Over at the raindrops, Avkash looks at the sale of the Dodgers and a bit of a scandal at the Great American Ballpark.
Posted by David Pinto at 7:46 pm | Management | Permalink | No Comments
January 30, 2004
Dodger Sale
Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts has much more on the McCourt purchase of the Los Angeles National League franchise. He strikes a very cautionary tone. (Hat tip: Priorities and Frivolities)
Frank McCourt makes me feel powerless.
He could be the next great disaster for the Dodgers. Or, he could be a hidden treasure of, well, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:29 am | Management | Permalink | No Comments
January 29, 2004
The Balls in McCourt
Frank McCourt has been approved to buy the Dodgers:
“Welcome to a new era of Dodger baseball,” McCourt said during a news conference at Dodger Stadium. “I intend to restore the glory days of Dodger baseball with a team worthy of support from our fans.”
The price is the second-highest for a baseball team, trailing only the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 6:50 pm | Management | Permalink | 5 Comments
January 29, 2004
New Money
I saw this link at Bronx Banter about Stuart Sternberg buying a controlling interest in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. However, Vincent Naimoli remains the managing partner:
Sternberg, 44, is unknown to Major League Baseball. A former executive of the options-trading firm of Spear, Leeds and Kellogg, which Goldman Sachs bought on Sept. 11, 2000, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 12:00 pm | Management | Permalink | 2 Comments
January 29, 2004
Sheffling the Defense
A number of people have pointed out that Gary Sheffield has offered to play third base for the Yankees (Dom Cento had suggested the idea here):
The Yankees’ newest outfielder offered his infield services to GM Brian Cashman, even though he hasn’t played third in 11 years. Cashman wouldn’t rule out the possibility – “you never [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:43 am | Defense | Permalink | 6 Comments
January 28, 2004
The Importance of OBP
Yesterday I got together for lunch with one of my readers, Dominic Rivers. Dominic graduated from the Sports Management program at UMass. He interned for the Pirates and has been looking for another job within baseball. Dominic told me about an article he published on-line, where he tries to determine how much [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:33 pm | Statistics | Permalink | 11 Comments
January 28, 2004
Stadium Names
I saw this note at Baseball Crank:
* The Giants have agreed to change the name of Pac Bell Park to the even-more-antiseptic-sounding SBC Park. Much as these corporate stadium names bug me, it wouldn?t be so bad if they didn?t keep changing all the time. Like your local bank, it?s getting altogether too difficult to [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:46 pm | Stadiums | Permalink | 24 Comments
January 28, 2004
Foot In The Door?
The Cleveland Indians may be paving the way for openly gay players in the major leagues:
Indians minor leaguer Kazuhito Tadano is asking for forgiveness for what he called a one-time mistake — his appearance in a gay porn video in which he engaged in a homosexual act.
I suppose we’ll know that MLB has become tolerant [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 7:08 am | Players | Permalink | 20 Comments
January 27, 2004
Sheffielder?
Dom Cento points out in the comments to this post on Boone that Gary Sheffield used to be a third baseman. Why not move him to third and have three center fielders in the outfield? It’ll be a really bad defensive infield, but you don’t have to out and buy anymore players.
Posted by David Pinto at 1:44 pm | Defense | Permalink | 9 Comments
January 27, 2004
Telling the Truth
Truisms is a new blog, mostly about baseball. I like some of his post titles, like, “Why is it so impressive that a man sprints to first base on a walk?” Give him a look.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:32 am | Blogs | Permalink | No Comments
January 27, 2004
Sports and Technology
Tyler Cowen at the Volokh Conspiracy gives a nice review of Transition Game, a new blog about sports and technology. Nick Schulz is the author, and to my delight he’s linked to Baseball Musings. Check out this post on steroids. I’m in agreement with Nick, especially his last paragraph. And [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:24 am | Blogs | Permalink | 2 Comments
January 27, 2004
Research Today
Jay Jaffe at Futility Infielder was nice enough to calcuate DIPS for 2003.
The Baseball Crank continues his research on win shares with a look at the established win share levels of players in the AL West.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:17 am | Statistics | Permalink | No Comments
January 26, 2004
Boone Bust
Bronx Banter is reporting that Aaron Boone injured his knee playing basketball last week and may miss the entire season.
Offensively, this doesn’t hurt the Yankees too much. You can replace Boone’s bat. Defensively, it is a problem. Can Drew Henson step up and finally realize his potential? Or will the Yankees [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:30 pm | Injuries | Permalink | 16 Comments
January 26, 2004
Baseball Musings Gets Results?
