Last year in these pages, the author — in an effort to justify his employment — published a pair of posts inviting the public to consider the virtues of LSU freshman Alex Lange’s curveball.

Lange is now an LSU sophomore and has recently recorded his first start of the season for Les Acadiens, during which he posted a 9:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio against 24 batters over 6.2 innings versus the University of Cincinnati (box). What else Lange did was to exhibit the breaking ball which scouts are calling “a good breaking ball” and “fine, yeah, a pretty strong breaking ball, now please stop bothering me, I’m with my kids.”

In any case, the following Betamax footage depicts examples of that same pitch from Lange’s season debut.

Like this footage, in which Lange records his first out of the season by means also of his first curveball of the season, against a Cincinnati batter (right fielder Vince Augustine) who appears to exhibit not no resignation while also swinging his bat:

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Tony Phillips passed away today, at the age of 56. Unlike some of the reporters sharing stories from their days covering him on Twitter — this one from Jeff Passan is great — I never had any interaction with him, and can’t share any personal stories in his memory. But what I can share is my memory of just how good Tony Phillips was at baseball.

Phillips really came into his own in 1990, when I was nine years old and getting seriously into baseball. And for the next decade, I must have watched Tony Phillips be the cause of my team losing on at least a half dozen occasions. He was never the other team’s best player, at least not according to the announcers, but he was one of those remarkably good role players that the good teams always seemed to have. And, with the benefit of some better ways of evaluating players these days, we can look back and say that Phillips just may have been his team’s best player on a number of occasions.

His peak ran about seven years, from 1990-1996. Here’s the position player leaderboard during that stretch.

That’s a who’s-who of the best players of the 1990s, and Phillips is square in the middle of that class. For that seven year period, he was essentially the equal of Craig Biggio. As J.J. Cooper put it:

RIP Tony Phillips. If you're too young to remember him, he was Ben Zobrist before there was Ben Zobrist.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) February 19, 2016

The comparison is apt, and if Phillips had played a couple of decades later, he’d be celebrated as one of the game’s most valuable players. While he wasn’t flashy, he didn’t hit a ton of home runs, and his positional versatility meant he was never considered an elite defender, his all-around game made Phillips a tremendous asset for his teams.

Rest in peace, Mr. Phillips.

It’s become a practice of the present author in recent years to begin in February a painstaking search for the new ballcap that will express his entire being. It’s also become a practice in recent years to parlay that search into web content so that the author might “remain” “employed.”

Two years ago, this pursuit yielded a Winston-Salem Spirits cap from 1994 with a weird red sun and melancholy eagle on it. Last year, I had the fortune of procuring a handsome Diablos Rojos cap from the actual team store at Parque Fray Nano in Mexico City. In each case, I have documented the relevant search for the benefit of posterity — even if posterity has failed to show any real interest in my work.

In any case, what follows marks the beginning of this year’s search.

To wit:

Absolut Vintage Strapback Cap (Link)
Style: Strapback
Time Left: 8 days, 2 hours
Cost: US $9.00 (Buy It Now)

Have you ever wanted to give the impression that you were a devotee of 80s sitcom Moonlighting without actually having to watch all 68 episodes of it? Have you ever wondered what a baseball uniform designed by Patrick Nagel might look like? This cap goes some way to addressing both of those concerns.

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Short updates about over 1100 players are now on the player pages! As part of our new approach to membership, the player caps are free. Each player cap attempts to put the player in context by talking about recent career events and their outlook for the coming season — mostly with a fantasy slant. No matter your interest, however, you’ll find some nuggets in there, including Blake Murphy on Adam Rosales, Matt Klaassen on Alcides Escobar, Craig Edwards on Logan Schafer, and David Wiers on Chase Utley.

Thanks very much to our writers, listed below! They each worked hard to bring you insight.

The fantasy research pieces that used to be part of FG+ are now running over at The Hardball Times, with pieces about the following topics. Also free!

