Play the player-profile game every day this week at 11:30am ET. Each day, we’re giving away a free copy of the 2011 Second Opinion to the first reader who guesses correctly the identity of that day’s mystery player. (Limit one copy per customer).

As announced yesterday, FanGraphs will once again be offering to the public its fantasy companion guide, The Second Opinion. Man-in-Charge David Appelman will have more details on the guide — set to be released this week — very shortly.

In the meantime, however, we’re playing the player-profile game I intoduced in these pages last offseason.

The game is easy: one person (me, in this case) offers the text of single player profile, being careful to omit any proper names that might reveal the identity of the player in question. The other person (you, the reader) attempts to identify the player using only the details provided in the profile.

First reader to guess correctly (in the comments section below) gets a free copy of this year’s Second Opinion — approximately a $1000 value!

Today’s entry comes to us courtesy of Matt Klaassen. It’s a trifle more difficult than yesterday’s, but not impossible.

Who is it?

If you’re reading a fantasy profile for [BLANK], then you’re either lost, incredibly bored, or in something like a 38-team NL-only league. [BLANK] won’t even help you much in a Bizarro league, as he’s been signed to back up [BLANK] in [BLANK]. It’s really too bad, since [BLANK] can’t run, hit for average or power, and yet used to get marched out there almost every day in [BLANK] (to be fair, he’s a good defender). He’s a Jason Kendall in training, except without the playing time. If that appeals to you, go nuts. Otherwise, go to bed, it’s [BLANK].

Play the player-profile game every day this week at 11:30am ET. Each day, we’re giving away a free copy of the 2011 Second Opinion to the first reader who guesses correctly the identity of that day’s mystery player. (Limit one copy per customer).

After last year’s success with it, FanGraphs will once again be offering to the public its fantasy companion, The Second Opinion. Thanks to the vision of Marc Hulet, along with the hard work of many of FanGraphs’ own contributors, this year’s edition promises to build upon last season’s rookie effort, while still maintaining the white-hot analysis that is FanGraphs’ trademark.

Man-in-Charge David Appelman will have more details on the guide — set to be released this week — very shortly. In the meantime, however, it makes sense to offer some previews of what readers can expect from this year’s Second Opinion. These peeks promise to be especially sneaky as they’ll come in the form of the player-profile game I intoduced in these pages last offseason.

The game is easy: one person (me, in this case) offers the text of single player profile, being careful to omit any proper names that might reveal the identity of the player in question. The other person (you, the reader) attempts to identify the player using only the details provided in the profile.

For the first reader who guesses correctly (in the comments section below), we offer you — if you can even believe it — a free copy of this year’s Second Opinion. That’s probably, like, a $1000 value!

Today’s entry comes to us courtesy of David Golebiewski. (Note: Dave Cameron says it’s too easy, so just know that it’ll be especially embarrassing if you’re unable to get it.)

Who is it?

As a late-20s player who blasted big-league pitching in 2009 after half a decade of undistinguished Triple-A work, [BLANK’S] 2010 regression was more predictable than the plot of a Two and a Half Men episode. Splitting his season between first base and right field, [BLANK] didn’t really stand out as a power hitter (.167 ISO) and his walk rate fell from 11.2% in 2009 to 8.1%. He was a little unlucky, with a .274 BABIP, so he’s likely to hit closer to .270 than .250 moving forward. But even so, there’s not much reason to recommend him — [BLANK’S] secondary skills aren’t great for a guy playing positions where offensive excellence is expected. Also, [BLANK’S TEAM] might look for a platoon partner for [BLANK] at first base, as the lefty batter has a .210/.249/.381 line versus same-handed pitching in 350 PA and a .282/.359/.495 slash in 746 PA against right-handers. That [BLANK] figures to get most starts at first base again in 2011 says more about [BLANK’S TEAMMATE’S] disastrous season than anything else.

Episode Sixty-Two
In which the guest is a real-live a doctor of philosophy.

Headlines
On the Royals’ Historic Futility
On the Royals’ Maybe Promising Future
The Case of Carl Crawford and the Antiquarian Bookstore
… and unparalleled insights!

Featuring
Will McDonald, Royals Reviewer

Finally, you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio on the flip-flop. (Approximately 35 min play time.)

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I’m stating nothing new when I say that the popularity of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball did much to introduce its readers to the splendors of quantitative analysis in baseball. Nor is it inaccurate to say that Lewis — whose capacity for narrative is more or less unrivaled — characterized the sport’s older guard of talent evaluators (read: scouts) less as invaluable members of baseball’s front offices and more as mouth-breathing luddites.

