Sky Kalkman
Feb 12, 2008 Feb 13, 2012 591 9007
I'm a baseball fan. I root for smart organizations and underrated players.
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Matt Moore Calculator
I made a spreadsheet calculator to help understand the magnitude of savings (or losses) from this Matt Moore deal.
Please save it as your own Google Doc or download to your computer.
What I'd LOVE to see is someone create a handful of scenarios, assign them probabilities, and get an average outcome. Maybe even build in the decreasing utility of money from Moore's point of view.
Updated Team WAR Spreadsheet
by Sky Kalkman on Nov 12, 2011 2:50 PM EST
on Beyond the Box Score
I had a couple requests on Twitter to update this spreadsheet to account for new wOBA and ERA league averages. Here you go: WAR Spreadsheet V2. Let me know if anything's wonky.
7 comments
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1 recs |
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Our impressions of the Sabres if they'd lost to a different team
by Sky Kalkman on May 5, 2011 12:31 PM EDT
on Die By The Blade
Going into the Flyers series, the scouting report I heard on Philadelphia was "lots of forward depth, with both a good forecheck and ability to score, plus a surprising goalie dilemna." Coming out of the series, the conclusion was that the Sabres struggled to move the puck out of their own end and made the series close by slipping in some questionable goals. Those conclusions seem somewhat predictable given the Flyers scouting report, no?
Well, what if Buffalo had played the Caps? Or the Penguins? Or the Bruins? Or the Lightning? Those teams are similar in talent to the Flyers (or were during the regular season), but with different strengths and weaknesses. If the Sabres had taken each of them to seven games, in what ways would the team have looked good? Bad? And how do those answers differ from our reaction to the Flyers series?
I think those are important questions, because the goal next year isn't to have the best chance to beat the Flyers, it's to have the best chance to beat anyone who shows up. And if the team overreacts to raw impressions, without considering the context of those impressions, that's setting them up for bad moves.
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I've been thinking about the MLB draft a LOT lately. There's a bunch of good analysis out there, so I thought I'd try to collect it in one place. See the comments.
Additionally, II could use some information that I can't find. If you can help, awesome. What I'd like is the number of college hitters, college pitchers, high school hitters, and high school pitchers taken within draft pick ranges (like 1-5, 6-10, etc.) over at least a ten year period. Exact pick by pick would be great, too.
- Me
My First Scoresheet League
by Sky Kalkman on Jan 13, 2011 2:37 PM EST
on Beyond the Box Score
I'm giving Scoresheet Baseball a shot for the first time, having been invited to join the BP Kings league. I don't really know what I'm doing (if other league members are reading this, that statement is totally meant to throw you off your game) but it sounds like a pretty cool fantasy format.
The rules get complex fast, but basically it's an in-season simulation league. Defense matters, lineups "matter", and games are simulated based on 2011 player performance, which is different from something like Strat-o-matic. It's a keeper league with 24 teams (yes, 24) and the dispersal draft starts Monday. So, uh, help me, please.
27 comments
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Greinke-Garza Value Calculator
by Sky Kalkman on Jan 7, 2011 4:43 PM EST
in Research
on Beyond the Box Score
Zack Greinke is (I believe) a better pitcher than Matt Garza. But Garza's under team control for an extra year, almost assuredly earning less money each season. That monetary savings can be spent on other helpful pieces, bringing the two players closer in value.
Below is a little calculator you can use to see if talent or cost wins the day. By changing the numbers in the green boxes, you can see how each player's contract provides savings relative to acquiring their production on the free agent market -- the TOTAL SAVINGS line at the bottom.
Hit the "click to edit" button to start. Go crazy. This is a model, giving you the opportunity to see how your views affect the comparison. Feel free to share your inputs, outputs, and line of thought in the comments.
Quick note on FA compensation: There's a good chance compensation will be gone by the time these guys are free agents. However, feel free to add it in. Type A status is worth about $6M on average, Type B $3M.
Are we going too far with Morris? Are we now treating him far worse than we should be? Feels wrong—I was a big fan as a kid.
Jeff Bagwell: Mark McGwire, listed further down, kicked off the consideration of what is called, for better or worse, the "Steroid Era." And on this ballot, we're really starting to get into the heart of it.
There's concern that we're going to honor every hitter fortunate enough to go deep a few times over the last 20 years or so. I don't view it that way. Thanks to comparable stats like WAR and OPS+, we can measure players against their contemporaries and act accordingly.
