FanGraphs: Petti: CC Sabathia’s Velocity Is Definitely Worth Watching

For over 40 years, Velocity Watchers has helped hundreds of pitchers around the world to lose velocity!

Every year we hear stories about pitchers whose fastballs don’t seem to have the same life as last year. The most talked about are typically front-line starters that rely on their fastballs. In early 2013, the name that’s being discussed the most is Yankee ace CC Sabathia.

Throughout spring training, Sabathia’s velocity has been a point of concern. Coming off of elbow surgery during ...

Mad About the Cost of TV? Blame Sports

Your cable bill—$80 or $90, or whatever it is—is best understood as two prices. The programming (i.e. the channels you watch) and the distribution (i.e. the infrastructure and profits for the cable companies). Every time you pay a cable bill, the channels collect a small fee. It’s called an “affiliate fee.” The most in-demand channels tend to negotiate the highest fees. And those tend to be sports channels. Take a look.

By my rough calculation, if you pay $90 a month for cable, you are ...

Free Szymborki! Dan on the Royals and the AL Central

For all of you dying to hear Dan Szymborki - with no pay wall restrictions and no annoying Fan Graphs formatting - explain to hopeful Royals fans why they will finish fourth in the AL Central this season. 

Flashback, 1960: When Jerry Reinsdorf Played Softball, He Played For Keeps

The King and his Court-ing Hank Greenberg.

The student nine was ahead, looking like it had the chance to notch its first victory over the faculty in years, when the plot thickened. The faculty called time out and appointed Greenberg honorary dean for the day, a move that made him a de facto member of its side and sent the man with the .313 career batting average, 331 home runs and 1,276 RBI to bat.

Reinsdorf, who had anticipated the faculty would pull some such underhanded stunt, countered by ...

Theo Epstein pleased with where organization is at

Oh, he’s just like any team president, only more so.

The second-year Cubs president entertained reporters for about 10 minutes before his team beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1.

“Good, excited,” Epstein said of his feelings. “I think we made a lot of progress last year. Now, it’s time to go out and compete and see if we can get off to a good start and see if we can find ourselves right in the middle of this thing, as we want to be.”

Talking outside the Cubs clubhouse to avoid a morning ...

ESPN: Robinson Cano fires Scott Boras as his agent

There are tea leaves, and then there are tea fronds...

New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano, who is in line to become the most sought-after free agent next fall, has decided to change agents and walk away from Scott Boras, according to sources.

It remains to be seen whether this alters the trajectory of Canos talks with the Yankees, who have been trying to sign the star second baseman.

TSL: Roland Martin tries to rekindle his love affair with baseball

Speak, Brother! I hate you Donnie Baseball!

I’ve tried to remember why my passion for the game dissipated, and the only thing I could think of was reading a Sports Illustrated magazine piece that dealt with problems in baseball. I recall a Don Mattingly quote where he said all he wanted to do was come to the park, play and go home.

Forget the autographs. Forget the playing to the fans. It was all about him.

And with that - poof! - baseball lost me.

... So three years ago I tried to ...

Allen Barra: Good News, Yankees Fans: 2014 is Only a Year Away

From George Ignatin down to Athlon Sports…oh, how the mighty.

Over the last few years, I’ve tended to skip reading preseason baseball magazines—too many air-headed predictions made by people without a firm grasp of statistics and economics. Athlon Sports’ Baseball Previews, though, is both hip and smart, and always has something surprising to say about every team.

I love their little factoids. No, wait, I won’t call this one a factoid because it says something important about a Yankees ...

NY Times: Modern Stats Bring WAR to Broadcast Booth (B.A.B.I.P., Too)

As players, managers and front office executives embrace the esoteric statistics, teams increasingly want their radio announcers just as fluent in the language of WAR, VORP and B.A.B.I.P. (Those stand for wins above replacement, value over replacement player and batting average on balls in play, for those of you dusting off your radios as the season begins.)

