Sun Sports gets credit for trying something a little different for Sunday’s broadcast of the Rays-Braves game. The broadcast was dubbed “Sabermetrics Sunday.’’ The network spent most of the pregame show and game teaching fans about sabermetrics, the use of formulas and numbers to measure and, perhaps, predict what happens in a game. Many teams such as the Rays use these numbers to form lineups and rosters that they believe give them the best chance to ...
As for his swing, it has been helped by a three-pound medicine ball the size of a bowling ball. During spring training, the White Sox’ new manager, Robin Ventura, and their new hitting coach, Jeff Manto, noticed that Dunn was lunging as he swung. He was shifting his weight forward inhis stride, therefore depriving him of power.
Ventura suggested a drill that he and Manto used as players - placing a medicine ball between Dunn’s legs during flip drills, while a ...
Berkman said immediately after Saturday’s game that he did feel a sensation similar to what he experienced when he tore his right anterior cruciate ligament in November 2005. Sunday, he couldn’t dismiss the possibility and its implications.
“If I’ve re-torn my ACL or something like that, I’d certainly get it fixed but you don’t know how psychologically you’re going to come back from something like that,” Berkman said. “I’m not talking from the standpoint of being scared ...
This collision wasn’t of the intentional variety, though. It came on a wild pitch in the fourth inning. Collin Cowgill of the A’s slid into home head-first. He arrived right as Lincecum was getting down to his knees to catch the throw from Posey and Cowgill’s momentum carried him up and through Lincecum. Cowgill’s helmet hit Lincecum on the chin. The timing and placement of everything couldn’t have been worse for Lincecum.
Scherzer struck out 15 Pittsburgh Pirates, one short of tying the Tigers’ record, and became the winning pitcher when his teammates scored three runs for him in the bottom of the seventh — en route to a 4-3 victory.
Alex Avila’s slow-rolling grounder through a drawn-in infield, after a passed ball by catcher Rod Barajas moved runners from first and second to second and third, proved to be the difference.
Not only did the Tigers need those runs, but Avila desperately ...
Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced at a press conference Tuesday his plans to give the pitching mound a few days of rest to fully recover from enduring eight grueling innings of hurler CC Sabathia.
(closes eyes…plunks down swooning Invisible Mouth cut…forgets)
It was strange outing for Ivan Nova Saturday at Yankee Stadium. He seemed to strike out everybody, yet when his six innings were up the Yankees were trailing, 5-3, in a game they eventually lost to the Reds, 6-5.
...Only five of the 18 batters who made outs against Nova did so without striking out as the righthander established a career high in punchouts. Nevertheless, his overall performance would have to be rated mediocre since ...
Sufferin’ Scherrerers…a look back at the 1982 Reds.
The ’82 Reds had a lethal combination of lackluster young players, veterans who had off-years and big-name players on the downside of their careers. Result: Last in the National League West, 28 games out.
“I try to forget everything I can about that year,” said Ron Oester, second baseman on the ’82 team. “That was the longest year of my baseball career.”
...After ’81, then-Reds general manager Dick Wagner engineered a roster ...
With my fizzling “Szilárd Splittorff Bombs” fantasy team. Not so much.
Fielder’s numbers may still be below his normal pace of excellence (.303 average, seven homers, 24 RBIs), a pace that would leave him under 30 homers and 100 RBIs for the season. But numbers can change fast. And a powerhouse like Fielder can go a tear that makes fantasy league devotees salivate.
His analysis of the Tigers’ season so far is pretty simple:
“I guess we just haven’t won as many games as people expected. It ...
Outfielder Sam Fuld will be joining Rays broadcasters Dewayne Staats and Brian Anderson in the booth for the finale of Tampa Bay’s Interleague series with Atlanta. Fuld will primarily provide sabermetric analysis throughout the game.
...
“I think that’s the one part of the game that [people] can probably make some more advancements on,” Fuld said about being able to quantify defensive ability.
The fans at Progressive Field were cheering for him.
“I’m tired of getting booed at home,” Perez said. “So I figured I’d throw some strikes today. You can quote that.”
...That is when fans sent a chorus of cat calls in Perez’s direction.
“They booed me against the Mariners when I had two guys on,” Perez said. “It feels like I can’t even give up a baserunner without people booing me. It’s even worse when there’s only 5,000 in ...
In a curious move, the Chicago White Sox appear set to sign four-time Gold Glove second baseman Orlando Hudson…
Hudson, 34, was released Thursday by the Padres after batting .211 with one home run, 11 RBIs and three stolen bases in 35 games. The Sox would be off the hook for the remaining $5.85 million on Hudson’s salary, minus the pro-rated minimum of $480,000, once he clears waivers…
Hudson is expected to play third base—a position he has never played—and back up at second.
From CBS Sports’ Danny Knobler comes word that the Blue Jays placed first baseman Adam Lind on outright waivers Friday, no more than 24 hours after optioning the 28-year-old to Triple-A Las Vegas.
