Dusty Baker is already annoying some Reds fans. To me, it’s been interesting to see the shift in his acceptance by fans from the time when he was in San Francisco to now.

Bob Rittner, in a guest piece at Baseball Analysts, presents a well-thought-out case for the designated hitter.

Welcome to a new THT weekly feature. The weekly awards ran last season over at Beyond the Boxscore. They’re designed to be an irreverent look at statistical freaks good and bad, highlight some oddities, preach to the converted on the pointlessness and limitations of traditional metrics, and when I have the time and inspiration, maybe […]

Jon Hale has a quick look at A. J. Burnett’s pitching repertoire last night. This is the potential power of the Pitch f/x system. Imagine every blog being able to post something like this the day after a game? Awesome.

Just in case you didn’t see this yesterday, Dave Rouleau at Baseball Digest Daily unearthed an early scouting report of Don Drysdale by Branch Rickey (Rickey was working for the Pirates at the time). It’s great reading. There’s also a good Q&A about the document at Baseball Think Factory.

Here’s a great analysis by Pizza Cutter over at the Statistically Speaking blog. Cutter takes a hard look at sacrifice fly decisions by third base coaches and finds that coaches are so conservative in their decisions that they are probably costing close to 100 runs a season. It’s a very thorough analysis, and a great […]

J.J. Putz’s blown save last night is now at least partially explained as he winds up on the 15-day disabled list with Costochondritis, a rib injury. The injury itself isn’t serious, but the healing time for any rib injury can be long and tedious. The team is calling it a minor case for now though.

In the very (very) early going, Wrigley’s new surface is playing like turf.

This is a great little piece articulating the appeal of clutch hitting (because we all like a good story) and calling for a truce between the anti- and pro-clutch crowds. Hat tip: Tango.

They missed a little something on the Ernie Banks statue in Chicago: an apostrophe. I know what you’re going to say. “Whats the diff?”