This week we ponder the possible demise of Johnny Damon, and decide he’s not done yet, while Matt Kemp is probably not here. Yet. And we survey the list of likely talent to be traded at the deadline this year, and I hope set some single-league hearts a racing.
Month: June 2007
The Pick To Click’s Quick Fix — June 18, 2007
The Pick To Click
With that in mind, here’s a trivia question: Who has the longest hitting streak in Minor League Baseball history, at 61 games, five more than DiMaggio’s major-league record? Hint: You’ve heard of the guy, trust me.
Athletic Supporters
I haven’t seen anything new on this story, but this well-reasoned analysis and a comment indicating that Bradley and Bob Geren had words (at least), all seem to make more sense than the A’s original story.
Why would the A’s keep the story quiet? To keep Bradley’s trade value up, a move that seemed to pay off when they dealt him to Kansas City. But Bradley, who must be steamed (and who has been on the DL three times already this year), told the Royals he was hurt and the savvy Royals backed out of the deal.
For a Bradley owner who will lose him if he ends up in the NL this was a particularly cruel and troublesome turn of events.
Bradley NOT Traded to the Royals
If I didn’t have Milton Bradley on my AL only team in the American Dream League I might be paying less attention to this. Also, Baseball Digest Daily is not a site I was familiar with, but they’re saying ESPN got it wrong. If they’re right it would a feather in their caps.
On the same American Dream League team I have John Thomson, who did go to the Royals today. I think it’s a good idea, generally, for the worst teams to look to the castoffs of better teams. Thomson was hurt last year, and hasn’t been dominant in his minor league rehab assignment, but if he gets it together he’s a serviceable back of the rotation guy who knows enough about pitching to get hot at some point.
In the meantime, Milton Bradley may be a Royal, or he may go on the DL for the fourth time this year. What’s the record on that?
Ask Rotoman at mlb.com
The Official Site of Major League Baseball
This week we discover whether all is unwell with Vernon Wells, discover whether a metric for week-to-week volatility makes any sense, and discovers (surprising!) that surprising pitchers off to a good start are… well, read the story to find out how convincing the evidence is.
Scoresheet Baseball Bests and Worsts
I met Jeff Barton, who invented and runs Scoresheet Baseball with his brother, out in Arizona last November at Ron Shandler’s shindig at the AFL. Jeff invited some of us to play in a Scoresheet league this year. Over the years the most vocal proponents of a fantasy game that is not Rotisserie have certainly been Scoresheet players, who love the game for the way it reflects the shape of real baseball games and the shape of the real baseball season. So I said yes.
I’m a newbie, my team isn’t so hot and, to be honest, I don’t have the time to soak up all the information I need to help me play this game better. But I can see the appeal. Each week you get actual box scores from simulated games based on the preceding week’s actual stats. It’s a deft mixture of roto and sim baseball played nearly in real time, and it only hurts when your Johan Santana is edged by Brian Bannister. But such things do happen.
I bring all this up because in this week’s Scoresheet newsletter Jeff lists the players who turn up most on winning and losing teams. This is a great way to measure a player’s actual impact on the standings. As you can see, the differences aren’t huge. Jermaine Dye is a disappointment, but he can’t single-handedly wreck teams. Perhaps you’ll find some names here that will help explain your season thus far:
(And don’t forget to check out Scoresheet Baseball.)
This week we’ve printed a short list of ‘Scoresheet All-Stars’
and ‘Scoresheet All-Worsts’. We took all of the players in the
majors, and totaled the won-loss records for all of the teams that
they are on in Scoresheet, then divided by the number of teams they
play on to come up with their ‘average Scoresheet won-loss record.’
Most pennant races are decided by just a couple of games, so if a
single player makes the difference in 3 or 4 games that is a big deal.This list is not just an order of the players who are having the
best (and worst) seasons, but more shows players who are playing
much better or worse than what they ‘cost’ (how high the draft pick
used to get them, or what they cost in trade).
