Beautiful.
[thanks megary]
Recommendations
Things Rotoman likes.
All the so-called news that’s fit to recap
I may well have recommended this site at some point, maybe even recently, but while reading it this morning I was reminded again what a great idea it was to collect all the trade rumors in one place. In part the idea works because Tim is a witty writer who does a nice job laying out the various discussions, chattering and possibilities. As we approach the July 31 trading deadline teams hoping not to be hurt by ML deals, and teams in the first waiver position hoping to be helped can stoke the fires all day (and night) long at this site.
Ice Nine
The link is to a page about the scientific qualities of ice, which relates to Ice Nine, which Kurt Vonnegut invented for his novel Cat’s Cradle. I had a serious collision with Vonnegut’s novels in the winter of 1975, during which I worked the graveyard shift in a Shell Station in San Francisco. Huddled overnight on a chaise lounge with an electric heater at my feet, I read Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five and the rest of them in the wee hours, waiting impatiently for the man driving the donut truck to stop in for a fill up.
I didn’t realize then just how fabulously kind it was that he dropped off still-warm donuts nearly every night I worked, though I certainly appreciated them. I appreciated Vonnegut then, too, though he later became more of an activist gadfly model than a writer model for me.
Maybe it’s time to read Cat’s Cradle again.
Heater Magazine – Home
Looking for batting order information for Matt Murton and Cliff Floyd earlier today I remembered that Heater Magazine has such stuff. I nipped over to www.heatermagazine.com, downloaded the giant weekly compendium of stats, charts, baseball writing, more charts, graphs, lists and more charts and found exactly what I was looking for. Plus the writing of this year’s Guide rookies, Craig Brown and Jeff Sackman, and the always excellent Dave Studeman and Deric McCamey.
There’s also a Saturday supplement. This is what Baseball Weekly might have done with their stat pages, but instead John Burnson put it together. It’s cheap. Just $19 samoleans for the whole season.
The only problem is that all the information really makes me want to have one of those 30″ Apple CinemaDisplays on my desk. But even without it, this is one useful bunch of baseball/fantasy information.
Ps. I don’t make any money on this. It’s just highly recommended.
Mike Gianella’s Blog
Mike G. has been an energetic figure at the various Alex Patton sites over the years, and he drafted the Alex Patton LABR team in 2003. It turns out that Mike is a fine writer about the arcane roto issues that some of us obsess over endlessly, and his new website is a great place to explore the intricacies of what Alex calls the game’s Masochism.
I have to admit that some of you will not suck this discussion like sweet nectar, but I think that’s your loss. The fantasy game is played at the edges, where players eager to exploit inadequacies of the scoring system meet real scouts who believe they know something about the way players develop.
Good luck!
Three Citizen Critics Review Noteworthy Recent Albums — New York Magazine
Just a little non-baseball selfpromotion. Notice, by the way, the love for the new Lucinda Williams disk, which the NY Times and New Yorker have ripped in recent days. They’re wrong. I’m right.
But I Regress…
Dave Studeman — The Hardball Times
I always thought that Regression Analysis took its name from the fact that you start with the outputs and determine by regressing to see how important the inputs are, though I now have no idea whether that’s based on anything but my own magical thinking.
Dave Studeman’s story here is fascinating for the historical content (which has nothing to do with baseball, a little to do with statistics and much to do with other things) and because he does such clear work showing the dynamics of regression to the mean (which may well be the origin of the term) as they pertain to baseball.
At the end he references a story by Chone Smith about player projection which turns out to be an interesting rabbit hole in its own right, but that’s for another time.
Should be: The Indispensible Baseball Musings
DAVID PINTO WROTE: “Update: Jason Marquis is allowed to take a beating for the second time this year. He gives up two hits in the sixth before he comes out of the game. Just to finish his night off, the bullpen allows the runner they inherited from Jason to score. He’s charged with 12 runs. He allowed 14 against the White Sox earlier this season. Almost 30% of the runs Marquis allowed this year came in those two games.”
Pinto has created a baseball news site with fantasy relevance, excellent data tools, and it’s all free. Unless you do the right thing and pony up some cash, if you feel the way I do. I sent money last year and I’m not bragging, it wasn’t really enough. So I’m sending more this year.
Highly recommended.
As for Marquis, he’s killing me. Or Tony LaRussa is. I’d been riding the matchups the last couple of weeks (since the last time he was left in to take a beating) and it’s worked out well, so I didn’t see the spot to dump him. Mercy.
RotoRob
A New Baseball (and other sports, too) blog.
Rob Blackstien has been writing and editing the Fantasy Baseball and Football Guides for a couple of years now, so I wasn’t surprised how well written and good looking his new site is. I’ve been travelling and I’ve also been surprised how often I’ve checked in just to get Rob’s take on the latest stories. Check it out, click some links, buy some stuff, and if you like Rotorob like I do, support a good writer who loves (and plays) baseball.
Scout’s honor
Wanna good cry?