Megdal’s latest…

Each of his first two years, Collins has been fortified by an unexpectedly strong start. The Mets were 46-45 at the All Star Break in 2011, 46-40 at the break in 2012. The second half each season was an unmitigated disaster, but Collins had, at least, a period of overachievement to point to during otherwise glum late-season postgame news conferences. Collins got credit for managing with what he had, and he deserved it.

This year, he’s working with a team that is, on paper, ...

They said he rides the train to Orioles…

If Ike Davis doesn’t clean it up quickly in the cleanup spot, ticket him for a trip to Triple-A Las Vegas.

The Mets cannot afford to waste Matt Harvey’s starts. They cannot afford to have Davis continue to strike out in crucial situations.

Manager Terry Collins is counting on Davis to drive in runs, and he put the first baseman back into the fourth spot yesterday. The clock is ticking. If the lefty doesn’t hit, he could be sent down to the ...

Doy-El: GENTLEMEN…BASEBALL WORLD IS DOOMED!

This is David Ortiz’s finger-wagging moment, but when we wonder about him or about anyone else doing the unexplainably remarkable, understand something: This is the players’ fault.

They’re the ones who cheated their ass off in the 1990s, injecting steroids like insulin because owners were digging the long ball. They’re the ones whose union fought against drug-testing for years. Hell, one of Ortiz’s former teammates in Boston will tell you that.

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Sometimes you can just see when a kid coach is due.

Now, it’s all trickling down to the high school level.

Several Carroll coaches, many armed with computers in the dugout, are taking the same approach as Beane and his brethren when it comes to evaluating their rosters and putting players in the best spots for them to succeed.

Manchester Valley’s Shawn Hampt is one of them.

Using all kinds of percentages and probabilities, Hampt is able to get his point across to his players in a way ...

Notes about two youngsters who eventually made their way to Cooperstown:

Pittsburgh Press, May 13, 1913:

Bostonians now are calling little Maranville “the Rabbit.” Also they are rising to proclaim that he is one of the very few men in the game who really can “place” a hit, which overcomes his inability to smash the ball quite as hard as some of his larger contemporaries.

Milwaukee Sentinel, May 13, 1913, Page 6:

In Pitcher George Sisler Ann Arbor college claims to have a Ty Cobb and a ...

For more than 16 years, Lowe’s proud past combines with a promising future!

Drew Davison of the Star-Telegram has an interesting article up in which Derek Lowe expounds on the increasing prevalence of statistical analysis in baseball. The Rangers signed Lowe to a Minor League contract in March and was eventually added to the bullpen. Lowe, who turns 40 years old on June 1, posted a 5.52 ERA as a starter for the Indians, but found success in the bullpen after the Indians released him and the ...

“Peachy keen, jellybean.”

The Cubs, from the moment they acquired first baseman Anthony Rizzo 16 months ago, viewed him as a significant part of their future.

Now, they can guarantee it long-term.

The Cubs have reached agreement with Rizzo on a seven-year, $41 million contract through 2019, according to major-league sources. The deal also includes two $14.5 million club options, sources said.

Thus, the total value over nine years could be $68 million; Rizzo would not receive a $2 million ...

The year of the “No-hitter going into the 7th inning” continues…

Votto joins MLB Now to discuss being voted the Face of MLB and gives a glimpse into his process at the plate.

Schu scanned through video and found film of Harper hitting. He arranged clips of Harper and Ruth side-by-side on the monitor and stopped at the moment each hitter’s bat connected with a pitch. In each still picture, he saw a stiff front leg, an uncoiling torso and a back foot lifting off the ground. “Wow,” he thought. “That’s identical.”

“They’ve got that exact same swing at contact point,” Schu said later.

The Kid may need to put on some weight.

RTFA. Lots of video & ...

7. OK, where does Cabrera rank among all-time right-handed batters?

Right now he’s playing his age-30 season. He has 327 home runs, which ranks 11th—more than Willie Mays had through age 30 but fewer than Andruw Jones or Juan Gonzalez. He’s fifth in RBIs, behind only Jimmie Foxx, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Hank Aaron, and is a good bet to pass Aaron and maybe Pujols (70 behind).

8. Those are old-school stats. What about some of your fancy sabermetric stuff?

OK, let’s look at OPS+ ...

Wow! If this continues…Daugherty will be writing for BPro by the year 2046!

Forget for a minute that the save statistic is a semi-bogus creation that serves only the player doing the saving, and the minion who represents him. Or that closers are the most overrated members of any baseball team, easily replaced and often interchangeable. I’ll see your Rafael Betancourt and raise you an Edward Mujica.

No, let’s fix on the notion that closers are one-inning, certain-situation ponies. Because ...

If this suffocating Mariano Rivera Grand Farewell Tour® gets any bigger…Brucebase will be adding a detailed gig page.

Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera exchanged tense words in the dugout before Saturday night’s game, as Chamberlain took exception to Rivera instructing him to quiet down while the closer chatted with reporters about an emotional event he had held earlier in the day with several local families.

