With the Cubs 5-1 win over the Cardinals yesterday, the Milwaukee Brewers won their first division title since the days of Harvey’s Wallbangers. Kudos to the Brewers front office for going all in for this season when it was clear their window was closing. Congratulations to everyone on that team. Except Ryan Braun. Hopefully Prince Fielder will bring a World …
Carl Crawford's 2011 Season
One of the running jokes around here is that I hate Carl Crawford. Really, I don’t. And I don’t take greater than usual glee in his disappointing season (at least, above seeing the Red Sox lose). It all stems from this article I wrote back in February complaining about the near-universal acclaim for the 7/$132m deal that he signed with …
On Mariano Rivera's fWAR and rWAR
I know that ACT, myself and another person (sorry for not remembering who) had a discussion awhile back on Mariano Rivera‘s rWAR. I had asked Tango about it and he explained the difficulty we were having in getting the same numbers thatn Baseball Reference has. There’s a big difference between his fWAR and rWAR and Tango explains why. Obviously the …
Bud Selig is Mad Everyone Knows He's an Unfeeling Asshole
Bud Selig is none too happy with the Mets. Apparently, Bud wanted to deny them the ability to wear NYPD, NYFD, and other first responders’ hats in favor of the the MLB sanctioned hats (which are on sale now, by the way!) and have them just shut up and do what he said. It was, I guess, wrong of the …
WAR And Salsa
A lot of discussion started yesterday about WAR thanks a very thoughtful article on It’s About The Money, Stupid. Discussion followed in two article on The Book Blog (here and here) and then on Replacement Level Baseball Blog. I’ve mostly been ignoring the defense part of WAR for some time now. Ever since Colin Wyers showed how useless those metrics …
Can't think of a stupid title yet so this is obviously not finished
A lot of negative attention has been given to Tom Ricketts re-signing Oneri Fleita for 4 years. A lot more negative attention will be given when Ricketts re-signs Tim Wilken. My first thought when I heard about the signing was that it was odd. Immediatley after that I realized we’re talking about an inconsequential amount of money so firing them, …
Tangotiger's Annual Fans Scouting Report
Tangotiger has his annual Fans Scouting Report survey published for this season and he needs our help. We watch more Cubs games than other team’s fans do so we’re better suited to fill it out. I’ve posted links to these surveys at ACB each of the last several years and hope with more readers that we can send even more …
Obstructed View takes its discredited act on the road
And Counting, Berselius and myself answered some very important questions by an Indians blogger. The questions, as I’m sure you guessed, were about Kosuke Fukudome. So head over there and read what we have to say.
Home Run Derby Thread
No idea who is even particpating in the Derby this year, but it’s tonight. Enjoy.
Are even the best relievers unreliable?
Carlos Marmol blew a save last night so it naturally sparked discussion about whether or not you should sign relievers to longterm contracts. Carlos Marmol is a very good relief pitcher and likely will be worth the contract he signed this past offseason. However, we know relief pitchers work so few innings that their sample size in a single season …