baseball
Sabermetric analysis of all things baseball - on-and-off the field. Barry Bonds fan club.
Shohei Ohtani Has a Brighter Future on the Mound
Shohei Ohtani is a franchise-changing player. Tons of Major league clubs were bidding for the Japanese star, with the LA Angels eventually signing Ohtani. Major League Baseball hasn't seen a two-way star like Ohtani in ages. In fact, Babe Ruth was the last successful one to master his art on the mound and at the plate. It's a dicey topic. When you play 162 games in a season, and you have a guy who can bring it on the mound but also rake at the plate, how are you going to get him into the lineup on a consistent basis? Since Ohtani ended up on an American League team, he does have the possibility to DH. Ohtani hit very well in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan, compiling a .286/.358/.500 slash across five seasons for the Nippon Ham Fighters, hitting 48 homers in that span with 166 RBI's. His biggest season at the dish was in 2016 when he hit .322 with 22 bombs.
By Quinn Allen8 years ago in Unbalanced
The Time to Shine Is Now for the Young White Sox Rotation
White Sox GM Rick Hahn has made some strategic moves in the last couple of years in order to rebuild this organization with young, exciting talent. Most notably the names like Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, and Lucas Giolito come to mind.
By Quinn Allen8 years ago in Unbalanced
Jim Thome's Case for Hall of Fame
The Baseball Hall of Fame honors the all-time greats of the game. For over 80 years, the best of the best (and some not so best) have been enshrined into the highest honor of the game. Players from the all-time greats of Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Cy Young, to those of “lesser” pedigree, as Phil Rizzuto, Bill Mazeroski, and Dave Bancroft have all found their way into the doors of the Hall. In all, 319 people have called the Baseball Hall of Fame home. Although the qualifications and requirements for enshrinement can be subjective at times, there is no doubt that being called into the Hall of Fame is a truly high honor for any person. There has been resistance to those persons who have been proven or accused of “cheating the game,” with stars ranging from ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson & Pete Rose to Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa. With a glut of worthy candidates on the way in the future ballots, one name that stands out as truly worthy, and hopefully is rewarded with a first-ballot enshrinement when the results of the upcoming 2018 are announced, is Jim Thome.
By James Roller8 years ago in Unbalanced
How Dock Ellis Pitched a No Hitter While High on LSD
Often times one can find a bit of history that is truly amazing. Like the invention of the airplane or the telephone or the first person who combined Jack Daniels with Coca-Cola. This story, much like the man with no legs who climbed Mt. Everest, or even that one time you should have been arrested but weren’t somehow because the cops got an emergency call and couldn’t waste their time with you, is in a word, unbelievable. This story is one of the greatest sports legends in not just the history of baseball, but in the history of the world. In 1970, Dock Ellis threw one of the game’s most notable no hitters, but the story starts much earlier than that.
By Regular Person8 years ago in Unbalanced
Gerrit Cole Trade Makes the Astros Rotation One of the Best in Baseball . Top Story - January 2018.
The Houston Astros added another piece to their organization that will certainly help them as they look to repeat as World Series champions in 2018, and that piece is Gerrit Cole. The 'Stros sent three prospects and Joe Musgrove to the Pirates in exchange for Cole. The 27-year-old spent all five major league seasons with Pittsburgh after they selected him first overall in the 2010 draft out of UCLA.
By Quinn Allen8 years ago in Unbalanced
Ichiro Shot the Moon
Ichiro is one of the most bizarre players of the past 20 seasons. While many hitters have come over from Japan to the MLB, Ichiro has stuck in North America like no one else. The NPB is famous for its ground-ball-heavy approach—per Deltagraphs, the NPB ran a GB% of 48 percent compared to 44 percent for the MLB last season—but that approach usually doesn't work that well across the pond. That wasn't the case for Ichiro. He made it work, and he made it work all the way to capturing the single-season hit record. And he did it in a really, really weird way.
By John Edwards8 years ago in Unbalanced
Rethinking Hitter's Counts, Continued
Last time around, I wrote about the general tendency of pitchers to throw more and more fastballs as they fell down in the count despite the fact that they can throw offspeed pitches for strikes nearly as often as they do fastballs. It's a case where pitchers often see better results throwing their offspeed pitches but there was a lot I couldn't address through xwOBA, Exit Velo, and pitch usage alone.
By Owen McGrattan8 years ago in Unbalanced
An Exercise in Generating Similarity Scores
In the process of writing an article, one of the more frustrating things to do is generate comparisons to a given player. Whether I am trying to figure out who most closely aligns with Rougned Odor or Miguel Sano, it is a time-consuming and inexact process to find good comparisons. So, I tried to simplify the process and make it more exact—using similarity scores.
By John Edwards8 years ago in Unbalanced
Ronald Acuna: The Future of the Atlanta Braves
Ronald Acuna came into the start of the 2017 season with one question to answer: Can he stay healthy and perform at a high level for a full season? That question was soon answered. Acuna had an outstanding 2017, which was his first full pro season since making his pro debut in 2015. The Venezuelan hit .325 with 21 homers, including stops in High A, Double-A, and ending in Triple-A with the Gwinnett Braves, where he tore up AAA pitching, hitting an astounding .344 in 55 games in the International League.
By Quinn Allen8 years ago in Unbalanced
St. Louis Cardinals: Offseason 2017 Preview
After two seasons of missing the playoffs, Cardinals fans are becoming increasingly frustrated. Every fan wants their team to succeed, but are we spoiled? Over the past decade, St. Louis has been in the playoffs practically every year, won a World Series, but it still doesn't seem good enough.
By Aaron Mullins8 years ago in Unbalanced
Remembering Roy Halliday
When the news broke of Roy Halliday's death in the late afternoon of November 7, I was in shock. “No way,” I thought to myself. “It can’t be him. He is young and just retired from baseball.” But, as the news continued for the day, and his passing was confirmed, a wave of grief and loss hit me hard.
By James Roller8 years ago in Unbalanced
