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Title says it all: Can a team get Young and worse at the same time?
This poll is closed.
Yes 119 70.83%
yes 49 29.17%
Total: 168 votes
[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

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kensei
Dec 27, 2007

He'll finally get a ring!


Pitchers and Catchers report February 11TH



Thread Links
Previous thread
MLB Newbie Megathread
Baseball card and memorabilia thread
Baseball GIF thread
Hot Stove Thread
Proxy info in the Goldmined N/V thread
Predictions thread (requires archives)
Offseason Planning Thread
2013 Minor League Thread

External Links
http://www.designatedhits.com/ - Walk up songs
http://www.sportsclubstats.com/MLB.html - Playoff odds
http://www.coolstandings.com/baseba...asp?sn=2012&i=1 Another playoff odds site
http://brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/zoneTrack.php Pitch tracking
http://www.mlbdepthcharts.com/
http://soundcloud.com/gibbstack/ichiros-theme - Ichiro's theme
A cool goon project: http://yourprospectsucks.tumblr.com/ (please don't die YPS)


Dates:
FEBRUARY 4-20

Salary arbitration hearings held (if necessary)
FEBRUARY 11
Voluntary Spring Training report date for pitchers, catchers and injured players
FEBRUARY 15
Voluntary date on which all non-World Baseball Classic position players may be invited to Spring Training
FEBRUARY 20
Mandatory date by which all non-World Baseball Classic players must report

e:

MLB.tv thread

e^2:

Spring Training GDT

kensei fucked around with this message at Feb 23, 2013 around 17:30

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Pumpkin McPastry
Mar 8, 2004

What else do I have to do to impress you people?


gently caress Mark Grace

Smoking Crow
Feb 13, 2012

So French, So Clean


Answer: Yes. Phillies

Pirates 1993-2010

Smoking Crow fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 05:36

RembrandtQEinstein
Jul 1, 2009


Aaron Gleeman made a few "Baseball players as TV shows" comparisons on twitter a few hours ago. I thought they were pretty apt.

Aaron Gleeman posted:

"Law and Order" is Cal Ripken Jr. "Whitney" is Delmon Young. "Freaks and Geeks" is Mark Prior. "The Wire" is Barry Bonds.

"Breaking Bad" is Randy Johnson. "Lost" is Ken Griffey Jr. "Seinfeld" is Greg Maddux. "Community" is Chase Utley.

"Party Down" is Scott Kazmir. "The West Wing" is Mike Mussina. "Louie" is Pedro Martinez. "Friends" is Derek Jeter.

Abel Wingnut
Dec 23, 2002



Pumpkin McPastry posted:

gently caress Mark Grace

He used to be one of my favorites. But now, gently caress him.

Seriously, don't drink and drive. Ever.

rickiep00h
Aug 16, 2010



quote:

Dates:
FEBRUARY 4-20

Salary arbitration hearings held (if necessary)
FEBRUARY 11
Voluntary Spring Training report date for pitchers, catchers and injured players
FEBRUARY 15
Voluntary date on which all non-World Baseball Classic position players may be invited to Spring Training
FEBRUARY 20
Mandatory date by which all non-World Baseball Classic players must report

Hurry up you bastards I long for my summer of journeyman pitching and cake eating.

Twins 2013: This Year We Actually Have a Player Made out of Duct Tape and Baling Wire (alternatively: Which of Our Pitchers Will Be with the Padres in August?)

Cabbit
Jul 19, 2001

Shines like Gold.


I am ready to watch the Rise and Fall of Gritty Dirtball in Arizona.

Gonz
Dec 22, 2009

Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?


Cabbit posted:

I am ready to watch the Rise and Fall of Gritty Dirtball in Arizona.

I plan on going to several Dbacks games this year, and I assume that under the iron fist of Towers, their uniforms and hats will never be washed; their cleats will never get changed and their batting helmets will constantly look like they were just involved in the First Battle of Ypres.

