Deadspin Buys Hall Of Fame Vote, Will Turn It Over To Deadspin Readers

Hey, I know of a couple of BBWAA members who have thrown pizza-gigs and allowed fans to pick the ballot. Then there was the live arm-twisting of Hal Bodley’s ballot by Murray Chass over Jack Morris. So this is no biggie.

Well, with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America having released its official ballot today, we can happily announce that we have a vote. A member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America thought our plan sounded like a pretty damn good idea and sold us his/her ...

The R.A. Dickey Effect - 2013 Edition

It is widely talked about by announcers and baseball fans alike, that knuckleball pitchers can throw hitters off their game and leave them in funks for days… I decided to analyze to determine if
there really is an effect and what its value is…

Most people that try to analyze this [R.A.] Dickey effect tend to group all the pitchers that follow in to one grouping with one ERA and compare to the total ERA of the bullpen or rotation. This is a simplistic and non-descriptive way of analyzing the ...

Nelson Cruz seeks $75M for 4 years; will ‘Biogenesis uptick’ help? - CBSSports.com

He can ask for anything. It doesn’t mean he’ll get it.

Free-agent outfielder Nelson Cruz had to be heartened by Jhonny Peralta’s $53 million deal, as Cruz is the better of these two Biogenesis-connected players.

It shouldn’t come as a shock that, according to sources, Cruz is said to seek about $75 million over four years. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise, either, that there are plenty of interested teams, among them the Mariners, Athletics, Mets and his old Rangers team. The Phillies are ...

Sources: Nationals Want Tax Dollars To Put Roof On Nats Park

The Washington Nationals want to put a roof over the team’s stadium and they want taxpayers to pick up the tab.

Multiple sources tell WNEW Senior Correspondent Mark Segraves that team executives have approached several District officials, including some inside mayor Vincent Gray’s office, to propose the addition to Nationals Park.

While the discussions are in very preliminary stages, diagrams of the proposed roof have been presented to the mayor’s office.

The project would cost ...

The Art of the Sports Hoax

One large omission is how Jeffrey Loria ended up getting the Marlins.

“The trouble with scouts is that they seldom believe what they see,” Richard Pohle once said. The remark was true long before Moneyball. So Pohle, a 36-year-old baseball washout, decided to transform his aging body into the one thing scouts couldn’t resist. Pohle became a 21-year-old phenom. He was Rocky Perone … from Australia. To complete the hoax, Pohle wore a shaggy, Pete Rose hairpiece. A Dutch Boy painter’s ...

Maddux, Glavine headline stacked Hall of Fame ballot

Hall of Fame? Is that still a thing?

Frank Thomas, Jeff Kent and Mike Mussina join Maddux and Glavine as other noteworthy first timers, making this one of the deepest BBWAA ballots in Hall of Fame history. Jack Morris, with 254 victories during his 18-year big league career and World Series titles with the Tigers, Twins and Blue Jays, is on the writers ballot for the 15th and final time. Former Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, who led last year’s voting by being named on 68.2 percent of ...

Mozeliak on Peralta signing: Cardinals aren’t ‘moral police’

The Cardinals have been met with some criticism from players, fans and media after inking shortstop Jhonny Peralta to a four-year, $52 million contract this past season. The problem in the minds of the dissenters is that Peralta was seemingly “rewarded” for a season in which he served a 50-game suspension for his ties to PED via the Biogenesis clinic.

As for his side of the story, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak replied with the following in a press conference Monday morning: “I don’t ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 11-26-2013

Milwaukee Sentinel, November 26, 1913:

It was officially announced by the board of directors of the Cincinnati baseball club late on Tuesday that Joe Tinker, manager of the team last season, would not manage it during the season of 1914. Inability to come to terms with Tinker is given as the reason for reaching this conclusion.
...
[From the Reds’ official statement:] The question involved did not pertain to salary. Mr. Tinker seemed to believe that he was entitled, if he again assumed the ...

Major league baseball auctions

No news but just thought it was funny that they were auctioning some of these items.

Youtube: 1988 World Series, Game One

I know this isn’t news, but did you guys know that there are whole games from the past on Youtube?

On Jacoby Ellsbury’s Power

Some great analysis by Fangraph’s Dan Farnsworth.

