Foraging for Florida Fandom, Part 2
Friday, May 19 Bradenton Marauders at Fort Myers Miracle (Pirates at Twins) After dropping my wife off at Fort Lauderdale airport at 4:30pm, I zoomed across Alligator Alley to try to make a 6:30pm start time in Fort Myers, on the other side of the state. Exiting I-75, I passed a string of fast food…
Read MoreForaging for Florida Fandom, Part 1
About 10 years ago, I took a tour of the Appalachian League and wrote about it for BaseballHQ.com. Since I had grown up around major league baseball all my life, I always wondered what the spectator experience was like in the minors, and especially in the lowest levels. I envisioned “50-year-old dilapidated ballparks with splintered…
Read MoreMid-Season Rotisserie All Stars
This is my final ESPN contribution for the 2017 season. Paul Goldschmidt, Bryce Harper, Jose Altuve and Max Scherzer are players most fantasy leaguers drafted in the first round. Through mid-season, they are earning back their owners’ investments – congratulations! But as much as it’s nice to have players like these on your roster, they…
Read MoreSearching for asset group values
For the most part, BABS has done well so far this year. It has not been an easy road. The skyrocketing disabled list visits have skewed performance metrics and laid waste to playing time expectations. For instance, Max Scherzer, Noah Syndergaard and Yu Darvish all came into the season in the (ER,K+) asset group, but…
Read MorePitcher attrition and bullpen fallout
Here is my ESPN piece for this week. As of today, 41 percent of the pre-season Top 300 have been disabled, demoted or designated for assignment. That’s only about 10 players away from the 44 percent attrition accumulated over a full season in 2010. We are on pace for about 70 percent turnover of our…
Read MoreThe dwindling 200-IP pitcher
This week’s BABS-enhanced ESPN piece. Here is the stat for today: In 2016, there were 61 pitchers from among the ADP Top 300 who spent some time on the disabled list. Just 11 weeks into this season, there are already 52 pitchers from the Top 300 who’ve spent some time on the shelf. That stat…
Read MoreThe Hot Dog Scale
This article is about an important topic in “real” baseball. As many of you know, with baseball being both my hobby and my job, I manage to maintain my fandom by compartmentalizing fantasy analysis and the real game, and working hard to keep them separate. That means, for the past 31 years, whenever I set…
Read MoreIs a .400 BABIP sustainable?
My ESPN column for the week. Batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is one of those leading indicator metrics that can identify potential outlying performances. It is not a perfect gauge, but extremes are rarely sustainable. Pitchers’ BABIPs tend to regress to something near .300. Batters’ BABIPs tend to regress to their own established…
Read MoreNew views on in-season BABS
We are 10 weeks in and the BABS database was updated over the weekend. Your survey results have gotten me to rethink how we use BABS during the season, so I’ve started to reimagine different presentations of the data. First, some clarifications from recent reader emails. The “2017p” line in the database represents our pre-season…
Read MoreFirst round churn after 9 weeks
This is my ESPN Insider column for the week. There is a harsh reality we must buy into: about two-thirds of the players we draft in the first round will not earn back their draft spot. In a 15-team league, that means 10 owners will take a loss on their first round pick; only five…
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