An Advanced Look At Gio Gonzalez
Full disclosure: I’m an avid A’s fan. I’ve been one for the entirety of my adult life. The current state state of both the A’s ownership and stadium situation is seemingly hampering spending on free agents. Given the inability to bring in Major League ready talent via signings, the A’s are forced to trades, drafts, [...]
Adam Wainwright and Josh Johnson: Injuries Moving Forward
For all the time, energy, and late nights that we work on our pre-draft rankings there are certain things that are just unknown to us. One of those variables is injury status, and 2011 that was no exception — especially for two top tier pitchers. Adam Wainwright was out for the season when forced to [...]
Cleveland Indians Bet On Grounders in Trade for Derek Lowe
After stunning the baseball world and trading for Ubaldo Jimenez at the trade deadline this year, the Indians seem to be in a rush to get the front of their rotation set for 2012. Earlier today the Indians announced a trade with the Braves for Derek Lowe for a prospect and salary relief. The Braves picked up [...]
Marlins’ Anibal Sanchez Shows Off His Shiny New Strikeouts
While perusing the FanGraphs Team Pitching Totals page I was surprised to see the Marlins so high up on the FIP leader list. They’re ranked as 9th best in all of baseball. This is mostly a surprise because after the loss of their ace, Josh Johnson, I assumed that the pitching would certainly struggle. After Javier Vazquez’s (3.57 [...]
Game Report: Mets Prospect Juan Urbina
During the 2010 season, I made the three-plus hour journey from my house in NW Georgia to Greeneville, Tennessee, home of the Greeneville Astros, the Appalachian league affiliate of the Houston Astros for the first time. On that evening, Greeneville was playing the Kingsport Mets, a team led by Mets prospect and Scouting the Sally [...]
Eric Hosmer: A Ballpark Resemblance to Nick Markakis?
Today we’re taking a look at legitimate ROY candidate Eric Hosmer and trying to find a decent statistical comp for him in hopes of putting his season into perspective and projecting, to some degree, his career going forward. I began my search reviewing all left handed rookies between the ages of 20 and 22 in [...]
The Rangers and Cardinals 2011 World Series: Playoff Baseball from a Sabermetric Perspective
The 2011 MLB regular season has come to an end. Twenty-eight ball clubs played all 162, while the Nationals and the Dodgers got short changed as they only played 161. No worries, neither team was withing shouting distance of a playoff spot. A full season of 162 games is a considerable sample period and should [...]
Bullpens Help Pave Way for Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks
Everytime you hear a pregame posteason show, you’ll hear the same basic tenants of a “winning ball club.” Key hits, strong starter performance and of course, a strong and deep bullpen. I think bullpens are the key to the modern game. I’m not necessarily talking about having multiple LOOGY’s to get all the southpaws in [...]
NY Yankees Prospect Mason Williams Delivers on High Bonus
For some Yankee fans the 2010 draft was a failure before the players even received their assignments. The big over-slot signing was Mason Williams, who got first round money as a fourth round pick. And as always the case, with big money there are substantial expectations whether it is in the draft, international free [...]
Alexi Ogando and Cory Luebke: Rangers and Padres Leverage a Market Inefficiency by Turning Relievers Into Starters
Since the dawn of man, well, at least since the dawning of free agent spending man, GM’s have sought cheap and effective ways of filling out their rosters. Specifically, finding cost effective pitching staffs. Due to the violent nature of pitching, many elbows, shoulders, and careers have been lost to the fraility of the human [...]