEE posted:Or you have someone like Jerry Manuel who used Pedro Feliciano as a regular reliever which was so loving dumb I wanted to rip my hair out. His split was like .180 against lefties and .300 something against righties which is probably an egregious example of how managers can negatively effect the game Ah yes, Pedro Feliciano, who actually fit into the LOOGY role but Jerry kept shoving him into The Eighth Inning Guy instead. Boy am I glad Jerry's gone.
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| # ¿ Mar 15, 2011 20:15 |
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Mahoning posted:I'd hate for that to be the explanation, I want something more interesting. Nope, that's pretty much it.
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| # ¿ Apr 5, 2011 20:53 |
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The Mets television booth (Gary Cohen with Keith Hernandez and/or Ron Darling) is great. The Mets radio booth (Howie Rose and Wayne Hagin, sometimes with Ed Coleman) is terrible, although I like Howie.
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| # ¿ Apr 6, 2011 07:59 |
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EnterYourNameHere posted:So to dull the pain of the NFL lockout I'm going to start following baseball at least casually. Despite being a Bengals fan, I'm from LA so I'll probably just be a Dodgers fan, but are the MLB blackout rules as draconian as NFL blackout rules? I've noticed by looking at the MLB.tv thread that Dodgers home games would be blacked out through that service, but will I be able to see them through any method that is not some ATDHE replacement or the radio? Would it be easier to catch games if I follow some team that isn't the Dodgers or Angels? Presumably they'd be on your local television, no? The Dodgers are projected to be an average team on the fringe of playoff contention this year, but they do have the greatest announcer in the history of sports who probably doesn't have a lot of years left announcing so I'd still tell you to go with them.
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| # ¿ Apr 10, 2011 06:35 |
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Tyler Clippard has actually turned into quite a nifty reliever for the Nationals. Velocity only guys tend to work better in relief and all that.
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| # ¿ Apr 23, 2011 23:48 |
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Orgophlax posted:Not sure why this just popped in my head, but a little bit ago in a Phillies game there was a pop foul that was going into the first or second row and could've been caught by the fielder, but a fan was reaching for it also and got it first. The umpires still called the batter out for the fan interference. Why was this not done in the Bartman incident? Umpire's discretion as to whether it's in the field of play or not. The fielder is at his own peril over the rails.
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| # ¿ May 26, 2011 02:14 |
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Orgophlax posted:That's the thing though. In the Phillies game the ball was definitely in the stands when touched. The fan wasn't leaning out to get it, the player was reaching in. From what I remember of the Bartman incident, Bartman reached out over the rail and deflected a ball that probably would've landed foul otherwise. I didn't say the umpires were good at making the call, but that's the call they're making.
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| # ¿ May 26, 2011 02:25 |
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Batui posted:The level of play for the various farm leagues was already mentioned, but how about for the independent leagues like the Atlantic League? Highly variant. I think the last time I saw Atlantic League MLEs it was around AA level. quote:And what is the purpose of the independent leagues, other than to give free agents a place to play and hopefully get re-signed? Relative to MLB and its farm leagues, I mean. I'm sure the players play because they love baseball and the IL exist because they are profitable. Pretty much that, and also because there's more demand for minor league baseball than there are organized teams that don't play in complexes.
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| # ¿ Jun 6, 2011 01:09 |
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Right behind home plate, or right at the dugout on the same side the pitcher is throwing the ball from (so for a LHP you'd want to be on the first base line, RHP on the third base line).
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| # ¿ Jun 7, 2011 23:03 |
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Boy Wunder posted:I just finished reading Moneyball. If I recall correctly, towards the end of the book Paul DePodesta states that OBP is about three times more important than slugging percentage in determining a player's offensive worth. Wouldn't this make the OPS stat incorrectly skewed towards sluggers with lower OBP? Was DePodesta wrong or did I not read it correctly? Yes, OPS overvalues slugging. The extent to which it does so is a matter of some debate in the sabermetric community and perhaps not entirely linear to begin with, but the common numbers are that OBP is somewhere around 2-3 times more valuable than slugging.
