kickass media 2017

Royals star Amos Otis to reunite with boys (now men) he aided during ’77 Plaza flood

Forty years to the day that Amos Otis came to the aid of eight boys stranded by the historic Sept. 12, 1977 “Plaza flood,” the former Royals Gold Glove outfielder will for the first time meet some of those boys again face-to-face.

Those boys, of course, are now men in their 50s and include now 54-year-old Missouri state Rep. Richard Brown. At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday Brown is set to hand Otis a framed proclamation that honors him as a Good Samaritan for an act of kindness that deeply affected Brown.

Prior to becoming a state legislator, Brown had been a teacher in the Kansas City public schools for 24 years. He said that Otis’ assistance on the day that 25 people in the Kansas City area lost their lives set a pattern for him to help children as if they were his own.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article172635626.html

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/253726830/byron-buxton-leads-statcast-outs-above-average/

new metric: outs above average. leaderboard here: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/outs_above_average?type=player&year=2017&min=50

Jays fans--this one included--will flinch at Kevin Pillar ranked #102.

that's cool. they have 2016 in there, too (billy hamilton led the league)

xpost

jays ranked last in MLB, too, if you do it by team

Dave Fleming again, not James; looks at Ozzie Smith's MVP case in '87 vs. Andrelton Simmons' this year (specifically, a disconnect between the two).

http://www.billjamesonline.com/ozzie_and_the_mvp/

the plot holes of this season

Why is the best player so short?

Why is the other best player so tall?

Why does Robert Gsellman, a pitcher, have the league's best contact rate at the plate?

Pujols has been the least-valuable player in baseball, by WAR. And he has also been the third most clutch hitter in baseball? Cute conceit, but life doesn't really work that way.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20838192/mlb-season-115-recap-counted-27-head-scratching-plot-holes

One flap down: Remembering Jeffrey Leonard's incredible, unusual 1987 NLCS

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/jeffrey-leonard-1987-nlcs-mvp-one-flap-down-home-runs-video-giants-cardinals/t4ecro50b1e81aq9apfvv8egg

Michael Baumann on why liking the "plucky" Yankees is "an existential threat" to baseball and America. (30:45-37:00) (NSFW)

https://www.theringer.com/2017/10/19/16504990/the-yankees-comeback-the-dodgers-dominance-and-problems-with-playoff-managing

Daniel Marks' All-Coulda-Been Team:

C – Jason Kendall
1B – Hal Trosky
2B – Carlos Baerga
3B – Eric Chavez (but probably just keeping the spot warm for David Wright)
SS – Nomar Garciaparra
LF – Charlie Keller
CF – Pete Reiser
RF – Darryl Strawberry
P – Dwight Gooden

http://www.billjamesonline.com/rising_stars_falling_stars/

ESPN's Sam Miller writes about one of the more serious moral issues facing the game today:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21587602/to-fist-bump-not-fist-bump-do-players-deserve-reward-intentional-walk

ICYMI, great interview with '50s Pirates infielder-pitcher Johnny O'Brien (age 87, remembers everything)

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/effectively-wild-episode-1153-johnny-on-the-spot/

https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/tht-annual-2018

wow

fields are shrinkin'

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/ballpark-playing-surfaces-are-shrinking-in-a-surprising-way/

dr k

red = curve
blue = fastball
white = perfect alignment (410 in outfield for reference)

look at those release points, incredible pic.twitter.com/1q1opI2pN6

— cardinalsgifs (@cardinalsgifs) February 6, 2018

Love that kind of stuff. that Rivera NYMAG video where it had 1000 pitches all synced up was amazing

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-zaidi-fantasy-football-20180223-story.html

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/did-lenny-dykstra-extort-umpires/

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/juiced-baseballs/

I saw that Dykstra story and didn't know where to put it. I was sure there was a "player police blotter" but I couldn't find it.