kickass media 2016

Piazza was not a terrible defensive catcher.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mike-piazza-was-more-than-a-big-bat/

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/minute-maid.png

roger angell looks really good for 95 yrs old

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cct1VXpW0AAfFtU.jpg:large

MLB media roundtable: Challenges of reporting, tough interviews and more

http://www.si.com/mlb/2016/03/20/mlb-media-roundtable-Alex-Rodriguez-Yasiel-Puig

Much of it is worth quoting, but...

Stark:

I was talking to Devin Mesoraco, the Reds catcher, about Aroldis Chapman a couple of years ago. In the middle of his stories about how Chapman’s fastball overmatches people, he started talking about how Chapman had started using his change-up a little more and that nobody ever even makes contact with it. He told me to look up how good that pitch was. So I went to the PITCHf/x data and, within minutes, I learned how right he was: 20 swings at that pitch, 19 misses and zero hits!

That’s information we never had available to us in the past. And it’s not particularly complicated. But when I use numbers, I want them to tell a story people can understand without asking a math professor. And you can’t beat the power and simplicity of 20 swings, 19 misses. I love numbers, as everyone knows. And it’s an awesome time to be covering baseball if you love numbers. The data out there now is unbelievable.

http://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/2016/03/25/images/mlbf_562731983_th_45.jpg

In 1992, the Angels signed three Russian players; this is their story

maybe not 'kickass', but interesting

that SI roundtable above is great btw

on being brandon wood, a can't-miss prospect who missed badly

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/brandon-wood-angels-prospect-padres-manager-minors-mlb

Sheehan on the BP podcast, discussing how 13-pitcher rosters affect the game

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=28850

what Statcast is telling us about hitting

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-new-science-of-hitting/

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/17668845/korean-bat-flip

great article, great animations

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuBSgzQWcAElPZD.jpg

well Sam Miller is going to get quoted here now that he's taken his recognizable style to the Big Place

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17720945/when-buck-showalter-used-zach-britton-orioles-wild-card-loss

recent Miller tweet:

The median NL MOY gets fired three years later

https://www.facebook.com/MLBonFOX/videos/1079009872212732/

That is a good segment.

As much as I really loathed him as a player, A-rod has done some homework on how to do his job. I'd love to see them do this same feature with Pete, Wade Boggs and Joey Votto.

Well, this is pretty fucking crazy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/sports/baseball/maurice-lerner-prospect-turned-mob-hitman.html

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-the-indians-built-the-game-plans-that-nearly-won-it-all

btw things are so grim these days i suspect effectively wild will be winding down as they approach the 1000th episode which is a shame because i love those nerds like members of my own family

They have been around for a while but that Fastball documentary on Netflix is a good viewing. I liked that and saw a good documentary on on MLB about the rise of sabermetics today.

There was some details about the '83 White Sox using a computer application that told them that gave some information that if they moved in the warning tracks at old Commiskey they could see a boost in power hitting that I had never heard of before. That team was on WGN a bunch in the evenings as a kid, so I saw them play quite a bit, so it was really interesting.

that's what has baffled me about tony la russa and dave stewart's apparent embracing of old school anti-sabermetric stupidity in the diamondback front office. when i was growing up (he was managing the A's at that point) TLR had this reputation as this total numbers nerd stat heavy guy, using computers back when that was somewhat unusual and all this stuff. wtf happened to him?

They got old is probably the truth.

George Will's "Men at Work" covers some of the same stuff more focused on the early days with the A's. It's a good read. The part with Tony Gwynn is great.

One heartbreaking part of that Fastball documentary is seeing Tony Gwynn with the big scarred mouth from cancer. The list of hitters they got talking about the fastball in the hall of fame is pretty impressive. It's like Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Al Kaline, Tony Gwynn and others in different segments.

Crazy sxxt is where the scientist does some figuring on fastball takes from other eras and postulates that Nolan Ryan might have been throwing like 107 back with the Angels.

maybe it was just Sandy Alderson

btw things are so grim these days i suspect effectively wild will be winding down as they approach the 1000th episode which is a shame because i love those nerds like members of my own family

― ein Sexmonster (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, November 13, 2016 10:35 PM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sam off EW pod, bc the Mothership won't let us have nice things. Jeff Sullivan on. Are Morbz and I the only Superfans

RIP Sam, glad we got to talk about the MPAA ratings of the Indiana Jones movies at the Saberseminar.