Also, Chase Field's infield will fall into various states of disrepair, and if a player is injured as a result, he will be told to "walk it off".

DBacks Baseball: Old time baseball. (Kirk Gibson should also be player/manager)

Gonz fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 06:41

rickiep00h
Aug 16, 2010



Gonz posted:

I plan on going to several Dbacks games this year, and I assume that under the iron fist of Towers, their uniforms and hats will never be washed; their cleats will never get changed and their batting helmets will constantly look like they were just involved in the First Battle of Ypres.

Also, Chase Field's infield will fall into various states of disrepair, and if a player is injured as a result, he will be told to "walk it off".

Old time baseball. (Kirk Gibson should also be player/manager.)

When the Dodgers visit, Mattingly will be required to shave his sideburns before he can present the lineup card.

Gonz
Dec 22, 2009

Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?


rickiep00h posted:

When the Dodgers visit, Mattingly will be required to shave his sideburns before he can present the lineup card.

The team will travel by 1970's-era Greyhound motorcoach buses. Also, they will stay in shady motels on the outskirts of town while on the road for games, and their home clubhouse will feature zero air conditioning, zero food, no televisions, 1 toilet, 1 urinal and metal folding chairs to be used for sitting.

Each player, when finished with their at-bat, must had their bat to the player who is next in the lineup. One team? ONE BAT.

TEAMWORK.

If you don't perform hard enough, or gritty enough, you'll be traded to Japan for several players with filthy fingernails and huge beards and yellow teeth who hustle and play the game like it's supposed to be played.

Gonz fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 06:43

rickiep00h
Aug 16, 2010



All stats will be abolished except AVG, HR, RBI, and WINS. These are the only true metrics, and any other measure of performance is voodoo and pure scouting talent. Anyone bringing up ERA will be reminded of the new policy removing all outfield fences in favor of drunken Red Sox fans. In every city.

tadashi
Feb 20, 2006



Abel Wingnut posted:

He used to be one of my favorites. But now, gently caress him.

Seriously, don't drink and drive. Ever.

I can't tell if he has a legitimate drinking problem or just terrible judgement. Seriously, with the money he's made and having one strike against him already, why the hell would he not take a cab?

rickiep00h
Aug 16, 2010



tadashi posted:

I can't tell if he has a legitimate drinking problem or just terrible judgement. Seriously, with the money he's made and having one strike against him already, why the hell would he not take a cab?

Sometimes people don't care. Or are drunk and don't consider the consequences. Having grown up in an environment of alcoholics, logic rarely applies in most situations.

That said, it definitely could have been some seriously bad judgement. But unless I were privy to more information, I can't comment on anything about how lovely drunk driving is. It's pretty lovely. If he needs help, hopefully he gets it. If he's just bad at making decisions, let's hope he's smart enough to stay out of those situations in the future.

adaz
Mar 7, 2009



tadashi posted:

I can't tell if he has a legitimate drinking problem or just terrible judgement. Seriously, with the money he's made and having one strike against him already, why the hell would he not take a cab?

In my experience a person with 2 DUIs has about a 90% chance of being an alcoholic and a 10% chance of just being a dumb or stubborn son of a bitch

uublog
Jul 19, 2012

"World Champions. WORLD FUCKING CHAMPIONS." - Chase Utley, October 31, 2008; Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA

RembrandtQEinstein posted:

Aaron Gleeman made a few "Baseball players as TV shows" comparisons on twitter a few hours ago. I thought they were pretty apt.

Aaron Gleeman posted:

"Law and Order" is Cal Ripken Jr. "Whitney" is Delmon Young. "Freaks and Geeks" is Mark Prior. "The Wire" is Barry Bonds.

"Breaking Bad" is Randy Johnson. "Lost" is Ken Griffey Jr. "Seinfeld" is Greg Maddux. "Community" is Chase Utley.

