Other Baseball

Okay, who is it?

People might hate me for this, but it will likely happen very soon, and I'm kind of looking forward to it, strange as it might seem, but I think it will be interesting.

Marlins' outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is out for at least a month with a broken hamate bone in his left wrist. Sounds like surgery will be required. Sad news for baseball. That injury can be pretty tough to come back from, too.

Don't see this too often... http://mashable.com/2015/06/24/fenway-park-sunset/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link

This morning, ESPN's Outside The Lines discovered that Pete Rose bet on baseball as a player. This definitely does (and should) close the door on any chance Rose had of getting into the Hall of Fame.

Mine would look like this: AL Starters C Stephen Vogt 1B Miguel Cabrera 2B Jason Kipnis SS Xander Bogaerts 3B Josh Donaldson OF Mike Trout OF Josh Reddick OF Adam Jones DH Nelson Cruz Reserves C Russell Martin C Salvador Perez 1B Albert Pujols 1B Prince Fielder 2B Brian Dozier 2B Dustin Pedroia SS Jose Iglesias 3B Manny Machado OF Yoenis Cespedes OF Michael Brantley OF George Springer DH Alex Rodriguez Pitchers Chris Sale Chris Archer Corey Kluber Sonny Gray Felix Hernandez Dallas Keuchel Michael Pineda David Price Dellin Betances Andrew Miller Glen Perkins Wade Davis Zach Britton NL Starters C Buster Posey 1B Paul Goldschmidt 2B Dee Gordon SS Jhonny P…

I know there is a separate thread on the investigation into the Cardinals but I thought the following article didn't exactly fit there. This article seems to be more on the growth of analytics and how the Cards built their department: http://m.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/analytical-scrutiny-that-fuels-cards-success-also-fuels-federal-probe/article_4ffcc5ba-7eb1-5f79-9d19-435c3b89eaf0.html?mobile_touch=true It points out the difficulties of controlling access to data given the movement of personnel between teams. But that's always been the case as the anecdote about Dave Duncan's "two red trunks" makes clear.

Anyone just notice that Scherzer lost a perfect game with 2 outs in the 9th when Jose Tabata leaned into a pitch and got hit. 9 ip 0 h 0 bb.

Chris Parmalee, playing RF for the Orioles tonight agains the Fighting Phils, is 4-4 with 2 HR's!

http://m.braves.mlb.com/news/article/115408600/atlanta-braves-brady-feigl-joe-benson-have-chance-at-opening-day-roster You know that I am going to be comparing numbers in April if Benson makes the Braves roster, right?

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=26706 Intro paragraph, rest behind paywall: Our generation of baseball fans and analysts might have been wrong about Jack Morris. Let that sink in for a moment. We yelled and bickered and picked Morris’s career apart, and we won: Morris is not in the Hall of Fame, and if he ever gets there, it will be on the strength of a Veterans Committee vote, not a BBWAA ballot. We told the world, in no uncertain terms, that Morris was an unimpressive compiler, a workhorse without distinctive merit. We scoffed at efforts to lionize him for his October achievements, pointing out (fairly, I think) that his heroics in 1984 and 19…

I just finished voting for the Kansas City Royals at every position for the All-Star game. I did this to prove a point, and I hope others vote for an all-Royals starting lineup, too. The voting system is ridiculous. Vote 35 times. The voting, in my opinion, should be done by the players and coaches, perhaps with some minor input by the fans. Vote Royals and show the new commissioner that the system is broken.

Infante and Rios are closing in quickly, and none of them should start. I think that if they are voted in they should back out of the game, it would be classless if they play.

Former Twins minor leaguer AJ Pettersen retired from minor league baseball one year, one week and one day ago. He had been playing with AA New Britain.He wrote a touching article regarding his decision to Move On from baseball. Over the winter, he was named the head baseball coach at Chanhassen high school. On Monday night at Target Field, his Chanhassen Storm team defeated Lakeville North 2-0 to claim the 2015 Minnesota Class 3A state championship. He has a very talented team including Ty Denzer who is headed to Kansas next year, but he did a great job of coaching as well. Twins Daily would like to congratulate AJ Pettersen and his Chanhassen Storm baseball team!

