SB Nation User Blog: marcello

A-Rod Clutcher than Captain Intangibles

marcello — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:47:35 -0000

A-Rod Clutcher than Captain Intangibles

Suck it non-nerds!

Evaluating Pitching and Hitting

marcello — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:28:50 -0000

So, I've been thinking and I want to get others thoughts on the subject. From a purely scouting perspective, it seems to me that pitching would be much, much easier to evaluate in a small sample compared to hitting.

What I mean is, it's pretty easy to see Runzler come up to the big leagues and throw fire from the left side with a nice slider (going off my memory here, which is sketchy in regards to Runzler). Obviously with control issues. We all could see that, no doubt Bochy/Sabean could see that.

However, with hitters, it would seem to be much harder to evaluate in a small sample. Posey, Bowker, (serial comma, bitches!) and Guzman, for example, could look really poor in a handful of ABs and that is all they have to go on. It's not quite the same as with pitchers, where you can physically see the stuff. Sure, they might have a good swing, or some other scouty stuff, but that doesn't really mean as much (at least in my mind).

Obviously, this touches on the complaint many of us have had this year with Bochy/Sabean: that they make decisions off of way too small samples and have no clue what stats/skills are important. I'm just wondering if you think this might be why they have no problem throwing young pitchers into the mix and won't do the same with young hitters. If not, please submit any ideas you may have. Or just correct any grammar mistakes I have made (seriously).

P.S. Sorry, I realize this topic has been done to death, but it's been gnawing at me for a while.

FanGraphs iPhone App

marcello — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:27:16 -0000

FanGraphs iPhone App

Must. Ditch. Blackberry. For. iPhone. Now.

Except those jerk faces used this graph as an example for a WPA screenshot.

Throw Hard or Go Home

marcello — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:19:49 -0000

Throw Hard or Go Home

Interesting BP article about fastball velocity. It's subscription material, but one of the key takeaways is this:

~90% of MLB RHP throw over 90 MPH on average.

Fan Scouting for 2009

marcello — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:16:15 -0000

Fan Scouting for 2009

Instructions are at the link, but it's very simply just trying to get a scouting report on players defense just based on what you've seen.

Make sure to not consider the position a player plays, just judge him against all baseball players (e.g, Nate has a ____ arm compared to all players, not just rightfielders).

Scary article about youth pitching

marcello — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:20:54 -0000

Scary article about youth pitching

tl;dr

H/T: Neyer

OT - Something else to do while waiting for Timmy day

marcello — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:54:50 -0000

OT - Something else to do while waiting for Timmy day

Inspired by Lars' fanshot here, here is another game.

Man, the Royals are stupid

marcello — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:47:38 -0000

Man, the Royals are stupid

HAHAHAHA.

Royals Review is accepting their inevitable fate.
Lookout Landing is living the high life.

Analyzing the Sharks Defense

marcello — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:54:52 -0000

Analyzing the Sharks Defense

Interesting Puck Prospectus article on the Sharks defense. I can't say I strongly disagree with any of the conclusions, although I never really liked Blake all that much and I don't understand his conclusion on Semenov based on the numbers.

Why you can't trust your eyes

marcello — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:27:30 -0000

Why you can't trust your eyes

Pretty cool optical illusion and a reminder that our eyes often lie to us.