"Party Down" is Scott Kazmir. "The West Wing" is Mike Mussina. "Louie" is Pedro Martinez. "Friends" is Derek Jeter.

I'm not sold on the Kazmir comparison, but it reminded me to look up his BBRef. Jesus christ, he's pitched 1.2 innings since 2011. Hahahha, and he's signed a MiLB deal with Cleveland, so he'll almost certainly make his return this year. Starting with his last year in Tampa (2009), he just straight fell apart. Not that it's surprising, really, he had a 4.1 BB/9 and 10.7 BB% in 723 IP through 2008. I think I remember seeing some simple research on guys with high walk rates and eventual/inevitable/sudden declines, but I can't remember off-hand where.

JediGandalf
Sep 3, 2004

Savior


rickiep00h posted:

Hurry up you bastards I long for my summer of journeyman pitching and cake eating.

Twins 2013: This Year We Actually Have a Player Made out of Duct Tape and Baling Wire (alternatively: Which of Our Pitchers Will Be with the Padres in August?)
Rick Porcello when half of our pitching staff is figuratively and probably even literally dead.

sweets
Oct 24, 2010


uublog posted:

I'm not sold on the Kazmir comparison, but it reminded me to look up his BBRef. Jesus christ, he's pitched 1.2 innings since 2011. Hahahha, and he's signed a MiLB deal with Cleveland, so he'll almost certainly make his return this year. Starting with his last year in Tampa (2009), he just straight fell apart. Not that it's surprising, really, he had a 4.1 BB/9 and 10.7 BB% in 723 IP through 2008. I think I remember seeing some simple research on guys with high walk rates and eventual/inevitable/sudden declines, but I can't remember off-hand where.

It just makes me incredibly depressed that Party Down didn't continue forever

uublog
Jul 19, 2012

"World Champions. WORLD FUCKING CHAMPIONS." - Chase Utley, October 31, 2008; Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA

sweets posted:

It just makes me incredibly depressed that Party Down didn't continue forever

But if Party Down were still on would we have Ben and Leslie on Parks and Rec? There's no baseball player whose career ended too early, which resulted in another good player becoming elite/near-elite, is there?

Groucho Marxist
Dec 9, 2005

Here stands baseball's perfect warrior.

Here stands baseball's perfect knight.


JediGandalf posted:

Rick Porcello when half of our pitching staff is figuratively and probably even literally dead.

No he is not a washed up mid 00s Cardinals pitcher. Get Blooper on the line!

FairGame
Jul 24, 2001

Oh, I feel it! I feel the Kozmas!

uublog posted:

But if Party Down were still on would we have Ben and Leslie on Parks and Rec? There's no baseball player whose career ended too early, which resulted in another good player becoming elite/near-elite, is there?

Wally Pipp?

Beatnik-Filmstar
Feb 9, 2006

Hell yeah, Saint Peter lookin' mother fucker, let me in!

Just went looking for information on the rumored Party Down movie and found this:

"Party Down" meets "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_bjqmUyYY

867-530-NEIN!
Feb 21, 2006


http://espn.go.com/mlb/story?storyId=8900693

I'm being trolled here, right? He adds up the WARs and mentions Jack Morris. I have to be getting trolled.

tadashi
Feb 20, 2006



867-530-NEIN! posted:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story?storyId=8900693

I'm being trolled here, right? He adds up the WARs and mentions Jack Morris. I have to be getting trolled.

That story doesn't load for me.

Groucho Marxist
Dec 9, 2005

Here stands baseball's perfect warrior.

Here stands baseball's perfect knight.


