Sox Therapy: Game 1: Bullpen Hijinx

For the most part, it was a good game.  When a merely human pitcher entered the game, the Sox offense showed what they can do.  Jon Lester battled impressively against an excellent lineup and allowed only one run despite fighting his command all afternoon.  The club looked ready for the season.

The bullpen lost the game.  For the most part, it’s just one game.  No one looked terrible - well, Melancon’s command was way off, but he’s the one guy back there whom I’m willing to give some leash if ...

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Transaction Oracle: 2012 ZiPS Projections, Final Edition

This is the final ZiPS release looking ahead at the 2012 season. These were finalized before the A's-Mariners games, so there's not "cheating" by including the 2 days of statistics into the model. The .zip file contains a full spreadsheet for Excel 2010 and CSV files for the batters and pitchers.

In addition to the usual projected things, I've now included the platoon splits and estimated projection for defensive runs.

Disclaimer: ZiPS projections are computer-based projections of ...

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Transaction Oracle: 2012 ZiPS/RBI Baseball

Remember RBI Baseball for Nintendo?  For those that are interested, I’ve made a modified version of the original RBI Baseball ROM with 2012 ZiPS.

For use of the ROM, seek ye an NES emulator, which can be found in a number of open-source flavors.  I use FCEUX.

Any other old NES ROMs, I can’t legally tell you anything about how to find them, but the rumors on the internet are that a “search” engine can find said ROMS.  But I don’t know nything about that.

...

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Sox Therapy: What do we watch when we watch Opening Day?

Baseball’s about to start.  That’s so great.  I had some ideas about running numbers to project the Sox or compare them to the Yankees, but other people have already done a better job of that.  (One small note – Jacoby Ellsbury projects as something like a 2-3 win player in most of the statistical systems.  If he’s healthy and a star, the Sox run even with the Yankees.)  And anyway, I’m excited that baseball is back more than I’m excited about the particular projections of this Red ...

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Sox Therapy: CFBPS 2012

The Crazy Fanboy Projection System had a tough offseason.  The first time I tried to run the engine back in January, it just broke down crying.  While the Bayesian engines that power PECOTA and ZiPS are incapable of true feeling or thought, the CFBPS engine is the world’s only Freudian projection engine, and it was still in mourning.  The lost beloved of the 2011 season had entirely overwhelmed the engine’s ego, and its reality principle was unmoored.  The second run of the CFBPS produced ...

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Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1970 Results

Another close result, and congratulations to Carl Yastrzemski, 1970’s Most Meritorious Player!

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Sox Therapy: (General?) Manager’s Decision: Roster Controversy!

The Soxblog firestorm of the weekend arose from a couple reports that Bobby V and Ben Cherington disagree about roster composition.  I have some thoughts on the final spots on the Sox roster, which I’ll get to.  I’m also interested in the underlying question of the authority of the manager, GM, and team president in Boston. 

During the Theo years, even though Theo and Tito always said that Tito had input in every major decision, it was clear that the Moneyball model** was in place.  ...

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Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1971 Discussion

Most Meritorious Player: 1971 Discussion

A year I know mainly from the fantastic Topps set. The Orioles, Athletics, Giants and Pirates made the playoffs with the Pirates winning the World Series in seven games. In other news, SABR is formed.

Voting will end on April 18th 2012.

Player 			SH Win	BB-ref
        		Shares	WAR
Bobby Murcer		36.5	7.2
Roy White		28.6	7.4
Willie Stargell		34.7	8.1
Graig Nettles		26.7	6.5
Sal Bando		28.0	6.3
Henry Aaron		32.4	6.6
Bobby Bonds		32.3	6.3
Merv ...

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Sox Therapy: Jose’s Spring Training Reports #1 and #2

ST’s own Jose Can You Seabiscuit has made his annual spring training jaunt to Florida, and he has decided to tempt fate, the gods, and the horrific certainty that attends to an observation over an n of 2.  He sends spring training reports.  This is the first report:

I am back for another year of destroying dreams and ruining careers.  Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to see the minor leaguers work out but I have seen quite a bit of the big boys.

Bobby Valentine - The issue of the ...

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Jim's Lab Notes: Update News: Question about Community Features

I’m trying to hash out some of the community features for my update? Not including Facebook and Twitter, what are the best online communities you visit regularly? If you have time to add why you like the site, please add the info to your comment, especially if you feel it’s a unique feature. Thanks!