Ben Lindbergh continues a short series of conversations with baseball content creators who work mainly in a medium other than writing or podcasting by talking to painter Graig Kreindler about Noah Syndergaard, Nick Adenhart, and the best way to pay tribute to past players via uniform number, how Graig got started as a baseball fan and artist, how he began to unify the two hobbies into a calling and career, the combination of inherent ability and practice, the tools of his trade, parting with completed pieces, how his portraits draw on but differ from photographs, his rigorous research process (and the heightened challenge of researching Negro Leagues players), blending preparation and passion, correcting mistakes, his artistic aspirations, his favorite paintings, and much more.

Audio intro: The High Llamas, “Painters Paint”
Audio outro: The Band (Feat. Bob Dylan), “When I Paint My Masterpiece”

Link to Sam Blum on Adenhart and Syndergaard
Link to first EW episode about number tributes
Link to Graig’s website
Link to Graig on Instagram
Link to YouTube video about Graig
Link to NYT piece on Graig
Link to Sports Collectors Digest on Graig
Link to Todd Radom on Graig
Link to National Review piece on Graig
Link to Graig’s Negro Leagues Project gallery
Link to Graig’s “large works” gallery
Link to Murderer’s Row (1927 Yankees)
Link to The Dutch Master (Johnny Vander Meer)
Link to Foreign Reinforcement (Josh Gibson)
Link to Big Sam (Sam Thompson)
Link to Advice From the Big Kid (Ruth)
Link to In a Fog (Ernie Banks)
Link to Graig’s Bautista bat flip
Link to Tom Shieber EW interview
Link to Tom’s Baseball Researcher site
Link to history of perspective in art
Link to NFTs explainer
Link to EW episode about discovering sports late
Link to Patreon trivia contest
Link to stream Stove League via Viki

 iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)
 Sponsor Us on Patreon
 Facebook Group
 Effectively Wild Wiki
 Twitter Account
 Get Our Merch!
 Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com

Podcast (effectively-wild): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Read the rest of this entry »

The following article is part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2022 Hall of Fame ballot. For a detailed introduction to this year’s ballot, and other candidates in the series, use the tool above; an introduction to JAWS can be found here. For a tentative schedule and a chance to fill out a Hall of Fame ballot for our crowdsourcing project, see here. All WAR figures refer to the Baseball-Reference version unless otherwise indicated.

The road to becoming a reliever, even a Hall of Fame one, is rarely a straight one. Dennis Eckersley spent a dozen years starting in the majors, making two All-Star teams and throwing a no-hitter. Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Rich Gossage, and Lee Smith were starting pitchers in the minors, and each took detours to the rotation during their major league careers. Mariano Rivera was an amateur shortstop who reached the majors as a starter. Trevor Hoffman began his professional career as a shortstop before switching to pitching after two seasons.

Like Hoffman, Joe Nathan began his pro career as a shortstop, but after one rough season of pro ball, the Giants concluded that his future lay on the mound — a notion so jarring to the 21-year-old Nathan that he chose to step away and focus on completing his college degree. Even after committing himself to pitching, injuries and ineffectiveness prevented him from finding a permanent home in a major league bullpen until his age-28 season, but once he did, he excelled, making six All-Star teams, helping his teams to six postseason appearances, and saving at least 30 games in a season nine times and at least 40 four times. From 2004 to ’13, only Rivera notched more saves or compiled more WAR, and only two other relievers struck out more hitters — and that was with Nathan missing a full year due to Tommy John surgery (Rivera missed most of a year in that span as well).

With Hoffman, Rivera, and Smith elected in 2018 and ’19, the standards for a Hall of Fame reliever have become a bit more fleshed out, and current candidate Billy Wagner is trending toward election. To these eyes, Nathan wouldn’t be out of place in joining the small handful of enshrinees, but there’s no guarantee he’ll even draw the 5% needed to stay on the ballot. At the very least, he deserves a longer look.

Read the rest of this entry »

New for the holidays is the FanGraphs Mug in white!

