In the press to close this year’s Fantasy Football Guide 2006 Professional Edition, I neglected to plug this week’s Ask Rotoman column. It has been up since Wednesday over at mlb.com, with contemplation of a Jim Thome for Miguel Cabrera trade, a look at what’s happening with Andy Pettitte, and thoughts about catchers, most notably Josh Bard and Mike Piazza.
Players
Names change, drugs remain — Affidavit starts witch hunt
BostonHerald.com – MLB Coverage:
Clever stuff, and makes me feel a little dirty.
BTW, does baseball really need to save itself? Haven’t these steroid allegations been out there for a few years now? Did anybody think that testing was going to make the game totally clean? Aren’t millions of people going out to the ballyard in every major league city? Isn’t everyone making so much money they aren’t even discussing the possibility of a strike/lock out when the basic agreement expires after this season?
That’s all. For now.
Ps. I found the Boston Herald link through deadspin.com.
Baseball Musings:
David Pinto goes to the place I think all discussion about PEDs has to go, but in a comment far down the page Keith Levenberg takes it one step further. Well worth reading down the page if you have set ideas about drugs and the games.
I was going to link to Deadspin’s sober speculation of the contents of the redacted information in the Grimsley affadavit (about him, not by him), but the link from the affidavit to Albert Pujols’ trainer, Chris Mihfield, is too tenuous. Anyone who has hung around with professional athletes in the last 20 some odd years (and probably longer) knows that all follow the supplements, vitamins, and enhancement products to some extent. Mihfield recommending a guy to Grimsley who had bennies is a far cry from a smoking gun pointing at Pujols.
But then I think we need a lot less hysteria.
Milwaukee Brewers/Pittsburgh Pirates Box Score Tuesday May 30, 2006 – Yahoo! Sports
I’ve been tied up on the Fantasy Football Guide 2006, which wraps up this week, to think much about baseball, but I’ve noticed the Pirates the last two nights. One reason is because the offense on my Tout Wars NL team is accidentally built around the Pirates’. (Note that until yesterday this was one of the main reasons I was floundering in the second division.) I rostered Sean Casey and Craig Wilson, then added Freddy Sanchez in the end game, and Jose Bautista in the reserve round. A month in, when I needed a DH, Ronny Paulino seemed like the best pickup, on the chance that he’d stick even after Ryan Doumit came back (something there was talk of in Pittsburgh). Last night these guys combined for 11 RBI and hit better than .500. Tonight Jose Castillo is doing most of the damage, but my guys hit .350 with 3 RBI and 7 Runs. Most importantly, they all played, and I’ve moved back into the First Division. Go Pirates.
Ask Rotoman, the column
The new column is out at mlb.com. I realize I haven’t been talking about why I choose the questions I do. In this week’s issue I compare Carlos Lee and Jason Bay, compare Michael Cuddyer and Aubrey Huff, chatter on about past embarrassments Tyler Walker and Jorge Cantu, and then I bite into the ripest piece of meat. Dig in!
Idiots Write About Sports
He links to the original, which is rather amazing in its hyperbole. Ahab had his whale, that’s a good one. The whale, of course, was a whale.
Tampa Bay Devil Rays News: Kazmir No. 1?
Scott Kazmir has been pitching very well this month, which is of increasing frustration to Mets fans, who can only wonder what might have been if the then really young phenom hadn’t been traded for the now career-threatened bum Victor Zambrano.
Looking at the picture that accompanies the story, which is of Kazmir with his long stride nearly off the mound and his arm still back behind his shoulder, reminds me that part of the knock on Kazmir was that his unusual delivery led some to think he would be an injury risk.
In this story, in which his start this year is compared to Vida Blue’s historic rookie campaign, no mention is made of the potential risks for a young pitcher cast into a heavy role. Just ask Vida Blue how that turned out. (Note that Blue threw 312! innings as a 21 year old, and topped 180 10 times.)
On the other hand, Kevin Appier had the most shoulder-twisting delivery I’ve ever seen by a starter, and he got in 11 seasons with better than 180 IP—starting at age 22.
Let Kazmir throw!
David Appelman: Pujols’ hot spots
SI.com – MLBÂ Wednesday May 17, 2006 12:26PM
When I was a boy perhaps the most influential thing I read was the issue of Sports Illustrated excerpting Ted Williams’ book about hitting, Science of Hitting. Most notably, a chart that showed his batting average when the ball was thrown in each spot in the strike zone and out.
I’m a little embarrassed now that I have no idea how the data for that chart was compiled and whether it was even real. Collecting such data in the early 60s was a lot harder than it is today. David Appelman is one of a growing number of baseball analysts who are drawing on the ever expanding trove of data Baseball Info Solutions has been collecting, and his Fangraphs.com site has been linked to here before.
These hitter charts are of interest, of course, but it seems to me that they tell the wrong half of the story. Player performance isn’t a constant, and wouldn’t it be really interesting to be able to see the distribution of pitches when Adrian Beltre was going bad and compare it to when he was going good?
The other thing that should be noted is that BIS derives most if not all of it’s data off of television broadcasts. While I trust that a reporter’s mark showing where the ball crossed the plate will be sort of accurate (and I believe the company employs multiple reporters for each game), there are plenty of reasons to suspect that they won’t be pinpoint. And if the analysis is meant to show scintillating differences in performance based on pitch location (remember, that the camera distance and angle is different in every ballpark), the noise of subjective judgement is likely to wipe out the little differences.
This isn’t to derogate Appelman’s work, or to impugn the value of what BIS is doing. But it is important to remember that better and more finely grained data isn’t necessarily objective data. Enjoy these excellent visuals, and imagine what they tell us about these hitters, but don’t imagine this is the end. In some ways it is just the beginning.
This Week’s Ask Rotoman
The new one has been released, looking at the long term potential of three rookie second basemen (and not even including Josh Barfield), asking the musical question is Joe Borowski for real, contemplating the relative values of Pedro Feliz and Justin Morneau, and comparing a rotation of free-agent starters to one good starter. There’s lots to read, so get going!
LaRoche’s disorder in spotlight
Adam LaRoche’s problem, apparently, is ADD. He won’t take medication for it, however, or make excuses, which is why he sometimes looks like he isn’t paying attention to the game. Or he doesn’t hustle, as in a play in Monday’s game against the Nats. According to the experts quoted in this story, if LaRoche took the right medication he’d be a better baseball player. But there are a lot of people these days who say that taking the ADD medication helps them focus better, too, even if they haven’t been diagnosed with the disease. Since LaRoche can function on the extraordinary level of a major leaguer without taking medication, can his disease be bad enough that he should be allowed performance enhancing drugs his teammates and opponents aren’t allowed?
I’m just asking.