Four Strikes And You’re Out

Ahead in the count with one ball and two strikes, Thornton froze Peralta with a slider on the outside half of the plate, a couple inches below the belt. For a pitch like that, the umpire, Bruce Dreckman, would normally call a strike — 80 percent of the time, the data shows. But in two-strike counts like Peralta’s, he calls a strike less than half the time.

This article goes on to give a quantification of the count dependent strike zone.

TL;DR version: On two strike counts, boarder line ...

MLB toughens drug agreement provisions

This happened while the servers were on the highway:

Major League Baseball and the players union, alarmed over findings in the Biogenesis case last summer, ratified an agreement Friday to strengthen their drug testing program in hopes of eradicating performance-enhancing drugs from the game.

Baseball not only stiffened its drug penalties, but for the first time will use the expensive Carbon Isotope Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), with at least one specimen from every player. The test, which costs ...

Bill James Mailbag - 4/3/14

This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt… Magnante, or whatever his name is. He’s with my opponent.

Hey Bill: I just noticed that Baseball Reference now has Mike Trout and Carlos Gomez tied for 2013 WAR leaders at 8.9 each. You show Trout as being nearly twice as valuable as Gomez (40 WS to 21.2). One expects different systems to arrive at somewhat different valuations, but a disagreement of this size strikes me as a bit bizarre. Any thoughts?

Well. ..what do you think? Do you really ...

OT: NBA Monthly Thread - April 2014

I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about the NBA, but with our own thread, we won’t detract from what this site is really about, which I forgot.

Have posts been building up inside you?

Francesa delivers screeching anti-paternity-leave rant

Francesspool: Asleep at the mic…asleep at the wheel.

Mike Francesa isn’t a big fan of paternity leave.

The WFAN radio host blasted Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy for missing the team’s first two games to be with his wife, Victoria, in Florida for the birth of their son, Noah, who was born Monday.

MLB rules allow a player to take three days away from the team on paternity leave, but Francesa believes they should never take the time.

“You’re a major-league baseball player. You can ...

Posnanski: The Home Run Summer of ‘54

He would always say a doctor called him in 1952. Bauman would not even remember the guy’s name, but he said this doctor then showed up at his filling station and offered him a contract to play for a team called the Artesia Drillers in New Mexico. Bauman had never heard of them or Artesia or, really, New Mexico. But the doctor offered steady money — $600 a month — and he said people in the stands would give him some more. Bauman agreed on the condition that for $250 he could buy back his ...

SI: Big Money Relievers Have Early Season Hiccups

Jay Jaffe dissects early season meltdowns.

OMNICHATTER: 4/3/14

Because it’s been far too long.

ESPN: Lenny Dykstra Sues Los Angeles County Over Alleged Jail Beating

Former All-Star outfielder Lenny Dykstra filed a lawsuit Wednesday saying he suffered an unprovoked and brutal beating by deputies in a Los Angeles County jail two years ago. Dykstra filed the suit seeking unspecified damages against the county and several Sheriff’s Department employees, saying his head was slammed against the wall, his teeth were knocked out and he was kicked and beaten until he was “barely breathing.”
. . .
But when the beating allegations arose at Dykstra’s fraud ...

NYT: Brayden King: What Umpires Get Wrong

THIS season Major League Baseball is allowing its officiating crews to use instant replay to review certain critical calls, including home runs, force plays and foul balls. But the calling of the strike zone — determining whether a pitch that is not swung at is a ball or a strike — will still be left completely to the discretion of the officials. This might seem an odd exception, since calling the strike zone may be the type of officiating decision most subject to human foible.

In research ...

MLB.com: Astros Shower Jeter With Applause & Gifts

First there was the pair of Yankees pinstriped Lucchese cowboy boots, emblazoned with Jeter’s No. 2. Then came the Texas-size Stetson cowboy hat, seemingly a must-have for anyone who passes through Minute Maid Park on his way to the Hall of Fame.

Pettitte, Roger Clemens and Mike Stanton, all former teammates and all Houston residents, joined Jeter on the field to present the gifts, along with longtime Astros radio announcer Milo Hamilton.

The ceremony also involved several big names from ...

Mike Trout: 6 years, $144.5 million

Trout is clearly an elite hitter already, at age 22. There is certainly no reason, on the surface, to question whether he’ll be worth his recent six-year, $144.5M extension that will carry him through his age 28 season. Still, let’s look into the game’s past and try to identify his peer group. Does he even have one? How did they age, when did they peak, and what might the future hold for Mike Trout, and for the Angels’ investment in him?

[...]

The start to Trout’s career is almost ...

The Chad Curtis Story

This one’s a little tough to take, but Hanlon did a fantastic job reporting on the story. One of the finest published pieces today.

Arizona Diamondbacks running out of supersized corn dogs - ESPN

$25. $25. $25. $25.

Sales of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ $25 corn dog have been so brisk that the team’s concessionaires can’t wait for a week-long road trip that starts Friday so that they can prep enough to be ready for the team’s April 11-13 homestand against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Diamondbacks are selling the D-Bat—an 18-inch corn dog stuffed with cheddar cheese, jalapenos and bacon and served with fries—for $25.
The 18-inch corn dog, called the D-Bat, is stuffed with cheddar cheese, ...

International scouts Craig Shipley and Mike Lord plucked Xander Bogaerts from an unlikely place. | SportsonEarth.com : Jorge Arangure Article

All hail Xander Bogaerts!!

Dick Monfort says changes at Coors Field “will pizazz it up” - The Denver Post

I bet they are not making it look more like Marlins Field.

Rays notes: Archer ready to take his turn

I hope he doesn’t drink the bad water going around.

