Gabe Kapler wrote a fascinating piece for WEEI today, in which he discusses the problems that will arise from the different ways players evaluate themselves versus how they’re evaluated by front offices. An excerpt:
Early on, every team and every game in baseball is interesting. For the first few weeks of the season, things feel so fresh, and things are so unpredictable, that you’re thirsty for any kind of action. As things progress, teams fall off the radar of interest. Fans start to focus more on the teams that might make the playoffs, and teams in basements continue to play largely un-discussed, save for the event of trade rumors. Few, then, would’ve been paying attention to the Mariners and Astros over the weekend, given their respective identities, but what the teams managed to accomplish on Saturday was unprecedented. And for all the talk about trades and the playoffs, it’s important to recognize that any kind of baseball can be interesting, and we shouldn’t forget it. You never know which games you might find remarkable.
A big part of the appeal of perfect games, or, I don’t know, cycles, is rarity. People love seeing things in baseball they don’t see very often. But rarity isn’t enough alone to make something worth talking about. Never before, in the recorded history of baseball, has a starting pitcher gone 4.2 innings, with four walks, two hits, and a strikeout. Not once. So many thousands of games. But if that happened tomorrow, no one would care, just like no one cares about a weird leaf on the ground. That leaf is unique, but really, it’s just another leaf. There needs to be some blend of rarity + achievement, and I think the Mariners/Astros game qualifies.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Complete and Updated Pitcher NERD Scores
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Complete and Updated Pitcher NERD Scores
Introduction
In June of 2010, in response to a challenge issued by smasher of injustices Rob Neyer, the present author submitted to the public the first iteration of a metric called — for reasons that need little elaboration — a metric called NERD. The purpose of NERD: to represent in a single number the likely aesthetic value of a player or team or game to the sabermetrically inclined. Over the last three years, there have been modifications to how NERD is calculated — the variables included in the formula, for example, and how heavily each of those variables is weighted — but the framework remains more or less the same.
What follows, below, are the complete and updated Pitcher NERD scores for the 196 pitchers with at least 20 innings recorded this season as a starter.
Ben and Sam talk about whether it’s ever fair to suspect that a player is taking PEDs, then discuss Ruben Amaro’s comments about public prospect rankings.
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How differently do pitchers and catchers think? They work hand-in-hand, but do they approach pitch selection the same way? Do they interpret the quality of a pitcher’s stuff the same way? Do they see the same things when reading hitters?
I’ve posed that question(s) to a number of pitchers, catchers and coaches over the course of the season. Selections from those conversations will be featured here in the coming weeks. First up is Tampa Bay Rays bullpen coach Stan Boroski.
Currently in his fourth season with the Rays, Boroski understands the pitcher-catcher dynamic as well as anyone. He played both positions in the minor leagues — “I couldn’t hit” is Boroski’s explanation for moving to the mound — before joining the scouting and coaching ranks. He was a pitching coach in the Astros system before coming to Tampa Bay. Read the rest of this entry »
FanGraphs will be not be accessible for about 2 hours sometime between 12:00am ET and 5:00am ET this morning (July 22nd) for server maintenance.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Concerning Randall Delgado’s Virtues
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Concerning Randall Delgado’s Virtues
Introduction
Five of today’s starters currently possess a perfect 10 NERD score*. Four of them (i.e. four of those pitchers) have assembled impressive major-league resumes by one means or another — namely, Homer Bailey, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Harvey, and Jordan Zimmermann. The fifth is Arizona right-hander Randall Delgado. What follows is a brief inspection of Delgado’s very high NERD score, sorted more or less by the degree to which it informs said score.
*The present site’s very proprietary and also infallible watchability metric. See below for more information on NERD.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Meeting of the Corey Kluber Society Tonight
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Meeting of the Corey Kluber Society Tonight
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is to announce a meeting — in this case, at 7:10pm ET today (Saturday) — of the Corey Kluber Society.
Episode 362
Dayn Perry is a contributor to CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball and the author of three books, now — one of them serviceable and one of them, against all odds, something more than serviceable. He’s also the very indignant guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio.
Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.
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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 1 hr 0 min play time.)
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Everyone remembers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. The duo pitched 11 years together in Brooklyn and in Los Angeles. Together, the pair helped the Dodgers reach the Fall Classic five times, three of which their team won. But there’s a good chance they wouldn’t have won their third and World Series title without the help of their third wheel, Claude Osteen.
One of just 56 players to debut in the majors at or before the age of 17, Osteen pitched 18 seasons for the Reds, Senators, Astros, Cardinals and White Sox — in addition to the Dodgers. It was there, in Los Angeles, where his presence was felt most. The Dodgers acquired Osteen in a trade with the Senators that included Frank Howard, so they didn’t exactly get him cheap. But the Dodgers certainly got their money’s worth, especially since it took several years before Howard became a star. Osteen, meanwhile, was a Dodger from 25 to 33 years old and spent the bulk that time outworking his competitors.
