tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34200158310738450002024-02-20T05:45:09.890-05:00Billy Beane is My HeroBaseball. Commentary. Statistical Analysis.Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.comBlogger442125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-71186609826119921162011-03-06T15:22:00.000-05:002011-03-06T15:22:00.472-05:00A Short Goodbye...I have both good news and sad news. After talking with Josh and Corrye, I have made the decision to shut down BBIMH effective immediately. As rewarding as it has been to write this blog for the past 4-1/2 months, I've decided to focus my attention on the new writing opportunities this space has afforded me. As many of you know, I have been making regular contributions to the RedChiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-76683755292380067092011-03-01T21:41:00.004-05:002011-03-01T22:22:55.702-05:00John Henry Couldn't Outrace Selig and Neither Should Hank and Randy One of my favorite classes in high school was American History, mostly because of my teacher Mr. Meier but also because of the content. I was particularly fascinated by the Bill Of Rights, one of our country's most lauded and important documents. Like many of my fellow classmates I'd already heard about the right to free speech but I'd never heard its most important caveat: free speech isCorryehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989101486258658006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-34827994462535512592011-02-28T16:16:00.000-05:002011-02-28T16:16:24.640-05:00Please Pardon this Brief Interuption...Oh, I had such grand plans for today. I was going to spend all afternoon and evening writing here, and then I got an email from Evan Brunell telling me that ESPN wanted us to contribute articles to the Sweet Spot tomorrow. Hopefully, you guys understand. My article (topic unknown) will probably run tomorrow afternoon, so check it out. Also, I'll post the link once it Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-42598768763522796192011-02-27T15:51:00.000-05:002011-02-27T15:51:15.104-05:00Weekend Round-Up - 2/27/2011Sorry these links are a little late today. I had to go work off the lobster and brie grilled cheese, duck fat fries, and two heavy, hearty stouts I had last night, at the gym. It was delicious and definitely worth it. Without further adieu, here are the links.
Co-link of the Week: While the Platoon Advantage had control of the ESPN Sweet Spot on Monday, Bill wrote a Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-60437117800583319432011-02-26T12:23:00.000-05:002011-02-26T12:23:58.788-05:00Fun with WAR graphsI have a serious baseball fetish. I love playing around with WAR graphs on Fangraphs. This first one is of a few of the great second basemen over the last 40 years: Bobby Grich, Lou Whitaker, Ryne Sandberg, and Roberto Alomar. Interesting thing to note...Whitaker and Grich produced higher WAR totals for their career than Sandberg and Alomar. Somehow, the former fell Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-46787923099234184202011-02-24T22:33:00.006-05:002011-02-25T21:11:18.659-05:00Cabrera Claims He's Not An Alcoholic; Jim Leyland Claims He's Never Smoked
Ok, obviously the second part of that title isn't true but I'm sure you see the point I'm trying to make here. Miguel Cabrera is one of the best hitting first basemen in baseball. He's coming off arguably the best season of his career. In 2010 Cabrera batted .328 with 38 HR and led the league in RBI with 126. Throw in a league leading OBP of .420, 111 runs scored, and an incredible WAR Corryehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989101486258658006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-88819217072411316212011-02-24T17:49:00.001-05:002011-02-24T20:09:25.498-05:00Article at ESPN has been PostedHey guys! I just wanted to tell you that my article was posted over at the ESPN Sweet Spot. Here's the link! I hope you enjoy!
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/7393/steinbrenners-mansion-hypothesis
Thanks again guys for all of the support that you've given me over the past four plus months!Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-49736609841691435802011-02-23T19:20:00.000-05:002011-02-23T19:20:34.808-05:00Kenny Williams Calls Pujols Demands "Asinine"
Never one to shy away from expressing his opinion, White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams shared his thoughts on the idea of paying Albert Pujols $30M per season.
