Each week, we publish north of 100 posts on our various blogs. With this post, we hope to highlight 10 to 15 of them. You can read more on it here. The links below are color coded — green for FanGraphs, brown for RotoGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times and blue for Community Research.
Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re an avid FanGraphs reader, you might remember a piece I wrote January in which I wondered whether Vladimir Guerrero had the credentials of a Hall of Famer. The verdict? He does. As an inductee, he wouldn’t have the most impressive resume in the Hall, but he’d belong — and, according to the first 44 ballots collected by Ryan Thibodaux by way of his BBHOF Tracker, it appears as though the voters agree:
| Player | Vote% |
|---|---|
| Jeff Bagwell | 89% |
| Tim Raines | 87% |
| Ivan Rodriguez | 81% |
| Vladimir Guerrero | 74% |
| Trevor Hoffman | 74% |
| Barry Bonds | 70% |
| Roger Clemens | 70% |
| Edgar Martinez | 66% |
| Mike Mussina | 62% |
| Curt Schilling | 51% |
| Manny Ramirez | 43% |
| Lee Smith | 36% |
| Larry Walker | 19% |
| Jeff Kent | 17% |
| Fred McGriff | 15% |
| Jorge Posada | 11% |
| Sammy Sosa | 11% |
| Billy Wagner | 9% |
| Gary Sheffield | 6% |
At 74%, Guerrero is right on the threshold for induction (which requires a candidate is named on 75% of ballots). That means that even if he isn’t selected this year Guerrero will almost certainly gain entry to the Hall next year. Which is great. Guerrero was a fantastic player. He’s deserving.
Larry Walker was also a great player, though. In most important ways, he was a superior one. And he’s received enough votes on previous Hall of Fame ballots to return for a seventh year. Like the previous six years, however, Walker is unlikely to be enshrined in Cooperstown this year — if the early polling holds steady, that is. In light of Guerrero’s seeming popularity, that’s strange. By most reasonable accounts, Walker has a better case. If you vote for Guerrero, you have to vote for Walker.
| 5:38 |
:
Do you think there will be a major signing/trade between now and Christmas?
Definitely (21.1% | 52 votes)
I think so (33.3% | 82 votes)
Meh (10.5% | 26 votes)
I don’t think so (20.7% | 51 votes)
No way! (2.4% | 6 votes)
Define “major” (11.7% | 29 votes)
Total Votes: 246
|
| 9:01 |
: Hi everybody!
|
| 9:01 |
: What’s good?
|
| 9:01 |
: Beer
|
| 9:01 |
: Pizza
|
| 9:02 |
: I am familiar with these items.
|
Each week, we publish north of 100 posts on our various blogs. With this post, we hope to highlight 10 to 15 of them. You can read more on it here. The links below are color coded — green for FanGraphs, brown for RotoGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times and blue for Community Research.
Read the rest of this entry »
Brian Dozier had himself quite the 2016 season. If you want to be technical, you could say he had quite the second half of the 2016 season, but that’s splitting hairs — he was still pretty good in the first half. It wasn’t historically superlative, but for second basemen in this millennium, it was pretty impressive. Now the Minnesota Twins have essentially made him available, and “four to five” teams are said to be interested in acquiring his services. Let’s take a look at who those teams could be.
Each week, we publish north of 100 posts on our various blogs. With this post, we hope to highlight 10 to 15 of them. You can read more on it here. The links below are color coded — green for FanGraphs, brown for RotoGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times and blue for Community Research.
Read the rest of this entry »
Have you heard? The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2017 is now available for sale. You can check out the table of contents and read some excerpts from the book here. When you finish that you can purchase it Amazon in either print or Kindle form.
Read the rest of this entry »
The collective bargaining agreement on which the players and owners have just tentatively come to terms didn’t move the needle too much in the grand scheme of things. The changes that occurred were more akin to trimming the branches on a bonsai tree than they were clear-cutting a forest. But one interesting alteration was the replacement of the 15-day disabled list with a 10-day variety. This be interesting in a few ways.
I have to say, my first thought was very much:
Have you heard? The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2017 is now available for sale. You can check out the table of contents and read some excerpts from the book here. When you finish that you can purchase it Amazon in either print or Kindle form.
Read the rest of this entry »
Have you heard? The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2017 is now available for sale. You can check out the table of contents and read some excerpts from the book here. When you finish that you can purchase it Amazon in either print or Kindle form.
Read the rest of this entry »