We wanted to see what evidence there was for or against another power outburst from Ellsbury going forward.  My impression of his 2013 season is that he was never 100% healthy, and that was what disabled his power from showing up earlier and more frequently.  Not even necessarily because of one specific physical problem, I don’t think he ever was able to get comfortable this year because of the nagging injuries.  These mechanical issues were ...

Bucs acquire Decker, Mikolas from Padres

The Pirates on Monday traded outfield prospect Alex Dickerson to the Padres in exchange for outfielder Jaff Decker and right-hander Miles Mikolas. In a corresponding move to make room for the pair on the club’s 40-man roster, the Pirates designated Garrett Jones and righty Kyle McPherson for assignment.

Short-term Coliseum deals for A’s, Raiders

The stadium is so bad, fans are jumping from the upper deck to get out of it!

The A’s would remain at O.co Coliseum for at least two more years - and not get shoe-horned into AT&T Park with the Giants as baseball had threatened - under a proposed lease extension on which stadium officials are scheduled to vote Monday.

The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority also will consider a one-year lease extension for the Raiders. The deal leaves the door ajar for the team to move out of Alameda ...

Robothal: It pays to cheat, at least in Jhonny Peralta’s case

“It pays to cheat,” Arizona Diamondbacks reliever and player representative Brad Ziegler tweeted Sunday. “Thanks, owners, for encouraging PED use.”

Ziegler was referring to the willingness of clubs to reward drug cheats, but he knows the players are just as responsible for the Joint Drug Agreement (JDA) as the owners.

The pitcher said in a separate tweet, “We thought 50 games would be a deterrent. Obviously it’s not. So we are working on it again.”

Indeed, if players are going ...

Alex Rodriguez and Bud Selig attend memorial service for Michael Weiner

Hundreds of mourners, including commissioner Bud Selig and embattled Yankee Alex Rodriguez, journeyed to Paramus, N.J., on a bitterly cold Sunday and packed Robert Schoem’s Menorah Chapel for the memorial service of Michael Weiner, the late executive director of baseball’s Players’ Association.

Weiner, who died Thursday at 51 from brain cancer — he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in August 2012 — was eulogized by his wife, Diane Margolin, and Rabbi Mary Zamore in a ...

Yellon: Cubs Rumors: Blue Jays After Jeff Samardzija

Levine tweet:

Teams have inquired about StarterJeff Samardzija. Source: Toronto putting together package of young players.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 11-25-2013

Milwaukee Journal, November 25, 1913:

Harry Hooper, right fielder of the Boston Americans, failed by a single point to attain a batting average last season which would have brought him an additional $1,000. When the official averages were published yesterday it was found that Hooper had batted .289. In his contract it was provied that he would receive a bonus of $1,000 if he succeeded in making an average of .290 or better.

Hooper was 159-for-586 in 1913, which is .2884. 160-for-586 is .2901. ...

Dan Haren agrees with Dodgers

Dan Haren agrees with the Dodgers? On what topic?

Former All-Star Dan Haren and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a one-year deal worth $10 million, according to FOXSports.com.

Oh.

Rays To Sign Jose Molina

The Rays have reached a two-year, $4.5MM agreement with catcher Jose Molina, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSsports.com...

Molina is expected to be Jose Lobaton’s backup after starting a career-high 87 games behind the plate in 2013, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times...

Molina batted .233./.290/.304 in a career-best 313 plate appearance (99 games) for the Rays last season, his lowest offensive output in the past four years. However, the 38-year-old is regarded as one of the game’s ...

Angels to Sign Joe Smith

Who knew the Mets traded nearly $48 million worth of players for J.J. Putz?

Smith’s deal is worth $15.75MM over three years, according to Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter)...

Smith, 29, has been with the Indians since 2009 and is a seven-year major league veteran. The righty has a lifetime 2.97 ERA and turned in a 2.29-ERA, 63-inning campaign in 2013.

Cardinals To Sign Jhonny Peralta: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

The Cardinals have reached agreement with Jhonny Peralta on a deal, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). It’ll be a four-year contract worth a little more than $52MM, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter).