I don’t know if this post and the comments made a difference, but copying appears to be working on ESPN articles again.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:45 am | Blogs | Permalink | 5 Comments
January 26, 2004
New Readers
The political blog kausfiles has been sending a lot of readers this way over the weekend. Welcome! I hope you come back for more baseball news as the season heats up. This is a great place to get an understanding of all those sports analogies the pundits like to toss around. [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:45 am | Blogs | Permalink | No Comments
January 26, 2004
Hurt Feelings
Roger Clemens had his feelings hurt at the New York BBWAA dinner:
The Rocket, who ended his “retirement” after 78 days to sign with the Houston Astros, was greeted with a mix of boos and cheers last night as he picked up the award at the New York Baseball Writers Association of America dinner at the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:25 am | Players | Permalink | 6 Comments
January 25, 2004
Staying Put
I think this should put those A-Rod trade rumors to rest for a while.
Posted by David Pinto at 6:39 pm | Trades | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 24, 2004
RSS Feeds
I’m now using a news aggregator called Feed Demon to try to do a better job of reading as many baseball blogs as I can every day. I’ve found the ones with obvious RSS feeds, but sometimes they don’t stick out. So if you have a baseball blog with an RSS feed, please [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 6:48 pm | Blogs | Permalink | 15 Comments
January 24, 2004
One for the Ages
Avkash at the raindrops has an interesting chart on plate appearances by age for teams last year. One thing, I disagree with his assumption that prime time for players is ages 26 to 34. Most of that time, the players are falling off from the top of their games at age 27. [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 6:40 pm | Team Evaluation | Permalink | No Comments
January 24, 2004
Difficult Blogging
ESPN has made blogging more difficult. When you are on the page of an ESPN news story, you can no longer select text for copying. You can try it yourself with this article about Rick Reed signing with the Pirates. This makes it a lot more work to quote and comment on [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 1:50 pm | Blogs | Permalink | 27 Comments
January 24, 2004
Ping Pong Balls
Captain Kangaroo has died. This was a show I watched every week day morning growing up. It’s hard to believe Bob Keeshan was only 76! He seemed so much older than his mid-30’s when I was watching him as a child.
The Captain’s show came from the treasure house. He’d start the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:58 am | All-Time Greats | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 24, 2004
Mets and Yankees
Yankees, Mets and the Rest is a new blog by a pair of fans, one for the Yankees and one for the Mets. I just visited and learned that Homer Bush has come out of retirement! The Homer homer record may not be safe after all!
Update: Someone actually found Baseball Musings today with [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 10:18 am | Blogs | Permalink | No Comments
January 24, 2004
Cooler Heights
The Rockies have signed Shawn “The Wilting Man” Estes to a minor league contract. It shouldn’t be too hot for him there.
Estes’ specialty is the ground ball, which will come in handy at homer-friendly Coors Field if he makes the team. Since the start of the 1997 season, he has induced a major league-best [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:58 am | Free Agents | Permalink | 3 Comments
January 24, 2004
Thoughts on Orosco
The Mad Hibernian at the Baseball Crank has thoughts on the retirement of Jesse Orosco.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:45 am | Old Timers | Permalink | No Comments
January 23, 2004
Nomination
Please go here and send the guy e-mail nominating me for the obvious character.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:58 pm | Other | Permalink | 1 Comment
January 23, 2004
Hope and Crosby
Tim Kurkjian pens a piece on the players facing the most pressure this year. Number 9 on his list is Bobby Crosby, the A’s replacement for Miguel Tejada. Crosby had a great year with the Sacramento Rivercats, putting up a .939 OPS (.395 OBP and .544 slugging). His batting on the team [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 7:01 pm | Rookies | Permalink | No Comments
January 23, 2004
Crap Shoot
This is just perfect.
A few weeks after admitting he bet on baseball, Pete Rose is going to an eastern Connecticut casino to sign his new book and dine with high-rollers.
The career hits leader, who agreed in 1989 to a lifetime ban from baseball following an investigation of his gambling, is to appear at Foxwoods Resort [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:06 am | Baseball Jerks | Permalink | 5 Comments
January 22, 2004
Fish Story
Here’s a speculative story about Ivan Rodriguez possibly going back to the Marlins:
Rodriguez, though, would have to wait until May 1 before signing with the Marlins, unless there is an unprecedented — and highly unconventional — sign-and-trade transaction involving a second team.
I don’t think it will happen before May 1. The union proved with [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 7:41 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | 2 Comments
January 22, 2004
Who Looks Like Andrew Jackson?
David Berstein at the Volokh Conspiracy asks if John Kerry and Andrew Jackson were separated at birth. Actually, baseball fans know that it’s Peter Gammons who looks just like Andrew Jackson (Scroll down). Peter is often presented with $20 bills to autograph.
It’s interesting that people think both look like Jackson. Gammons and [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 7:15 pm | Other | Permalink | 8 Comments
January 22, 2004
Athletics Nation
Just came across this Oakland Athletics blog, Athletics Nation. Stop by and say hi, and check out his Chad Bradford post.
Posted by David Pinto at 6:45 pm | Blogs | Permalink | No Comments
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