And compared to his contemporaries, Bagwell kicks some major tail. He put up an excellent rookie year and just kept getting better. If you look, he didn't revert back to his rookie year (1991) value until 2002, and that was because his defense - very good for the bulk of his career - started to slip, according to the metrics used by baseball-reference.com.
So he's a Yes.
Ken Davidoff's Hall of Fame Ballot at Newsday - The middle paragraph nails it. (As does the entire article -- definitely worth reading the whole thing.)
Rays Rosterbation, Holiday Edition
by Sky Kalkman on Dec 16, 2010 11:47 AM EST
on DRaysBay
I'll admit it, one reason the Rays are so fun to follow is that there are so many creative roster-building possibilities. And there's a surprisingly good chance a wacky idea matches one in Andrew Friedman's brain. Erik said said there wasn't a good spot to throw random thoughts, so let's call it open season on creative ideas. Here are some Garza trade proposals to kick things off.
- Garza for Prince Fielder, with Milwaukee eating most or all of Fielder's salary. That would be 4-5 WAR for zero money, plus around $5M in compensation picks, giving up, say, 7-10 WAR at $20-$25M.
- Garza for Billy Butler. Similar talent levels, similar contract status. Not sure if the Royals want a guy like Garza, but I'm not sure they love Butler, either, and if they trade Greinke, pitching might be in their sights. (This idea via Jason Collette.)
- Garza to Cubs for package including CF Brett Jackson. There's not much else in that farm system -- the Vitters Unknown and a lot of C level pitching prospects -- but Jackson's shown at age 21 in A+ and AA that he can hit and take a walk from the central outfield position.
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Are you going to SABR 40 in Atlanta or the Fangraphs Live Chat in New York City the weekend of August 8th? If so, give a yell so other people who are going can know to look for you.
(I'm going to the Fangraphs event in NYC; can't wait!)
@MacAree: @BtB_Sky @dturkenk @sabometrics Someone throw up a comment thread on BTB so we can have this discussion less confusingly?
Ok, Graham, here's your discussion thread. For those who don't stalk Graham on Twitter, these guys have been discussing the merits and deficiencies of potential Hit f/x data for judging hitters and fielders. 140 characters wasn't really enough. Let's see what happens next...
SBN Roundtable via Blackberry Messenger
by Sky Kalkman on Jul 15, 2010 12:51 PM EDT
on Beyond the Box Score
BlackBerry Messenger presents a unique SB Nation Roundtable discussion looking back on the first half of the 2010 MLB season and ahead to the second half. Each blogger used a BlackBerry smartphone to participate via BlackBerry Messenger. Visit SB Nation.com to explore comments and discussion about this dialogue across other SB Nation sites. 
Eric Simon, Amazin' Avenue (Mets)
Jeff Sullivan, Lookout Landing (Mariners)
Will McDonald, Royals Review (Royals)
Adam Morris, Lone Star Ball (Rangers)
Eric Stephen, True Blue LA (Dodgers)
Sky Kalkman, Beyond the Box Score (Stats)
(This was obviously a Blackberry promotion -- I'm not trying to hide the fact that I got paid, fyi. And as an added benefit, the roundtable was actually interesting. These are good guys who know their baseball. I'm guessing we aren't as funny as we think, though.)
The full-color chat transcript is included below. Jump into the comments and share your take, or read and discuss the roundtable on Royals Review, Amazin' Avenue, Lookout Landing, Beyond the Box Score, True Blue LA, and Lone Star Ball.
Open All-Star Game Chat
by Sky Kalkman on Jul 13, 2010 7:23 PM EDT
in Game of the Week
on Beyond the Box Score
Like the title says, let's doing some chatting during the All-Star Game tonight. It's a good time to reflect on the first half of the season, compare expectations of the second half, and see how the best pitchers in the game choose to attack the best hitters in the game.
If you've done any pitch f/x analysis on last night's Home Run Derby or Celebrity Softball Game, you can post that here, too.
Lastly, during the ASG tonight I'm going to be involved in an SBN blogger chat via BlackBerry (and sponsored by Blackberry). BB sent me a Curve to use and I've been having fun fiddling around with the thing (it's my first smart phone). The transcript of the chat will be posted here tomorrow, chalked full of interesting stuff from some of SBN's best bloggers outside of DRB:
Eric Stephen - True Blue LA
Adam Morris - Lone Star Ball
Jeff Sullivan - Lookout Landing
Will McDonald - Royals Review
Eric Simon - Amazin' Avenue
That graph summarizes Steve's most recent article for ESPN TMI pretty well -- Albert Pujols hasn't hit the high ball as well in 2010 as he did last year. Have any Cardinals fans noticed a change in approach this year, or might it just be a flukey thing?
