SBNation.com User Blog: DavidRF

Sickels: Preseason 2012 Top 20 Prospects in Review

DavidRF — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:19:04 -0000

Sickels: Preseason 2012 Top 20 Prospects in Review

To reiterate Sickels' clarification, these are NOT new rankings and grades... these are the PRESEASON ranking and grades with updated commentary.

Glen Perkins Interview at Fangraphs

DavidRF — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:51:31 -0000

Glen Perkins Interview at Fangraphs

SI: 90s farmhand Dan Naulty talks about steroids

DavidRF — Thu, 31 May 2012 01:37:12 -0000

SI: 90s farmhand Dan Naulty talks about steroids

Interesting article about a Twin who took steroids in the minors. It specifically mentions the 1994 Miracle team and how stereoids helped him move up in the system

NewFlash: Target Field is a hitters park

DavidRF — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:07:28 -0000

NewFlash: Target Field is a hitters park

baseball-reference has started updating their park factors based on 2010 data. Target Field Park Factors have clocked in at 104 for hitters and 103 for pitchers. This tweaks all the adjusted metrics up a tick for hitters and down a tick for pitchers.

I guess there's more to scoring than just hitting homers.

Kelly Thesier article on Mauer's Power Outage

DavidRF — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:53:17 -0000

Kelly Thesier article on Mauer's Power Outage

Lots of quotes here from Gardenhire, Morneau, Vavra and Mauer himself.

Justin passes Tex in the All-Star balloting

DavidRF — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:30:58 -0000

Justin passes Tex in the All-Star balloting

Sanity is restored.

Retrosheet: Target Field Firsts

DavidRF — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 16:05:53 -0000

There have been enough games now that the Retrosheet website has posted their "ballpark firsts" for Target Field.

Here is the link: http://www.retrosheet.org/ballparks/target_field.htm

Most of the events are stuff we remember from the first game, but a few things waited for later in the homestand.

There are still three blanks. Grand Slam, Inside the park home run, and no-hitter.

They do firsts and lasts for all the parks. That information is here: http://www.retrosheet.org/ballparks/park_firsts.htm

There have been enough games now that the Retrosheet website has posted their "ballpark firsts" for Target Field.

Here is the link: http://www.retrosheet.org/ballparks/target_field.htm

Most of the events are stuff we remember from the first game, but a few things waited for later in the homestand.

There are still three blanks. Grand Slam, Inside the park home run, and no-hitter.

They do firsts and lasts for all the parks. That information is here: http://www.retrosheet.org/ballparks/park_firsts.htm

baseball-reference sim scores updated for 2009

DavidRF — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:02:47 -0000

Baseball-reference.com did their postseason update today.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/3276

The most entertaining part of the update is the sim scores and age-based sim scores are now updated through the end of 2009. Most are familiar with Sim Scores. They are a Bill James invention but they were purposely designed to mimic HOF induction behavior circa 1990 or so. Because of that, they don't include park/era effect and tend to rely mainly on the more traditional counting stats. His thinking at the time was that the BBWAA/VC didn't incorporate those things. So, sometimes you get some quirky comps, but even the quirky comps can be fun and even a bit telling (e.g. Jason Tyner's comps are predominantly dead-ball era players).

Caveats aside, here are the latest comps for our Twins:

Joe Mauer (26) -> Robinson Cano
Justin Morneau (28) -> Paul Konerko
Nick Punto (31) -> Frank O'Rourke
Orlando Carbrera (34) -> Julio Franco
Joe Crede (31) -> Kelly Gruber
Delmon Young (23) -> Carlos May
Carlos Gomez (23) -> Curt Welch
Michael Cuddyer (30) -> Milton Bradley
Jason Kubel (27) -> Jason Giambi
Denard Span (25) -> Homer Summa
Brendan Harris (28) -> Sandy Alomar, Jr.
JJ Hardy (26) -> Miguel Tejada

Nick Blackburn (27) -> Rheal Cormier
Scott Baker (27) -> Scott Bankhead
Francisco Liriano (25) -> Odalis Perez
Glen Perkins (26) -> Joe Saunders
Kevin Slowey (25) -> Edinson Volquez
Carl Pavano (33) -> Ramon Ortiz
Joe Nathan (34) -> Jeff Montgomery

Baseball-reference.com did their postseason update today.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/3276

Caveats aside, here are the latest comps for our Twins:

Joe Mauer (26) -> Robinson Cano
Justin Morneau (28) -> Paul Konerko
Nick Punto (31) -> Frank O'Rourke
Orlando Carbrera (34) -> Julio Franco
Joe Crede (31) -> Kelly Gruber
Delmon Young (23) -> Carlos May
Carlos Gomez (23) -> Curt Welch
Michael Cuddyer (30) -> Milton Bradley
Jason Kubel (27) -> Jason Giambi
Denard Span (25) -> Homer Summa
Brendan Harris (28) -> Sandy Alomar, Jr.
JJ Hardy (26) -> Miguel Tejada

Nick Blackburn (27) -> Rheal Cormier
Scott Baker (27) -> Scott Bankhead
Francisco Liriano (25) -> Odalis Perez
Glen Perkins (26) -> Joe Saunders
Kevin Slowey (25) -> Edinson Volquez
Carl Pavano (33) -> Ramon Ortiz
Joe Nathan (34) -> Jeff Montgomery