April 12, 2010

No Pepper

Against the Fence

by Tommy Bennett

There are few things I love more than an old-fashioned debate about rules.
Of course, it's only cheating if you're caught, but it appears that White Sox third base coach Scott Ullger may have been attempting to fake out Mark Teahen on a play at the plate. But you don't have to take my word for it...

R.J. Anderson examines B.J. Upton's positioning, specifically the hits/XBH tradeoff.
In this world of specialized blogs (see, e.g., here), R.J. examining the managerial moves of Joe Maddon is particularly compelling.

Expanding the offerings at the pitch classification buffet.
Thorough, interesting and well-documented is exactly how I like my quantitative analysis. Especially compelling is the list of major league pitch monikers at the very bottom (the cutter as "Cutty Sark"--"it sails").

Place your tongue firmly against your cheek. Now go read this.
Some physics geeks calculated the force of gravity exerted by baseball players on the ball (and, of course, vice versa). Yes, I'm serious. But are they?

Amateur baseball in pre-War Washington, D.C. was very popular.
The team from Park View earned the title in 1909, but failed to field a team the following season. Any takers to revive the championship club? 

The portrait of the general manager as a young man.
My favorite quotation attributed to Branch Rickey is: "Our pitching staff is a conspiracy of ifs."