The state of Albert Almora Jr.’s 2019 campaign, if not his whole career, can be summed up in the experience of writing this article. I initially wanted to write about how odd it was that a talented contender like this years Chicago Cubs would continue to trot out a below replacement level player as much […]
Tag: affiliated baseball
A Trip to the Library: The Cooperstown Casebook
My issues with the National Baseball Hall of Fame have been well documented on this site. Those views haven’t changed, but I am a fan of Jay Jaffe’s writing for FanGraphs, and that made his book The Cooperstown Casebook an easy grab while perusing a local Half Price Books a few months back. I knew […]
To Semi-Pro a Professional
Recently an article came across my phone that was talking about a team in the Pecos League abandoning their home field. The reasons made sense and the article hit that element just right. However, at some point, the writer chose to refer to the players on the High Desert Yardbirds as semi-pro. He didn’t say […]
This Week in Baseball: 07-29-2019
Eno Sarris – The Athletic ($): All my life I was taught that pitching inside mattered. As a catcher in various youth leagues, coaches would instill in me the idea of setting up inside and moving batters off the plate. The data shows that purpose pitches do in fact work, if not that at-bat, in […]
A Sham of a Hall
Every year a hubbub is made about who is or isn’t getting inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I get why, and I won’t try and be the contrarian arguing that I don’t care. I most certainly do care about certain players, coaches, and personalities getting their just due. That’s what matters the […]