How Mariano Rivera Dominates Hitters - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com
Here's a sweet little animated movie examining Mariano Rivera's cutter. It features an digitalized version of his throwing motion, plus some sweet pitch f/x-based visuals. And those pitch f/x-based visuals were made possible by 3D trajectories contributed by Harry's pitch f/x company, Complete Game Consulting. Watch it, it's cool.
Two recent threads have brought up the appropriateness of using xFIP to judge past performance for pitchers. (And Adam's tie-in to his career touches on a related point, too.)
I'll summarize the arguments for and against using xFIP as a retrospective metric below, but the reason I bring this up is because I think the arguments are more nuanced than these simplified viewpoints:
Against using xFIP as a retrospective measure: Sure, HR/FB might need a large sample size to become a good representation of a pitcher's skill, but those home runs actually happened and the pitcher is the one responsible for them happening. For a historical metric, we should use actual home runs, not a home run estimate based on fly balls. (One could also argue that any sort of FIP measure removes a pitcher's performance with runners on base, which is not right, because that "clutchiness" performance actually happened, too.)
For using xFIP as a retrospective measure: Yes, those home runs occurred when the pitcher was on the mound, but, like BABIP, they aren't necessarily a result of his talent. The cliche is that "pitchers allow fly balls, but hitters turn them into home runs." If we're going to assess a pitcher's future HR skill based on FB's, then why would measuring his past skill be any different?
I see two levels of discussion here: which of those two simplified arguments do you agree with (and why) and what nuances do they miss that are important (and why)?
For example, are there more distinctions to be made than just past/future? Where does the distinction between past value and past talent come into play?
A question from Sky
What do you just love about baseball?
by Sky Kalkman on Jun 23, 2010 9:18 PM EDT
on Beyond the Box Score
Reader dougbies posed an interesting question in a FanPost a couple days ago: What things aggravate you about baseball? For all that we love the game, there always things that drive us crazy. (For me, it's managers wearing uniforms. Example A: Tommy Lasorda.)
Let me pose the opposite question:
What do you just love about baseball?
Is it the history? The uniforms? The pitchers' duels? The pine tar? The Hall of Fame? The blogs? The announcers? The fights in the bleachers? The deliberate pace of games? The fantasy leagues? The excuse to drink beer on a near-daily basis?
Here's mine: There's always something going on. There are games six out of seven days for each team, and a dozen games per day overall. That's 24 starting pitchers to analyze a day, hundreds of chances for ninth-inning comebacks a week, and thousands of opportunities for perfect games a year. Streaks come and go, balls bounce of heads for home runs, and teams turn three outs on one play. There are so many opportunities for anything to happen that the improbable becomes probable. People complain that not enough happens during a baseball game. But more happens during a baseball season than in any other sport. And yet I still want more.
You?
Jay Jaffe's most recent article at Baseball Prospectus carries the tagline, "Some outstanding early-season pitching gems have caused the decrease in run scoring to be overstated."
If true, that's a very interesting thesis. But maybe even more interesting is how one would go about separating a change in the MLB run-scoring environment from a change in pitching talent.
I can think of a few reasons pitching talent would improve:
- experienced pitchers have taken the next step
- there's been a recent influx of exceptional, young pitchers
- there's been a strategic breakthrough that many pitchers have picked up on, giving them an advantage over hitters (the cutter?)And I can think of a bunch of reasons why the run environment might have changed:
- the ball
- new or changed ballparks
- weather
- the strike zone called differently
- changes to the PED policy have benefited pitchers relative to hittersSo, my question is, "How can we separate the changes in pitching talent from the changes in run environment?"
Should we look at the spread in talent level (and see if there are more dominant pitchers these days?) Should we track specific stats or combinations of stats?
I don't know -- got any brilliant ideas?
A question from Sky
What exactly do we mean by true talent level?
Justin's written about the AL and NL All-Star teams (NL Hitters, NL Pitchers, AL hitters, AL pitchers) recently, and used true talent levels to pick the best teams possible.
Is true talent level the same as a projected level of performance?
If we know a player is hurt (say, Grady Sizemore out for the season), does that affect his true talent level? If so, how? What about a smaller injury?
To what extent can we actually know a player's true talent level? We tend to use multiple years worth of data, but how much does 2007 really have to do with a player's 2010 level of production?