For those who are not aware of this site, it reviews all ejections in MLB and assigns points to umpires based on whether the call leading to the ejection was correct. There is also almost always a link to a video of the play. I don't visit very often but it is another perspective on umpires and their performances. It's certainly not the best way to evaluate umpire performances because it evaluates only plays resulting in ejection but it can be interesting. There are other features of the site as well. http://portal.closecallsports.com/

I'm really looking forward to this: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/06/astros-promote-carlos-correa.html

Have people voted already? How long do you wait? Anyone want to share their ballot and/or reasoning behind certain players?

DFA'd by the Braves. Any interest in trying him instead of Robinson and/or Schaffer? He's shown the ability to take some walks, which still isn't nearly enough to make up for his inability to get hits. He's one of the better threats on the basepaths, but my opinion is that steals are more a symptom of the system you play in. Molitor hasn't shown much interest in running, it's doubtful Young would have the greenlight like he did in Colorado when he lead the league in steals. Doesn't seem like much of an upgrade, however every time the Twins bring in a journeyman 4th (really 6th) OF, he starts off hot as hell. See Sam Fuld, Jordan Schaffer last fall and Shane Robin…

link The Twins travel to Oakland in mid July. It'd be cool to get to see the Twins face him.

Hey guys, was not sure where to post this question. I am looking for a Hard Hit% statistic if that exists. Does anyone know where I can see this stat? Thanks in advance.

Not sure we've noticed this that much but Detroit is in a nice little death spiral. They've lost 7 in a row and haven't looked too good. One game over .500.

Why is OBP important? Is it important for scoring runs? Is it important for driving in runs? Does the BB portion of OBP become important for the sake of scoring runs? Does the BB portion of OBP become important for the sake of driving in runs? Does the hit portion of OBP become important for the sake of scoring runs? Does the hit portion of OBP become important for the sake of driving in runs? What result from having a high OBP becomes the most important factor for you? Should the result of having a high OBP in the minors serve in the same respect in the majors? & If so, does it generally work that way in your experiences with most prospects?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/06/mariners-to-acquire-mark-trumbo.html Probably one of the better pure power hitters in baseball.

http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?sid=milb&content_id=135182083 Apparently he got a concussion and some broken ribs on the collision. He also hurt his spleen and needed surgery. Looks painful.

Don't look now but our old friend Liam Hendriks is carving a nice little niche in the Blue Jays bullpen. In 17 appearances he has gone 21 innings, struck out 23 while walking 4. Although his ERA is in the mid 4-s, the FIP is under 3. He has allowed just 2/10 inherited runners to score.

Here is the link: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/05/marline-fire-manager-mike-redmond.html

OK, this is a proposed statistic for the stat-heads on this site to consider. The purpose of playing a baseball game is to win it. My proposal is to quantify how much the outcome of a batter's plate appearance affects his team's chance of winning the game. That is the most important measure of a batter's performance. Batting average, OPS, all else, is secondary. I am aware that win probabilities have been researched although I don't have the time, ability or resources to investigate that myself. For those reading this who aren't aware of win probability, or WinProb as I think it's often called, it's the likelihood of a team winning a game starting from a particular point …

I've been watching a few Padres and Astros games lately, enjoying the improved play of those teams. Wil Myers has been raking this season, returning to his rookie form plus some. Here is his slash line: .291 .340 .493 .833 That's good for an OPS+ of 132, more commonly referred to as "higher than anyone on the 2015 Minnesota Twins". That's really good, particularly for someone playing half their games in PETCO. But the Padres have been playing Myers out of position, putting him in centerfield. Wil Myers is not a centerfielder. He's so bad on defense that Fangraphs has his DRS at -9 for the season. UZR has him at -9.6. The eye test isn't any more favorable to Mr Mye…

If somehow you missed the news or are in live-game withdrawal, make sure you check out the B1g Ten championships going on today through Sunday at Target Field! The guys started rolling in yesterday morning and were greeted by the balmy 40 degree temps with wind, but it turned out to be a nice day and is forecasted to be a great weekend! I'll be there pretty much all day every day (my job is so hard!) ... tickets are cheap, seats are amazing (champions club, you say?), and the level of play is on fire. Bring a crew and come on over!

Here is a link: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/05/right-hander-norge-ruiz-leaves-cuba-will-seek-deal-with-mlb-club.html From what I have heard it sounds like he has really good potential.