The offseason offers an opportunity to reflect on the pressing sabremeteric questions of the times: free agent value, fielding metrics, pitchf/x release points. All worthy and important pursuits. Here, though, I hope you will indulge me as I address something much more trivial: the network (or “graph,” as Zuck would say) of baseball players’ twitter accounts.

You see, some baseball players tweet, and, not surprisingly, they follow other baseball players. But what does the network of these connections look like? Are teammates more likely to follow one another? Surely, but how much more likely? If player A follows player B, how likely is it that player B follows player A? And, more generally, how connected is the network — in other words how likely is it that any one player follows another?

Read the rest of this entry »

Marginally Important News
In which the author examines some news that’s maybe less-than-fit to print.

Arbitration Deadline Tomorrow
A total of 21 teams have at least one decision to make in offering arbitration to eligible free agents tomorrow. MLB Trade Rumors has a complete list. Among the more interesing cases: Derek Jeter, Frank Francisco, Felipe Lopez (a Type B free agent), Paul Konerko, J.J. Putz.

Cubs Leave M. Smith Off 40-Man
Chicago third-base prospect Marquez Smith was noted in these pages late last month for his favorable ZiPS minor-league translation (zMLE). Now he’s being noted for another reason — namely, for being excluded from the Cubs 40-man roster (and thus eligible in December’s Rule 5 Draft). Though contact remains a (legitimate) issue for the 25-year-old Smith, TotalZone likes his defense to the tune of 1.0 to 1.5 wins per season.

Dan Moore Uses Word “Machinations” in Title of Post
Let’s just celebrate that, is all.

Read the rest of this entry »

First base isn’t where you’d expect to see a low-power, slick-fielding player. Those players you’ll typically see in an up-the-middle position. The same goes for left field. On the defensive spectrum the two positions furthest to the right — that is, positions that are the least difficult to play — are left field and first base. We can also lump in DH and right field with those. Unsurprisingly, those positions produced the most power in 2010. Of the top 10 finishers in ISO, nine played first base, an outfield corner, or DH. Only Troy Tulowitzki at No. 10 broke the trend.

Read the rest of this entry »

This afternoon, Joey Votto is almost certainly going to be awarded the National League MVP for 2010. You can make a case for some other guys who also had great years, but Votto is certainly a deserving recipient. What is interesting to me is how quickly Votto has blown past the ceiling that was put on him as a prospect.

Read the rest of this entry »

Paul DePodesta got his man to manage the Mets. The team hired former Angels and Astros manager Terry Collins over Bob Melvin and Wally Backman over the weekend, filling the void left by the deposed Jerry Manuel. In Collins’s six seasons as manager, his teams finished second five times and fourth once, compiling an overall 444-434 record. This marks the first major move by the Mets front office since Sandy Alderson and his high profile front office took over.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the weekend I discovered Alec Zumwalt’s name. Zumwalt’s career is unspectacular and mostly unworthy of examination. The only interesting thing about his toils came as a last resort to change his outlook. Drafted as an outfielder, the Braves converted Zumwalt to the mound. His ability to throw hard translates to the mound to some extent, as he was able to pitch in the low-90s. His command lacked polish and, and he never reached the majors in any capacity – although the Devil Rays did take him in a Rule 5 draft.

Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this month, new Arizona Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers declined first baseman Adam LaRoche’s $7.5 million option for the 2011 season, preferring instead to pay a $1.5 million buyout. Yesterday, Towers sent a teenage arm to the New York Yankees to pick up a long-time minor leaguer with a LaRoche-like skill set.

Arizona acquired first baseman Juan Miranda from the Yankees in exchange for right-handed prospect Scott Allen. Miranda, 27 or 29 depending upon which bio you believe, has scarce big league experience, putting up a 112 wRC+ in 94 plate appearances with New York over the past three seasons. He defected from Cuba in 2004, but wasn’t granted citizenship in the Dominican Republic until 2006. The Yankees inked the lefty batter to a $2 million deal in ’06. In more than 1,200 Triple-A PA since, Miranda has a .287/.374/.481 triple-slash, an 11.4 percent walk rate and a .194 Isolated Power.

Read the rest of this entry »

South Korea beat Taiwan 9-3 Friday in the Asian Games baseball final. Fans of South Korean baseball are celebrating, but Cleveland fans are probably excited, too, as this likely exempts outfielder Shin-Soo Choo from his mandatory two years of South Korean military service. That’s obviously good news for the Cleveland franchise, as he’s been their best player the last couple of seasons. It is also great for Choo himself, given his age and his arbitration status. During the 2010 MLB playoffs, certain writers on Twitter made comments that went something like this: “[Player X] prolly made himself $15 million dollars with that home run,” which led to much parody among the snarkier circles of the Nerdosphere. It was all in good fun, as such claims were more than a bit silly. However, in Choo’s case he may very well have made tens of millions of dollars with this one game.

Read the rest of this entry »

Every year there are several players that surprise and disappoint with their power numbers. Today, I am going to look at the players (min of 400 PA) that increased or decreased their ISO the most from 2009 to 2010. Besides just looking at the numbers, I have gone ahead and run a LOESS regression against some player’s line drive and fly ball data to help find the cause of the change in power. First of all, here are the leaders and laggards:

Read the rest of this entry »

Many commenters to my post yesterday and to David’s original post asked about batter pace. Obviously batters can control the time between pitches (pace) by stepping out of the box often and by spending lots of time out of the box when they do (i.e. step out). Also, based on the results from yesterday’s post, the pace slows for hitters in two-strike counts and when there are runners on, who have a high strikeout rate (because they face more two-strike counts), and who bat with men on base. So I wanted to see how much variability there is in batter pace and take a quick look at the leader board.

Read the rest of this entry »