Happy Clifton Phifer Lee Day. I believe they’re still partying in Philadelphia.
First things first: You need to take a minute and two seconds out of your day to visit www.cliftonphiferlee.com. In the immediate aftermath of Cliff Lee deciding to take his talents back to South Street (or is it Broad Street? Philadelphians?), the mesmerizing website delivered the type of hard-hitting analysis I was looking for.
Hired guns.
Mike Newman at ScoutingtheSally provides an excellent service for the prospecticators among us. He visits parks, takes video, and analyzes players that come through the Sally league – ostensibly for those of us in deep dynasty fantasy leagues looking for an edge on our competitors. His independent work functions well as a fantasy manager’s personal scouting department.
Well, now Newman is offering the chance for some fantasy leaguers to gain the jump on others by paying for a premium service. Subscribers of this service will get voicemails or emails minutes after Newman sees a player live and days before he posts an edited piece on his website. An excellent idea, this offering seems to mark a significant moment for fantasy sports. Jason Grey’s hiring at ESPN.com and subsequent articles for ESPN Insider may have been the harbinger, but now a fantasy manager can ‘hire’ his or her own scout by paying for a week-long advantage on the competition. Fantasy is becoming reality.
But there’s something else at play here. Like Mark Zuckerman and Joe Sheehan before him, Mike Newman is attempting to monetize the hard work he does and has heretofore disseminated for free. The correct price is probably yet to be fixed, but the question of whether or not these writers’ work has inherent value should be settled. Zuckerman’s combination of dedication to his team and unique analysis, or Sheehan’s blend of wit and statistical fortitude, or Newman’s tireless scouting work – these things are worth something.
We have far too few data points to speculate on the sustainability of the model at this point. Zuckerman has recently taken to supplementing his reader-supported website, NatsInsider, with the more old-school method of freelancing for CSNwashington, and this writer knows enough from looking at his own wallet not to ask fellow writers to bare their pocketbooks for the public.
But the intellectual underpinnings, the reasoning behind this model, must make sense to most readers, even if they aren’t willing to pony up. There’s real work being done here, and so it’s most likely worth real money.
On Sunday, the Mariners pulled the trigger on a deal which sent Brendan Ryan to the great Northwest from the St. Louis Cardinals. Surely, the homepage will have some sort of “analysis” of the baseball implications therein at some point today. More importantly, the Mariners have acquired perhaps the greatest mustache-wielder in the league.
The picture above comes from one of the Cardinals promotional spots from the 2010 season. Not only does Ryan expertly wear his mustache (he does real ‘staches too), he grows his lip jacket with remarkable rapidity, and even manages to do so “while spinning!”
In fact, I’m pretty sure we may have discovered Brendan Ryan’s alternate identity.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.
The iPad version.
Late last week Apple announced the top iPhone/iPad apps of 2010. In a heartwarming change of fortune for innocently exuberant technophile Bud Selig (not really), “MLB At Bat 2010” was the top grossing iPhone/iPod Touch app overall, as well as the top grossing sports-related iPad app. General info on the app awards can be found at Slashgear and in the iTunes Store.
One factor in MLB At Bat 2010 being the highest grossing app of 2010 was probably that, at $15, it was one of the most expensive apps of 2010. But it’s still pretty impressive to beat out games and other general-interest apps that retail for $0.99. Think about it — less than 15x as many people bought “Angry Birds” for $1 this year as bought MLB At Bat for $15. That says something about the simple appetite for baseball, at least within the iPhone/iPad demographic.
The popularity of this app probably also says something about the broad appeal of a new, more active way of “watching” sports. MLB has leveraged their control over the premium content involved (game video) to create something pretty cutting-edge in the At Bat app: it’s TV (if you have the separate MLB.tv subscription), combined with controllable, web-like data displays, combined with a browsable newspaper. If you can’t really imagine what that’s all like, Fangraphs creator David Appelman posted a description of the iPad version back in April.
Since this is an app you have to purchase annually (brilliant!), MLB Advanced Media will be looking forward to another pile of money in 2011, especially with holiday iPad sales and the putative Verizon iPhone expanding the iOS user base. Here’s hoping they reinvest some of that cash in the app experience. Like, for starters, including both the iPhone and iPad versions for my $15?