Here's a good link: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8...eplacement-stat

I agree with pretty much everything he says outside of the hack Edwin Starr joke. I don't know why some people are throwing a shitfit (well, I do know)

uublog
Jul 19, 2012

"World Champions. WORLD FUCKING CHAMPIONS." - Chase Utley, October 31, 2008; Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA

Groucho Marxist posted:

Here's a good link: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8...eplacement-stat

I agree with pretty much everything he says outside of the hack Edwin Starr joke. I don't know why some people are throwing a shitfit (well, I do know)

Well he also linked to bleacher report

adaz
Mar 7, 2009



I read that earlier today and he's actually right. WAR is being used all over the place and it's pretty broken which is his point. I think people are taking it to mean RAW NO SABERMETRICS RAH but really he's just pointing out the inherent problems with the defensive component behind WAR and the difficulty in computing it nor do we even know if those defensive metrics are correct.

Actually spent some time this year looking over advanced stats and I still have no loving clue on defensive stuff, but I do finally get xFIP and wOBA so you know go me?

tadashi
Feb 20, 2006



Groucho Marxist posted:

Here's a good link: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8...eplacement-stat

I agree with pretty much everything he says outside of the hack Edwin Starr joke. I don't know why some people are throwing a shitfit (well, I do know)

quote:

If we can't figure a stat out on our own, then how do we verify whether it is accurate?


Other points he makes make sense, including how the way defense can inflate a player's WAR is a little surprising.

adaz
Mar 7, 2009



You are reading that as "too dumb to figure it out" but I think what he's trying to say there is "we don't know how to compute it because the defensive metrics behind it are complex/not well developed/are still in their infancy"

tadashi
Feb 20, 2006



adaz posted:

You are reading that as "too dumb to figure it out" but I think what he's trying to say there is "we don't know how to compute it because the defensive metrics behind it are complex/not well developed/are still in their infancy"

I read it as "it's not possible for even a smart fan to calculate/verify, so how do we know it's verifiable" because of the way he leads up to it:

quote:

.Almost no one knows how to calculate WAR. I'm not just talking about curmudgeons who have trouble figuring out a batting average with a calculator (oh, for the glorious days of the Ready Reckoner!). Smart fans who really know their stats and their baseball (as well as being clever enough to work those new-fangled "universal" TV remotes) can't calculate it. Just the baseball-reference.com WAR explanatory page is more than 1,500 words, including several paragraphs explaining how the formula has changed (but not including the list of the players who were helped and hurt the most by those changes).

I think most people in this thread would agree with his conclusion that citing only WAR when comparing players might not always be the best final measurement. It's like he's asking the right general questions about WAR but when he fleshes them out, he goes in some wrong directions, like assuming past WAR was the ultimate argument against the Upton-Prado trade. I don't think even people who are starting to try to embrace WAR understand that advanced stats are works in progress and you can't just assume that someone like Dave Cameron or internet posters are the best representatives to describe how to use it.

tadashi fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 20:31

rickiep00h
Aug 16, 2010



"Let me write a full-length article about statistics I can't bother to learn how to calculate." If 1500 words is the upper limit of useful instruction, dude must be rich from never buying a book ever.

Edit: I know next to nothing about baseball. You all know that. But I'm really starting to get annoyed at Jim Caple. Is this a normal part of SAS development?

rickiep00h fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 20:47

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

There is no future. There is no past. Do you see? Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet.

JediGandalf posted:

Rick Porcello when half of our pitching staff is figuratively and probably even literally dead.

when was porcello traded to the Twins

DeltaAttack2go
Feb 6, 2003

what the christ

The Baseball Today podcast is ending next week... Buster Olney will be starting a Baseball Tonight podcast that will include a bunch of regulars from the TV show, but Eric Karabell, Mark Simon and Keith Law appear to be done with podcasting.

I guess that whole sabermetrics thing never did work out.

Harlock
Jan 15, 2006

Tap "A" to drink!!!



Well, that's a bummer. I'm gonna need a Baseball podcast to listen to now.

K-Law alluded to something else in the works.

Harlock fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 21:39

Groucho Marxist
Dec 9, 2005

Here stands baseball's perfect warrior.

Here stands baseball's perfect knight.


I don't really know why they just can't have two podcasts but... ok?