How different are hitters and pitchers? Do we want different types or amounts of information to estimate their true talent levels?
Can we use scouting information or pitch f/x information to hone in true talent level, going beyond conclusions made from more traditional performance metrics?
A question from Sky
Who will be the best pitcher in 2015?
by Sky Kalkman on Jun 12, 2010 8:00 AM EDT
on Beyond the Box Score
Friday High Fives
As we presented the best players of the next five years over the past two weeks, there was ton of discussion about Ubaldo Jimenez and other top pitchers being left off the list. Mostly that's an issue of pitchers facing a much harsher aging curve than hitters. Surely there will be more than five pitchers among the top 50 players in the league, it's just that we're extremely unsure who they'll be.
I posed a similarly difficult question to the BtB authors this week: Who will be the best pitcher in 2015? Normally I'd call someone chicken for the following response, but in this case, Jeff Z. expressed what we're all thinking:
I refuse to guess this question. Five years ago I probably would have answered Brandon Webb, Dontrelle Willis, Jake Peavy, Aaron Harang and Josh Towers. I think pitchers are so fickle, I will be impressed if anyone gets two of their choices correct.
Here are the top five results for those of us who were willing to make some guesses (not me):
| Pitcher | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Ballots | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Strasburg | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 38 | |
| Tim Lincecum | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 18 | |
| Ubaldo Jimenez | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 12 | ||
| Zack Greinke | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 12 | ||
| Felix Hernandez | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
Commentary and full results after the jump. How'd we do?
Sporcle: Can you name the 50 Best MLB Players of the Next 5 Years?
Yes, someone took our list and turned it into a Sporcle. That's high honor. Just don't read the comments.
SB Nation launches regional hubs
by Sky Kalkman on Jun 9, 2010 8:36 AM EDT
in Site News
on Beyond the Box Score
On Monday, SB Nation launched six regional hubs, which aggregate top content from the many blogs that cover teams in that area. Those regions are: Chicago, Boston, DC, Detroit, Arizona and New York.
Yes, ESPN has regional hubs, too. And yes, ESPN gives you like a four-minute localized SportsCenter each day. But I think these SB Nation hubs have a few advantages of their own.
One, there will be twenty of them launched by July 1st, the previous six plus Houston, Dallas - Ft. Worth, Kansas City, St. Louis, Minnesota, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, and the Bay Area.
[Note to Mr. CEO man, Jim Bankoff: where is SBN-Western New York? Here in Rochester we're the top minor league sports town in the country, and Buffalo has 1.5 major league teams. Tampa Bay isn't even a city, and the Tampa-St. Pete sports teams have fewer fans than my local championship indoor lacrosse team -- Go Knighthawks!]
Two, with content provided by 250 blogs, there is never a shortage of quality content.
Three, each hub has a mini-blog within the hub, with original takes on current events and yellow journalistic videos. There will be original features, to
Four, SBN tends to have quality communities with quality discussion, while ESPN has, well, "omfg ur an idit, Neyer, go back behnd teh pay wall."
Five, StoryStreams. Newspapers had news cycles, but the internet can consistently add to the stream of content addressing a popular topic. Related blog posts and links to non-SBN sources are organized in StoryStreams, making it easy to follow the progression from "Strasburg's the new Gooden" to "let's temper our expectations" to "holy crap he's got a lot of strikeouts" to "Strasburg's way better than Gooden." Try this one with 41 entries on the MLB Draft.
Six, the more popular SBNation grows, the better chance that I and the rest of the BtB crew can get filthy rich. I am in favor of growing filthy rich.
/SBN pimpage
Top Position Players of the Past Three Years (via Fangraphs)
- Albert Pujols (20.4 WAR)
- Chase Utley (18.0 WAR)
- Hanley Ramirez (16.2 WAR)
- Joe Mauer (15.3 WAR)
- Evan Longoria (15.0 WAR)
Which team will improve the most in five years?
by Sky Kalkman on Jun 4, 2010 7:24 AM EDT
on Beyond the Box Score
Friday High Fives
Coming off a week where we showed we can shoot fish in a barrel just as well as the next saber site, we asked our writers to share their thoughts on which team will improve the most over the next five years. Now, you can probably chalk some improvement up to dead cat bounce, but there really is significant hope for many of these teams. Here are the top five vote-getters:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Total | Weighted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationals | 5 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 36 | ||
| Orioles | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 25 | |
| Indians | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 20 | ||
| Mariners | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 18 | |
| Pirates | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 16 |
Paul Cousineau: Signs of the coming success are already apparent in the nation's capital. Among teams that are at rock-bottom right now (meaning that there's nowhere to go but up), Cleveland and Baltimore have the most young talent. That being said, their success is probably going to come closer to the end of the 5-year window indicated.