I’ve no idea how long it’s been available, but ESPN has introduced to the public consciousness a game called Salary Crunch. To play Salary Crunch, one merely selects the visage of a highly paid athelete, enters his (i.e. this “one” we’re talking about) annual salary, and prepares to be amazed at how little he earns relative to said athlete.
The results are predictably absurd. Using $30,000 — or roughly the median American income — we find that Mariano Rivera makes this sum after .09 strikeouts. We find also that our median American would have to work 500 years to equal Mr. Rivera’s 2011 salary.
It’s not all bad news, though. Per a study recently released by Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, income doesn’t have an appreciable effect on happiness after about the $75,000 threshold.
Obviously, the only question one can really ask is: “How much are these big contracts really Werth?”
H/T: The Nats Blog
While I am personally not a fan of Pete Rose and think he has as much business being in the Hall of Fame as does an unassuming cheese curd, there’s no denying his popularity among the Joe Fan types. An outgrowth of that popularity is a truly bizarre menu of photos and artistic renderings.
So come with me, won’t you, as we stroll through the Pete Rose Wing of the Museum of Questionable Aesthetic Decisions …
You’ve heard of “Christ Figures” in cinema? Above we have unassailable proof that Anton Chigurh was a “Pete Figure.”
Billy Beane, grinchopotamus.
So apparently Hisashi Iwakuma won’t be joining the A’s after all.
From the start, many people were surprised that the A’s had put in such an aggressive bid. FanGraphs’ own Dave Cameron argued that maybe the A’s needed starting pitching. But $19M still seemed like a big posting fee for this player.
And things got really interesting when contract talks began. Read the rest of this entry »
Whenever rumors abound of legendary 16 year veteran Gregg Zaun, I find it is my civic duty to remind every baseball fan of the single most important web site in existence. No, it isn’t NotGraphs. Instead, it’s Zaun’s personal website, www.greggzaun.com.
Everything about this website is awesome. From the Mask of Zorro animation to the sweet special effects to the Rush backing track to the fantastic header to the invitation to join the “Zaunbie Nation Fan Club,” Zaun’s site brings the pain from a variety of angles. I have yet to meet a single person who has not enjoyed this website, and if you do, you should stone them at once, for they are not human.
Perhaps the most shocking piece of information contained on this website is the fact that Zaun was born in Glendale, California, and not Saskatchewan, Canada. Between the hairstyle, Blue Jays gear, and premium Canadian rock in the background (also his batting walk-up music), everything about Zaun and this website just screams Canada.
This is easily the most important piece of information you will come across the entire offseason. Disseminate wherever and whenever you can. And above all else, remember to Bring Your Z-Game.
I suppose this isn’t surprising, as everything these days has to have a logo.
However, I’m pretty surprised at how elaborate this logo is. For as much craziness as the Winter Meetings can create on the internet and, particularly, on the twitters, the stuff that actually happens this week in Orlando is about as boring as any event in sports. When it comes down to it, the Winter Meetings are just a bunch of dudes in suits on their blackberries for a week.
Naturally, then, the logo for the event is an alligator with a baseball bat in its mouth, with some flamingos down by the numbering for this year. Perhaps it’s supposed to be symbolic. Now’s the time for baseball’s GM’s to snap up a good deal, like an alligator! Or maybe it means that the Seattle Mariners should be looking to sign an alligator with a bat in its mouth, because they really need a designated hitter. Or maybe…
Regardless, the start of the Winter Meetings today marks one of the most exciting points of the MLB’s offseason. After seeing this logo, though, you don’t need me to tell you that.
Tip: Wait for sales.
‘Tis the season when Major League Baseball generously offers to intervene in your holiday shopping. For example, just last week fans learned “20 reasons to customize a jersey right now at the MLB.com Shop.” Because I am acutely sensitive to the average fan’s extreme busy-ness during this, the busy-est of seasons, I have reformed MLB’s list from an intimidating 20 to a manageable 7, complete with helpful glosses. Without further ado:
