If you listened to people like David Ortiz or the “Curly-Haired Boyfriend,” you would think that the Red Sox season was mere seconds from hitting the iceberg. But that is hardly the case. Despite their pitching woes — the Red Sox rotation has compiled a 6.43 ERA in the past 30 days, the next-to-worst mark in the game — the Red Sox aren’t in any real danger of missing the playoffs. The Red Sox’s TOTAL% didn’t drop at all last week, and is higher than it was a month ago. Nearly everyone on their offense is performing well right now, and the one player who isn’t — Dustin Pedroia — won’t be cold for long. In addition, the Sox still have seven games left with their whipping boys, the Baltimore Orioles. A story of the big, bad Red Sox choking would whip the mainstream media into a frenzy the likes of which we rarely see, but in a month devoid of easy storylines, the “Boston’s rapid demise” story will almost certainly amount to little more than media wishcasting.

(As always click here to check out the methodology behind the Power Rankings.)

1. New York Yankees: Last week – 1, WAR% – .676 (1), FAN% – .580 (2), TOTAL% – .665
I can’t be sure given the dearth of news on the subject, but I think the Yankees finally promoted Jesus Montero. Is that right? Can someone double check that for me?

Read the rest of this entry »

We knew the Giants were going to miss Zack Wheeler when they pulled the trigger on the deal to acquire Carlos Beltran. Brian Sabean was sacrificing a piece at the future for the sake of the present. Many of us thought the pain would at least be dulled by a postseason appearance and a shot at defending their 2010 championship. It’s OK, though. We all make mistakes. Myself included:

The Giants’ addition of Beltran should put the NL West title squarely in the bank for San Francisco, as they already hold a three-game lead over a flawed Arizona team. Beltran will replace Nate Schierholtz in right field. The 27-year-old right fielder has been serviceable so far, posting a 109 wRC+, but Beltran has been worth nearly three more wins this season and could be an upgrade of as much as two wins over the next 50 games and change remaining.

Whoops.

Fast forward to September. The Giants have dropped 11.5 games in the standings and, depending on your source, have between a 0.2% and 0.3% chance of winning the National League West. Beltran’s play hasn’t quite been what the Giants were hoping for — the 34-year-old has a .296/.333/.463, good, but not superstar-level — and he’s spent much of his time in San Francisco injured and on the pine, missing 14 games and only playing in 28.

Read the rest of this entry »

Going into the 2007 draft, all the buzz was about David Price. The left-hander from Vanderbilt was a veritable lock for the #1 pick in the draft, giving the Tampa Bay Devil Rays — fresh off a 101-loss season — a top arm to go along with 2006 top pick Evan Longoria. Price was a bona fide ace, an All-Star in the making that already had two plus pitches in his fastball and slider.  As was expected, he rose quickly through the minors and has already established himself as one of the top pitchers in the majors in only his second full season.

But this story isn’t about David Price. Instead, this story is about the best pitching prospect selected in the 2007 draft. It’s about the best pitching prospect the Rays have ever had. It’s about Matt Moore.

Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend, the Pittsburgh Pirates reportedly extended General Manager Neal Huntington through 2014 with a club option for 2015. Huntington was nearing the end of his prior contract, but the length of the new contract shows that ownership has confidence in the direction in which he is taking things.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tampa Bay Rays organization has kept pace with powerful organizations in the American League East division for the past few years for one key reason: The ability to develop cheap, high-impacting talent through minor league development.

Entering 2011, the Rays’ FanGraphs Top 30 prospect list began with Jeremy Hellickson, Matt Moore, and Desmond Jennings. Both Hellickson and Jennings have already cemented themselves as key MLB contributors . Moore – who was just promoted to the Majors for a ‘cup of coffee’ to finish off 2011 – should follow suit in ’12.

Read the rest of this entry »

I want to thank everyone who applied for the positions with FanGraphs for your patience. I was expecting to have more time to contact people while in the hospital last week, but the second round of chemotherapy was a little rougher on my energy level than I had hoped. I’m back home now, though, and will be contacting applicants to setup interviews this week.

Don’t lose heart if you applied and haven’t heard anything back yet. We’re really excited about the pool of people who are interested in contributing, and just want to make sure we get the right folks on board. Your patience has been greatly appreciated, and your support during this time has been overwhelming as well. This is truly one of the best communities of people to be found on the internet.

Juliet isn’t totally stoked about today’s slate of games.

Los Angeles Americans (5) at Oakland (1) | 22:05 ET
A Jeopardy Answer for Today’s Game
Jai Miller, Anthony Recker, and Michael Taylor.

A Relevant Jeopardy Question, Option No. 1
Who are three players with fewer than 100 career plate appearances combined?

A Relevant Jeopardy Question, Option No. 2
Who are three players who started for Oakland on Sunday?

Regarding Those Players, Their Triple-A Stats This Year
Miller: 475 PA, .276/.368/.588 (.401 BABIP), 11.4% BB, 37.7% K.
Recker: 412 PA, .287/.388/.501 (.328 BABIP), 13.6% BB, 19.7% K.
Taylor: 400 PA, .272/.360/.456 (.310 BABIP), 11.5% BB, 20.0% K.

Regarding Jai Miller, His Strikeout Rate
I’m no expert, but I’ll suggest he consider low-ifying it.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Ladies Choice.

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.3.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Buehrle’s contract expires at the end of the season and the veteran lefty isn’t confident he will work out an extension with the White Sox before hitting free agency. It’s very possible that, for the first time in his 12-year career, Buehrle will test the market and potentially sign with another team.

Though Buehrle has hinted at retirement on numerous occasions, manager Ozzie Guillen believes he’ll pitch next season. Guillen thinks Buehrle has too much left to offer major league teams to simply walk away. Buehrle has never come across as an egotistical stats-monger or the kind of pitcher so wrapped up in his legacy to stick around for specific milestones. That doesn’t mean he will definitely retire while pitching at a high level, but it also makes his free agent prospects tough to predict.

What might Buehrle make if he hits free agency? And for how long would he sign? Despite a better career and more established track record than the likes of Ted Lilly, Randy Wolf and Wandy Rodriguez, might teams mistakenly lump him in with that group?

Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, that’s Trout right there. I bench him just to eff with people.

New York Americans (10) at Los Angeles Americans (5) | 15:35 ET
A Thing
Provided I’m reading his BR game log correctly, it appears as though the Angels are 11-1 in games that Mike Trout has started since his (i.e. Trout’s) August 19th recall — over which time the team, as a whole, is 13-6 (making them 2-5 in games Trout has not started).

Obvious Question
Is that stat predictive in any way?

Rational Answer
No, obviously not.

Follow-Up Question
But do you, Carson Cistulli, still kinda feel like it’s a predictive stat?

Follow-Up Answer
Yes, of course I do.

Final, Important Note
With their win last night — and a Ranger loss — the Angels are only 1.5 games back in the AL West.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Angels Radio.

Read the rest of this entry »