Stuff like this absolutely fascinates me. Enjoy.
The Worldwide Leader Loves RAB
So I woke up this morning to quite the delightful bit of baseball literature: Rob Neyer actually linked to RAB. Neyer agrees with Ben’s stance on Robinson Cano’s arbitration situation, though calls the notion that Cano would be insulted by an arbitration hearing “silly.” Per Ben: “Called out by Rob Neyer. I’ll never complain about that.”
Later today, browsing Peter Gammons’s blog, I found quite an interesting paragraph:
Unfortunately, time keeps most of us from getting to those sites specific to teams. It’s amazing how many club officials read USS Mariner (Seattle), Fire Brand of the American League (Boston), Ducksnorts (San Diego), Athletics Nation (Oakland), Viva El Birdos (St. Louis), Lone Star Ball (Texas), River Ave. Blues (Yankees), MetsBlog.com, FishStripes (Florida), Dodger Thoughts, Bronx Banter (great writing), The LoHud Yankees Blog, Reds Reporter (Cincinnati), Bleed Cubbie Blue, Brew Crew Ball (Milwaukee) and more.
Needless to say, it’s a glorious day here at the RAB offices.
We will, we will probably rock you
As we hit the three-week home stretch before pitchers and catchers finally show up, David Pinto has decided to fill the time with some offensive projections. Using his excellent Lineup Analysis Tools and the Tom Tango projections for the Yanks’ lineup, he comes to the conclusion that the Yanks should lead the league in runs scored again. That’s good news for Yankees fans, and despite the doom and gloom some folks have expressed this winter, the team is sitting pretty if the pitching can be half decent.
Damon Endorses Giuliani
Nothing really of note here, just thought I’d pass on some Yankee-related news. Johnny Damon was scheduled to introduce presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani today in Orlando. It’s doubtful that even Damon has the powers to revive the former NYC mayor’s campaign.
Fun with Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index
I can’t overstress how great a resource Baseball-Reference.com is. For any blogger, this site is the ultimate in statistics. If you know where to look, it has information about any non-BP, non-Sabermetric statistic from any player in any year and a few Sabermetric ones thrown in for good measure. It has World Series data, MVP and All-Star data, and historical charts. You know it; B-R.com’s got it.
Within the past year, B-R.com has unveiled a tool that makes this site the Elias Sports Bureau for the everyday fan. No longer are we confined to the stats available on sites like ESPN.com and MLB.com. With the B-R.com Play Index, you can call up those stats that used to be hard to find. Want to know, as I did recently, how a player ranks at his position through a certain age? Well, now you can.
The best part of this deal is this cost. This information is available for $28 for a year (or less if you sponsor a B-R.com page). It’s hard to turn it down, and I’m not getting anything for this glowing review.
With that wordy introduction, let’s get down to the fun. What can we find out about the Yankees using the B-R.com Play Index?
- Do the Yankees really have an 8th inning problem? The Yanks were 81-4 when leading after 7 innings last year. That’s a .953 winning percentage.
- Of all players with at least 1000 games played at short stop up to and including their age 33 season, Derek Jeter’s 2356 hits are second only to Robin Yount’s 2602 hits. But a good majority of Yount’s hits came when he was in the outfield. It’s hard to believe how great Jeter’s been.
- On 13 occasions in 2007, the Yankees struck out to start the game. Their 117 7th inning strike outs were most of any inning.
- This one’s my personal favorite. In his career, Dere Jeter has made an out toward short stop 882 times. Twent-six of those outs began a game; 15 ended a game; 8 put the Yanks ahead; and 1 tied the game. If this even comes up in conversation, let me know.
Really, the right person could go nuts with this tool and find themselves lost in the numbers for a long time. It opens up a world of stats and game outcomes that, for a long time, hadn’t been readily available to the average fan. I love the Internet.
Game Thread: NFC Championship Game
There’s a reason why no one plays baseball in January. About 30 minutes before kickoff, the temperatures in Green Bay are holding at zero with a windchill of -18. But that won’t stop the Giants and Packers from playing football.
A month ago, no one in New York would believe Eli Manning capable of leading the Giants beyond the first round of the playoffs, let alone to within four good quarters of the Super Bowl. But that’s where they are.
The Patriots won with their typical ruthless efficiency coming out in the fourth quarter today. So Big Blue could end up in a Week 17 rematch. Either way, Joe Buck — remember him? — will bring you the game. Feel free to discuss it here.
Rockies showing the right approach to young players
On Saturday, I looked at Robinson Cano’s arbitration case and decided that the Yanks should give him what he wants instead of bickering over money year after year. Today, David Pinto shares with us the news that the Rockies have locked up Troy Tulowitzki to a six-year, $30-million deal, thus buying out his arbitration years. Tulo probably would be making more if he chose arbitration every year, but the two sides believed this to be a better path. That seems to me to be a much better approach to signing long players than the Yanks’ one-and-out philosophy.