I have decided to make my next entry in the Saber Video Series concerning my most favoritist hitting statistics, wRC+.

BUT.

This involves doing something a baseball hermit rarely does: Saying things aloud. I want to sound, obviously, not foolish, so I will confirm with how you, public, would best vocalize “wRC+.”

Presently, I say (in my head) “worker-plus,” and my wife said “work-plus,” before she said, “Oh, I’d normally just say double-you-are-see-plus,” before she said, “This is how you spend your time?” with the corners of her mouth and the fluttering of her eyes, blinking back tears she would remind herself she never cried.

So tell me: How do YOU saw wRC+?

Posted on Tampa Bay Rays blog DRaysBay, one will find the most curious analysis of the recent Rays-Royals super trade that send James Shields and Wade Davis to Kansas City for Wil Myers and every minor league pitcher in the Royals system.

The fair user dennet passes along this visual, extracted from Out of the Park Baseball 2013, in which A.I.-version Royals GM Dayton Moore reacts to the trade real-life-version Dayton Moore greenlit some 17 hours ago:

Click to embiggenize.
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These distant titans of sport, both colossal when the doctors measure their height and weight and colossal in the most adhesive sense of human hero worship, have only a select few like David Price. He strikes the keen observer as neither too distant or too comfortable. He seems like just some tall man you might have known in college or while working as a meat slicer in a deli sandwich shop.

When not engaged in typical Rays dugout hijinks, David engages in atypical Rays dugout hijinks. He is a 6-foot-6 Jim Halpert.

And so on Sunday evening when David had to say goodbye to his long-time friend, now-Royals pitcher James Shields, and the jester giant’s veneer cracked, you will forgive your humble author for blinking back a tear and smiling for that clown, the one who laughs when he means to cry.
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What is BABIP? Why did Jose Hernandez have little nubs for hands? How does BABIP affect me and my children and my fantasy children? These are the hard hitting questions that my latest video, “Hitter BABIP: Yet More Dragons and Such,” tackles.
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Our intrepid translator of all matters Japanese baseball, Gen Sueyoshi, passes along this bit of news: The Hanshin Tigers GM — Katsuhiro Nakamura — knows they need a few whites guys if they want to slap any RBIs this coming season:

GM Katsuhiro Nakamura is hoping [Brooks Conrad] will be able to drive in anywhere between ninety and a hundred runs. Source: Sanspo 11/26/2012

Said Nakamura, via Nikkan Sports, “I think [Conrad] understands as well as anyone that we are in need of power. I do not want to put too much pressure on him, but what we need are RBIs. I think foreign players are for RBIs. Ninety to one hundred RBIs. And to get there, home runs are also needed.”

(Emphasis NotGraphs’)

There are non-white foreign players, you say? Well here’s a look at the Tigers’ current outlay of foreign talent:
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Most teams have 6 to 8 starting pitchers listed on their official depth charts at this early point in the 2013 MLB offseason, but few teams list one player as a starter at three locations on the field. And that is because few teams — only one, as far as league records show — have Ben Zobrist on their roster:

Here is the team’s projected lineup:
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Victor Cole may have played in only eight games in the 1992 season, but he maintains the distinction of being one of Russia’s         natives to play in the MLB. And though many people                     love the USSR,                                                           he was not the only former Soviet to play the game.                                                                                                           

The 1992 season marked                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                terrible year                                                                                                                                                                                                    For Russia,                                                                                                                                                                               still great for Cole.

                                                                                                                                                                                          certainly not                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              , a former KGB agent. Just                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    a solid win                                                                                                                                                                               for communism                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      platitudes?

The stamp trade.

Nick Cafardo has the scoop:

This is … going to be the story of … fingers … Ben Cherington and his staff … needed some …

“I know they’re trying to sell [fingers],” said a National League general manager, “but it’s just not … that simple.”

The Red Sox … want … the lavish ways … right now.

But when you are the Boston Red Sox and you have $80 million-$90 million to spend, it’s tough … to be disciplined.

Let’s say the Red Sox … fill their needs — all of them.

Then comes the integration part.

…

One of the reasons for hiring John Farrell is that he has some … rough edges. …

… That was a disaster in every way. But will the Red Sox again … go with … karma …?

With every move they make, we’re sure, the Sox are … something …

It’s interesting to devour … Nate Silver … Silver, a former Baseball Prospectus contributor, … used a lot of data and metrics to win the election …

Yet … Giants … are … the godfather of … stamp … trades …

So here it is. The Great Hangover. Although, for the 92.8% of Americans who did not care about a World Series matchup between a team from a literally burning city and a team without Brian Wilson, I’m guessing baseball ended about a week ago.

Now it’s time to get back into that great void. No more Ottoneu. No more complaining about sac bunting and intentional walks. No more Mustache Watch. (Okay, maybe a little Mustache Watch.)

Now it is time to turn languidly our blackened eyes back — back to the jobs that grieve us, back to the families we have postponed, back to the cold, gray stones of the breaking sea.

Former Rays outfielder Fernando Perez shared this image from India on his tumbler account:

This is the world to which we are returning. This is what the Internet will look like for an infinity of months until Spring Training. IS THIS WHAT YOU REALLY WANTED, SAN FRANCISCO?! A FOUR-GAME SWEEP?! A HASTY TO RETREAT TO THE BURNING VILLAGE THAT IS REALITY?! WELL I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY. BECAUSE THE PEASANTS ARE DEAD.

A hat tip to Jason Brannon of Baseball Nation for sharing this delightfully painful image of Yadier Molina’s bat trembling with what we must assume is knuckle-rattling torque: