Transaction Oracle: 2012 ZiPS Projections - Texas Rangers

What's there to say about the Rangers, really? It's a deep team with a very good farm system that'll be there at the end of the season. The team's still a bit underrated defensively - I'm not sure how much the general public really comprehends just how good the non-Beltre defenders generally are. Even Mike Napoli, considered a serviceable backstop at best, made great strides defensively last season. ZiPS saw the Angels pulling even with the Rangers this season, but the Rangers landed ...Read More...

Transaction Oracle: 2012 ZiPS Projections - Miami Marlins

The Marlins, thanks to Loria actually investing some money back into the team (though partially by virture of taxpayer subsidization, an issue we won't touch here), are a serious threat in the NL Wild Card race and their chances of winning the division, while on the long side, are legitimate - the Phillies don't have an unassailable roster and there are some downside scenarios that give real openings to the rest of the East.

What puts the Marlins a little behind the Braves is that while they ...

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Transaction Oracle: 2012 ZiPS Projections - Arizona Diamondbacks

The most encouraging thing about Arizona’s season, well, other than the trip to the playoffs, is just how quickly and efficiently they turned over a horrific 2010 bullpen.  The favorite quote of Branch Rickey among statheads (myself included) is “Luck is the residue of design.”  That kinda describes how the Diamondback bullpen worked so quickly - in every situation, both in performance and dollars, Arizona acquired relievers that would be a great help to the team in the upside and harmless on ...

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Transaction Oracle: 2012 ZiPS Projections - Cleveland Indians

The 2011 Indians hung around in the divisional race far longer than they had any right to, so kudos to them for being relevant ahead of schedule - the Tigers were simply a stronger team and it was hard to keep that going for an entire season.

The Indians still aren't really ready to compete with the Tigers, but there are at least some encouraging signs. The team still has all sorts of interesting infielders and despite only finishing 9th in the league in scoring, the team has offense at all ...

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Transaction Oracle: Tigers - signed Fielder

Detroit Tigers sign 1B Prince Fielder to a 9 year/$214 million contract.

A fascinating signing on so many levels. First of all, a week ago serious people were seriously discussing the possibility that Fielder might end up in Japan, or have to settle for a short term contract—possibly as little as a year. It’s fairly clear that there was an element of luck (color me doubtful that the Tigers were sold on this signing before the Martinez signing), but again Boros gets his man the money and years ...

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Transaction Oracle: 2012 ZiPS Projections - Washington Nationals

If the Nationals go into the season as the likely 4th-best team in the division, it's not from lack of trying - the team's been in on every major free agent this winter, making serious offers, and even being the favorite destination for Prince Fielder for about a month.

The team's really just missing one big middle of the order bat to be in a good position to mix it up with the rest of the division and compete well for a Wild Card. They're not so far away that it can't happen in 2012 with ...

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Jim's Lab Notes: Upgrade Update and Schedule for Server Migration

Just wanted to provide a quick update on the progress on my ongoing updates…

The upgrade of our underlying CMS software did not complete without issue. Nevertheless, I have been able to fix most of the problems. I still have a few, relatively minor, outstanding bugs to take care of but, for the most part, the upgrade to the new version of EE is complete.

I am now in the process of re-factoring the underlying templates for performance and to prepare for the site redesign. On top of that I am ...

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Sox Therapy: A Crap Trade

Tonight, in a move I really didn’t think would happen, the Red Sox gave away Marco Scutaro for nothing.  Marco Scutaro is under contract for $6M for next season.  This is his dumber-than-Marcel projection:

+3 Bat +1 Run +19 Rep +6 Pos -1 Def = +28 RAR

That’s a $14M player.  So, the Sox gave away an $8M bargain for Clayton Mortensen.  In conclusion: ugh. 

Clearly, what’s going on is that the Sox have a hard payroll limit, and they decided that they need to save money at shortstop in ...

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Newsblog: Sean Forman talks to MLB Network

If you can’t get enough of Baseball-Reference.com’s Sean Forman (and if you know Sean no one would blame you), here’s his television debut on the MLB Nework.

Enjoy!!

Transaction Oracle: 2012 ZiPS Projections - Toronto Blue Jays

Is there any team more happy about baseball adding a second wildcard spot than the Toronto Blue Jays? In the short-term at least (and probable long-term unless the top AL East teams start showing some serious incompetence), Toronto's prospects improve considerably if they don't have to better both the Red Sox and Yankees to make the playoffs. That obviously helps Tampa Bay and Baltimore as well, but the Jays are in that sweet spot where it's pretty darn useful - the Rays can compete for the ...Read More...