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| # ¿ Jun 21, 2011 23:15 |
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commy gun posted:1. Whats a pinch hitter? A player that is substituted into the game for a player next up in the batting order. commy gun posted:2. What's slugging percentage? Total bases / AB, or alternately (1B + 2B * 2 + 3B * 3 + HR * 4)/AB. It's a decent measure of power. commy gun posted:3. How do you evaluate a prospect in the minor leagues? I imagine that players can produce in the minors,but how do evaluate actual potential for a hitter or pitcher? This really is way too complex a question for a short blurb, but here goes anyway. Prospects are typically evaluated on projection - skills, tools, etc. A lot of people focus solely on upside, which leads to everyone hilariously overrating their own prospects on the two percent chance that said prospect might be the next big thing. Stats are more useful in the high minors than the low minors and for hitters than pitchers, but need to be put in league/park/age context to be useful at all anyway. commy gun posted:4. I understand how athleticism helps on defense, but does it help on offense outside of running and stealing bases? Swinging a bat is itself inherently an athletic move, even if some of the people who do it well don't look all that athletic.
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| # ¿ Jul 1, 2011 02:13 |
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trem_two posted:I have no idea why the Tigers have decided to run him up to AA already. Because it's the Tigers and they rush prospects. It's their thing.
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| # ¿ Jul 3, 2011 19:06 |
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ManifunkDestiny posted:Question: Guys with 10 and 5 rights (players who have spent 10 years in the majors and at least five with their current team) have a de facto no trade clause for any trade, correct? My main question is, can these players also turn down a waiver claim (not a waiver trade). For example, if the Mariners put Ichiro on waivers and some team is dumb enough to put a claim on him, can he reject the claim as a 10-and-5 guy, or can he only reject it if it is a trade? Ten and five gives the player the right to reject any assignment, whether it be trade, waivers, optional, or minor league.
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| # ¿ Jul 20, 2011 22:41 |
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Shear the Sheep posted:This may be a silly question but why can't Verlander and Sabathia pitch the remainder of game 1, start game 2 or start game 3. They only threw about 25 pitches. Whats the deal? They didn't "just" throw 25 pitches, they also went through their regular pregame routine and warmed up several times and kept their arms loose during a lengthy delay. Pitchers usually throw something around that amount at some point in between their starts (individual routines vary by pitcher and team), and both of them are treating it like such a bullpen session and coming back with two days of rest. That's probably about what one would expect.
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| # ¿ Oct 2, 2011 04:09 |
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Pujols has a really troubling injury history. He's always managed to play through injuries others wouldn't, but you've gotta think that's going to catch up as he moves into his mid-late 30s. There have also been rather persistent rumors dating back to when he was a prospect that Pujols is 2-4 years older than his official age. I suspect that in the end the Cardinals cannot afford to lose him and he probably does not want to leave, so they'll get it done. It'll be too much for too long, but what can you do?
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| # ¿ Oct 29, 2011 19:17 |
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Groucho Marxist posted:The age stuff probably should have died the second he became a citizen during the post 9/11 record checking standards. I have no idea whether it's still a valid concern, but it's absolutely why he fell in the draft and for his first few MLB seasons his age was considered likely fictitious. It's not just a generic "Latino player with early onset male pattern baldness" thing, it's been following him around since high school.
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| # ¿ Oct 29, 2011 20:07 |
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ZerodotJander posted:If you have Amazon Prime, the entire Ken Burns documentary is available for free through their VOD streaming service. Also on Netflix streaming, and at most local libraries.
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| # ¿ Oct 30, 2011 20:07 |
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Toffile posted:In general, the value's going to be slightly different, but the relative values of the pWAR should be similar. FIP, RA, and ERA tend to be highly correlated (especially as defense has gotten better over the years). Not really, and if they were a lot of annoying arguments about FIP would disappear.
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| # ¿ Nov 20, 2011 01:18 |
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Toffile posted:I always though FIP and ERA correlated reasonably well within the same year. I at least remember reading something on Fangraphs about it sometime in the past. Tip to all lurkers and newbies: the articles on Fangraphs suck and are often intellectually dishonest.
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| # ¿ Nov 20, 2011 07:23 |
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The Soul of Baseball is non-optional at this point. Anything by Bill James or Rob Neyer (except for Feeding The Green Monster) is good.Zythrst posted:If you like fiction you could read the collective works of Christy Mathewson. The best of the Matty books is Pitching in a Pinch, which is his nonfiction entry (and the only one that was principally written by him).
