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Here's something you don't see every day: Punctuation in baseball
I am a great believer in the serial (Oxford) comma. It;’s pretty much in the stylebook for every outlet for which I’ve written. And you can find lots of arguments for and against its use. But I’ve never seen in discussed in respect to baseball books until now. Submitted for your entertainment and/or amusement, this piece from Baseball Prospectus: “The Annual: We Think About Commas, So You Don’t…
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Here's something you don't see every day: Punctuation in baseball
I am a great believer in the serial (Oxford) comma. It;’s pretty much in the stylebook for every outlet for which I’ve written. And you can find lots of arguments for and against its use. But I’ve never seen in discussed in respect to baseball books until now. Submitted for your entertainment and/or amusement, this piece from Baseball Prospectus: “The Annual: We Think About Commas, So You Don’t…
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Dutch Lion's 2022 MLB Preview
Dutch Lion's 2022 MLB Preview includes predictions for the Standings, Playoffs, and World Series along with Award Winners and the "DLP", Dutch Lion's Plan to make Baseball great again.
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Proyecciones PECOTA dejan fuera de pelea a los Red Sox
Proyecciones PECOTA dejan fuera de pelea a los Red Sox
El 2020 no pinta del todo bien para los Red Sox. Tras salir de jugadores como Mookie Betts, David Price y Brock Holt, muchos los dan fuera de contienda para esta temporada, hasta el algoritmo de Baseball Prospectus, PECOTA.
Este sistema, ha proyectado que el récord de los Red Sox para el 2020 será 85-78, lo que está por debajo en cuanto a victorias de lo logrado en 2019, cuando se obtuvieron 96…
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Ex-Staten Island Yankees Pitcher Clarke Schmidt Making Waves in Yankees' Minor League System
Ex-Staten Island Yankees Pitcher Clarke Schmidt Making Waves in Yankees’ Minor League System
New York Yankee farmhand and former South Carolina University pitcher Clarke Schmidt ranks high in minor league baseball.
Former Staten Island Yankee righty Clarke Schmidt is rising up the New York Yankees’ prospect lists, as Baseball America has ranked him No. 2, while Baseball Prospectus has listed him at the ninth spot.
Schmidt pitched well in last season, posting a 6-5 record with 3.57 ERA…
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The Yankees gave a cup of coffee to their best prospect. Well, metaphorically, I doubt he would enjoy coffee.
Morning exercise with short walks could lower BP for some
Morning exercise with short walks could lower BP for some
Imported from truckersnews.com
Original Article
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Pitch Framed for Murder
Whenever I get on Twitter, baseball fans are constantly discussing the importance of catchers and pitch framing (AKA making balls look like strikes). Yes, this is an extremely valuable asset to have in a catcher, but the stats can be somewhat arbitrary and flawed. In fact, many main baseball statistic websites don’t even have framing stats listed.
The reason I am writing this is that I saw multiple White Sox fans arguing about if Tyler Flowers was good or not in his stint with the White Sox. Let’s use him as an example. Flowers was a great pitch framer. There is no arguing that. This year, he is also first in FRAA_ADJ, according to Baseball Prospectus’ stat, incorporating framing runs, blocking runs, and throwing runs. He is also ranked first in framing runs. For reference, he is ahead of Yasmani Grandal, who many baseball writers deem to be one of the best defensive catchers in baseball now. Flowers is also ahead of Buster Posey. However, last year, Flowers was ranked 17th in this FRAA_ADJ and 6th in framing runs, behind Grandal and Posey in both. So you can see that there is some volatility in these stats.
Another example of this volatility is Brian McCann. He was ranked 8th in framing runs in 2017, but now he’s 26th. Does that mean he’s in the bottom 5 of qualifying catchers? No. He’s very valuable, especially if you factor in his bat. One factor of this volatility is that he moved teams, so it could be the worse pitching staff. The Yankees had an impeccable bullpen last year. The Astros (McCann’s current team) has a ‘pen that isn’t as strong as the Chapman, Betances, Miller bullpen that McCann caught for most of last season. It could also be the arbitrarily deemed “Framing chances” that factor into his framing stats, but, either way, this is still a hard skill to gauge but will improve with statcast being more a part of the game.
How much stock should we put in this? We need to pay attention to catchers who can frame. It is a skill that not many have. How does this circle back to the White Sox? Tyler Flowers.
Yes, I’ll admit. He’s a VERY good catcher. Was he a good overall player on the Sox? The short answer is not really. Hindsight is 20/20, so when people say Flowers was good on the Sox, they’re looking at him like the hitter he is now. In 7 seasons with the Sox, he accumulated 4.9 bWAR. Granted, he only played in over 100 games for two of those years, but still, his defense carried his offense through those seasons. His best season, he slashed .239/.295/.356, which is flat out brutal.
I think another reason why Sox fans say Flowers was good is their recency bias. They’re comparing him to the catcher we saw replace him: Alex Avila and Dioner Navarro. Both were two of the worst defensive catchers in the game. Avila could draw walks. That’s about the only benefit that came out of this platoon. I’ll be honest, I was happy when Flowers was gone, but I wanted him replaced with someone BETTER at either catching or hitting. The Sox front office chose neither, and it showed. If the Sox grabbed a better catcher to replace Flowers, I truly believe we wouldn’t have Sox fans complaining about how good Flowers was.
On top of that, Flowers moved to the National League. At this point, this league overall is a little weaker. Both leagues fluctuate. Before the year 2000, the National League was stronger. This happens. This could account for an uptick in Flowers’ stats and the slide we saw in stats from Adam Dunn, Adam LaRoche, and Todd Frazier in their moves to the A.L. from the N.L. I’m not bashing. A different scene also sometimes does a lot for someone. If Flowers had stayed on the South side, people would still be complaining about how bad he is.
Anyway, my point is, pay attention to catching stats. They matter, BUT take them with a grain of salt. There are still some kinks that need to be fixed.
And as far as Tyler Flowers goes, let’s say he was a very bad hitter with a good glove in his stint with our guys. His moved helped him, and he’s seeing success now, but let’s not treat him like he was the pride and joy of the South side.
