Random Baseball Links I Liked Today

Let’s face it – it’s Saturday, and if you’re like me, it’s been a very busy week.  It’s pretty nice out in the Kansas City area, but it’s just as relaxing to do some reading if you’re not the outdoors type.

While I’d love it if you sat down and hung out reading Kings of Kauffman all day, there are a few things I found that I felt I should pass on.

Joe Soriano at Call To The Pen put together a list of the best pitching game scores of 2011. I’m not being facetious when I say you’ll never guess who came in at #1.

You can’t watch a sporting event right now without seeing a trailer for Moneyball and in light of that attention, Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci followed Theo Epstein around. The gist of the article is how multiple factors go into player assessment and the Red Sox combination of statistical analysis and, well, the payroll to allow them to maneuver to generate success.

Mike Fast at Baseball Prospectus put in a lot of work analyzing pitch data to determine how catchers frame pitches and if it can be considered a skill, as well as how much value it adds if it is.

The animated gifs really sell the ideas for me. Very good work on his part, and there’s a mention of Jason Kendall, too.

Sources are telling the New York Post that the addition of a wild card winner in each league, which has been pitched a few times this year, may actually make its way into the next collective bargaining agreement.

I’m still torn on this issue. While I was only 13 years old the last time baseball changed the playoff structure, I preferred the system of two division winners facing off in the league championship series. Adding the wild card wasn’t my favorite idea.

On the other hand, the drama involved would be good for baseball. Think of the past few times that there’s been a one game playoff to settle a division. Minnesota and Detroit went back and forth for 12 innings in 2009 before the Twins ended up winning the division and it’s one of the more memorable regular season games in recent history. I can recall talking about the matchup between Seattle and the Angels that day during school. Since the game had a sheduled first pitch at about 3:30 p.m. central time, I rushed home when class was dismissed to catch Randy Johnson beating Mark Langston. I’m pretty sure I could dig up the scorecard I filled out while watching if I looked hard enough.

Also it’s one more spot for the Royals to get into a playoff of any kind.

Finally, as you have likely already heard, it turns out that the Royals didn’t trade Leo Nunez to the Marlins for Mike Jacobs, after all.

Weird.