“They wanted a broadcaster who is at least comfortable with exploring the idea of discussing advanced statistics and what they mean,” ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-2-2013

Toledo News Bee, April 2, 1913:

Manager Chance has hit on the idea of using a headgear when he goes to the bat this year. The Yankee manager is confident that with the use of the dress he will regain his old confidence and be as good as he ever was with the stick.

A helmet? For batting? That’s just crazy talk.

LA Times: Baseball books cover the bases

Among the most compelling baseball books this season is UCLA law professor Stuart Banner’s “The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption” (Oxford University Press: 304 pp., $29.95), a look at the game’s idiosyncratic legal status: Of all the major sports, it is the only one exempt from federal antitrust law.

How did this happen? “The most common explanation emphasizes the unique position of baseball in American culture,” Banner writes, before arguing that like ...

Opening Day II: Electric Boogaloo OMNICHATTER

The Orioles, Rays, Jays and Indians get their season started, while some other teams “merely” are playing game 2.

Clayton Kershaw hits a home run, twirls a shutout on opening day

With all due respect to Bryce Harper, who had a pretty great day of his own, Clayton Kershaw just turned in the best performance of opening day so far. The Dodgers’ ace hit a solo homer and pitched a complete-game shutout against the rival Giants on Monday afternoon.

Kershaw, 25, hit the homer on George Kontos’ first pitch of the eighth inning. The game was scoreless at the time, so it wasn’t a cheap tack-on homer or anything. It was pretty big. The Dodgers went on to score three more runs in ...

Gaines: Cyberbullied By Chipper Jones

McLean living my ass.

Pete Gaines, a friend of the site, said something stupid on Twitter to Chipper Jones over the weekend, and then spent most of the day day getting blasted—at Chipper’s Bieber-style behest—by both Jones and his followers. It was ugly and dumb and went on for hours, and we asked him to write about it.

Perhaps I was miffed that Jones’ mere presence happened across my Twitter timeline. I’ve heard stories over the years of Jones’ hypocrisy—that he put on a convincing ...

Miami Marlins at Washington Nationals - April 1, 2013

Placido Polanco batted 4th today for the Marlins.

This isn’t an April Fools Day post.

Dylan Bundy shut down with elbow stiffness

Well…so much for Bundy having to wear a phony sling now.

Orioles top prospect Dylan Bundy has been shut down after experiencing some mild elbow tightness in his throwing arm.

“He’s going to rest it for a few more days until it goes away, and we expect that to be in a couple of days and then at that point he would resume his throwing,” Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said. “He’s had some tightness for a couple of days. I think it came to light last week.”

Duquette said Bundy ...

OT: NBA Monthly Thread - April 2013

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: the Oxford comma and unspeakable criminal acts.

Final Cut by John D’Acquisto

John D’Acquisto reflects on the upside & downside of being one of Billy Martin’s “guys” in Oakland and the Spring Training aftermath when Martin was fired.

Report: Rangers, Elvis Andrus agree to long-term extension

No foolin’?

CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman reports that the Rangers and shortstop Elvis Andrus have agreed to an eight-year, $120 million extension.
Andrus’ current contract ran through 2014, so the extension locks him up through 2022. Heyman reports that the combined remaining value of the current contract and the extension means the Rangers are committed to paying Andrus $131 million over the next 10 years.

Opening Day Poz

Which leads to the end of the Joe Mantegna story. When he got older, he would take his kids to Wrigley Field. And when they got there, he found that he would start reminiscing. He would tell them that there used to be no lights in the ballpark. Every game was a day game. Time would just stand still in that wonderful old park, where Billy Williams unleashed his sweet swing and Don Kessinger ranged deep into the hole for a play and Moe Drabowsky fired fastballs.

Then, Mantegna would remember and ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-1-2013

Pittsburgh Press, April 1, 1913:

Pitcher Jack Frost has an odd title among the Reds. Instead of calling him “lengthy” or “Long Jack”, they address him as “Roomy”.
...
No more baseball for Freddie Blanding in 1913. The star slabman for the Naps injured his leg in practice tryouts and is in a serious condition. “The injury is serious,” says Manager Birmingham. “The bone has been clipped and Fred will probably be out of the game during the coming season.”

