Fangraphs has their ZIPS Projections while Baseball Prospectus has their PECOTA Projections. These are systems that take a player’s past performance and try to project the most likely outcome for the following season. It allegedly looks at all of the numbers, and all the numbers that make up the numbers, and the numbers underlying those numbers, to see which players are more likely to repeat their success and which ones…
I am not confident that we will see the 2022 Baseball Season start on time… or that there will even be a season. I am extremely confident that the players and owners are fully capable of “killing off this grand game of baseball.” When players like Max Scherzer are paid $43 Million a year and players like Julio Urias are paid $3.6 Million, baseball has a huge problem and it…
As we all know, just before the Rule 5 Deadline, the Dodgers cut ties with Billy McKinney and Zach Reks while adding Jacob Amaya, James Outman, Eddys Leonard, Jorbit Vivas, and Michael Grove to the 40-man roster. On a team with plenty of LH bats, Zach Reks and Billy McKinney were expendable. You do not get to this level if you are a chump, so it is possible that one…
On November 15, I started to write about the impatience some fans have with Gavin Lux, and it imploded into an overall generalization about many fans seeing MiLB stats and believing that those numbers will automatically translate to MLB numbers. And then when they do not, then many of those some fans want that player to suddenly drop to the bottom of the heap or at the very least banned…
Earlier in the week I had a dialogue with MT and Bluto regarding the lack of confidence I have in RVS as a competent MLB Team Batting Coach. I have no doubts that his methodology can and does work for some, but each batter is different and needs a different approach. At least that is the way it used to be. I concede that the LAD method of hitting is…
We don’t know what Andrew Friedman and Company will do this offseason and we don’t know what will happen with the CBA between owners and players, but I know what I would do and I predict what the Dodgers will do. In some ways, I endorse many of the moves that AF generally makes. While I did not like the signing of Trevor Bauer, I get why Freidman did it…
Well, let the bidding begin. A number of publications have put out their top 50 Free Agents list. MLBTR is one of my favorites to follow. They are no better with their prognostications than are any other publication. They run contests every year, and many of the readers have turned out better with picks than the writers. One year I got 12 out of 50. Not bad, but there were…
The 800-pound gorilla in the room is the CBA between MLB and the MLBPA. I think it’s way too early to predict what will happen, but you can rest assured that the Luxury Tax Threshold and salaries will go up. Everything is preliminary at this point. Ultimately, it seems like the DH will be implemented in the NL and there will be some additional time limits put on the game,…
There has been a lot of speculation about FA the Dodgers may want to re-sign or sign. We have no idea what the CBT will be, or what the penalties will be if a team exceeds that limit with the upcoming CBA. Currently the taxes can reach a maximum 50% for all salaries above the CBT, and can reach a total of 95% for all salaries greater than $40MM in…
Now that the WS is over, the MLB calendar is set (maybe). Maybe because we have no idea what will become of the CBA after the current CBA expires on 12-1. Tentatively, the MLB dates: November 3 – 160 players were declared Free Agents. The Dodgers have 11. November 3 – 7 – Free agents can only negotiate with their most recent team. November 7 – Options must be exercised….