Bobby Abreu is getting credit for setting an example for his teammates. Here’s how many pitches per plate appearance the Angel regulars have seen in 2008 and 2009: Mike Napoli: 4.14, 4.15 Kendry Morales: 3.47, 4.02 Maicer Izturis: 3.76, 3.82 Howie Kendrick: 3.44, 3.81 Erick Aybar: 3.26, 3.47 Chone Figgins: 4.08, 4.21 Torii Hunter: 3.53, […]

So on one hand we have Baseball Prospectus’ playoff odds. According to them, the Phillies have a 67.6172% chance to win the NLCS; the Yankees have a 70.4483% chance to win the ALCS. Compare that to the current odds coming out of Vegas. The Phillies have an implied odds of about 48% percent to win […]

One of the better reference sites out there is called Texas Leaguers – The Mechanics of Baseball, and is run by Trip Somers. If you haven’t been there before, I definitely recommend checking it out. Trip offers mechanical analysis of a lot of pitcher, mainly Rangers, but also has and detailed glossary of a lot […]

Well the first round of the playoffs ended in about 4 hours, or so it seems. Now we’re here in a holding pattern for a few days waiting for baseball to return. No, the AzFL is not a substitute for Chip Caray, Joe Buck, and playoff baseball. Good thing you now have the second installment […]

With my beloved Cardinals being swept out of the playoffs, and this image forever burned into my mind, I can now take step back to think about the full body of work that made up the year. Most projections systems pegged them for just 80-85 wins, and to miss out on the playoffs by 10 […]

Per MLBAM’s Cory Schwartz, the Arizona Fall League has PITCHf/x camera systems operational at the Surprise and Peoria parks. PITCHf/x data will be available for all your favorite AFL participants, including Phillippe Aumont, Ian Kennedy, and, perhaps, super-uber-star prospect Stephen Strasburg and everyone’s favorite Phillies minor league blogger Michael Schwimer, if the stars align so […]

Well, the regular season ended. That means I can go back to THT’s preseason predictions and see how well we did. And by “well” I mean “terrible.” Unless I mean “terribly.” It’s late and I’m too tired to care about grammar that much. The key part is that I’m most certainly including myself among the […]

This morning, River Ave. Blues linked to this video (posted below) which explains the visual difference between center and off-center camera angles. The video camera angle we usually see on a broadcast is not very close to straight on, and it makes us see pitches and location differently than we should be seeing them: If […]

Here are a few interesting tidbits from the 2009 season, courtesy of SABR’s Madison McEntire: The Yankees became just the 13th team to have six or more players with 80 RBIs, and just the third to have at least seven players with 80 RBIs. The 1939 Yankees had seven and the 2003 Red Sox had […]

Dave Dombrowski seems prepared to move forward with Scott Sizemore as the new starting second baseman. During an interview, Dombrowski referred to Polanco in the past tense, and talked up Sizemore’s preparedness for duty. Sizemore has yet to see major league action, splitting 2009 between Double-A and Triple-A. Combined, he hit .308/.389/.500, certainly suggesting that […]