The idea of “tacit communication” and its effect on the evaluation of Minor Leaguers As a follow up to the story of Hal Newhouser, there are very few scouts with the courage of their convictions. Too bad the Astros didn’t realize it. Why is it though that most scouts tend to converge on a player? […]

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Jeremy’s analysis of the biggest busts this year, and he doesn’t mean Pamela Anderson.Question – what is slower than a Jamie Moyer fastball?Answer – my blog updates.
So sorry, but needless to say that cleaning diapers and earning a living take much time away from ranting and raving about fake baseball. It takes lots of time […]

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Looking at an alleged “efficiency” statistic and why the advice is useless.Regular readers know that one of my pet peeves is when self-proclaimed experts give bad advice. To be clear, I do not consider myself or our other contributors to be “experts” as I defined them here. We all strive to become experts, but there […]

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The first in a series analyzing my high stakes trades this year.Robert Greene, in his book The 33 Strategies of War, calls the piecemeal strategy the Fait Accompli Strategy. In support of this strategy he discusses the history of Charles DeGaulle’s rise to power as the leader of Free France during World War II. In […]

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A relatively unknown relief pitcher for the Padres is lighting the Majors on fire. But the answer to the question above is: “perhaps the luckiest pitcher in the Majors.”
Perusing the lists of the most extreme performances to date I came across a certain Padres relief pitcher whom I knew very little about; Kevin Cameron. Right […]

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This is a link to my latest Hardball Times post. Click here.

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Matt looks at Kemp’s recent power surge and gives a short and long term forecast.
Matthew Ryan Kemp. He’s only 22, and he’s raking right now:AB HR R RBI SB SO BB AVG OBP SLG115 6 23 23 3 27 9 .374 .416 .591
As a 21 year old Rookie in 2006, he slugged .448 in […]

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Looking at some really crazy baseball records On the heels of Barry Bonds inching closer to the all time HR record, I came across an old issue of The Baseball Research Journal #31 published by SABR. There was a very interesting and entertaining article on baseball records entitled baseball’s Most Unbreakable Records by Joe Dittmar. […]

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Demoted to the minors?? Not a pleasing development for his career. Has he really been that bad?Though I traded him for Stephen Drew in the offseason in my high stakes league, I still loved Ervin and tried to get him in two of my other leagues. Sometimes what you think is bad luck turns out […]

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What would have happened if the Astros drafted Derek Jeter as Hal Newhouser insisted?? I try to quantify what would, and could, have occurred. Those readers who are even vaguely interested in baseball history undoubtedly know Hal Newhouser. He was a back-to-back MVP as a pitcher during wartime in the 1940s, and is a Hall […]

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Today we passed the 5,000 visit mark. To be honest, this surprised me; I thought we wouldn’t get 5,000 visitors in a year! So, I just wanted to take the chance to say thanks to all of the readers. I hope we can continue to write articles that are worth reading, and i […]

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More on why the big trade is usually poor strategy and a piecemeal approach should usually be preferred.
In The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli outlined two important principles on adaptability and flexibility. The first is that through foresight and forethought, especially in planning and preparation, the effect of chance can be minimized and the effect of skill […]

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Here is a link to my latest post. The text is below. In the America’s Cup in 1983, Dennis Conner, captain of the U.S. entry Liberty, committed a fatal blunder, based on his failure to use a “follow-the-leader” strategy, leading to the first loss by America in that event. No, his blunder wasn’t supporting […]

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Proof that players in the 60’s were taking performance enhancing drugs. So take that Tim McCarver!!
I am not really sure how this missed the attention of The Mitchell Commission, hordes of baseball analysts and announcers, writers and those interested in the game, but my in depth perusal of statistics from the 1960’s indicates clear and […]

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We are getting a lot more hits from various search engines. Most of these readers may not be aware that I am also writing a weekly column for The Hardball Times Fantasy Focus Blog, especially since I haven’t mentioned it in a while! The columns are more in depth and detailed versions of […]

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Matt looks at “his guy”, Oliver Perez.
Born in August 1981 in Mexico, Oliver Perez debuted for the San Diego Padres (who signed him in 1999 as an amateur free agent) in 2002. Making 15 starts his rookie year, he struck out 94 batters in 90 innings and walked 48, with a 3.50 era and a […]

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Matt finishes the roundup of first half fantasy all stars with relievers.
First, about the All Star game itself. I fell asleep. I was still exhausted after a loooong weekend and another loss at softball (we’re 2-7, but “should” be 4-5 with 2 last inning collapses). I heard about the big controversy the next day - […]

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Analysis of a trade proposal in a 12 team mixed league. In my 12 team mixed league I made a trade offer that I thought was fair: Granderson for Haren. The opponent responded by saying “sure, and I will give you Hawpe for Utley.” Was I that far off??
Haren has been great so far; but […]

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Part two of Jeremy’s Worst Trades List 11 – also March 1997- Garret Anderson, Brian Simmons and 1998 4th rd pick (Traded and turned into Shane Mack) for Shane Mack and Bill Taylor – Memorable for the Joel Youngblood-style PTBNL situation. Mack for Mack. And not even Alison Mack. Enjoy that one, Smallville fans.
12 – […]

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From Pat–Jeremy and I have been in a league together for about fifteen years. Fortunately, Jeremy keeps a list of every trade made. This is his look of the worst ones ever.
For all of my legions of fans out there in the Blogosphere, I apologize for my absence since my much-talked about first […]

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Looking at the large trade and why it is usually bad strategy.In a prior post I discussed The Big Picture. One thing that I frequently hear on podcasts and see in message boards is the “large trade” where one owner is trading five guys for another five or sometimes more. In higher stakes leagues where […]

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A short note on the genesis of this blog.
Now that we have settled in here at the blog, I wanted to just discuss what our mission here is and why I started the blog. The genesis of the blog was the proliferation of bad advice out there, and the dearth of any serious advice to […]

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Its all good, fellow owners of James Shields, so don’t worry.With three straight losses, and a ballooning ERA, Shields’ owners may be starting to get nervous. Lenny Melnick on his podcast with Paul Greco, addressed Shields as a sell high candidate. I agree with this, if you can get full value, but if you are […]

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The Generals’ continuing look at All-Stars now turns to the OF.
American League
1. Ichiro Suzuki–He is one of my favorite players, and I have an autographed Ichiro ball even though I am a Yankee fan. One of my great memories is of sitting in the first row down the RF line at The Stadium, when […]

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Our continuing look at our All-Stars.Continuing to hold my nose:
It is a traditional truism that you would rather have an NL starter than an AL one. But not this year. Aside from the number one guy in the NL none of the others would crack the Al top five. As C.C. Sabathia said: “DH Schmee […]

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A look at the top 8 AL pitchers for our All-Star team.It is a rule that all fantasy news sites and blogs must list their all-stars at this time of year. Though I really don’t care for the process, as it is so subjective, it is a rule and our blogosphere credentials will be revoked […]

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The Generals continue with their fantasy All Star awards for the first half.First Base
NL - The Fresh Prince of Miller Field
AB R HR RBI OPS299 57 27 66 .982
Right now, he’s the second best (to ARod) fantasy hitter in […]

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