J-Doug: The Nationals are already better than most people think they are.
Michael: The Nationals are likely to end up with two "generational" talents in Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper helping at the major league level in the next two years. Similarly, the hard work of Andy MacPhail to rebuild the Orioles' farm system should pay off in the next year or two.
Tommy: I like the front office additions of Pittsburgh and Cleveland. You can't go wrong with all those smart people.
Lar: The Nats are already showing that they can be a decent team with the personnel they have, and adding Strasburg and Harper over the next couple of years (to go along with Zimmerman) will be big.
Matt: Regarding the Mariners, I've backed off my all-in enthusiasm for Jack Z. I still think he's very good, I just think many of us (including me) got overly excited after the first group of moves (always the easiest part of being a new GM). That said, he's smart, he has a great record of player development in Milwaukee, the team has money, and given how bad they've been, they have plenty of room to grow.
Full list of results and author-by-author comments after the jump. As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic.
Best of Sabermetrics: June 2010
by Sky Kalkman on Jun 1, 2010 8:00 AM EDT
on Beyond the Box Score
Thanks to everyone who contributed links to the May Best of Sabermetrics thread. We had forty comments, some with multiple links.
Here's the June version, where we're once again looking to collect links to the best saber-slanted content out there. This helps us remember the great stuff for the year-end Saber Awards, but is also a nice resource for anyone looking for more great stuff to read. (If there are any May stragglers, feel free to link to them here.)
This post will be anchored in the Featured Stories widget in the right sidebar so you can easily find it throughout the month. Link away!
Friday High Fives: Next Manager Fired
by Sky Kalkman on May 21, 2010 1:00 PM EDT
on Beyond the Box Score
This week we asked our writers, "Who will be the next manager fired?" We had a lot more consensus than last week, maybe because the formula for these events is annoying obvious. The top five vote-getters are:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Trembley | 4 | 1 | 24 | 5 | |||
| Jerry Manuel | 3 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 5 | ||
| Ken Macha | 3 | 2 | 18 | 5 | |||
| Lou Piniella | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 3 | ||
| Brad Mills | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 4 |
Jeff Zimmerman: IMO Trembley will be done. 4th year with the team, struggled all the years. A perfect recipe for getting fired.
Jeff Sullivan: Generally speaking, I oppose the reactionary firing of managers, but Manuel, Trembley, and Mills seem to be in the most obvious situations.
Daniel: Trembley has been around for a few years now, the team continues losing, and from what I've seen Dave isn't a particularly good manager. I think the thing best keeping him on the team is the lack of a readily available interim replacement.
So what do you think -- who will be the next to go? Who should be the next to go? What's a valid reason to fire a manager mid-season?
Full results and everyone's commentary after the jump.
BtB Open Thread: Games of May 18, 2010
by Sky Kalkman on May 18, 2010 7:18 PM EDT
in Game of the Week
on Beyond the Box Score
I'm looking for some feedback -- would it be more helpful to have these pop up first thing in the morning so they can be better used as #btbdaily link dumps? Then people can start rolling in to comment on the games as they start?
Here are today's matchups, courtesy of ESPN. Some games were already played this afternoon, but a bunch more are just starting For developing storylines and links to team-specific game threads at SBNation blogs, keep an eye on SBNation's MLB page.
| TEAMS | TIME (ET) | PITCHERS |
|---|---|---|
| Kansas City at Baltimore | 7:05 PM | Greinke vs Millwood |
| Boston at NY Yankees | 7:05 PM | Beckett vs Sabathia |
| Pittsburgh at Philadelphia | 7:05 PM | Duke vs Halladay |
| NY Mets at Atlanta | 7:10 PM | Santana vs Medlen |
| LA Angels at Texas | 8:05 PM | Weaver vs Wilson |
| Colorado at Chicago Cubs | 8:05 PM | Chacin vs Silva |
| Washington at St. Louis | 8:15 PM | Lannan vs Carpenter |
| Seattle at Oakland | 10:05 PM | Hernandez vs Sheets |
| San Francisco at San Diego | 10:05 PM | Sanchez vs Latos |
| Houston at LA Dodgers | 10:10 PM | Norris vs Kuroda |
Twitter Widget:
BtB Open Thread: Games of May 17, 2010
by Sky Kalkman on May 17, 2010 7:00 PM EDT
in Game of the Week
on Beyond the Box Score
Here's your open thread for today. It's sort of an amalgamation of a few things:
- A link dump integrated with twitter. To share a link simply tweet it and include the hashtag #btbdaily. (Re-tweets are not included, fyi.)