[Chris] Archer, 25, signed a six-year, $25.5 million contract Wednesday that also has two option years, which can raise the value to $43.75 million.

“It’s outstanding,” manager Joe Maddon said. “When you get that commitment both ways, from the owners to the player and the player’s commitment back to the organization, my first thought is, that’s the way to become consistent in regards to winning and establishing a tradition. Great moment ...

Heisey’s walk-off avenges Reds’ Opening Day loss

Although he doesn’t get as low, Tony Cingrani reminds me a lot of Sid Fernandez. He slings the ball in a way that really makes it difficult for hitters to pick up the ball. That he’s sitting 93-96, only makes their task that much harder.

Cingrani went seven shutout innings. He allowed two hits, walked two and struck out nine. He threw 92 pitches, 57 of which were strikes. He’s made 19 starts in the majors. He’s never allowed more than five hits.

Cingrani, 24, is fearless. He attacked hitters ...

OTP April 2014: BurstNET Sued for Not Making Equipment Lease Payments

Pirates notebook: No word yet on Taillon’s elbow exam | TribLIVE

Is there something in the water?

The old ball game comes back to Montreal

46,000+ tonight, 50,000+ expected tomorrow.

2014 MLB CBSSports.com expert predictions

Consider this an all-purpose 2014 Predictions Thread. CBS Sportsline Predictions in the link.

ESPN American League Predictions

ESPN National League Predictions

Bob Nightengale, USA Today (Video)

The Sporting News 2014 Predictions

Sports Illustrated MLB Predictions

Sean McAdam, CSNNE.com

Beyond the Boxscore Projected Win Totals

Baseball Prospectus 2014 Projected Standings

Bovada Online Gaming Team Win Total Prop Bets (NSFW)

The Last Great Call (ESPN)

[bq]What this really was, when you think it through, was the Last Great Umpiring Call (or Calls) of the Pre-Instant Replay Era, the technology which—beginning in 2014—will permeate the lives of every umpire who ever sets foot on a major league field from now on.

Never again will six men in blue work a World Series game, or any other game, knowing there is no replay machine, no technological wizardry, hovering in the background to serve as their safety net.

Never again will there be quite the ...

ESPN: Hank the dog gets own bobblehead

The Brewers announced Thursday that popular pup Hank will have his own bobblehead night in September.

Hank is the little dog that wandered into the Brewers’ complex at spring training. The stray became the unofficial team mascot, and is now living in Milwaukee with the family of a club executive.

Bobblehead Hank night will be Sept. 13 against Cincinnati at Miller Park.

Brewers pitcher Brandon Kintzler says the team wants to help other animals in need. Part of the ticket sales from the ...

WSJ: Deee-fense: Baseball’s Big Shift Playing the field suddenly is becoming a sophisticated science

Baseball’s approach to defense, long unchanged except for the gloves getting bigger, is undergoing the most radical change in strategy since the Reconstruction Era. Defensive shifting, which started as a trend several years ago, is becoming epidemic. Major League teams “shifted” 8,134 times last season, compared with just 2,357 in 2011. [...]

Last season, the Pirates “shifted,” meaning they had three infielders on one side of second base or in significantly nontraditional positions, 494 times, ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-28-2014

The [Missoula, MT] Daily Missoulian, March 28, 1914:

Joe Jackson was piloting a team of barnstormers through the Carolinas…The local phenom who did the hurling for the home team struck out [Jackson] on one occasion. Jackson also sent up two pops to the infield.

“So that’s the kind of a swatter you are,” was the sarcastic remark made by the kid pitcher when Jackson came up the fourth time. “They must have a lot of boobs pitching up there in the American league.”

The remark roused Joe’s ire. ...

Craig Calcaterra: On journalists with access to the clubhouse vs. journalists who don’t.

A positive, constructive meeting in which Puig came away saying all the right things about wanting to be a better player and a good teammate and a manager saying that it’s all good and that everyone is heading in the right direction. No teammates, on the record or off, are saying they have continuing problems with Puig. It’s a sourced and reported story of a team nipping a problem in the bud.

But this all happened on Tuesday. Before Bill Plaschke wrote a column in which Puig was a cancer ...

Miguel Cabrera and Tigers agree on eight-year, $248 million extension

Miguel Cabrera, the best hitter in baseball, will also be the best-paid player in the game when the slugger and the Detroit Tigers finalize what multiple reports say would be the biggest contract extension in baseball history based on average annual value.

Cabrera and the Tigers have agreed on an extension that would keep an Olde English “D” on Cabrera’s chest through 2023. It’s worth $248 million over eight years and kicks in after Cabrera finishes his old deal, which still has two ...

Posnanski: At WAR with Pedro

The W.A.N.D. (The Whiff Always Negates Defeat)

Somebody asked me this question on Twitter: If I could have any pitcher from any time pitch one game… who would I choose?

I immediately typed: Pedro. 1999… Any baseball pitching question can be answered, somehow, by: Pedro, 1999. I would actually like to answer ALL questions that way. When I go fill up gas, and the little pump screen asks: “Cash or Credit” I’d love to be able to type in: Pedro, 1999.

Anyway, the choice lit up the Twitter ...

Nationals star Bryce Harper works hard to take care of his body

a companion piece for the David Wells article…

Bryce Harper’s diet veers between world-class athlete and overgrown kid, which makes sense because that’s what he is. Harper pours glutamine powder into yogurt-and-fruit shakes and drops amino vitamins into homemade organic juice. He also scarfs his mom’s made-from-scratch cooking. He sneaks Klondike Bars, Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes and Double Stuff Oreos. He does not drink Red Bull or Five-Hour Energy, both full of sugar and caffeine ...