“For the game’s health as a whole, when we’re talking about 30 million dollar players, I think it’s asinine,” Williams said in an interview with Comcast SportsNet. “We have gotten to the point of no return. Something has Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-8122584113810639222011-02-22T22:08:00.000-05:002011-02-22T22:08:29.854-05:00Michael Young Video and Other NewsIf you haven't seen this video of a mother telling her three year old son that his favorite baseball player, Michael Young, will probably be traded from his favorite team, the Rangers, you should. It's as adorable as it is heartbreaking. At first he doesn't understand what his mother is trying to tell him. Once he figures it out, the little boy becomes both deeply distressed andChiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-65767394040395678342011-02-22T21:20:00.004-05:002011-02-22T22:11:36.608-05:00Greinke Not Shy About Thoughts On the Press
After reading about Zack Greinke's comments regarding the press today, I couldn't help thinking about the South Park episode where Cartman pretends to have Tourette's Syndrome. During the episode he said, "I can say anything and people will call me brave." Obviously, Greinke's battle with social anxiety disorder is completely legitimate and has been chronicled in the media ad Corryehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989101486258658006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-67837246330425224042011-02-21T15:33:00.000-05:002011-02-21T15:33:57.515-05:00Gonzalez Cleared to Swing the Bat
In case anybody missed this earlier today.
Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal reports that Adrian Gonzalez has been cleared to start swinging the bat. According to the report, Gonzalez was examined by team medical director, Dr. Tom Ginn on Friday, and was reported to have "full range of motion, no tenderness, and excellent strength" in the surgically repaired shoulder. Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-22648556031875307602011-02-21T14:31:00.000-05:002011-02-21T14:31:43.329-05:00Stay Away from Bleacher ReportThis link was floating around Twitter this morning. Not that you really needed any reason not to read the Bleacher report, here are some excerpts from something they wrote not that long ago about Carl Crawford.
"This guy too has wheels, wheels, wheels. He makes swiping bases and fielding look so easy.
Crawford has so far been a successful baseball player and continues to get better, and Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-48504939987257229852011-02-21T14:22:00.000-05:002011-02-21T14:22:55.780-05:00Baseball's Best Kept Secret
In today's New York Times, Tyler Kepner wrote a piece about Major League Baseball's best kept secret, Braves catcher Brian McCann.
"McCann, whose three-run double made him the All-Star Game’s most valuable player last summer, is a .289 career hitter with a .360 on-base percentage. He has hit between 18 and 24 homers in each full season, and he was 6 for 14 (.429) in the Braves’ Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-79198703795278231872011-02-20T15:41:00.000-05:002011-02-20T15:41:05.252-05:00Weekend Round-Up - 2/20/2011Today’s links are brought to by Kevin Youkilis. Unlike Rangers DH Michael Young, he doesn’t have an attitude about changing positions. He leads by example, not reputation.
Link of the Week: If you don’t read Craig Calcaterra, the blogger formerly known as Shysterball, over at Hardball Talk, you should. Earlier this week, he wrote a tremendous piece for Baseball Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-29134500053991228092011-02-20T09:18:00.000-05:002011-02-20T09:18:09.580-05:00Youkilis on Changing Positions
Yesterday, Steve Silva of the Boston Globe caught up with Kevin Youkilis, and had a chance to ask him about moving from first base to third base. Here's what Youk had to say.
"I enjoy third base because I've been there my whole career," he said. "It's a little bit more of a challenge. I like the challenge ... of trying to get better at a position that I need to get better at and it's Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-90908247485529435512011-02-19T16:51:00.000-05:002011-02-19T16:51:57.322-05:00Mark Teixeira Speaks His Mind
Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York had a chance to sit down with Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira the other day. Despite all of the naysayers, Teixeira tells Marchand not to count the Yankees out just yet.
"We're the underdogs this year," Teixeira said. "I love it. No one is picking us right now. Everyone in here should be looking forward to winning a championship. When you put on the Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-63204753463509093312011-02-18T22:23:00.001-05:002011-02-18T22:24:21.716-05:00Indians to Give Santana Time at First Base
Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports that the Indians are going to have catcher Carlos Santana learn how to play first base.
