Weigel: Who Does Bill James Think Will Win the College World Series?

BEHOLD!

Bill James, the father of sabermetrics, created the 10 Commandments of Baseball, which are listed below. These serve as a guide for teams on how to best play the odds and are not an exhaustive list of proper strategy nor are these principles true all of the time, but as general rules of thumb, following these rules can help a team win a lot of baseball games.

6. Thou Shalt Not Count to the Credit of the Pitcher That Which Is Done by His Fielders or by His Hitters, nor Charge Him with ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-25-2014

Pittsburgh Press, June 25, 1914:

A jury in [Springfield, MA] Superior court awarded a verdict of $14,000 to Edward Collins in his suit against the Holyoke Street Railway Co. Collins, who is aged 10, lost his right leg as a result of a collision between trolley cars in June, 1912. The railway company admitted liability, but argued that artificial legs have been so perfected that the loss of a leg is no longer a serious handicap.

Attorney William P. Hayes, for the plaintiff, called attention to ...

New Trial in Sluggerr Hot Dog Lawsuit

BBTF, the go to site for Mascot Jurisprudence:

The Supreme Court ruled that the trial judge made an error by instructing jurors to decide whether the risk of injury from the hot dog toss was “an inherent risk” of watching a Royals baseball game. That was a question that the judge should have decided, according to Tuesday’s ruling.

The jury instead should have been asked to decide whether Sluggerrr injured Coomer by hitting him with a hot dog and whether that constituted negligence.

Big league power highlights rosters for 2014 Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game | MLB.com: News

Meet the Futures Game players.

Kernan: Alderson’s Moneyball plan yet to work as well as Beane’s

Them boys in their high stirrups. Ah, Sandy, their uniforms are so white…and green…and gold.

Sandy’s Mets were supposed to be Billy’s A’s.

They were supposed to become low-budget wonders of the baseball world.

The A’s, under Billy Beane, are just that, again, posting the best record in the majors at 47-29. They have scored the most runs (389) while surrendering the fewest (254).

The Mets were 21st in the majors with 294 runs scored, three below the Yankees, going into Monday ...

Sherman: Garrison Keillor figures out Cubs problem: It’s a Lutheran thing

Or: The Junior Lake Wobegon Effect (106 OPS+ last year - 88 OPS+ this year).

Keillor, 71, still has his fastball. He played to the Chicago audience by giving his version of why the Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908. It makes about as much sense as anything else.

If you want to listen to the audio, the Cubs segment occurs at the 1:11 mark of the show.

Keillor said:

It’s the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field in Chicago, which was built in 1914 on the site of the old Chicago ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-24-2014

Milwaukee Journal, June 24, 1914:

Baseball was today rejected as one of the sports at the Olympic games, to be held in 1916 at Berlin. James E. Sullivan, head of the American delegation, requested that baseball be included, but the president, Baron Pierre De Coubertin, reminded him that it was necessary, in order to have baseball considered an international sport, that six countries should play the game.

Same as it ever was.

Not that it mattered. As you might imagine, Berlin was far too busy ...

Feinstein: Jeff Passan: ‘Tim Hudson Not A Hall Of Famer’

Fabulous Hudson hornet’s nest.

Is Hudson a Hall of Famer?

“I think that’s a little much,” Yahoo! Sports columnist Jeff Passan said on The John Feinstein Show. “I think he’s one of those guys who has been very good and would be a first-ballot Hall of Very Good player, but Hall of Fame is a little too much. He’s never been the best pitcher in the league, and I think part of that is due to the fact that what he does is really under-appreciated.”

“I think we’re just starting to ...

David Ortiz apologizes for bashing official scorer; call reversed

In any event, Ortiz got his hit, as official scorer Bob Ellis on Monday switched his ruling from an error to a hit.

Let the baby have his bottle.

VIDEO: 17-year-old female knuckleballer throws BP to Rays

Chelsea’s knuckleball is real. She hit Longo in the back. I loved it. With that pitch & her composure she can compete

Not bad at all.  Joe Maddon seems like fun.

