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Thursday, December 15, 2011
Six members of the BBWAA suspected of plagiarism, but allowed to vote for Hall of Fame!
Or so The Common Man suspects.
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Media
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Supporting the eye-test?
Brian Kenny:
And the idea too, this is always puzzling to me, is that the baseball writers are on the beat, watching every game, so even if they’re not doing the statistical analysis that one of us would do, at least they’re watching the player every game.
Well, if you’re watching Keith Hernandez or Dwight Evans, shouldn’t you be appreciating that defense that was so obvious? It was so obvious that no one ran on their arms, that they changed games with their defensive play, that they were simply among the greatest players ever to play their position.
And yet it’s those writers who wouldn’t give them enough support to keep them on the ballot
Monday, December 12, 2011
This year’s contender for sanctimonious eloquence
Plaschke. I’m ok for Plaschke calling Braun a hypocrite, if that eventually is proven to be true. But, the rest of it? The Holy Writers strike again. (No offense to Ben, and Dave, and the other guys who are part of this organization.)
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Legit news outlets?
I got a little smile here:
The Le Droit report that Erik Bedard is signing with the Pirates has been picked up by what Dejan Kovacevic characterizes as a legit news outlet.
The big french media in Canada would be the daily newspaper La Presse, and the ESPN-equivalent RDS. You don’t get more legit than that. It’s not that I expect Americans to know about Canada as much as Canada knows about Americans. After all, Canada depends on US entertainment and other resources.(*)
But, I still smiled when I saw the whole conditional part of the sentence.
(*) I remember when Ted Turner announced the launching of CNN, talking about how it will get world news, a Canadian reporter asked if CNN would have any Canadian focus. Turner, rather than thinking that Canada will have people who will buy a CNN package, instead said something funny. From memory, he said:
“Listen, the only reason we talk about Russia is because they are a nuclear threat. So, if Canada points their ICBMs at America, then we’ll cover Canada. Otherwise, no.”
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Murray Chass v Bobby Valentine
Murray channels his inner-FJM to go after Bobby V. Fun, if kind of pointless. Welcome to the blogging world Murray… you fit right in.
I was amused by this:
Earlier in the season, McRae said, “He’s not a typical manager. He does weird and goofy things. . . . I’m not saying he’s right or wrong. He’s a different type manager and it’s our job to adjust to what he’s doing.”
Felipe Alou was once asked who he hated managing against, and he said Bobby V. He said it’s not because he was the best or the worst, but because he was so unconventional, that it was hard to manage against him. So, I found it amusing to read Brian McRae say practically the same thing that Alou said.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
BBWAA and Michael Young
Michael Young was placed #1 by one BBWAA writer, but he was also placed #2 by another writer, and #3 by a third writer, and #4 by a fourth writer, and #5 by a fith writer, and #6 by a sixth writer. And then 17 other writers put him at #7 through #10.
The focus on who put Young #1 completely misses the point that this is not about a single BBWAA writer, but virtually the entire group of them, as 23 of the 28 voters put him top 10.
The reality is that once you have 23 of 28 voters put a player in the top 10, it’s entirely reasonable that someone can make the case to make him #1.
Robinson Cano was named on 24 of the ballots, and Adrian Gonzalez was named on 25. Would we have any issue if either of those two guys got a first place vote (they went as high as #3 on the actual ballots)? No, we wouldn’t have a problem. The reality is that the BBWAA voters saw Michael Young as being equivalent to Cano and Gonzalez. The BBWAA AS A GROUP saw this.
The story is not about the single guy who put Young #1, but the BBWAA who put him on 23 of the 28 ballots. It’s clear they wanted to give SOMEONE on the Rangers something.
- Ian Kinsler is as good a hitter (and a much better fielder), but he has a .255 average, and the BBWAA cannot get past that.
- Adrian Beltre is as good a hitter and one of the best fielders of our generation, but he missed substantial playing time.
- Mike Napoli was a sensational hitter, but lost even more playing time.
- Josh Hamilton is as good a hitter, but missed substantial playing time.
- CJ Wilson is a pitcher.
And whatever warts these guys had, compared to Michael Young, they were ALL BETTER THAN MICHAEL YOUNG.
But the BBWAA could not get past those warts. That shiny .338 batting average and his 159 games overcame everything else, and when it came time to give someone on the Rangers some love, all that love poured right into Derek Jeter… uh, Michael Young (same thing, different team).