"Next thing on Santana's spring-training checklist is learning how to play first base. Eduardo Perez and Mike Hargrove, former first basemen and recently hired by the Indians, will help him in the weeks to come." While Santana will retain his job as theChiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-78109021048366402382011-02-18T16:12:00.000-05:002011-02-18T16:12:32.431-05:00Bautista Scores Big Contract<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-66129685573419570172011-02-18T15:23:00.001-05:002011-02-18T15:23:45.653-05:00Dancing Around the A-Gon Contract Situation
As many of you probably remember, soon after the Red Sox finalized the Adrian Gonzalez trade with the Padres, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the two sides had secretly come to terms on a seven year contract extension worth $154M. According to sources, both parties agreed to wait until after Opening Day to announce the deal in order to avoid paying the competitive balance tax.&Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-61682020639535657632011-02-17T21:52:00.003-05:002011-02-17T22:52:52.000-05:00Pujols's Sincerity Is Receeding Faster Than His Hairline As a baseball fan I've become very jaded over the years in some aspects. Greed, steroids, making racial and ethnic slurs in public, slamming the ownership and the manager, banging everything that moves, and generally acting like a class-1 ass clown has become as commonplace in baseball as a Lindsey Lohan arraignment hearing. Naturally you'd assume that Albert Pujols's latest comments aboutCorryehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989101486258658006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-24564639953502682002011-02-16T16:32:00.001-05:002011-02-16T16:54:49.389-05:00Teams Line Up to Acquire Mediocre Player
Another day, another team interested in Michael Young.
According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, the Arizona Diamondbacks are the latest team to express interest in trading for the disgruntled former All-Star.
“The Diamondbacks view Young as a possible upgrade over Melvin Mora at third base, but their talks with the Rangers have yet to escalate – and might not, according to Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-29476714658003614682011-02-16T12:05:00.001-05:002011-02-16T16:29:43.285-05:00The Countdown is Over
The Albert Pujols negotiating window has officially expired. Last night, there was word from SI’s Jon Heyman that the Cardinals had offered Pujols an eight year deal with an average annual salary that was “south of $30M.” A couple of hours later, a source close to the Pujols camp spoke to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports and decried the rumors as “inaccurate, reckless and outrageous.” Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-12271709003292569632011-02-15T20:59:00.000-05:002011-02-15T20:59:09.900-05:00Cardinals Offer Pujols 8-Year Contract
Goonies never say die, and apparently neither do the Cardinals.
According to SI's Jon Heyman, the Cardinals have made an eight year contract offer to superstar first baseman Albert Pujols. While details of the proposal aren't known, Heyman's confirmed that the offer was for less than $30M per season. With only 15 hours remaining in the negotiating window, prospects of aChiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-84207086494518316712011-02-15T18:04:00.002-05:002011-02-15T22:06:20.295-05:00I, Umpire With the computer Watson blowing up CBS on Jeopardy! this week and visions of Skynet from The Terminator dancing in my head, it struck me: Will machines one day replace umpires in baseball and furthermore would it be a good idea? For several years now ESPN has employed the "K-Zone" software to help analyze and show where pitches fall in the strike zone as defined by the rules of MLB. Corryehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989101486258658006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420015831073845000.post-86072761624854451752011-02-15T16:57:00.001-05:002011-02-15T16:58:52.638-05:00Ken Rosenthal's Crazy Pujols Trade Proposals
Ugh. So we're at that point in the offseason now. Ken Rosenthal shares some speculative trade ideas involving Albert Pujols. Buckle in kids, this is going to be a bumpy ride.
"WARNING: What you are about to read is pure speculation. It has not, to my knowledge, been discussed at any level. In fact, it is not even my idea.
Harold Reynolds mentioned the possibility Monday on Chiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00519835942711823406noreply@blogger.com0