Lind is free to be claimed by any other major league team, but that club would have to take on the $8.5 million in guaranteed money left on a contract that runs through 2016 (not including whatever is still owed to Lind from his $5 million salary for 2012).
Many people, including you, have stated that there is no real reason why a left-handed catcher could not play at the major league level. Could this be an inefficiency that could be exploited, or does the tradition go too far down the levels of baseball to allow a major league team to take advantage of the inefficiency?
Well. . .the tradition going way down the ladder is not necessarily a problem; in fact, it could help you make it work… We draft a lot of “conversion” guys; I think all ...
Why can’t the Red Sox get cheap productive players like this?
As the A’s go into their 40th game, and close to the quarter mark of the season. how does Josh Reddick compare to other OF options the A’s could have possibly gone after this offseason?
At the league minimum, he’s been an incredible bargain; a steal. Carlos Beltran and Michael Cuddyer weren’t in the range in terms of salary, but I had thought Josh Willingham was not only a decent gamble, but fan favorite. Using Fangraphs Dollars ...
One reason so many teams get so little out of that spot is … well … they give the job to a mediocre hitter. You’d think it elementary that a manager wants to have his better batters bat the most, but what can you say when the majority of White Sox lineups have had Brent Morel or Gordon Beckham batting 2nd? Their career OBPs before this year were .285 and .318, respectively. Sure, no one foresaw them being as horrid as they’ve been so ...
Hey…who wouldn’t pay good money to see Alan Ogg getting out of a clown car?
The Rangers are the the ones who are the Miami Heat of baseball. This truth is never more apparent than when they roll into the home of their Houston counterparts, their American League forced, would-be future division rivals, and absolutely take over.
Make no mistake, this is what’s happening at Minute Maid Park this weekend. It doesn’t matter if you’re among the many (maybe 60 percent?) of the 34,000-plus (take that ...
So, while our eyes tell us that Murphy is getting the job done in the field, the numbers tell us the exact opposite thing. Which one should we believe?
Sometimes the eyes show us what we want to see and believe. That is why it is important to have non-biased numbers to fall back on. Perhaps being a Murphy fan has caused me to minimize his defensive shortcomings and exaggerate his achievements in the field. David Wright seems to be doing a great job at the ...
As mentioned earlier, Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson was at Comerica Park on Friday to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Tigers and Pirates. He also took part in batting practice with the Tigers and hit a home run.
Johnson attended the game with his fellow receivers, and Nate Burleson also took part in some batting practice and hit a ball to the warning track. He wasn’t able to send one out like Johnson, but like I said before, ...
“Guests may not carry in the following items: Laptop computers.”
Okay…so that wasn’t the problem.
After going to old Yankee Stadium for four decades, Dusty Baker had a slight delay on his first trip to the new ballpark.
“It’s hard to get in this bad boy,” the Cincinnati Reds manager said Friday before his team opened an interleague series in the Bronx. “Some guy asked me today, `Could I help you?’ I was in the front, trying to get in. I said, `Yeah. I’m here for the game.’ He goes, `The ...
Hight believes the “Moneyball” theories of Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane can reduce his maddening inconsistency of last year, when he won five races—including four of the first nine—but was eliminated eight times in first rounds, including the last two races of the regular season and first two in the Countdown playoffs.
“We were all or nothing last year,” said Hight, who finished fourth in the standings in 2011. “This year, we ...
Oswalt, a free-agent right-hander, threw bullpen sessions for the Philadelphia Phillies last week and the Boston Red Sox this week, according to major-league sources.
He is scheduled to throw for two additional teams, one on Friday, one source said. The identities of those teams are not known.
Oswalt intends to sign with a team soon, possibly within the next week, and could pitch in the majors by mid- to late June, sources said.
Getting an ump suspended is apparently an offense that gets you suspended as well.
Major League Baseball has suspended Bob Davidson one game for “repeated violations of the Office of the Commissioner’s stanards for situation handling.”
While MLB says this is a culmination of several incidents (and they’re not wrong) it would appear Tuesday’s incident with Phillies manager Charlie Manuel put it over the top. Manuel was also suspended a game, but for just the one incident, not ...
Darn it! He gets hurt just when he should be improving his hitting to .300 in June.
Cubs catcher Geovany Soto has a tear in the meniscus in his left knee and will undergo arthroscopic surgery, which will sideline him about three weeks.
...
Soto said he had some discomfort when he woke up Thursday. He was hitting .161 with three home runs and six RBIs this season, and has started 27 of the Cubs 37 games. Although his batting average is low, he’s shown some improvement. He hit .127 in April and ...
I hope he comes back and hits .900 his first week back.
“That’s what I wrote and that’s what I heard—and again, I don’t know that that would be a shock, given that he is a declining player, given what happened with Valentine’s comment [questioning Youkilis’ desire],” Rosenthal said. “But this is a situation that, as I write, is going to play itself out. Because, most likely, with Middlebrooks slumping now, we’re going to see Youkilis back on the field, and we’re going to see what he can do.
