kickass media 2014

The chapter on the Marlins in the BP annual calls their ownership a "doof junta."

J. Corey Stackhouse is a normal man with one extraordinary ambition: to own every baseball card ever printed for Tim Wallach. Not one of each card. Every single one of every single one of them.

"Doof junta" line courtesy of David Roth of The Classical, a cool frood who really knows where his towel is.

can a mod please change this to 'david roth 2014'

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/2/6/5387330/ralph-kiner-new-york-mets-in-memoriam-pittsburgh-pirates

http://www.700wlw.com/onair/lance-36474/did-you-miss-joey-votto-on-12009654/

Joey Votto is just the man.

This is the other interview that I was going to post.

http://www.espn1530.com/onair/lance-mcalister-7818/did-you-miss-joey-votto-on-sports-talk-12035797/

http://grantland.com/features/jonah-keri-art-stealing-bases/

not 2014, but: THE LAST DAYS OF TY COBB

at least he didn't take steroids tho

http://www.fangraphs.com/not/playoff-odds-as-distance-from-rome-circa-200-ad

Phillies' location chosen with Mordy's input

oh offseason boredom!

it's not the offseason anymore! they're doin' playoff odds!

Joey Votto - part 3.

http://www.700wlw.com/onair/lance-36474/podcast-joey-votto-on-sports-talk-round-3-12053496/

How Paying Established Closers Saves Teams Money

That is a great article.

maybe i'm missing something - but the point was that by paying for an over-priced, "established closer" - teams could save a couple million by not giving the closer role (at least not for a bit) to the superior reliever who will only get the salary of a set-up man through arbitration?!
this seems crazy to me. spending good money on an ok guy with saves under his belt in order to keep the role from a younger, cheaper guy who, usually, is the superior pitcher? i feel like some part of this must have gone over my head.

$7m is not a couple of million. By saving that money in arbitration you are defraying the cost of a good but otherwise overpriced established closer.

Basically the whole thing ensures that Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle are as cheap as possible for as long as possible until such point as they either aren't and can either be let go as free agents or traded. And by getting an established closer you are ensuring that the person being put in the save situations has a reasonable chance of succeeding (you can do the same thing by getting some other teams quality but slightly cheaper middle-reliever too and save even more money but that requires one of those dudes to be around).

How Philadelphia lost the Athletics

http://www.hardballtimes.com/tht-live/expanded-2013-infield-shift-data

ryan howard 2013: .312 babip against shifted infield, .533 babip against unshifted infield

MLB Hall of Fame Voting Trajectories

@MrBrianKenny
Tracking data about to become available to teams, fans. Angle, distance, speed constantly tracked. MLBAM #SSAC14

@MrBrianKenny
Route efficiency for the runner. Oh my..

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhqF9yHIUAALltO.jpg

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhqGky2IQAAwdur.jpg

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhqFrlgIUAACcBv.jpg

Google autocomplete describes lineups position by position (NL East coming soon).

http://www.sbnation.com/2014/2/25/5446374/mlb-starting-lineups-rotations-depth-charts

Have just skimmed so far, but a favorite is "Hunter Pence lives with parents."

NYY & Bos results do not disappoint

BP ranks teams 1-30 on age 25-and-under talent; Yankees & Phillies 28th and 29th

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22944

on adding a new pitch

on mastering the sinkerball

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bj0gICJCMAAln7k.png

hott lefty-on-lefty action

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/70418126/los-angeles-dodgers-yasiel-puig-subject-of-negative-media-reports

sporting news is doing a fun series/ranking on every team's tv broadcasters

did we ever do a poll? i guess i don't have enough experience with a lot of the teams' broadcasters. sporting news otm on the nats' team, tho

link to the a's team is at the bottom (they passed), impossible to find anywhere else cause lol sportingnews

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/24/upshot/facebook-baseball-map.html?_r=2&smid=fb-share#10,41.736,-72.959

on how pitchers pitch to good hitters

http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/April-2014/Baseballs-Metropolis-How-the-Cubs-and-Cardinals-Conquered-the-Midwest/

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-most-disciplined-mlb-batters/

Thought this was interesting. Obviously, "swing at" ≠ "make contact with"

Dirk Hayhurst on player-media dynamics, and discussing his video game featuring PEDs and Baseball Annies:

Until that day, I was afraid to talk to players—even ones I’d played with previously—beyond softball questions. After Arencibia called me out, I marched into that clubhouse, which stopped what it was doing and watched me go right to Arencibia, and asked, “What’s your problem?”

