Should Kevin Gausman and James Paxton Throw More High Fastballs? | FanGraphs Baseball

More good stuff from Jeff Sullivan.

A platoon in right field could render Alex Rodriguez unnecessary - Pinstripe Alley

Brian Cashman has had a very good off-season. He didn’t make a big splash in free agency but he’s made a lot of smart moves. Picking up Garrett Jones is one of them. He’s not a impact guy but he should be a very useful hitter in Yankee Stadium.

Crew remains in market for bullpen help | brewers.com

We are now into the cheap reliever signing period of the off-season.

MiLB.com: Mariners Prospect Arrested After ABL Brawl

Bit of a dust up Down Under:

Mariners pitching prospect Troy Scott was arrested in Adelaide on Thursday on an assault charge stemming from an on-field incident during an Australian Baseball League game.‘Scott, a 2013 18th-round Draft pick, allegedly appears on video punching Melbourne designated hitter Kellin Deglan, a Rangers prospect and former first-round pick, during a bench-clearing brawl on Jan. 16. According to a report in The (Adelaide) Advertiser, the punch left Deglan with “facial ...

Baseball America: From The BA Archives: The Great Debate

Wow! The one that sorta started it all…the 10-year adversary of the legendary stats-vs-scouts roundtable discussion at Baseball America!

Ten years ago, Alan Schwarz spoke with Eddie Bane, Gary Hughes, Gary Huckabay and Voros McCracken to discuss the risks of high school pitchers, the use of minor league statistics, plate discipline as a tool and much more. BA takes a dive into the archives to present it here.

Where does the Mets’ future lay? A look at the farm system and prospects | NJ.com

Paul DePodesta answers a few questions on the Mets farm system.

Cuban infielder Moncada clears government hurdle | MLB.com

OK, where does he sign? I’m guessing the Yankees.

A cut above: Best tools of Top 100 Prospects list | MLB.com

Jim Callis writes about the best tools.

Breaking down MLB.com’s Top 100 Prospects | MLB.com

Jonathan Mayo breaks down the changes to last year’s list.

MLB.com 2015 Prospect Watch | MLB.com

Over the night they have changed the formatting on their list. It’s not an improvement. Nevertheless, here’s MLB.com’s 2015 Top 100 Prospects.

(Here’s a link to the old format.

Puig says Cardinals are Dodgers’ biggest adversary

Yasiel Puig is really close with a particular family in Los Angeles, and that family has a 10-year-old Cardinals-loving boy who has made it his mission to exasperate the Dodgers’ eccentric outfielder….

“His mom calls him ‘The Cardinal,’” Puig deadpanned. “We don’t even know his name anymore. … I take him to the stadium, I put the tickets under my name, I introduce him to all of my teammates, and he shows up with a Cardinals shirt. He’s driving me nuts. I can’t win with him. His cousins all ...

John D’Acquisto Remembers the Late Charlie Williams

When you hear the cliché about the one guy that keeps everybody loose in the clubhouse, that was Charlie. Always cracking wise, always busting chops, always making those around him laugh. Except on the golf course. The boy could flat out swing. At least a four handicap in his day. We all knew he was unbeatable. Didn’t stop some of our teammates from trying to take him down, though. We played a round once during Spring Training, 1973, me, Charlie, our teammate Ronny Bryant, along with Davy ...

Minor League Legend Rocky Bridges Dies at 87

There are minor league legends, and then there was Rocky Bridges. Jim Bouton called Bridges his favorite manager, even though he never played for him. Why? Because Bridges made the game fun for his players.

Bridges was also the man who dubbed Mike Epstein “Superjew” and Greg Minton “Moon Man.”

The Rays’ Kind of Fastball | FanGraphs Baseball

More good stuff from Jeff Sullivan.

Last season, Rays pitchers threw 56% of their fastballs at least two and a half feet off the ground, which is approximately the vertical middle of the strike zone. This was the highest rate for any team in baseball. The Nationals finished second, but they’ve also lost prolific high-fastball throwers in Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano. They’ve been open to moving Jordan Zimmermann. The league average, by the way, was a hair under 48%.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-30-2015

A followup on yesterday’s Link of the Day, from the Pittsburgh Press, January 30, 1915:

Two major leagues only will be recognized by the powers of organized baseball so long as the civic laws of the land permit the operation of the national pastime under existing circumstances.
...
A number of promoters of fast minor league clubs evidently have fooled themselves into the idea that their circuit will be granted classification equal to the big two. It is a foolish hope.
...
According to stories ...

Taking a dip into prospects’ BABIP numbers | MiLB.com News | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball

Sam Dykstra helps to make a little extra sense of minor league numbers.

