Since it’s the offseason, it’s time to start sharing my collection of stray links every Friday again. I try to stick to baseball but that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I stumble across some really awesome non-baseball stuff that’s worth passing along. Anyway, here are this weekend’s links:
- In a really fascinating piece, Brian Costa wrote about baseball’s covert experiment to re-wire hitters’ brains and help them recognizable the spin of the ball and judge the strike zone better, stuff like that. The Red Sox, Rays, and Cubs are a few of the teams doing it. Players are evaluated and given training assignments (video game-esque work) to help develop different parts of their brains. It’s pretty amazing.
- Cuban players are taking over MLB these days, but for every Yasiel Puig or Jose Abreu, there are a bunch of players who defected but do not make it. Jorge Arangure wrote about a few of those players. They get stuck away from their families in a foreign country, and usually wind with low-paying jobs that don’t leave then enough free time to play baseball. We only see the success stories in the show, but those guys are only a small percentage of the players who come over.
- Ken Davidoff as a story up looking at how the Royals missed out on signing Mariano Rivera as an amateur out of Panama all those years ago. Long story short: the scout who found Rivera left the Royals for the Yankees after Kansas City declined to give him a raise. Mo (and Ramiro Mendoza) were part of a group players the scout had “in the bushes,” and they essentially went with him to New York.
- And finally, for all my fellow hockey fans out there, I highly recommend The Score’s 2014-15 season preview, specifically the Unique Team Traits series. It’s exactly what it sounds like, an analysis of each team’s unique style, which can be either good or bad. Here’s their piece on the Rangers and how they use their team speed. Really, really great stuff.
Friday: This is your open thread for Friday night and eventually the rest of the weekend as well. If you flip over to FOX Sports 1, you can catch the end of NLDS Game One between the Giants and Nationals. The Dodgers and Cardinals play their NLDS Game One in a little bit (6:30pm ET on FOX Sports 1, Kershaw vs. Wainwright), then the Royals and Angels play their ALDS Game Two later on (9:30pm ET on TBS, Ventura vs. Shoemaker). Talk about those games or anything else right here.
Saturday: Once again, this is your open thread for the night. The Giants and Nationals are playing Game Two of their NLDS (on FOX Sports1) and later tonight the Dodgers and Cardinals will play Game Two of their NLDS (9:30pm ET on MLB Network). It’s a travel day for both ALDSes. There’s also a bunch of college football on. Have at it.
Sunday: Here is your open thread for the rest of the week. Game Three of both ALDSes will be played — Orioles-Tigers at 3:30pm ET, Angels-Royals at 7:30pm ET, both on TBS — plus there’s football on all day. Talk about any of that stuff or whatever else is on your mind right here.
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