Sorry for the lack of posts the past two days, I've been trying to get over the flu, here's a video to hold you over.

I took part in a round table with three people far more qualified to do so than myself: Eric Seidman (who made an appearance on BP today), Pizza Cutter, and USS Mariner's Dave Cameron. Amongst the topics: the baseball media.

Link.

We've already looked at the impact different factors have on whether a ball is called a strike or not. MGL suggested that I try and control for the fact that certain pitchers are much more likely to hover around the edge of the plate rather than down the middle or "just a bit outside"</Bob Uecker>.

Generally, any time MGL makes a suggestion, it's a good idea to at least consider it. So I went ahead and re-ran all the same splits except the one based on how a pitcher started a game, using the same approach as in my previous articles. The change is that I only looked at pitches within two ball widths (just under 6 inches) of the edge of the strike zone (either inside or outside the zone).

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Travis Hafner will probably never again be the incredible hitter he was from 2004-2006. However, he is still far better than his current numbers would indicate. Hafner is hitting .215/.312/.347 so far this year. But when we adjust for the bad luck he has endured, his line should look more like .281/.369/.413 – at worst.

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Thus is the battle evidently raging on the Tampa Bay draft board. Should the Rays go with a bigger need position or with the sexier pick with higher upside? Today we'll begin our draft coverage (including attempting to uncover some draft sleepers rather than spending too much time on the same old names) by attempting to answer the question: who's number one?

via www.sptimes.com

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It's possible that there could be a new closer in St. Louis come next week following Jason Isringhausen blowing another save last night, and as he put it "[P]itched like a second grader." With a meeting today with members of the Cardinal brain trust it seems possible that minor leaguer Chris Perez will be called up and become the Cardinals closer for the time being.

Perez is a former closer at the University of Miami and was drafted in the first round of the 2006 draft by the Cards as one of the new line "ready made closers" in the breed of Ryan Wagner, Craig Hansen, and more successfully Chad Cordero and Huston Street. Per Kiley McDaniel of SaberScouting Perez features a great slider and a good fastball, and has good enough command to get by -- although it could use some work.

It's hard to assume that Tony LaRussa won't lean towards a veteran -- making Ryan Franklin likely to take the immediate role. In his 30th season as manager LaRussa's average closer age is 33 with the youngest being 25 year old Salome Barojas way back in his White Sox days; Perez is currently 22, and will turn 23 in July, but if the Cardinals are serious about supplanting Isringhausen, a free agent at the end of this season, Perez is undoubtedly the man.

via www.valleyleaguebaseball.com

Even though the Brewers already have a surplus of offensive talent with questionable defensive merits, they could not pass up the opportunity to draft another player with a similar pedigree in the first round of last year’s draft. With the 7^th overall pick, the Brewers selected University of Florida “outfielder” Matt LaPorta. In his first professional season, LaPorta is already proving he can rake.

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Last season, Chris Young personified the difference between fantasy and real baseball. Young managed 32 homers and 27 steals, while at the same time posting a .237/.295/.467 line. These totals were great for fantasy owners, but the Diamondbacks could not have been happy with a sub-.300 OBP from their center fielder. Despite this, Young’s future remains as bright as any player’s in baseball (save, perhaps, teammate Justin Upton).

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Floyd almost had a no-hitter again last night and brought his season stats 39.7 IP, 20 H, 18 BB, and 19 Ks, not exactly a great K:BB rate, but his hit rate has allowed Floyd to find success. Floyd's K rate is down, BB rate up, LD and GB% down, and his FB% up, but his FB/HR% is of course down. Floyd has also been greeted with an especially lucky BABIP thus far that will almost surely regress (or progress in this case) to the mean.

Even with that information something I found interesting looking at his pitchf/x charts is that he's seemingly added a few new pitches. 

2007:

via baseball.bornbybits.com

And now 2008, note how he throws pitches that have more break now:

via baseball.bornbybits.com

That's only horizontal movement, make sure to check out his 2008 page and the 2007 card for comparison. Gavin has gotten away with the awful K:BB rate because he's seemingly fooling hitters with added pitches, but I can't see this lasting for long, so if you have him, sell high, otherwise don't buy, despite the no-hitter tries.