Author Archive

xRBI

I can’t tell if this is FanGraphs or NotGraphs or even RotoGraphs material, so I’ll just say safe and put it here. My formula for expected RBI, supposedly a pretty simple stat:

xRBI = position-regressed indexed clutch score * league-indexed contact rate * position-indexed isolated power * health-adjusted and lineup-slot-indexed plate appearances * expected team OBP * projected raw plate appearances

I’m pretty sure I got something wrong.


An Email To Clayton Kershaw’s Doctor

My 62-year-old Dodger fan friend, who is a 12-year veteran of a 32-year-old fantasy league team, sent the following email to Clayton Kershaw’s doctor. He then forwarded it to me with the note “The recommendation he made was exactly what I asked for. Coincidence?” In real life, people, in real life.

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Young Ichiro

Young Ichiro wonders what all the commotion is about.

Young Ichiro, if forced to put a name on his look — and he wouldn’t do it unless you forced him — might call it the “Doctor of Love.”

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The Most Mostest Thing Ever

The most thing ever is probably a rainbow shooting off a tough guy’s face, maybe in the rain. After the near-fight Wednesday night, the most mostest thing ever is obviously a double rainbow shooting off of Pablo Sandoval’s face in the wet salmon-pink San Francisco sunset sky.

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The Power of Hope

Maybe despair gives life to hopes. Maybe three years of just abject, terrifyingly painful existence somehow injects enough power into your flagging dreams that, at least for one shining moment, you can will a thing into being. At least, that’s what I have decided happened Sunday, when Jason Bay hit a grand slam and pushed the ball out with nothing but pure want.


Texts From My Cousin

* Oakland scoreboard gives the strangest info. Currently showing: Seth smith July (career totals) 6hr/26rbi. that’s it.

* Derek Norris is batting .364 in the 7th inning in 2012. more highly predictive info from the oak scoreboard.

* Remember how 1Bs used to be plated on first when receiving a throw? Now it almost seems theyre stepping towards the throw.

* Looks like 1bs are gettin away with pulling their plant foot off the bag before the catch is made.

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Honest Question

What does a saber-savvy organization look like on the field?

The questions oscillates from easy to difficult as you appraise it. Obviously, sabermetrics have made certain advances in research that could easily be played out on the field, though, and if we could answer the question, we might be able to look at how a team actually plays on the field and compare that to our Saber Checklist. So, what does a saber-savvy team look like on the field?

I have some suggestions, and I’d love to see yours. Most of mine concern the precious nature of outs and the platoon advantage, but there are other ways to see a saber mindset impacting the game on the field directly. And feel free to question the ones I have up there — it’s hard enough to sum up sabermetric research as a monolith, and even harder to draw a straight line from that research to the play on the field.


Ideas for Your Bullpen


12 Jul 1980: Craig Swan (right) and coach Joe Pignatano tend their vegetable patch in the bullpen at Shea Stadium (Image by © Bettmann/Corbis)

With the Mets bullpen so putrid right now, the jokes are tempting — “I see a lot of hoes out there;” “For once they could just lettuce be surprised by a good performance;” “Can they grow a decent arm without illegal fertilizer?” or “They certainly got enough cabbage to be so terrible;” — but that’s just piling on. Instead, let’s use this as inspiration.

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A Truly Saber Song

Award-worthy genius from Ted Berg that, for some reason, I didn’t share here earlier:


Singing, Pizza, Mustache Combo

For some reason, this seemed like a baseball thing.

You know what. With a slight tweak, it really IS kind of baseball-y.

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