Today, Ryan Braun signed a 5 year extension to his current deal with the Brewers, which already ran to 2015. It covers the 2016-2020 seasons and there is a mutual option that could be worth up to $20 million for 2021, with a $4m buyout. My gut reaction is that it’s not a great deal for the Brewers, given his …
Bunting
Mercurial Outfielder hates the bunt. He absolutley hates it. He’s not alone. There are a lot of people who think it’s a dumb strategy and there are a lot of people that think that one run is so important that it’s always a good strategy. The answer is somewhere in between and that’s what The Book focused on for 50 …
I just checked and Barry Bonds is still the home run leader
As you all know by now, Barry Bonds was convicted two days ago for hitting too many home runs. It’s a serious offense in modern America. Punishment has not yet been handed down and no precedent exists. It’s believed Bonds will be get a spanking for each of the 13 home runs he hit above Babe Ruth. There’s still much …
The Stats We Use: Baserunning
Believe it or not, baserunning is a relatively simple aspect of the game to quantify. If you think for a moment about the possibilities in baserunning, there aren’t really that many of them. There are several of course, but it’s not as many as you may think. For example, a runner on 1st when a single is hit can move …
The Stats We Use: FIP
Evaluating pitchers is tough. Most of the traditonal batting stats are based on discrete, context-free events that mostly have to do with the offensive player’s skill – Home Runs, hits, stolen bases, batting eye, etc. There are still stats like RBI and R that depend on the players around the batter, but generally the quick and dirty thing that were …
NL Central Questions & Answers: Pittsburgh Pirates
This is our final NL Central Questions & Answers and this time Pat Lackey from Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke answers our questions. Obstruced View: Neal Huntington – yea or nay? WHYGAVS: I think Huntington's done a pretty good job thus far for the Pirates; far better than his two predecessors at the very least. The Pirates last …
NL Central Questions & Answers: St. Louis Cardinals
This is Obstructed View’s 4th interview with an NL Central blogger that we’re posting this week. Steve Sommer of Gashouse Graphs has taken some time to answer these questions and I’m most appreciative. We’ll have our final interview (Pirates) tomorrow evening after the Cubs/Pirates game. Obstructed View: Cubs fans are all too familiar with Ryan Theriot. Aside from the 2008 …
NL Central Questions & Answers: Cincinnati Reds
Here at Obstructed View we’re publishing team projections for the NL Central teams as well as interview with someone who blogs about that team. This time we have Justin Inaz. If you’re not familiar with Justin, he’s one of the smarter people that blogs about a specific team. He’s written for Beyond the Box Score and is currently writing for …
NL Central Questions & Answers: Houston Astros
Prior to the start of the season we’re going to be previeing the other NL Central teams in two ways. First, Berselius will post the team’s projections for 2011 and then later in the day we’re going to post an interview with one of the team’s bloggers. Today’s Q&A is with Timothy DeBlock of Crawfish Boxes. Obstructed View: There are …
NL Central preview: Houston Astros
Last Year: The Astros started off the year with eight straight losses, and were sitting at 17 games below .500 at the all-star break. However, they turned things around somewhat in the second half of the season, going 40-33 despite trading co-faces of the franchise Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt at the trade deadline. Much like the Pirates the Astros …