This is a look at baserunning runs, excluding stolen base attempts. Here’s the basic method: For all plays, we consider the lead runner only. We figure out the average change in run expectancy for the lead runner for each non-discretionary running event – typically a ball in play (either a hit, error or out). Those […]

As a Red Sox fan, when I heard the news that the Toronto Blue Jays signed shortstop Alex Gonzalez to a $2.75 million contract (with a club option for 2011), my first reaction was an unprintable word. My second reaction was a marveling at how Toronto may have just painted a master stroke of genius. […]

We’re back after a week away from the table (or was it two?), and everyone’s rested and ready to go. Thanksgiving is pretty much here, so we’ll start to see some real wheeling and dealing very soon. But until then, a simple roundtable will have to do… Question #1: Which of the 2009 season awards […]

The Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair tweeted Tuesday that Lyle Overbay was 90 percent likely to be traded at the winter meetings. Assuming that the return for Overbay is not a first-baseman or left-fielder, this trade could open up a switch for Edwin Encarnacion. While Encarnacion is coming off a poor year beseiged by injuries, […]

On the face of it, Juan Castro signing a major-league contract worth about $700,000 with a 2011 club option makes no sense. After all, this is a 37-year old with a career line of .230/.270/.332. He has negligible value on offense, and I couldn’t care less about his .277 mark he posted last year (/.311/.339). […]

As you’ll probably notice, a lot of my visuals contain very few numbers. I’m trying to push the envelope in how to communicate what matters WITHOUT numbers, since the sport is currently so numbers-heavy. Here’s a visual I created during the ALDS to shed some light on the David & Goliath nature of the Twins […]

In God we trust. All others bring data. -W. Edwards Deming Along with Zack Greinke’s 2009 American League Cy Young Award came a widely-circulated article by Tyler Kepner in the New York Times. In the article, Brian Bannister is quoted, “So a lot of times, Zack would pitch for a fly ball at our park […]

In a piece at River Ave. Blues yesterday, Mike Axisa wrote at length about the Yankees DH situation. There’s a faction of the fan base that would like to see the team promote from within, and make Cuban defector Juan Miranda the regular DH next season, while giving frequent half-days off to the old-ish lineup […]

Baseball has been around for awhile. Over a hundred years, with a VAST treasure chest of information and history. As a baseball fan I’ve often wondered why there was so little visualization of stats and other information. It seems like most of baseball’s rich history has been communicated through rows and columns of data. Not […]

Hi there. I’m a new blogger at The Hardball Times and wanted to introduce myself and a topic that I hope you’ll find interesting. It’s called Visual Baseball and it’s about the intersection of two things I love – baseball and infographics (the visual display of information). Over the next few months you’ll be seeing […]