“Don’t ever shush me again,” Chamberlain told Rivera in full view of ...

That is why two items should be changed immediately. Neither will improve, say, replay judgment. Again, replay helps, but no system is ever going to be perfect. This is about providing a greater sense of umpire accountability, a greater belief that the umpires are being held to high standards:

1. Umpires involved in on-field issues should be available to the media after games, like any other on-field personnel. It was not long ago that was the general rule. Now, at best, a pool reporter is ...

Well, we quickly have an idea of strikeout rate, ground ball and fly ball tendencies, and (somewhat less quickly), walk rate. Over a season, you can get a pretty good idea of a pitcher’s single and HBP rates. Strangely enough, singles stabilize a lot faster than the alleged “true” outcome of HR rate. Some of the classic one-number rates (OBP, SLG) can stabilize over the course of a year for a full-time starter. And yes, BABIP still needs a lot of data (roughly 2000 balls in play), but that ...

The average starter establishes the fastball early, throwing it the most the first time through the order, much like a reliever does in facing a hitter only once. This makes sense to me given that I would assume velocity could be higher at the start of the game when the pitcher is fresh, so why not make use of the extra ticks on the fastball while they are available. As starters work their way through the order the second time and beyond, we see offspeed pitch usage rise, at the expense of the ...

Kazmir threw 73 fastballs yesterday [against Oakland], and they were getting progressively harder as the game wore on. The last three fastballs he threw were all 96 mph, and they were pitches 101, 102, and 103 on the day. A guy who lost his spot in Major League Baseball because his fastball was sitting at 86 ended yesterday throwing 96.

Kazmir hasn’t thrown this hard since his early days with Tampa Bay, and yesterday, we saw what Scott Kazmir with a lively fastball can look like. 72 of his ...

Maybe today somebody will throw a no-hitter. I mean, jeez, it feels like everything other than a no-hitter has been thrown this season.

“Everything that guy did was about skill, about playing the game right,” Corbin said. “If you looked at Carl Yastrzemski, I don’t know if you’d say ‘five tools.’ Well, no, probably not. But everything he did was a winning play.” 

Now Corbin coaches Yastrzemski’s grandson Mike, a senior right fielder who opened the weekend hitting .333 and has started every game since the middle of his freshman season. Carl Yastrzemski has seen two games in person, against Louisiana State in ...

Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan is done for the 2013 season. CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman reports that Hanrahan will soon undergo season-ending surgery to repair his right flexor tendon. As things stand now, Hanrahan faces a six-to-nine-month rehab process. However, Dr. James Andrews, who will perform the procedure, may determine that Hanrahan needs Tommy John surgery, which would of course necessitate a much longer recovery period.

Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal describes Hanrahan’s ...

Shelby Miller gave up a single to start the game then nothing else. Not a walk or a hit batter. No one even reached on an error.

The St. Louis Cardinals rookie was perfect after that leadoff single by Eric Young Jr., retiring 27 in a row for his first career complete game, 3-0 over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night.

“I feel really good,” Miller said. “It’s definitely the best game I’ve thrown in my life. How it finished was unbelievable. It was a great experience. Yadi (catcher Yadier ...

Bullshiit Sunscreen ~ Engineered to stay put…in and out of the HOF.

Blue Jays broadcaster Jack Morris, who last week in Toronto said Clay Buchholz was throwing a spitball after watching video of the right-hander’s performance, said he sought out the Red Sox pitcher and spoke to him before Friday night’s game at Fenway Park.

“I told him I was sorry that I had taken attention away from what he was doing—that’s not what I was trying to do,” said Morris, who won 254 games in the big leagues. “I ...

Sounding more like Bats Battaglia than Joey Bats…

“I think it’s a cheap shot and uncalled for to say something like that without having some sort of evidence to back it up,” Bautista said Friday in the visitor’s clubhouse at Fenway Park. “Comments and articles like that is what sometimes makes us wonder what’s the true intention of somebody that’s in the media. It blows my mind that somebody would just go out there and do something like that, and write an article where you’re ...

Sufferin’ seeds of terror, I was hoping for…

“I’ve been thinking the last couple of days. I just felt like I should address the fans.

“I know there is a lot of mixed opinions on pitching, not pitching, all that kind of stuff. I know there are people who are disappointed about how I pitched the last two years. I know there are a lot of people who are very supportive. So, one, I just wanted to thank them for their support. And my heart goes out to all of the people who spend all of their ...

Ozzmosis: New L.A. tomorrow?

Guillen is an excellent manager. His teams consistently win more games than their talent level suggests they should (plus-19 in Pythagorean standings over his eight years with the White Sox). It’s easy to picture him getting a bump out of the Dodgers or Angels, should changes be made.

But will he get a chance?

Restoring his reputation will be a huge battle for Guillen. He might not be ready to get back in the dugout if the information I got Friday was correct.

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