Which prospects will make the Top 100 cut? | mets.com

MLB.com is releasing its Top 100 list tonight. Since they include video, put together a good list, and update their rankings during the season, it’s become one my favorites.

(Sorry about not being able to embed the video. There doesn’t seem to be any way to do it.)

BILL JAMES ON FIELDING, PART 7

My locker was back-to-back with Campy’s. I came in one day with a New York paper and showed Campy the box score. “This says Erskine losing pitcher,” I said. “Shouldn’t it say Campanella losing catcher?” He just smiled and said, “You can always shake me off.” But if you shook off Campy, you had to explain it to Walter Alston, the manager.

Omar Minaya to leave San Diego Padres, join MLBPA as special adviser

The former New York Mets general manager left his job as senior vice president of the San Diego Padres on Thursday to become a special adviser to Major League Baseball Players Association head Tony Clark.

Minaya will focus on international affairs and game development in the U.S., including amateur ball. The number of Dominican and Cuban players in the major leagues has increased, and management hopes to get agreement on an international draft in the collective bargaining agreement that ...

Fangraphs: Last Year’s Minor-League WAR Leaders, If That Existed

Finally, with regard to defense, I’ve made no attempt even to estimate something along the lines of runs saved. Instead, I’ve utilized only a rough approximation of each player’s positional adjustment — which figures one can derive (following the application of some minor arithmetic) from the Steamer projections available at the site.

Having first calculated and then found the sum of those first three figures (i.e. Bat, BsR, and Def), I then also added the replacement-run total [(PA / ...

How Has BABIP Held Up as Leaguewide Offense Slides Ever Lower? | Banished to the Pen

Interesting.

Manfred talks pace, players and plans as he takes office | FOX Sports

Ken Rosenthal sits down with Commissioner Manfred.

Link to video

Montreal threat a reminder of how MLB once touted Tampa | TBO.com and The Tampa Tribune

Major League Baseball views local communities as groups to be exploited.

Baseball Prospectus | BP Unfiltered: People Are Currently Reading The 2015 BP Annual And You Could Be Next

I’ve really liked the improvements BP has made to their annuals and web site over the last few years. For example, in the past you didn’t know who was responsible for the team essays and player comments. Now, they make it clear. It might be a small thing for you, but it makes a real difference for me.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-29-2015

Pittsburgh Press, January 29, 1915:

Three new major leagues, technically so, will greet the playing season of 1915. That was the outlook today with the announcement that the draft rule will be lifted from the American association. Letting down the bars for the association will necessitate doing likewise for the International league and the Pacific coast loop, and then Organized Baseball will have shot its latest and strongest 42-sentimeter [sic] projectile at the Federals.
...
[National League] ...

Top 100 prospects of 2015 including Kris Bryant, Byron Buxton and more - ESPN ($PAY$)

The first of Top 100 prospect lists to appear.

It’s behind the pay wall. (You can get Insider access cheapest by buying an ESPN The Mag subscription for about $10.)

Top 50 Breakdown and the 51-60 breakdown.

Sports Collectors Daily: 15 Baseball Cards of Players Who Met Tragic Endings

6. Len Koenecke, 1932 New York Giants schedule postcard: Len Koenecke didn’t make the majors until he was 28, didn’t even start playing minor league baseball until he was 24, and he died before he could make up for the lost time.

His death, which came just 265 games into his big league career, may rank as most bizarre in baseball history. Two days after being released by the Brooklyn Dodgers in September 1935, Koenecke got into an altercation with a pilot during a flight. The pilot hit ...

Baseball’s Choice: Change or Die | VICE Sports

They don’t need a big clock. They need umpires to enforce the rules already in place. Such a change wouldn’t require negotiation with the union. Such a change wouldn’t generate another distracting clock on my TV screen or at the ball park. Yet, it would accomplish the goal.

Baseball is a great game. It doesn’t need radical overhauls to stay popular. It just needs to be tweaked to keep the action moving and to help it fit into our busy lifestyles.

The timeless—in not having a clock, and in ...

Maybe the Last Key for Carlos Carrasco | FanGraphs Baseball

Jeff Sullivan breaks down Carlos Carrasco emergence as a quality starter last season.

The problem with mechanical fixes is they can be kind of like momentum: they’re only as good as the next day’s game. Ubaldo Jimenez looked like he was fixed, until he wasn’t fixed anymore. On the other hand, that’s one example, and unlike Carlos Carrasco, Jimenez no longer has Mickey Callaway as a coach. Probably, Carrasco isn’t going to be as good as Clayton Kershaw and Felix Hernandez going forward. ...

Is old school Pat Gillick the right man for his new job?

David Murphy thinks Pat Gillick is an old dog.