Carlos Gomez Symbolic Pursuit

this is a fine article.  it really captures the ‘essence’ of carlos gomez

Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins looks for the next Great White hope

Well, it ain’t James J Beattie and it sure as hell ain’t Jim Beattie.

The latest Great White North snub is Larry Walker. The seven-time Gold Glove winner from B.C. slipped down and received 10.2 percent of the HOF votes in his fourth year on the ballot. He earned 21.6 percent of the votes in 2013. Players need 75 percent to get in.

It looks like Walker’s best chance to get a bronze plaque will be by the Veteran’s Committee, a group that selects players ineligible to be picked by the ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-23-2014

Pittsburgh Press, June 23, 1914:

Pete Standridge, the [San Francisco] Seals’ only survivor from the defunct California league, says he has perfected what he calls his “fork ball”...Standridge puts the ball between his second and third fingers before heaving it, then puts all the speed he can back of it and the result is something weird. The ball takes a more peculiar shoot than does the spitter and his harder to hit. As soon as Standridge gets rid of a charley horse he will try out his discovery ...

Rapoport: Kershaw’s gem was great, but batters feared Nolan Ryan

Hey, Rapoport! I haven’t read you in ages.

Ranking no-hitters may seem like a fool’s errand. Greatness is greatness and this sort of example doesn’t happen very often. Why not leave it at that?

But when a pitcher ascends toward the upper echelon of strikeout potential and pitches a no-hitter as well, the temptation to match him against those who came before becomes irresistible. And since claims are being made that Clayton Kershaw’s no-hit victory over Colorado on June 18 is the most dominant ...

Brewers sweep Rockies

Milwaukee swept the Rockies to finish 6-1 on a road trip that started in Arizona. The Brewers’ 27-15 record and .643 winning percentage away from home is the best in the majors.

Milwaukee also has the best record in the National League. 

No, really.

Padres Reliever Alex Torres Is First To Wear Padded Cap On MLB Mound

Always figured the Slip Mahoney look would make a comeback.

Padres reliever Alex Torres became the first MLB pitcher to wear a protective cap during last night’s game against the Dodgers. The hat was very noticeable.

The padded caps have been available to pitchers all season, but no one had actually worn one until Torres. Yes, it’s a big, unaesthetic hat, but its purpose is to reduce the harm of line drives to the head, not make pitchers look cool.

Padres fire GM Josh Byrnes

The team announced the move in a statement on Sunday.

“This ownership group is committed to fielding a team that consistently competes for postseason play,” Padres president and CEO Mike Dee said in a statement. “Thus far this season, the results on the field have been mixed at best and clearly have not lived up to expectations. After a lengthy evaluation of every facet of our baseball operations, we have decided to make this change today.

“The search for a new general manager begins ...

OMNICHATTER Sunday 2014.06.22

Emergency starter OMNICHATTER in lieu of Gamingboy’s OMNICHATTER which has apparently gone on the 1-day DL.

Stephen Strasburg ducks personal responsibility; blames “game plan” for his failures

In three at-bats Friday night against Jason Heyward, Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg threw 18 fastballs out of 19 pitches. When Heyward came to the plate with two on and two outs in the fifth inning, Strasburg threw him all fastballs, seven total. Three of them, Heyward fouled back. The seventh, Heyward tomahawked to the right field warning track. The two-run double opened a 4-1 lead for the Braves, who would win 6-4 in 13 innings.

Why so many fastballs? “I guess it was the plan going ...

Moura: Angels’ Richards surpasses all sabermetrics expectations

I hadn’t seen a Richards treated this badly since Frank “Cannonball” Richards and that Tsar Howitzer prank!

Very few expected this from him, as sabermetrics help show us. Luckily, they also show us why so few expected it — and how he’s been so much better than expectations.

...There’s also Steamer, ZiPS, and CAIRO, among others. This winter, all of them projected Richards to throw between 139 and 173 innings in 2014 and post an ERA between 3.80 and 4.71. None of them thought he could ...