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| # ¿ Dec 7, 2011 08:06 |
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The Prisoner posted:It is a great book that must be taken with a grain of salt regarding its veracity. Stump was discovered to be a forger of Cobb-related memorabilia two years ago and so both of the biographies have lost any shred of credibility they once had. This had been suspected for a long time but was recently confirmed, yeah. Anything Stump wrote isn't worth the paper it's printed on. leokitty posted:Baseball books. http://www.goodreads.com/review/lis...?shelf=baseball You only gave The Soul of Baseball four stars 
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| # ¿ Jan 7, 2012 23:48 |
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Meat Recital posted:How did Pedro Martinez not win the Cy Young in 2001? His ERA+ was like 60 points ahead of the winner. He was hurt and missed half the season. Mussina deserved it but Clemens got it based on wins.
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| # ¿ Jan 14, 2012 03:52 |
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euphronius posted:Usually the rookies and NRI travel and the veterans play the home game. There's an unwritten rule that they're supposed to send three regulars even on split squad away games, but teams have stretched that definition big time in the past few years, especially with the Florida teams spreading out even more.
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| # ¿ Feb 24, 2012 03:18 |
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Declan MacManus posted:It's the Orioles. MLB.tv is the answer to all your prayers.
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| # ¿ Feb 26, 2012 17:49 |
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I CHALLENGE THEE posted:I don't think the Marlins are that much improved. They were truly awful last year and they've improved what, maybe 7 or 8 wins? Buehrle and Reyes alone are worth that much or more, and in theory they're getting a bunch of guys back from injury and have a bunch of improvement candidates.
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| # ¿ Feb 26, 2012 19:58 |
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I CHALLENGE THEE posted:Sure, if Reyes can stay healthy and Josh Johnson can recover from injury. It's just like any team not named the Phillies or Mets you can easily make a case for all three One can also assume that Hanley and Coghlan can't possibly be that bad again, Nolasco will eventually pitch up to his peripherals, LoMo and Stanton should be a little better, Heath Bell will be worth a few wins, etc. It's not hard to get Miami as a 90 win team if a couple things break right, and a lot more than that if lots of things break right.
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| # ¿ Feb 26, 2012 20:18 |
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leokitty posted:Lewin's doing Mets games now. Replacing Wayne Hagin, one of the biggest hack announcers on the planet. I'm optimistic for the Met radio team for the first time since Gary flipped to television.
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| # ¿ Mar 6, 2012 03:06 |
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Toffile posted:John Sterling - Homerun calls aside isn't too terrible. Unfortunately he knows that people pay attention to his homerun calls and as such has been diagnosed with Bermanitis. Also is slowly becoming near-sighted and has trouble distinguishing between deep fly outs and homeruns, and any sort of pitch that breaks. Sterling hasn't been able to see for about a decade now and it affects a lot more than his home run miscalls. He should have been moved to color many years ago so he could do his stupid catchphrases and editorializing without ruining the broadcast.
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| # ¿ Mar 6, 2012 03:10 |
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BIZORT posted:Do teams loan players to their opponents in spring training games? In the Mets/Marlins game today I swear I saw a Marlins player at 2b for NY in the boxscore Daniel Murphy is the Mets starting 2B (until he gets hurt again), Donnie Murphy is the Marlins utility infielder. Different players.
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| # ¿ Mar 12, 2012 00:08 |
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Mahoning posted:Generally speaking, how dumb is bunting? Is it so dumb that you should never do it? Never is pushing it, especially in the NL. There are game situations where it makes sense to play for 1 run, they just often aren't what dumb managers think they are.
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| # ¿ Apr 20, 2012 22:34 |
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"Beautiful prose" is nice, but there's a large portion of sports commentators that either physically can't call a game or have no interest in calling the game.
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| # ¿ Apr 21, 2012 15:16 |
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The broken bones posted:So who does good PBP? Both of the Mets PBP guys are pretty good, Gary Cohen on the television and Howie Rose on the radio.
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| # ¿ Apr 21, 2012 17:48 |
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| # ¿ May 24, 2013 21:04 |
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DannoMack posted:Drew Hutchison - the guy making his MLB debut for the Jays tonight - plummeted in the draft because he had committed to a school and had signability issues, whereas today he probably would've gone undrafted and been allowed to get half a university education, right? Is that how the new draft system works? He would have been either drafted higher or probably not drafted at all under the new system, yes.
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| # ¿ Apr 21, 2012 21:15 |
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