Read the rest of this entry »

Ben Lindbergh kicks off a short series of conversations with baseball content creators who work mainly in mediums other than writing or podcasting by talking to YouTuber Bailey Freeman of Foolish Baseball about the Mets hiring Buck Showalter and the challenge of evaluating managers, how many bases Rickey Henderson would steal today, Bailey’s origins as a baseball fan and video maker, his process for picking topics and producing videos, watching videos vs. reading articles or listening to podcasts, MLB’s video policy, how he and his videos have evolved, the tools of his trade, which baseball footage he wishes he had, his YouTube influences and recommendations, being beholden to algorithms, and much more.

Audio intro: Lucinda Williams, “Foolishness”
Audio outro: Superchunk, “Foolish”

Link to Foolish Baseball YouTube channel
Link to Foolish Bailey YouTube channel
Link to Bailey’s Patreon page
Link to Bailey’s latest Ohtani video
Link to Bailey’s Bleier video
Link to Bailey’s Henderson video
Link to Bailey’s Verlander video
Link to Bailey’s two-way revolution video
Link to Bailey’s Locastro video
Link to Bailey’s Simmons video
Link to Bailey’s Mathis video
Link to Bailey’s spring training video
Link to Bailey’s Yankees/Twins video
Link to Bailey’s Barajas video
Link to Summoning Salt YouTube channel
Link to Jomboy Media YouTube channel
Link to SportStorm YouTube channel
Link to YourFriendKyle Twitch channel
Link to history of perspective in art
Link to article about players peeing on hands
Link to Patreon trivia contest
Link to stream Stove League via Viki

 iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!)
 Sponsor Us on Patreon
 Facebook Group
 Effectively Wild Wiki
 Twitter Account
 Get Our Merch!
 Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com

Podcast (effectively-wild): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This year I have the honor of casting a Hall of Fame ballot for the second time. Jay Jaffe does as well — we both joined the BBWAA in 2010 while colleagues at Baseball Prospectus — and as Jay stated in Friday’s episode of FanGraphs Audio, the exercise is every bit as challenging as it was 12 months ago. Defining worthiness is inherently subjective, and that would be the case even without PEDs and the character clause complicating matters. As it turned out, the latter of those two conundrum-inducers prompted me to drop one of last year’s selections. More on that in a moment.

As many of you have seen from Ryan Thibodaux’s invaluable Ballot Tracker, a number of voters remain stingy with their checkmarks. And they have that right. If you feel that only a small handful of the eligibles are worthy, you should vote accordingly. (Submitting a blank ballot is another thing entirely; the idea that no player in a given year meets acceptable standards is questionable at best.)

I am, unapologetically, “a Big-Hall” guy. For me, one of the biggest dilemmas has been deciding which of a dozen-plus deserving candidates will be excluded. Last year, Todd Helton and Jeff Kent stood out as players I agonized over and ultimately didn’t cast ballots for. The was especially true for Helton; I determined almost immediately afterward that he would get a checkmark this year. He did, while Kent — purely because there wasn’t room for him on my ballot — did not.

All 10 of the players I voted for a year ago returned to the ballot — and a pair of high-profile candidates were added — which accentuated the dilemma. By adding Helton, and one or two of the newcomers, I was going to have to drop multiple players whose numbers and impact on the game had not changed one iota. Read the rest of this entry »

2:02	Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to my Friday chat. This is my first one since the end of the World Series, but also my last one for calendar 2021, a situation that owes mainly to the volume of coverage on my Hall of Fame beat.

2:03

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, we’re in the midst of a lockout, which sucks, but we have plenty to discuss today. Before we do, I’ll call attention to today’s entry in my HOF profile series, Bobby Abreu, who makes for a nice palate-cleanser after my Bonds/Clemens/Sosa/Schilling clearinghouse post and then my update on the Omar Vizquel situation(s). https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jaws-and-the-2022-hall-of-fame-ballot-bobb…

2:04	Jay Jaffe: Also landing today is the podcast spot I did with David Laurila in which we discussed our Hall of Fame ballot coping strategies https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-audio-jay-jaffe-and-david-lauril…

2:05	Jay Jaffe: Anywhoo, there are a good number of questions in the queue, so on with the show…

2:06

Jay Jaffe: I think it has more to do with the latter, not wanting the criticism. If anything, in the last couple of years I’ve heard from some voters that they wish their outlets wouldn’t let them vote, and/or express relief that they’re not allowed to. I doubt there are many actively subverting their employers

Read the rest of this entry »