JediGandalf
Sep 3, 2004

Savior


IcePhoenix posted:

when was porcello traded to the Twins
Forgive me, I'm dumb. I mixed Minnesota and Michigan cities.

Mornacale
Dec 19, 2007

n=y where
y=hope and n=folly,
prospects=lies, win=lose,

self=Pirates


rickiep00h posted:

"Let me write a full-length article about statistics I can't bother to learn how to calculate." If 1500 words is the upper limit of useful instruction, dude must be rich from never buying a book ever.

Edit: I know next to nothing about baseball. You all know that. But I'm really starting to get annoyed at Jim Caple. Is this a normal part of SAS development?

He's right insofar as you can't "learn" to calculate the defensive components of WAR, since they're based on (unless I've totally missed something) people actually watching and meticulously charting every baseball game. By the time there's any data for the layperson to see, you're just adding up some numbers and dividing by 10. It's also true that the process for turning offensive stats into RAR, calculating replacement level, etc. are pretty obscure.

He's wrong that this is necessarily a substantial weakness of the metrics, because 1) I disagree with his assumption that ease of calculation is nearly as important as accuracy (i.e. correlation with team success, correlation with future performance) in a baseball statistic and 2) the idea that a statistic needs to be "verified" is pretty nonsensical. That is, I can see two methods of "verification" that he might mean: either ensuring that data was correctly processed into the result, or that the result matches with our intuition. But the former is an impossible standard--it's not like any lay fan is going to watch a player's every AB to "verify" his HR total--and the latter is actually a positive. After all, the whole point of new statistics is that they might say something that doesn't match our existing intuition.

On the gripping hand, though, the article's general outline is basically spot on. WAR is a useful tool with significant weaknesses, and a lot of folks who use it either treat it otherwise or don't clearly communicate their understand of this.

e: vvv Stats nerds are so used to people writing stupid junk to criticize WAR that we don't even notice when it's actually smart and correct.

Mornacale fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 23:00

leokitty
Apr 5, 2005

Well I had to phone his friend to state my case, and say he's lost control again.

And he showed up all the errors and mistakes, and said I've lost control again.

That Caple article is pretty on point, I don't really understand the backlash.

Glenn_Beckett
Sep 12, 2008

When I see a 9/11 victim family on television I'm just like 'Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaqua'

leokitty posted:

That Caple article is pretty on point, I don't really understand the backlash.

Well, WAR is really the best statistic we've come up with to "objectively" compare players' overall performance. I guess it's kind of like when facebook slightly changes its format and everyone is really upset about it. Only this time, everybody LOVES the changes and only one person is pointing out what's wrong with it so they HATE HIM LET'S KILL HIM.

e: to clarify, I agree with the article, mostly.

Glenn_Beckett fucked around with this message at Feb 2, 2013 around 00:15

jeffersonlives
Jul 22, 2007

But I set fire to the Raines
Watched it pour as I stole your base


Glenn_Beckett posted:

Well, WAR is really the best statistic we've come up with to "objectively" compare players' overall performance. I guess it's kind of like when facebook slightly changes its format and everyone is really upset about it. Only this time, everybody LOVES the changes and only one person is pointing out what's wrong with it so they HATE HIM LET'S KILL HIM.

There is no all-in-one number, that's the entire point of the article.

I mean, I'm sure before I die someone will have figured out how to quantify defense and remove context enough to where it's kind of close, but we're not even close enough to there yet. Bad numbers that are touted as the all-in-one solution - like, say, fWAR - actively hurt the dialogue.

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FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

DAMMIT WESLEY!!!


DeltaAttack2go posted:

The Baseball Today podcast is ending next week... Buster Olney will be starting a Baseball Tonight podcast that will include a bunch of regulars from the TV show, but Eric Karabell, Mark Simon and Keith Law appear to be done with podcasting.

I guess that whole sabermetrics thing never did work out.
I hope Keith at least gets to be a regular guest or something...he's by far the best thing about that podcast.

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