***
There were 658 ballots cast in the IBA. Jacoby Ellsbury led the way with being on 573 ballots, or 87% of the ballots (and the ballot goes up to 10 deep). Say what you want about the BBWAA, but 100% of its voters put Ellsbury on its ballot. Overall, I prefer the IBA method, even if we get some jokers who try to game the system by not putting in challengers to their favorites, on the idea that the loser community who votes is going to be subsumed by the dedicated many who take the vote seriously. The BBWAA basically pre-weeds the losers out (but by so doing, weeds out alot of the really good voters too). And overall, we get reasonable results (Verlander, Ellsbury, Bautista in the top 3, in some order), with some head-scratcher like Michael Young getting some love, but overall, really no one is going to remember who finished 8th in 2011.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Chass v ESPN
Chass does his best FJM, as he goes after ESPN‘s reporting of the CBA.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Best media campaigns of the year, in the world of sports
Larry Bernandez gets a silver. NHL’s “History will be made” gets a gold.
http://www.intersections.tv/sports/teams-leagues.pdf
Glove-slap: Jeff.
Brian Kenny
Brian Kenny hosts a show called “Clubhouse Confidential” on the MLB Network. From the clips I’ve seen, he’s talked about wOBA and FIP and WAR. And he really just uses them matter-of-factly, which is great. I saw this interview of Alex Anthopoulos, GM of the Jays, and Alex was pretty honest and forthcoming. I especially liked his response regarding Napoli, that you can’t presume how he hit with the Rangers is how he would have hit anywhere else, nor that you could have even predicted he could have done all that.
It’s quite the refreshing show. Looks like they archive quite a bit online, so if you guys want, feel free to point out other clips that may be enjoyable for the rest of the crowd out there.
BBWAA votes: #1 ERA, #2 W/L, #3 FIP
Top 3 rookie pitchers, according to BBWAA:
#1: Jeremy Hellickson (2.95 ERA, well-ahead of the other two)
#2: Ivan Nova (16-4, well-ahead of the other two)
#3: Michael Pineda (76 OPS+, 3.42 FIP, well-ahead of the other two)
All three pitchers had 165-189 IP.
The decision-making process couldn’t be any clearer.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Cold war is over
Chass talks about the A’s, Twins, and Moneyball.
With regards to A’s v Twins, a few weeks ago, I did this study:
And it basically matches what Chass said in his article, that the A’s and Twins were equally effective in getting the most bang for their buck, along with the Cardinals. (Orioles, Mets, and Royals were the least effective.)
As I’ve mentioned in the past, there is no “one” way to do things, making the analogy to Vladimir Guerrero and Adam Dunn (before last year anyway). These two guys approach hitting in very different ways, and yet they both are quite effective. They’ve figured out, through experience, through trial and error, the best way to hit.
So, the A’s figured out one way, and the Twins figured out another way. There’s really no issue as far as I see it.
When I talk about sabermetrics, I always say: you don’t necessarily need it. But I will say that *if you choose to interpret numbers*, then that’s where sabermetrics helps.
This is no different than me playing scout, seeing someone throw heat and hitting his spots, but a scout telling me that he can’t sustain that, because his throwing motion is so violent that it’s a recipe for disaster. So, once I decide *to choose to interpret visual observations*, then that’s where professional scouting helps.
And, of the people I’ve been around on both sides of the fence, each side has a great deal of respect for the other. There’s really no “war”. It’s as complementary as it could be.
Friday, November 04, 2011
Rick Peterson / Bloomberg Sports
Various webinars for you.
Glove-slap: Bill.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Kristi Dosh now on ESPN
First Greg got quietly absorbed, and now Kristi has been assimilated.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Jared Winely: I hate you for making me side with Mike Francessa
Mike was busting Derrelle Revis’ . But for Jared to interfere with the interview and instruct Revis to hang up? Sheesh. Mike was right at the end, that Revis could have just told Mike to move on. Mike should have moved on, but it seemed to me that they were both making good radio. Jared had no place in there.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Men-osyllabic Moneyball
A fantastic review from Judy Johnson, taking its place alongside Ebert and Poz, if not above them.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
When the media lies
In this article, the journalist seems to report a story that seems to be impossible to get wrong.
And yet when you read the comments of the fans who were actual witness to the game, they are all in unison, with this account being the one being agreed to by the other witnesses:
This is a lie. I was at the game. A video came on and said “This is Sidney Crosby” and that’s when fans booed. Then came Toews and Miller and no one booed during them. Then when it was clear it was an anti-cancer message no one was booing.
If the media doesn’t call out its own, you really tarnish all of you. At this point, I’m more likely to believe those anonymous who say they were at the game, then those paid to report facts.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Eclectic mailbag
Wow, what a great mailbag this is, covering just about everything, all of it interesting.
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