Thanks very much for your readership. I hope you enjoy these as you prepare for the upcoming season.

Our writers:
Adam McFadden
Alex Chamberlain
August Fagerstrom
Ben Duronio
Ben Pasinkoff
Blake Murphy
Brad Johnson
Bradley Woodrum
Brandon Warne
Brett Talley
Carson Cistulli
Chad Young
Chris Mitchell
Colin Zarzycki
Craig Edwards
Darren Scheinbein
David Temple
David Wiers
Dustin Nosler
Dylan Higgins
Eno Sarris
Jeff Zimmerman
Karl de Vries
Matt Klaassen
Michael Barr
Mike Podhorzer
Owen Watson
Paul Sporer
Paul Swydan
Scott Spratt
Scott Strandberg
Zach Sanders

The Brewers continued the rebuilding process on Friday dealing power-hitting outfielder Khris Davis to the Athletics in exchange for prospects. Here’s what my fancy computer math thinks of the prospects who are now property of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Jacob Nottingham, C, 6.8 WAR (Profile)

Nottingham was a former sixth-round pick who broke out in a big way in A-Ball last year. After an underwhelming two years in a Rookie Ball, he slashed .309/.364/.493 in 122 games between the Houston and Oakland organizations. He had a wee bit of trouble making contact as evidenced by his 20% strikeout rate. But he made up for it by hitting for loads of power.

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For those of you who are interested in learning a little bit about the history of FanGraphs and our operations, Barry Svrluga wrote a great piece in the Washington Post about how it all got started.

Position: Miami Marlins Baseball Analytics Intern

Location: Miami

Description:

The Baseball Analytics Intern will assist Baseball Operations decision-making through the analysis and research of baseball information. The specific day-to-day responsibilities of this position will vary depending on the baseball calendar, but it requires a general knowledge of how to use objective data to answer baseball-related questions, with a strong preference for a candidate possessing an established foundation of statistical and database management skills.

Responsibilities:

• Perform advanced statistical analysis on large datasets in order to assist in the decision-making of the Baseball Operations department.
• Expand upon existing analytical strategy by improving existing resources and creating new databases, models, and reports.
• Perform ad-hoc research projects as requested and present those results in a concise, straightforward manner.
• Monitor publically available baseball research.
• Provide administrative support and complete general intern duties as requested.

Qualifications:

• Understanding of and passion for the game of baseball.
• Ability to communicate baseball analytics concepts to individuals with diverse baseball backgrounds.
• Strong work ethic, attention to detail, and ability to self-direct.
• Ability to work evenings, weekends, and holidays during the season.
• Bachelor’s degree or relevant practical experience required.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite required.
• Familiarity with current state of freely available baseball research required.
• Knowledge of ball tracking data (e.g. Pitch F/X, TrackMan, etc.) strongly preferred.
• Experience with relational databases and SQL strongly preferred.
• Experience with R statistical software package strongly preferred.
• Experience with at least one scripting language (e.g. Perl, Python, Ruby) a plus.

Compensation:
This position is compensated.

To Apply:
Interested applicants can email their materials to marlinsinternships@gmail.com.

Position: Toronto Blue Jays Manager of Baseball Analytics

Location: Toronto

Description:

The primary focus of this position will be to learn how decisions are made in all areas of Baseball Operations, develop a familiarity with those processes and then develop tools and conduct research to incorporate data into the decision making process.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct empirical research related to baseball strategy and player evaluation, with an understanding and context of how findings would apply to more effective decision making and increased operational effectiveness.
• Communicate departmental findings to key decision-makers within all departments of Baseball Operations.
• Collaborate with the front office, coaches and scouts to develop best practices for analyzing and displaying baseball data, including the creation of reports, charts, graphics, and other tools to deliver information to end users. Results of this work should help those within the organization to better understand, consider and apply the use of information and data to their decisions and operation on a daily basis.
• Design, test, implement and maintain advanced baseball metrics and predictive models using statistical tools and analysis in order to contribute to planning, strategy and personnel decisions.
• Work to integrate new information into existing Baseball Operations processes and develop and maintain data quality assurance processes to ensure database integrity.
• Ensure that Baseball Operations staff is fully informed of current baseball research and analysis including statistical techniques that are best-suited for particular baseball problems.
• Complete ad-hoc database queries and analysis as dictated by circumstances.
• Recommend new data sources for purchase and/or new techniques to gather proprietary data.
• Assist with hiring and managing in the Baseball Analytics Department.

Qualifications:

• Strong interpersonal skills to communicate effectively with a wide range of individuals including members of the front office, scouts, and field staff.
• Passion for baseball and excellent reasoning, problem-solving, creative thinking, and communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully design and execute baseball research projects.
• Proficiency with SQL and relational databases is required.
• Experience with at least one of R, Python, Perl, Ruby, C++ and/or other programming or mathematical languages is required.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office is required.
• Strong understanding of current baseball research.
• Baseball playing background is preferred, although not required.
• Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, statistics, economics, engineering, operations research, or related quantitative field from a top university preferred.
• 3-5 years of related work experience or advanced degree is preferred.
• Ability to read, speak and comprehend English effectively.
• Basic understanding of organizational structure, goals, and mission.
• Represent the Blue Jays in a positive fashion to all business partners and the general public.
• The ability to work with multicultural populations and a commitment to fairness and equality.
• Ability to work evening, weekend and holiday hours.
• Willing and able to relocate to Toronto.

To Apply:
Interested applicants must do the following:

• Complete this online application.
• Send an email to BaseballResumes@bluejays.com with your resume and the answer to the following two questions:

1. Why do you want to work in baseball?
2. Describe a time when you used your analytic and research skills to solve a problem, either in baseball or in business.

I’ve made an interactive visualization tool for earned run average (ERA) and fielding independent pitching (FIP) across Major League Baseball. You’ve seen this visualization before in many of Owen Watson’s articles throughout last season. Owen used this to suggest which pitching staffs might have overachieved their peripheral stats. This visualization lets us see the discrepancies between ERA and FIP among all of the MLB teams or even among different players.

Below is an example of a graph are you able to create with the tool:

You can toggle between teams and players. Players are organized by team and you are able to set the minimum number of innings pitched for the player to be on the graph. There are two places you’ll see these graphs. The primary location will be the tool’s page on FanGraphs; this is where the full tool is available. Then the graph itself can be embedded into our blog (plus Community Research) or anyone else’s blog using an iframe element.

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Position: New York Mets Analyst, Baseball Research & Development

Location: New York

Description:
The New York Mets are seeking a Data Analyst to work its Research and Development team. The employee will analyze baseball data in order to build and maintain predictive models that support the decision-making processes within Baseball Operations. The Analyst will report to the Manager, Baseball Research and Development.

Responsibilities:

• Research, develop, and test predictive models to support Baseball Operations (ie, player evaluation, roster construction, player development, in-game decision making).
• Assist development team to create and integrate new analysis and tools into existing Baseball Operations application.
• Collaborate with members of Research and Development team to maintain long term information and systems architecture for Baseball Operations.
• Write scripts which support data collection, automation, and report generation.
• Interface with Baseball Operations leadership on player evaluation, in-game strategy, and transactions by presenting the results of analysis in a clear, understandable fashion using a variety of methods.
• Keep Baseball Operations staff abreast of cutting edge statistical techniques.

Qualifications:

• Advanced degree or equivalent experience in Statistics, Data Science, Operations research, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related quantitative field.
• Demonstrated experience with statistical tools and packages, such as R, STATA, Julia, SPSS, or SAS.
• Familiarity with SQL query design and optimization.
• Strong understanding of baseball specific datasets (ie, Pitch Fx, Trackman, Statcast) & knowledge of current baseball research.
• Ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to a non-technical audience.

To Apply:
Interested applicants should apply here by Sunday, February 7th.