I didn’t die. I didn’t get cut off from the rest of the team, and I didn’t get thrown out. Neither will you. Spend enough time covering baseball, and you’ll rub someone the wrong way. Confrontation is going to happen, but if you project fear, you’ll be embarrassed or stood up.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2040076-inside-look-into-both-sides-of-mlbs-delicate-writer-player-relationship

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=23463

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/5/8/5683262/baseball-manager-ejections-mlb

Predicting Batter Breakouts with PITCHf/x

It’s interesting to see how much more rapidly teams become aware of changes in player skill than the baseball-watching public. I don’t think many tabbed (Chris) Davis as a breakout candidate prior to the 2013 season, even though he finished 2012 strong (Russell Carleton found that such a late-season surge is more often than not a mirage). Yet PITCHf/x suggests that pitchers were aware of Davis’ newfound strength as early as midseason 2012.

There are at least two direct ways in which teams may gather and employ information to which we don’t have access. The first is via the scouting report, which involves lots of careful observation of a hitter: tendencies, quirks, holes in their swing, and so on. That kind of assiduous study could certainly reveal weaknesses in a hitter before the general public catches on (or the results catch up). A well-trained scout could notice that Chris Davis is suddenly showing an improved mentality at the plate and relay that to the pitcher, resulting in the pitcher avoiding the zone marginally more.

The second way this change could happen is in-game. Besides scouts, both the pitcher and catcher are meticulously watching the hitter for any sign of unexpected weakness or strength. Imagine the following scenario: a pitcher takes aim at the outside edge of the plate and misses towards the middle, and the hitter punishes the mistake with a towering homer. The pitcher or catcher will take note and be a little less likely to challenge the hitter inside the zone in the following at bat.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=23550

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2033160-how-a-line-drive-forever-changed-and-nearly-ended-my-life

http://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2014/05/non-pitchers-search-option-added-to-pitching-game-finder-baseball-reference-com

50-minute interview with Dodger head trainer Stan Conte on industry issues / study of the pitcher injury epidemic

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=23644

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/mike-trouts-struggles-graphed/

this is cool

on roberto clemente's arm: http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Roberto_Clemente%27s_%27Toolbox%27_%E2%80%93_The_Arm

Not exactly kickass, but some spirited debate between @keithlaw and @DCameronFG that started last night, I think, and has continued today.

http://twitter.com/DCameronFG/with_replies

Maybe all of it is here:

https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/478346750063702016

kind of makes me hate them both and want to stop following baseball tbh

on Stanton's optical-illusion HR:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=23916

http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/assets/4631875/EVchart.png

Effective Velocity is made up of six tenets, some of which are commonsense and already utilized by successful pitchers at the game's highest levels, others so complex that even major league coaches have difficulty grasping them. It starts with the idea that all pitches are not equal — even those that appear to be identical on the radar gun.

It hinges on response time. Husband's model is based on the arc of hitters' swings, and the understanding that bats must move farther to reach pitches on the inner part of the plate than on the outside edge. Put another way, a batter can hit an outside fastball as it crosses the plate, but to make solid contact with an inside fastball, he must reach it much sooner — up to 2 feet in front of the plate — which requires the hitter to move the bat a greater distance in less time. With this detail in mind, it makes sense to build an approach based not on a pitch's radar speed, but how quickly the man standing in the batter's box can react to it.

This is the basis for the "effective" portion of Effective Velocity.

http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2014/6/18/5818380/effective-velocity-pitching-theory-profile-perry-husband

http://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/dfa7a9141776c6ef2d76168dedbda49e/tumblr_n7w7o8cI4x1qzniimo2_500.png

"Wild Child, do the ball fit in the hole?"

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/expected-run-differentials-2-0/

found this interesting

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=24118

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/lets-imagine-a-baseball-playing-lebron-james/

a nice exercise in showing how baseball and basketball are two entirely different sports that can't really be compared like that

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/7/16/5904697/mile-high-baseball-consuming-legal-marijuana-enjoying-americas

haven't read this yet but i'll go out on a limb and say it's kickass

The Passion of Roger Angell: The best baseball writer in America is also a fan

Same thing--I assume this is as fascinating as it looks:

http://www.sbnation.com/2014/7/15/5883593/the-many-crimes-of-mel-hall

I don't think I've ever read anything so long off the internet without printing it out...mammoth.

I was trying to remember where I knew Hall from...I had him confused with Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith at first, the two Cubs who finished 1-2 in the '89 ROY voting. It was his involvement in the Joe Carter-Rick Sutcliffe trade, though.

Hall story deeply unsettling.

