We are proud to have three pieces from FanGraphs and three pieces from our partners at The Hardball Times nominated for the SABR Analytics Awards. However, we are also big fans of the great work being done at other publications, and think that every nominee listed below is worthy of your consideration. Please vote for whatever piece you feel best represents the category it was nominated in, regardless of where it was published.

Here’s your chance to vote for the 2013 SABR Analytics Research Awards winners.

To read any of the finalists, click on the link below. Scroll down to cast your vote. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projections, which have typically appeared in the pages of Baseball Think Factory, are being released at FanGraphs this year. Below are the projections for the Seattle Mariners. Szymborski can be found on Twitter at @DSzymborski.

Other 2013 Projections: Angels / Astros / Athletics / Blue Jays / Brewers / Cardinals / Cubs / Diamondbacks / Giants / Mets / Nationals / Phillies / Pirates / Rangers / Rays / Reds / Rockies / Royals / Tigers / White Sox.

Batters
One, choosing to wax optimistic with regard to the projections below, would note that five of the top six players by projected WAR on the Mariners are either 25 years old or younger. Dustin Ackley, Mike Zunino, Kyle Seager, Jesus Montero, and (less immediately) Brad Miller: not only might they form a young, cost-controlled nucleus around which the front office can build, but their youth suggests that improvement is not only possible, but likely.

Another, choosing to be less optimistic — perhaps because he knows that, as a resident of Seattle, summer proper is still ca. six months away and that the city will remain ensconced in a 45-degree rain cloud until then — perhaps that other one would emphasize the lack of impact talent among the club’s field players and how recent acquisitions (like Jason Bay, Raul Ibanez, Kendrys Morales, and Michael Morse) address the team’s needs, but by too little.

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Ben and Sam discuss whether the latest PED revelations really revealed anything worrisome before previewing the Rays’ season with Adam Sobsey. Then Pete talks to Tampa Bay Tribune Rays reporter Roger Mooney (at 25:30).

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Episode 300
While most podcasts and their hosts will analyze maybe 30% or 50% of baseball or something like that, this one features FanGraphs managing editor Dave Cameron analyzing all baseball. Topics considered, specifically: the sanest way to evaluate new revelations of players using PEDs; if it’s possible to present information (like a ZiPS WAR projection, for example) so that it’s easily consumed but retains its nuance; the life and career of Nick Johnson.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 39 min play time.)

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In case you’d forgotten, where the Houston Astros used to be a National League baseball team, now they’re going to be an American League baseball team. It’s a big deal, because it’s a sort of pseudo-relocation, and it’s also been a long time coming since before the leagues were unbalanced and that didn’t make any sense. For years, we had one league with 14 teams and one league with 16 teams, and we didn’t just tolerate it — we hardly ever bothered to acknowledge it. Unbalanced leagues! Amazing!

The move has generated certain negative responses, both particular and broad. A lot of Astros fans aren’t happy, because they’ve grown to prefer NL baseball, and also because people prefer to remain unchanged, given their druthers. A lot of baseball fans aren’t happy, because now there’s going to be more regular interleague play, and people have strong feelings about that. And a lot of AL baseball fans aren’t happy, because the Astros are bad, they’re moving to the AL West, and the schedule is unbalanced. There’s a perception that the Astros will give an advantage to teams in the West, and therefore that they’ll give a disadvantage to teams in the Central and East.

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I recently wrote about my attempt to design an indicator that would predict when players were at a higher risk for having a collapse-type year. I named the metric CLIFFORD, referring to the fact that players identified by it were at risk of falling off a cliff offensively. My inspiration was Adam Dunn and his disastrous 2011, in which his wOBA declined by .113.

My initial research showed that 58% of collapse candidates identified by Marcel actually experience a wOBA decline of at least .03 (or 30 points)–2.43 times the likelihood of non-collapse candidates. Collapse candidates identified by CLIFFORD actually decreased by at least 30 points of wOBA 53% of the time–2.14 times the likelihood of non-collapse candidates.

Marcel initially appeared to do a better job identifying these candidates. If we knew nothing else outside of just the Marcel projection, our chances were better at identifying collapse candidates than if we used CLIFFORD (and, yes, the difference between the relative risk for both measures is statistically significant).

However, and here’s the bright spot, there was not much overlap between the two metrics.

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It’s January 29th and Michael Bourn is still a free agent. While Scott Boras is known for pulling late-winter rabbits out of his hat, the new free agent compensation system is proving to be a significant roadblock. As we talked about a month ago, the changes to the draft slot allocations have caused a reaction — an overreaction, perhaps — in draft pick valuations, and teams are no longer as willing to sacrifice a first round pick to sign veteran free agents. Combined with questions about how well his defensive skills will hold up as he gets older and a premium asking price, the result has been a depressed market for Bourn’s services, and no obvious resolution to the standoff.

So, the Mets — likely with some influence by Scott Boras — are apparently considering asking Major League Baseball to declare their first round pick protected, even though it falls outside of the top 10 picks, which were the ones declared off limits to compensation in the CBA. And the argument is actually kind of interesting.

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A report by the Miami New Times was published today, linking multiple Major League players to an anti-aging wellness clinic that was reportedly a front for supplying people with HGH and other PEDs.

Among the players named in the report: Alex Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz, Gio Gonzalez, and three players who were suspended by Major League Baseball last year (Bartolo Colon, Yasmani Grandal, and Melky Cabrera). Rodriguez is going to get the most attention, because he’s Alex Rodriguez, but the report suggests that Miami has become the new San Francisco in terms of providing PEDs to Major League players. Given the amount of players that live and train in the area during the off-season, that probably shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

Major League Baseball has released the following statement in response to the report. Read the rest of this entry »