If you haven’t yet played around with the 2011 Fan Projections ballots, well, you’re missing out on some good fun. Well, as much fun as you can have while clicking drop-down boxes. I suggest putting on some music and clicking along with the beat. That should help you power through projections for the more known quantities. You might run into some trouble, though, when getting to a certain type of player.

This year, of the 45 players who produced 4 or more WAR, nine of them relied more on the fielding component than the batting. That makes them a bit tougher to project than your offense-heavy slugger. Player such as Albert Pujols and Joey Votto we can get a read on, because they’re probably going to produce gaudy offensive numbers. But the defense-heavy guys? It’s tough to imagine what we’ll see from them in 2011.

Read the rest of this entry »

For the last four seasons the Cubs’ biggest bats have been right handed. Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, Alfonso Soriano, and Geovany Soto had nary a left-handed complement. The Cubs tried to provide one with Kosuke Fukudome, but he hasn’t been a middle of the order producer. Now they’re giving it another shot by signing Carlos Pena to a one-year, $10 million contract.

Read the rest of this entry »

In a free agent market rife with relief pitching, Koji Uehara was one of the less frequently discussed names. Yet he put together quite an excellent year, despite having it shortened due to injury. Now he’s nearing a deal that will bring him back to Baltimore to help fortify a bullpen that just lost David Hernandez yesterday.

Read the rest of this entry »

How does a team recover from the loss of Roy Halladay? It usually involves a lot of waiting, but this wasn’t the case for the Blue Jays. In fact, it didn’t take long at all for their pitching to get back up to speed.

2009: 4.47 ERA, 4.35 FIP, 4.19 xFIP
2010: 4.23 ERA, 4.04 FIP, 4.18 xFIP

Read the rest of this entry »

At one point during yesterday’s edition of FanGraphs Audio, Carson asked an excellent question. In talking about Sean Smith’s new job with a major league club, he asked what an outsider such as Smith might learn that that is inaccessible to the rest of us. I gave the bland answer about scouting players. Dave, however, came up with quite the interesting insight.

I think one of the things that is interesting is the access to information that could help to project the development paths of certain types of minor leaguers.

Dave went on to talk about how prospects can bust for non-baseball reasons, which was an interesting take on the matter. The overall point is that while we might see Baseball America rate these guys highly, and we might see them produce quality numbers in the minors, there is still plenty that we don’t know about them. Given what we learned yesterday, there might be something we don’t know about Toronto catching prospect J.P. Arencibia.

Read the rest of this entry »

Teams in search of a mid-rotation starter will find that their options have dwindled, not that there were abundant options to begin with as most mid-tier starters have found homes. What remains is a recognizable list of players that all come with some sort of risk. It feels odd to type this, but the best bet among them might be Carl Pavano.

Read the rest of this entry »

As seen here, yesterday, as written by yours truly, regarding the Juan Uribe acquisition:

If the move is simply to replace [Ryan] Theriot with Uribe, it is a mistake.

If I’m one to stick by my words, then I have to call this deal a mistake, seeing as the Dodgers just traded Ryan Theriot to the Cardinals in exchange for Blake Hawksworth. Read the rest of this entry »

At this point last winter Juan Uribe was still more than a month away from signing. The year before he was two months away from signing a minor league deal. This year he has found a deal before the calendar flips to December. The Dodgers have signed him to a three-year, $21 million contract, stealing him away from the division-rival Giants. On the surface that represents a nice three-win swing between the two teams, but there is plenty more that goes into this deal.

Read the rest of this entry »

In writing about the Justin Upton situation last week, Keith Law made an excellent comparison. One possible reason why the Diamondbacks might trade Upton is because of his attitude, but it doesn’t appear to be too compelling a case. Wrote Law, “He’s not Milton Bradley, though, and if he’s Gary Sheffield, well, that one worked out OK.”

OK, indeed. In 2015 Sheffield will have a Hall of Fame case for the BBWAA to consider. Just see how he compares to 2007 inductee Tony Gwynn.

Read the rest of this entry »

When we calculate WAR at FanGraphs, we use a player’s UZR as his defensive input. This holds true for all positions except catcher, which defer to defensive runs saved (DRS), since UZR does not measure defense for catchers. That led me to wonder what would happen if we used DRS across the board. How big a difference might we see in the WAR values of the league’s best players?

Read the rest of this entry »