Career minor-leaguer Jumbo Diaz called up after losing 69 pounds in offseason

The nickname came because at one point he was in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and they had two players named Jose Diaz. To make it easier, the hefty pitcher became “Jumbo.” But knowing that his weight was part of the reason he wasn’t getting called up — despite a 1.66 ERA in 2013 and good stuff, including a 96-97 mph fastball — Diaz decided to make a change last winter.

What happened to calling guys like this ‘tiny’ or ‘slim’?  Where have you gone ironic nicknames?

And I’m not ...

Marcell Ozuna nails Kirk Nieuwenhuis at the plate to end the game

Ozuna fired a laser to catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who applied the tag to Nieuwenhuis just before he could touch the plate, ending the game.

The best part? Ozuna had nailed a runner at the plate the inning prior, as well.

Vids in the link.  Nailing the tying runs at the plate in the eighth and ninth is something a can’t remember seeing before.

Angels release 42-year-old Raul Ibanez

He finishes his Angels tenure with a .157/.258/.265 slash line, three home runs and 21 RBIs in 190 plate appearances.

Another notch in the belt for Father Time.  That bastard never loses.

Brewers clear bases after wild pitch

The Milwaukee Brewers scored plenty with the bases loaded in Saturday’s 9-4 victory against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, but they didn’t need a hit do so.

Three runs came in after a wild pitch.

Heads up play by Segura.  Only thing that could have made it better is if Carlos Gomez had been the final run and broke into an eight part celebration dance that cleared the benches.  Please reserve a spot for me on the Brewers bandwagon.

OMNICHATTER 6-21-2014

Saturday in the OMNICHATTER

SB Nation: Horsehide fiend: The best (and worst) platoons in baseball

Derek Norris + John Jaso = Jorek Norso

Combined numbers: .283/.382/.465, 12 HR, 45 RBI, .374 wOBA, 142 wRC+, 2.6 fWAR

Only the Brewers’ Jonathan Lucroy has been more valuable than the A’s catching combination of Norris and Jaso—and every team carries a backup catcher, right? Pretty effective. The A’s mix Jaso in at designated hitter occasionally as well, but in games where one of these two has started behind the plate, Oakland has had the best catcher in the American League this season.

It ...

Ballpark Digest: NCAA’s Emmert disses minor-league sports; teams diss Emmert

Some minor league teams are having fun with NCAA President Mark Emmert’s comment that “U.S. minor league sports aren’t very successful either for fan support or for the fan experience.”

Lucky participants who take part in the Captains in-game promotions will not be rewarded for their efforts, rather, they will have the satisfaction of just having the opportunity to participate. At the end of the game, a promotional participant will be crowned that evening’s BCS (Big Captains Superstar) ...

Hayhurst: An Insider’s Guide to Baseball’s Mysterious ‘Eephus’ Pitch

We, LaRoche’s pitching staff in 2009, had reached Triple-A by way of throwing hard. Hundreds of thousands of reps had already been logged trying to execute with fast, late-moving, sharp-acting ammo. Even if we rolled out of bed and played catch, we’d still be doing it harder than The Lob’s max velocity.

Our bodies were used to a natural velocity far exceeding the effort the normal human would put into a throw. When we wound up and lobbed the pitch, more than one of us threw the ball ...

Fangraphs: Mixing Pitches, Situationally

league averages. Let’s establish a baseline:

Bases Empty: 63% fastballs (cutters included)
Runner(s) On: 61% [...]

I looked at every pitcher who’s thrown at least 1,000 pitches since the start of 2013. The following graph plots their relevant fastball rates. The sample pool numbers nearly 400 [...]

Out of the pool, 24 pitchers have decreased their fastball rates by at least 10 percentage points with runners on base.

Hardball Times: Exploring the Shift Dynamic

As it seems, the onset of the shift has not really changed the probability of an opposite hit ball. But, for those most shifted in 2013, there has been a large decrease across the board in the value of their batted balls, with the average ground ball losing 66% of it’s value until this year—where there seems to be a spike in ground ball run values.  But the most surprising factor is the apparent effect of the shift on the fly balls and line drive value, which have both dropped significantly ...