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Clearing the Bases: going through some of the most notable links from the past week...Buster Olney had this interesting nugget of information in a recent blog: By the way, I e-mailed this question to a number of talent evaluators, general managers, scouts, other executives and players: Who is the best team in baseball? Got back 20 responses within a 12-hour period.
Here's the breakdown:
Detroit Tigers -- 11
Boston Red Sox -- 6
Los Angeles Angels -- 3
That's pretty interesting. No mention of the Indians? I think they're right up there with the Tigers and Red Sox, and possibly a bit ahead of the Angels. I'm not surprised that there are no NL teams on the list, though...
A message to the media: Don't steal from blogs, especially when the stories are made-up...
A proposal to fix the HR Derby that I'm sure we'll all support…
American League pitchers, take note: Tony Pena doesn't want your charity (via Rob Neyer's blog)
Deadspin, with this great take on the All-Star game fiasco: "As tends to be the case with La Russa anymore, he's so busy thinking about how he's three steps ahead of everyone else that he walks smack dab into a pole."
Baseball Prospectus' All-Star Game recap…
THT with an analytical (you know, actually involving research) look at the Buehrle signing…
Braves reliever Wilfredo Ledezma is stuck in Venezuala, thanks to an unfortunate laundry accident…
An in-depth look at the two-horse NL Central race.
Random Video of the Week: I really don't think these kids are eight years old, but still, this football highlight video is impressive. By the way, that #20 sure can block…
Clearing the Bases: going through some of the most notable links from the past week...
Hey, all you bloggers out there...you can make a difference! Felix Hernandez has turned things around, partly due to the blog U.S.S. Mariner...
Breaking News: The Mark Buehrle saga is over…he re-signs with the White Sox for 4 yrs/$56 million.
TSOB has a short post on a strange Joe Torre quote regarding Derek Jeter's defense, which I mainly include because of this great excerpt: "…This is rich, by the way, the idea that anything good that Derek Jeter does could possibly go undetected. When Jeter kicks a rock, there are three stories in the New York papers about how he's cleaning up the streets."
Mr. Irrelevant gives you the worst all-stars of the 21st century (don't know how Mike Williams was left off, though).
MLB: Pissed off at ESPN?
Some information about pitchers being able to go deep into games: Striking out batters doesn't make you less likely to throw more innings…but walking batters does.
Uh…who's gonna play the outfield for the White Sox next year?
A timely article on Pat Burrell, the player I keep defending...
Keith Law breaks down the Futures Game rosters, and then describes the game's standouts and disappointments (both articles insider-only)…Here's a Futures Game blog that's open to the public…
Some great analysis on Tim Hudson, using some info I wish I had access to…
Here's a funny story about a made-up quote and a writer who forgot to check his source thoroughly...
If this describes you, you shouldn't be reading this blog…
Random Video of the Week #1: Stephon Marbury goes crazy (make sure to watch the last two minutes)...
Random Video of the Week #2: Public Service Announcement: Don't drink and dunk
Random Video of the Week #3: If you know any tennis players, please, don't let them rap. It's for the good of society.
Random Video of the Week #4: Soccer? This is cool, trust me.
Random Video of the Week #5: Combining our last two subjects...that's right, it's indoor soccer players rapping! This is the train wreck to end all train wrecks. Please, watch this.
Clearing the Bases: going through some of the most notable links from the past week...
If you told me at the beginning of the season, if you told me that Mike Hargrove would not be the manager at the All-Star break, I would have had no trouble believing you. But I would have expected the Mariners to be 15 games below .500, and for Hargrove to be fired along with GM Bill Bavasi. But instead, the M's are 12 games above .500, and Hargrove is quitting, saying he's just burned out. Really strange timing on this; the M's are on an eight-game winning streak, and they're playing better than anybody expected. Rob Neyer had a good article on this yesterday (insider-only, so I'll give you an excerpt:) Maybe this is the cynic in me, but I can't help but wonder whether there's something we haven't been told yet. I worry that Hargrove's been diagnosed with some serious illness. All we can do is hope that's not the case. Then there's the possibility that he wants to quit while he's ahead. Hargrove's past six teams -- four in Baltimore, two in Seattle -- finished in fourth place, most of them with records well below .500.
But Hargrove's 2007 Mariners are riding high. They're in second place with a 44-33 record. Can they maintain this pace, though? The Mariners have the fourth-best record in the American League, but only the eighth-best run differential. Maybe this particular Mariner knows when it's time to jump ship.
I do get what Neyer's saying - because the M's are playing so far above their head, they're likely to fall back in the next month or so; then, when some team wants to fill their manager job in the upcoming future (Baltimore?), they'll look at the candidates and say, "Hey, the Mariners were great under Hargrove, then they collapsed after he left...maybe he's the one for us!" I'm not saying that's what Hargrove is doing, because that seems really unlikely, but it's at least a possiblity.
Here's U.S.S Mariner's take on the situation...
Remembering Rod Beck.
Here are the All-Star game rosters, for the American League and the National League...
Um...Brian Fuentes? What the hell?
A Brewers prospect threw a perfect game in the minors...
A compelling case for the White Sox to keep Mark Buehrle, although apparently it's not going to happen...
A great article on former Dodgers GM and future GM somewhere else Paul DePodesta.
On Tuesday, we saw the best Joe Morgan chat ever...
Random Video of the Week: Heckling Stephen A. Smith at the NBA Draft. Seriously, watch this. You will not be disappointed.
Clearing the Bases: going through some of the most notable links from the past week...
Here's some new information on BABIP that goes contrary to what sabermetricians had previously believed;. In the past, it had been stated that a pitcher's batting average against excluding BBs, Ks, and HRs (aka BA on Balls In Play) was not something he could control, and instead was based more upon luck and the defense behind him, but this new research shows that pitchers do indeed have some control. I had kind of suspected this for a whlie - after all, the best BABIPs tend to belong to the best pitchers - but here's some actual proof that there is a correlation. (Link courtesy of Rob Neyer - insider-only)
College baseball really hasn't taken much of a foothold nationwide yet, but ESPN and other media groups are really trying to push the sport, and I think it's kind of working (and I'm glad). So what better way to increase your sport's popularity than by banning blogging from the press box?
Staying kind of on the same topic...Even I have some trouble getting into the MLB draft; these players are usually at least two or three years away from making an impact, and I've never seen them play before. Still, Carlos Gomez has some absolutely wonderful video analysis of the top 10 draft picks. It's probably worth reading, not so much for the actual information but to see what kind of things he looks for in a prospect.
The Twins may soon call up Matt Garza to replace the struggling Scott Baker, and, as a Twins fan, it's about time. Baker does have a future as a back of the rotation starter, but he's not ready right now, and Garza's too talented to leave in Rochester for another three months. (Link found via Buster Olney)
Guess what? A New York columnist said something stupid!
Scott Boras and Jayson Stark have a rather heated discussion over one of Boras' clients, Andrew Jones. J.C. Bradbury chimes in with his take.
Random video of the week: How long did it take this guy to pull off this shot? And wouldn't they have gotten kicked out of the bowling alley by then?
