Archive for January, 2012
Looking Back: The Brien Taylor Story
Most of us spent the holidays with friends and family, celebrating the New Year and making resolutions we probably won’t keep. Brien Taylor was busy celebrating his 40th birthday the day after Christmas, two decades after the Yankees made him the first overall pick in the 1991 draft.
“I’ve been through 28 drafts,” said Scott Boras back in 2006, “and Brien Taylor, still to this day, is the best high school pitcher I’ve seen in my life.”
Offseason Notes: Houston Gets Its Nerd On
January 4, 2012
Ladies and gentleman, the Astros front office.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Offseason Notes.
1. Lone Headline: Houston Gets Its Nerd On
2. Projecting: ZiPS for Milwaukee
3. Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: Houston Television
Lone Headline
Houston Gets Its Nerd On
The Houston Astros hired Sig Mejdal for the newly created position of Director of Decision Sciences, reports (recent FanGraphs Audio guest) Zachary Levine of the Houston Chronicle. Eric Seidman reminds me that Mejdal was Sam Walker’s right-hand nerd in the latter’s (excellent) book Fantasyland. Mejdal worked most recently with the St. Louis Cardinals, from which organization new GM Jeff Luhnow has also recently arrived. Per Levine (per Luhnow) Mejdal’s most immediate concern will be consolidating, for easier access and more effective decision-making, much of the information that the club has, but that “you have to go look up in various different pieces.” (Thanks to Mike Axisa for note on this.)
Q&A: Bud Black: Pitching at Petco
Bud Black would have enjoyed pitching in Petco Park. Alas, the lefty didn’t get the opportunity: his playing career ended a decade before the Padres’ home ballpark opened. But as San Diego’s skipper, Black does relish the opportunity to manage there. Still, that doesn’t mean his job is easy. The 54-year-old isn’t just nurturing a young pitching staff, he’s helping an equally inexperienced lineup navigate one of the game’s most-challenging hitting environments.
Black discussed Petco’s park factors, and several of his players — including the recently departed Heath Bell and Mat Latos — during last month’s Winter Meetings.
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David Laurila: How much does Petco Park impact a pitching staff?
Bud Black: Besides the hard numbers, it really gives confidence to a pitcher, and not just our own pitchers. Like with a lot of parks in the game, there are certain pitches to be thrown that will make it extremely difficult to hit the ball out of the park. Percentage-wise, if the ball is hit to a certain part of the ballpark, the pitcher isn‘t going to get hurt as much.
In our place, that’s to right field and to right-center, as well as to left-center. To straightaway left field is very doable for a home run — but the majority of our park, as you move from the right field corner to left center — is big. Pitch selection is important in Petco.
How I Use Our Custom Leaderboards
I get asked a decent amount of questions on Twitter, and while I try to answer as many of them as I can, I don’t really have enough time to get to all of them, unfortunately. However, a question I received yesterday contained the magic formula to not only getting his question answered, but getting a longer answer in the form of a full length FanGraphs post:
@d_a_cameron When using fangraphs custom leaderboards, what stats do you typically use? Anything that doesnt appear normally?
Why am I answering @jjdouglas1’s question here? It’s quite simple, really – this is his profile picture.
Full Count: A Twins Offseason on the Brink
Despite losing 99 games in a season sponsored by Murphy’s Law, the Twins entered an offseason in which neither building to contend nor rebuilding really fully made sense. For one, the team lacked the liquid assets required for a rebuild; its more valuable commodities were either inked to long-term deals, or the player was coming off an injury-riddled campaign. Or both.
Is Josh Reddick Really a Fourth Outfielder?
by Eno Sarris
January 3, 2012
When the Athletics sent Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney to the Red Sox for Josh Reddick and prospects, many scratched their heads in digital print. Why would the Athletics send their closer out the door for a swap in fourth outfielders? Didn’t the Red Sox just pull a theft using their fourth outfielder?
Like the ‘tweener forward’ label in basketball, nothing can sting a player and wreck his future like the ‘fourth outfielder’ moniker. Does Reddick deserve the title?
FAN Projection Targets: NL West Second Basemen
There are some crazy-good ballplayers who ply their trade at second base. There’s Dustin Pedroia, Ian Kinsler, Chase Utley, Howie Kendrick, Brandon Phillips, Robinson Cano, and Ben Zobrist. There are other good — if not crazy-good — second basemen, like Rickie Weeks and Danny Espinosa. None of these good-to-crazy-good second basemen plays for a team in the National League West.
Which raises two interesting questions:
- Who will play second base in the National League West in 2012?
- How do you think they’ll perform?
In other words, it’s time to get in your 2012 Fan Projections for NL West second basemen.