The injury “limited” Blanding to 41 ...

Justice: Opening victory is bold step for Porter, Astros

I haven’t seen so many Texans step forward since The Hugh Beaumont Experience held a band reunion!

Anyway, on this one Sunday night, the Astros, this team no one expects anything from, played a perfect baseball game. They ran the bases aggressively and forced the Rangers into a couple of mistakes. They got great pitching from Bud Norris and Erik Bedard.

Ankiel hit a three-run pinch-homer, and Maxwell drove in two runs and made a couple of flashy plays in center field to back, and the Astros ...

Bryce Harper looking beyond ‘the baseball guy’

“I don’t want everybody to just see the baseball side of me,” Harper said, embracing the stardom that brings screaming fans (young, old, male, female) to every ballpark.

“I want everybody to see the other side of me, too — that I can be on a magazine with jeans and a T-shirt on and my hair done and things like that. I don’t want just me in my baseball hat all the time just the boring, old, ‘Look it’s Bryce Harper with eye black on again.’ I like people seeing the other ...

Robertson: Mike Redmond a perfect fit as Marlins manager

Okay, so maybe it’s not Tim Johnson doing the Frug with Ann-Margret in Danang…but Mike Redmond is in need of a tracer.

For Redmond, a former Marlin catcher, that means Miami is at the bottom of a well of opportunity.

“We have guys with a lot to prove,” he said while the Marlins held a workout to prepare for Monday’s 1:05 p.m. game against the Washington Nationals. “Nobody gives us a chance. So, we can’t lose.”

It’s the only attitude he can take, and it comes to him naturally. ...

Cincinnati: Opening Day parade is about more than just baseball

I once got stuck behind something called The King Frost Parade...almost made me want to get a bent twig and go fishing. Again, almost.

To Cincinnatians, the parade is about more than just baseball. The parade is steeped in tradition that goes back nearly 100 years.

The parade is somewhat of a holiday in Cincinnati.

“This is Cincinnati’s unofficial holiday,” said parade chairman Neil Luken. “I mean it’s kind of, you can say, Thanksgiving or Christmas. You just say Opening Day and people ...

Opening Day OMNICHATTER

12 games, one day (we don’t get 15 games because we can’t have nice things). Aces of varying quality on the mound. 162 games to October. Buckle up.

Sportspickle:  Next 2013 Slogans for All 30 MLB Teams

Atlanta Braves: Lots of Uptons.

Baltimore Orioles: Hoping for back-to-back fluke seasons.

Boston Red Sox: At least we’re not the Yankees…

Los Angeles Angels: Let’s hope money buys championships. Oh, ####. The Lakers.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Let’s hope money buys championships. Oh, ####. The Lakers.

Miami Marlins: Yeah, don’t get attached to Giancarlo Stanton.

nothing much to add

Miguel Tejada makes the Royals’ opening day roster

When a record 5 GDP leading seasons just ain’t enough!

Though he hasn’t played in the majors since Aug. 30, 2011, Miguel Tejada has earned a spot on the opening day roster for the Kansas City Royals.

Tejada, 38, paved the way for his comeback with a huge spring. He hit .333/.351/.444 with four doubles in 37 plate appearances for the Royals. He also played in the World Baseball Classic for the Dominican Republic, hitting .316/.350/.368 with a double in 20 plate appearances.

Tejada is a ...

Japanese high school pitcher throws 232-pitch complete game, returns on three days rest

According to Baseball America’s Ben Badler, Japanese high school pitcher Tomohiro Anraku has taken on a workload this week that might make Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo pass out or consider checking into an institution.

In just five days, the 16-year-old Anraku has been asked to throw an astounding 22 innings and 391 total pitches during tournament play in his home country.

Then ran 3 miles to school uphill in the snow.

How to Write about Baseball in the Major Leagues

Two writers - Peter Abraham and Jayson Stark - talk about their craft.