Not exactly kickass, but:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28484536

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/76525000/jpg/_76525269_76521971.jpg

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/javier-baez-and-the-anomalous-dinger

The best beer in baseball:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/sports/best-beer-in-baseball/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

No surprise that Toronto is near the bottom, in fact, I think we ranked #12 in "uniqueness" only because we offer Canadian beers (and not the best ones or anything close to it) that aren't available at other parks. That might have saved us from being ranked dead last overall.

A little surprised the Giants are so middle of the road.

giants clearly doesn't account for public house which is attached to the stadium but i guess isn't a 'vendor'. but you can take the beers in and they're cheaper than anything sold inside. had an alpine duet and russian river blind pig last time i was there...

Even without that I guess I'm surprised. Been a while since I've been though... but I always got the impression that they had better than Bud/Miller/Coors fare.

They do, but only a few kiosks and the lines are huge

idea stolen from jon bois, but still funny

http://www.fangraphs.com/not/dangerous-experiment-a-roster-of-25-adam-dunns

http://www.bloomberg.com/infographics/2013-10-23/mlb-team-values.html

Interesting:

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/why-mike-trout-and-the-rest-of-the-league-is-having-trouble-with-the-high-stuff-082914

some new dude @ fangraphs, secrete ilxor?

12:34
Comment From Daniel
The Royals, Mariners, and Tigers are fighting for two playoff spots. Who do you think gets them?

12:34
Kiley McDaniel: Probably CORPORATE AMERICA AMIRITE

http://www.robrains.com/CARDINALSBASEBALL/tabid/91/entryid/2009/whatever-happened-to-former-cardinals-infielder-khalil-greene.aspx

“I have nothing but fond memories of playing with him and knowing him,” Loretta said. “He was very quiet, an introverted sort of guy that took baseball very seriously. I tell a story pretty often about how he would be in the weight room maybe a half hour before a game. He had these mats set up and he would be diving and sliding, pretending that he was making great plays.

“I asked him what he was doing, and he said, ‘if you are going to make these kinds of plays you’ve got to practice them.’ I had never seen that before and have never seen it since.”

Mark DeRosa is already the best analyst on MLB Network.

xpost

didn't see the khalil greene article until just now - thanks for posting it bnw. khalil's social anxiety was sometimes mentioned obliquely by the cards' announcers but i didn't really understand the extent of his problems.

“It was unfortunate to see the way baseball can kind of weigh on you. Mentally it was very tough on him.”

Wainwright, and Schumaker, both saw Greene attempt to hurt himself on the field when he thought he had failed or made a mistake.

“He had some things he would do on and off the field,” Wainwright said. “On the field he would scrape his hands real hard on the clay and scratch himself. He would scratch his arms real bad with his fingernails. You could tell he was just battling so hard. He was really grinding mentally with the expectation to go out and get a hit every time. That can weigh on you.

“We didn’t know how to help Khalil. All you could do was try to be a good friend and good teammate and hope he would come around.”

That was all Schumaker and the rest of the Cardinals could do as well.

“I think music was more of his passion than baseball,” Schumaker said. “He really cared about baseball and really wanted to perform well, and when it didn’t happen he didn’t know what else to do except hurt himself. It was sad to watch and witness.

“He would just get really frustrated and not know how to react or show it without hurting himself a little bit.”

:-/

^^^

So this BP podcast is a 3-way discussion of what the postseason is supposed to "do," sort of inspired by the fact that the 2 or 3 best teams from the regular season have been sent home by "crappy" teams.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=24820

The highlight is this bit by Sam Miller which is sort of Bart Giamatti + Kierkegaard:

The point of this entire enterprise is to entertain us with baseball games. The point of it is not to decide who is the best team. The illusion that that is what we're doing has long been a powerful draw to sports. But, it is ultimately not the point. There is no scenario where the universe will care or remember who the best team was out of this collection of collections. It only matters inasmuch as we create this illusion that it matters.

If you lose even the illusion, then it becomes problematic. But the point is not to have the illusion, the point is to entertain people, and make them forget that we are all dying right in front of each other. That this is just this horrible, rotten slog to rigor mortis. That we are going to lose everybody we know, we are going to lose everything we have and the only way to distract ourselves is by separating our day into distractions.

http://imgur.com/aHSUHpB

Haven't read this, but it looks like it could be really good:

http://www.si.com/longform/donnie-moore/

how Hank Conger, Michael Cuddyer and Gabe Kapler explain baseball right now

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/hank-conger-michael-cuddyer-gabe-kapler-mets-dodgers-astros-111814

i know framing really is important but i'm tired of hearing about

it

http://wheatleyschaller.com/dev/trade_trees/Dodgers.png

http://grantland.com/features/mlb-transaction-trees