For a number of reasons — most of them having to do with common sense — this image of scouts has disappeared almost entirely. Scouts are very clearly essential to the health of a baseball organization, and, generally speaking, it’s those teams that seek to use the best possible information — both visual and quantitative analysis — that experience the most success.

Still, even as the sabermetric community has acknowledged the importance of scouts and the act of scouting, there’s been no attempt (so far as I know) to measure the actual worth of individual scouts to their respective organizations.

This represents an attempt to do just that — to put a dollar sign on the scout, as it were.

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UPDATE: It’s a Christmas Bug Holliday Feast Day miracle! All players have been accounted for!

I’m working on a project that builds (veeeeeeeery modestly) off of work by Victor Wang of THT, colintj of Beyond the Boxscore, and probably many others whom I grievously neglecting.

Said project requires having bonus data for some 300-plus players. I’ve been able to find most figures via a combination of Cot’s, Baseball Cube, and Baseball America, but have about 40 names left over. (Note: to the best of my knowledge none of the remaining data is available behind Baseball America’s pay wall, nor is it my intention whatsoever to make public data that they make available only behind same.)

Below are the 40 or so players whose signing bonuses (boni?) I’ve been unable to locate. Many of them, as you’ll notice, are either Latin American or late-ish round signings. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you could provide a link to your source, that’d be ideal.

Thanks!

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In his submission to Top of the Order, a collection of 25 tributes to 25 writers’ favorite players, former Salon and current Bleacher Report sporting columnist King Kaufman (@king_kaufman) celebrates the contributions of Neifi Perez to his (i.e. Kaufman’s) enjoyment of this great and honored game.

Kaufman notes that, while he’s certainly been critical of Perez in the past — in fact, inventing a metric, the Neifi Index, which measures a player’s ability to contribute to his team’s success by expressly not playing — it’s ultimately Perez who helped him realize how good even the worst Major Leaguer is.

Kaufman writes:

The worst player in the major leagues is a hell of a ballplayer.

The worst player in the history of the major leagues, whoever he was, was a hell of a ballplayer.

Neifi Perez was a hell of a ballplayer.

It’s only in the context of the major leagues that the guy with the lifetime OPS of .672 is oh-my-gosh-is-he-playing-again awful.

You see this if you ever watch big-league pitchers, who struggle to hit .100, take batting practice. They drill line drives all over the place. They’re the guys in your muni softball league who hit balls over the houses across the street from the park and everyone says, “He must have played pro ball.”

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Episode Sixty-One
In which the guest is really moving up in the world.

Headlines
Neyer’s New Job
The Art of Blogging (Whatever That Is)
NBC’s Thursday Night Lineup
… and other amusing tangents!

Featuring
Rob Neyer, National Baseball Editor

Finally, you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio on the flip-flop. (Approximately 45 min play time.)

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View a spreadsheet of all 81 prospects by clicking here.

Last week, I submitted for the readership’s consideration a review of the hitting prospects from the 1994 edition of the Bill James Player Ratings Book.

In what follows, I do something similar for the 1995 edition.

The reader might remember that, in the ’94 edition, there were many rookie-eligible players who (a) didn’t receive grades but (b) were still very clearly being regarded as prospects by James — Carlos Delgado and Manny Ramirez being two notable cases. The 1995 edition of the book goes even futher in this direction: there are 81 players whom James seems to indicate as prospects of one stripe or another, but only 20 receive grades.

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Episode Sixty
In which the guest actually stays up all night.

Headlines
On Projecting Minor Leaguers
Sabermetrics Before the Term Existed
An Encounter with Kevin Kerrane, Author of Dollar Sign on the Muscle
On Measuring Defense
… and other enthralling bric-a-brac!

Featuring
Brian Carthwright, Tireless Worker (and Father of OLIVER)

Finally, you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio on the flip-flop. (Approximately 35 min play time.)

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Episode Fifty-Nine
In which the guest beats around, like, zero bushes.

Headlines
Writing Reggie Jackson, Some Ins and Outs Of
Writing, And Then Detesting, A Book: What That’s Like
Dayn Invites the Host to a Diamond Mind League
… and other need-to-know information!

Featuring
Dayn Perry, Real-Live Book Author

Finally, you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio on the flip-flop. (Approximately 45 min play time.)

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