- An open game thread for discussing today's games. The schedule is listed below.
- A catch-all thread. Something else on your mind that the BtB community would be interested in? Share away.
Here are today's matchups, courtesy of ESPN. Pretty full schedule for a Monday, although the White Sox - Tigers game has been postponed. For developing storylines and links to team-specific game threads at SBNation blogs, keep an eye on SBNation's MLB page.
| TEAMS | TIME (ET) | PITCHERS |
|---|---|---|
| Kansas City at Baltimore | 7:05 PM | Davies vs Bergesen |
| Boston at NY Yankees | 7:05 PM | Matsuzaka vs Hughes |
| Pittsburgh at Philadelphia | 7:05 PM | Morton vs Kendrick |
| Minnesota at Toronto | 7:07 PM | Slowey vs Eveland |
| NY Mets at Atlanta | 7:10 PM | Pelfrey vs Lowe |
| Milwaukee at Cincinnati | 7:10 PM | Gallardo vs Cueto |
| Arizona at Florida | 7:10 PM | Jackson vs Volstad |
| Cleveland at Tampa Bay | 7:10 PM | Carmona vs Niemann |
| LA Angels at Texas | 8:05 PM | Kazmir vs Holland |
| Colorado at Chicago Cubs | 8:05 PM | Cook vs Wells |
| Washington at St. Louis | 8:15 PM | Stammen vs Lohse |
| Seattle at Oakland | 10:05 PM | Rowland-Smith vs Gonzalez |
| San Francisco at San Diego | 10:05 PM | Cain vs Richard |
| Houston at LA Dodgers | 10:10 PM | Rodriguez vs Ely |
Friday High Fives: Most Underrated Players in MLB
by Sky Kalkman on May 16, 2010 12:36 PM EDT
on Beyond the Box Score
This week we asked our writers, "Who are the most underrated players in baseball?" There was a bit of agreement, but Chase Utley was the only player to be listed on even four of the eleven ballots. Here are the top five vote-getters, awarding five points for a first place vote down to one point for a fifth place vote:
| Name | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Ballots | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shin-Soo Choo | 2 | 1 | 3 | 12 | |||
| Chase Utley | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 12 | ||
| Mike Cameron | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | ||
| Jim Edmonds | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |||
| Mike Napoli | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
Steve Sommer: Shin-Soo Choo put up a 5 WAR season last year? Who knew? He's coming off of consecutive years with wOBAs above 0.380.
Adam Darowski: People know Chase Utley is awesome, and yet I still think the general conception is that he's the third best player on the team behind Howard and Rollins.
Peter Hjort: Mike Napoli gets no respect, even though he's probably one of the top 5 or so hitting catchers in the game.
The full results are listed after the jump, with every vote from every voter noted, and a lot more commentary.
BtB Open Thread: Games of May 13, 2010
by Sky Kalkman on May 13, 2010 2:01 PM EDT
in Game of the Week
on Beyond the Box Score
(The first BtB Newsletter went out today. Have you subscribed yet?)
Here's your open thread for today. It's sort of an amalgamation of a few things:
- A link dump integrated with twitter. To share a link simply tweet it and include the hashtag #btbdaily. (Re-tweets are not included, fyi.)
- An open game thread for discussing today's games. The schedule is listed below.
- A catch-all thread. Something else on your mind that the BtB community would be interested in? Share away.
Here are today's matchups, courtesy of ESPN. It's a light schedule, but with some afternoon games and some aces. For developing storylines and links to team-specific game threads at SBNation blogs, keep an eye on SBNation's MLB page.
| TEAMS | TIME (ET) | PITCHERS |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle at Baltimore | 12:35 PM | Hernandez vs Millwood |
| NY Yankees at Detroit | 1:05 PM | Sabathia vs Verlander |
| Houston at St. Louis | 1:40 PM | Norris vs Carpenter |
| Oakland at Texas | 2:05 PM | Sheets vs Wilson |
| Cleveland at Kansas City | 2:10 PM | Huff vs Greinke |
| San Diego at San Francisco | 3:45 PM | Latos vs Sanchez |
| NY Mets at Florida | 7:10 PM | Santana vs Johnson |
| Washington at Colorado | 8:40 PM | Lannan vs Chacin |
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