*Note A guy like Matt Albers (who probably was not even picked
in many pre-season drafts) may show on a league’s ‘Worst’ list
because he was not picked until the mid-season supplemental draft
in many leagues. Those drafts go in the reverse order of won-loss
records, and since Buchholz was a top supplemental pick in many
leagues, Buchholz did end up getting picked by a lot of teams that
already had a losing record when they got him.Have a great week! – Jeff Barton
AL Bests
4468-3596, 35-28 Danny Haren
4347-3717, 34-29 John Lackey
4345-3718, 34-29 Alex Rodriguez
4340-3723, 34-29 Kelvim Escobar
4339-3724, 34-29 Carlos Guillen
4334-3730, 34-29 Grady Sizemore
4332-3730, 34-29 Victor Martinez
4312-3751, 34-29 J.J. Putz
4310-3753, 34-29 James Shields
4293-3769, 34-29 Johan Santana
4289-3775, 34-29 Pat Neshek
4287-3776, 33-30 Alexis Rios
4255-3746, 34-29 Magglio Ordonez
4190-3685, 34-29 Matt Guerrier
4266-3798, 33-30 Joe Nathan
4263-3800, 33-30 Justin Verlander
4230-3771, 33-30 Hideki Okajima
4252-3811, 33-30 C.C. Sabathia
3084-2649, 34-29 C.J. WilsonAL Worsts
3687-4375, 29-34 Joe Crede
3798-4265, 30-33 Brandon McCarthy
3790-4211, 30-33 Jake Westbrook
3832-4231, 30-33 Jermaine Dye
3838-4226, 30-33 Vicente Padilla
3209-3595, 30-33 Doug Mientkiewicz
3842-4221, 30-33 Jorge Cantu
3593-3967, 30-33 Casey Fossum
3789-4147, 30-33 Sammy Sosa
3853-4210, 30-33 Chone Figgins
3821-4178, 30-33 Jason Kendall
3829-4171, 30-33 Mark Grudzielanek
3797-4139, 30-33 Mike Maroth
3861-4203, 30-33 Kevin Millwood
3737-4075, 30-33 Scott Podsednik
3867-4195, 30-33 Josh BarfieldNL Bests
5456-4622, 34-29 Jake Peavy
5403-4676, 34-29 Brad Penny
5374-4706, 34-29 John Smoltz
5372-4710, 34-29 Chase Utley
5299-4719, 33-30 Todd Helton
5312-4767, 33-30 Jose Reyes(NYN)
5281-4739, 33-30 Chris Young(SD)
5275-4744, 33-30 Derrek Lee
5253-4764, 33-30 Chipper Jones
5248-4769, 33-30 Edgar Renteria
5210-4742, 33-30 Tim Hudson
4722-4288, 33-30 Sergio Mitre
5191-4761, 33-30 John Maine
5247-4834, 33-30 Roy Oswalt
5245-4835, 33-30 David Wright
5212-4805, 33-30 Scott Linebrink
5239-4837, 33-30 Albert Pujols
5204-4812, 33-30 Matt Holliday
5225-4853, 33-30 Russell Martin
5190-4827, 33-30 Matt Morris
5217-4864, 33-30 Miguel CabreraNL Worsts
4781-5298, 30-33 Adam LaRoche
4862-5219, 30-33 Taylor Tankersley
4110-4458, 30-33 Jose Castillo
4867-5213, 30-33 Josh Johnson(Flo)
4808-5146, 30-33 Bronson Arroyo
4211-4546, 30-33 Matt Albers
4780-5111, 30-33 John Patterson
4816-5138, 30-33 Anthony Reyes
4849-5167, 30-32 Juan Pierre
4823-5132, 31-32 Clay Hensley
4634-4942, 30-33 Mark Mulder
4162-4469, 30-33 Jarrod Saltalamacchia
4866-5152, 31-32 Freddy Garcia
4867-5150, 31-32 Brian Giles
4841-5112, 31-32 Dan Wheeler
Ask Rotoman at mlb.com
This week we examine whether it might be time to throw off Alex Gordon in favor of Josh Fields, look at a wacky league that almost let the last place team take the fourth best player from the best team, and try to get excited about Dontrelle Willis.
Ousmane Sembène
He is usually called the greatest of all African filmmakers, but this is really an insult. Not because the ranks of great African filmmakers is small, but because Sembene certainly ranks with the great filmmakers of all time. A resolute socialist, a son of the working class and the colonial system—which both shaped his worklife (and life) and ironically provided him the means to succeed as an artist—he was originally a novelist and short story writer. I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t read any of his fiction. It was his concern that his writing would not be widely read (in Africa) that caused him to turn to filmmaking when he was 40.
His first film, Black Girl, an unsparing portrait of a Senegalese girl who is brought to France to work. is notable for its formal elegance and very Senegalese point of view, though it looks like a French film.
His later films can be much funnier, even when dealing with serious themes. I think Guelwaar, the story of a doomed Muslim funeral, is his masterpiece, but others claim similar honors for Xala (a businessman has his mojo stolen and cannot consummate his third marriage), Faat-Kine (a comedy about a woman succeeding in business), and Moolaade (which I haven’t seen, about female genital cutting).
I suggest starting with Guelwaar, in which you’ll discover a wonderful artist with an expansive view of people, politics and the way these things collide, who is working at the top of his game.
Don Mossi: Baseball Player
It seems that Mossi was a pretty good pitcher who happened to have amazingly angular ears. The link here is to a site that Don and his family might find offensive, because he had rather distinctive features, but explains why he’s suddenly the subject of some art.
I’m also going to try to remember to have a sense of humor about the way some schmoes might depict how I look. Since it’s nothing I can control.
The Case Against K/9 and BB/9
The hed makes it sound radical, but this is really a quite useful and meaningful tweak. If you want to know how many batters a pitcher strikes out and walks (and you do), better measures are the percentages of each outcome compared to batters faced. The writer says the average pitcher strikes out 15 percent of batters faced and walks eight percent.
I’ve always tried to make this adjustment on the fly, when doing analysis, but this is a good argument for using the real numbers as a percentage rather than the per game ones.