I once had an argument with Darwin Barney about whether or not he had any trade value. This is me, gloating that I was right — the Dodgers traded for the Cubs infielder on Monday.

Then again, maybe Barney had a point. We’ll have to see what the player to be named later looks like. No — it doesn’t matter. A team saw what Darwin Barney can do and traded for it. I win the argument. (He can still call me a nerd.)

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On Sunday, Cooperstown looked as it should on induction day. A good crowd, in a beautiful, heavenly part of America, paying tribute to well deserving — and just as importantly, living — awardees. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been this way often enough in recent seasons, as the BBWAA has had a difficult time electing members, for reasons both within and outside of their control. To that end, they have enacted a rule tweak, with the desired impact of clearing up the ballot that has become saturated in recent years. Eligible players may now remain under BBWAA consideration for 10 years, instead of 15. Is this the magic bullet that is going to make the voters’ problems go away, or might this simply be a “rearranging the deck chairs”-type move that takes the onus off of the actual problem? Read the rest of this entry »

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There are a few annual series we run here at FanGraphs. One of them is the annual trade-value series, where Dave gets to write glowingly about Mike Trout. Another one of them is the annual positional power rankings series, where some randomly assigned lucky author gets to write glowingly about Mike Trout. The positional power rankings are intended to highlight the strongest positions in baseball, but you can’t identify the strongest without also identifying the weakest. Granted, the rankings are only as strong as the projections, but the projections are solid, and so, here were the five weakest projected positions coming into the 2014 regular season:

• Mets bullpen, -2.3 standard deviations from average
• Astros rotation, -2.1
• Marlins first basemen, -2.1
• Marlins third basemen, -1.9
• Blue Jays second basemen, -1.9

Nothing in there was shocking. And a lot of that stuff wasn’t particularly relevant. Only the Blue Jays, out of that group, were looking to contend. So there was a lot of conversation in spring training about what the Blue Jays were going to do at second base. Their solution back then: nothing! The situation, however, has changed. All of the situations have changed to some degree, because the future always introduces new information. The point of all this: Those were the five worst projected positions coming into the year. How have the players at those positions actually done? How have the teams actually maneuvered?

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Washington at Miami | 19:10 ET
Stephen Strasburg (137.1 IP, 68 xFIP-, 3.0 WAR) faces Henderson Alvarez (130.2 IP, 95 xFIP-, 2.0 WAR). The latter, it would appear, is almost an exact replica of yesterday’s starter for Miami, Nathan Eovaldi. While neither have recorded particularly notable fielding-independent numbers, both have produced overall strike rates and average fastball velocities at least a standard deviation better than the average of all major-leaguer starters. In Alvarez’s case, those figures are as follows: 66.9% strikes and 93.6 mph. As for characterizing Strasburg’s virtues, one is reduced merely to the employment of tautology — to the extent, I mean, that Strasburg is what he is.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Washington Radio.

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The last time he was permitted to participate in this daily Watch of baseball Prospects, the author submitted a statistical report on the most recent collection of first-round draft picks — which report revealed, among other stirring truth, that Cubs draftee Kyle Schwarber was meting out much in the way of Baseball Justice on minor-league pitchers.

What follows is almost the same exact exercise as that one from three weeks ago, except applied to last year’s first-round picks instead. As in the case of that first post, what I’ve done here is to produce a pair of leaderboards (one for batters; one, pitchers) of the relevant first-rounders. Links to the relevant FanGraphs leaderboards are available here: Batters / Pitchers.

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Here at FanGraphs, a normal post runs in the range of 1,000 words. We’re wordy folk, basically. But sometimes, we have things that might be interesting at 200 words and would be ridiculously boring at 1,000 words. Maybe it’s a link to something someone else wrote, or simply a fun little tidbit from the leaderboards. Or, hey, the Astros just offended someone else, but what else is new? These things are worth pointing out, but not worth writing eight paragraphs about, so they’ve generally ended up on the cutting room floor. Or Twitter.

Over the last few months, I did a few experiments with shorter posts on the site, and the reaction was mostly positive, so today, we’re launching a dedicated section for these kinds of posts, and we’re calling it InstaGraphs. Essentially, this will be the place for things that are interesting enough to note but aren’t full articles, though maybe eventually they’ll turn into one. Or maybe not. Maybe they’re just interesting standalone items that don’t need extrapolation.

InstaGraphs will be part of the main FanGraphs blog, but we wanted to make it a little more clear when you should expect 200 words and a GIF instead of 1,000 words and a formula, so you’ll note the new InstaGraphs box on the home page; the most recent articles will show up there, and you’ll be able to click through straight from that dedicated box.

Overall, we think InstaGraphs will be a fun place to note things that otherwise probably wouldn’t have turned into content, and hopefully you guys will enjoy the extra pieces each day. Just a heads up, though: it will probably mean more Cistulli GIFs of mediocre curveballs from the California League. You’ve been warned.

Ben and Sam banter about Diamondbacks headlines, Andrelton Simmons, the latest Astros controversy, and independent leagues.

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Episode 466
Dave Cameron is both (a) the managing editor of FanGraphs and (b) the guest on this particular edition of FanGraphs Audio — during which edition he considers the approaching trade deadline in some depth and even greater width.

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 37 min play time.)

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The most unfair thing to imagine in baseball is Aroldis Chapman learning a knuckleball. The next-most unfair thing to imagine in baseball is Aroldis Chapman learning a changeup. This year Aroldis Chapman got around to learning a changeup, and things got weird. When we last checked in on June 19, batters had attempted 14 swings against the change, and not a single one of those swings had made any kind of contact. Later that day, Pirates batters attempted two more swings against the change, and both of them whiffed. So, at one point this year, through 16 swings, Chapman’s changeup had a contact rate of 0.0%. That’s a low rate that put Chapman’s change among the league leaders.

I thought it would make sense to check back in, now that more than a month has passed. I’m fascinated to no end by the idea of Chapman throwing an offspeed pitch, but sadly, it would appear that Chapman and the changeup are on a bit of a break. Not that it isn’t understandable. And not that Chapman needs a changeup to be a good reliever. He really, really doesn’t. I can’t emphasize this enough. Chapman in whatever form is amazing. It’s just that the most hilarious pitch in baseball is taking a nap.

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