NY Times: Kepner: Teams Are Learning to Keep Their Best Players Off the Market

When the Detroit Tigers traded Prince Fielder to Texas last week, they still owed him a staggering $168 million. Only one player had ever been traded with more money still owed to him: Alex Rodriguez, from Texas to the Yankees in 2004.

Rodriguez was 28 then, a year younger than Fielder is now, and had seven years remaining on his contract at the time. So does Fielder, who joined the Rangers on Wednesday with $30 million for second baseman Ian Kinsler.

The Rangers, essentially, made a ...

NHL teams are slowly embracing the idea analytics have real value

I once sat next to Rod Gilbert at a Father & Son dinner. That’s all I got.

So what, exactly, are advanced stats and what do they have to do with the game that’s unfolding before you at the rink or on TV? It boils down to this: The core assumption is that a team that spends more time in possession of the puck than its opponent has a better chance of scoring more goals and, therefore, winning a game.

Certainly, most hockey people would agree that possession is a good thing, but here’s where it ...

AZ Central:  Piecoro : Hunt is on for hitters as pitchers rule

A high-ranking baseball executive noticed something early this off-season in his conversations with rival officials. They all were in search of the same thing.

“A lot of teams are saying, ‘We need our offense to get better,’ ” said the executive, who works for a National League team. “It’ll be interesting to see, with the amount of teams unhappy with their offense, how they go about finding more.”

Spoiler alert: They won’t all be satisfied, not in this day and age. But there ...

McCaffery: Phillies are returning to their old tricks

McCaffery: Phanopticon.

While carefully keeping Veterans Stadium a filthy dump, pretending to be a “small market” franchise and standing on Pattison Avenue with a styrofoam cup for coins to build a new stadium, the Phillies should have been positioning themselves for what they are about to lose.

They should have been positioning themselves for a baseball ecosystem that would provide sustainable, consistent success.

Instead, they are showing every sign of having settled for a ...

Yankees to sign Brian McCann to five-year, $85M deal

The Yankees are in agreement on a five-year, $85 million contract to sign free agent catcher Brian McCann, according to multiple reports, including CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman. There’s also a vesting option for a sixth year, that would make the contract worth $100 million.

This deal is the largest average annual value contract ever given to a free agent catcher (Joe Mauer’s contract was an extension to stay put). McCann has also been given a full no-trade clause, per Heyman.

McCann, 29, hit ...

Sabermetrics expert Bill James talks Jim Thome & Hall of Fame

Jim Thome, “country-boy strong”...much like Wesley Shermantine, but that’s another story.

So where does Thome rank all-time?

We asked Bill James, senior baseball operations adviser for the Boston Red Sox, father of sabermetrics and author of several baseball analysis and history books including “The Politics of Glory: How Baseball’s Hall of Fame Really Works.”

  “I wouldn’t think that he was one of the top 10 power hitters in the history of the game, but probably was one of the top 25 pure ...

Yellon: MLB Recommends Metal Detectors At Ballparks

...the terrorists (and Rapiscan Systems) have won.

There’s been no official word from the Cubs on what they plan to do regarding security at Wrigley Field in 2014, but this report indicates metal detectors might be in your ballpark-visit future:

  Major League Baseball security director John Skinner said on Friday that all 30 teams are expected to screen all fans entering their ballparks next season. Some aspects of the screening will be left to individual teams, but the commissioner’s ...

Former Texas Rangers GM John Hart hired by Atlanta Braves

Listen… and Look…

His long contract as an advisor with the Texas Rangers having expired at the end of the season, former GM John Hart has moved on to the Atlanta Braves in a senior advisors role.

Thus ends a 12-year association with the Rangers, the last eight of which have been in a very loose senior advisor’s role. The last couple of years Hart had visited spring training in Surprise for a week or two and had occasionally visited the team when it came to Tampa Bay.

Hart, 65, has spent ...

NY Post: Davidoff: Team A-Rod ready to dive into treacherous waters: a courtroom

Two sources confirmed Rodriguez and the Yankees probably won’t learn the status of the player’s 211-game suspension until early January. Here’s the timeline:
1. Both MLB and Rodriguez have until Dec. 11 to file written briefs to independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, and another 10 days after that to file replies to each other’s briefs.
2. Once Horowitz has received all of that information, he has 25 days to issue his decision. [...]

Back to Rodriguez and his complaining about “The ...