Last week, I took a look at the PITCHf/x results for eight of the most prominent rookie starting pitchers in 2012. This week, I’m going to delve into the PITCHf/x of eight rookie relievers. All of these guys have thrown at least twelve innings this season, and four of them also got some late-season work in in 2011, so while the sample size is still quite small, it’s large enough that we can start to get a feel for what the members of this octet bring to the mound.

If you’re curious about other rookie pitchers, feel free to ask me about them in the comments.

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Another off-season, another set of scoops standings ranking baseball's best reporters based on their success reporting major league deals. In using MLB Trade Rumors' fantastic resources to figure out who scooped what, and who scooped who, I've yet again put together a stat board but, instead of it being for players, it's for those who work around the players. Baseball's team and national reporters put in countless time day after day attempting to break news and report deals to their readers but, aside for simply being credited for breaking a particular story, they rarely get ongoing recognition for their work. Although this formula and thought process is far from perfect, it does just that.

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...he should go down as the third-best switch-hitter of all time. And if that is the case, as I'd argue, it's all the more impressive given that he's 36th among switch-hitters in plate appearances. Berkman was an incredible force at the plate for ten consecutive years though, as he posted a 148 OPS+ across the decade from 2000 to 2009. Over that period, he averaged over 30 home runs and nearly 100 walks per season, all while hitting exactly .300.

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The A's have been carried offensively in the early part of the season by contributions from various new acquisitions; first Yoenis Cespedes (before the DL stint), some sparks from Jonny Gomes, Brandon Inge (also before his DL stint), and now, Josh Reddick. In the month of May, he's been producing: 0.439 wOBA and 6 HR. Currently, if you look at the Fangraphs May leaderboards, he's comparable to Andre Ethier (0.434 wOBA) and Matt Holliday (0.451 wOBA). Not too shabby of company to be in.

As the A's go into their 40th game, and close to the quarter mark of the season. how does Josh Reddick compare to other OF options the A's could have possibly gone after this offseason?

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Kerry Wood is set to announce his retirement, either today or after his next appearance. We all knew it was coming -- it had to with his recent struggles:

In the nine games he did manage to appear in this year, he was ineffective, walking 11 hitters in 8⅓ innings with an 8.64 ERA. Continuing to pitch with the injuries and ineffectiveness was apparently too much for Wood, so he is expected to announce his retirement from baseball Friday, about a month short of his 35th birthday.

Wood was the No. 1 pick of the Cubs in 1995, and was wildly popular among Cubs fans for the 20-K game, the 2003 playoff push, and his stand-up-guy attitude. It's sad that his performance never measured up to his popularity. He retires with an 86-75 won-lost record and 63 saves over 445 games (178 starts).

But sometimes it helps to see why a player like Kerry Wood decides to hang 'em up, does it not? Enjoy:

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about whether or not Zack Greinke's focus on FIP was actually hurting him as a pitcher, especially in terms of BABIP. The results were fairly inconclusive, mainly because of small sample size (only about three seasons) and the lackluster defense that has been played behind Greinke in his career.

Greinke's high BABIP's despite his ability to combine a lot of strikeouts, while allowing few walks and home runs, was enough to inspire Tom Tango, the inventor of FIP, to write a response to my original post, on insidethebook.com. Tango brought up two interesting points, in his response. His first point was about "last generation's version of Greinke" (in a sense, of course), Curt Schilling.

Schilling sports an incredible career K/BB rate of 4.38 and gave up less home runs than the average pitcher over his career (0.96 HR/9, despite playing in some home run-friendly parks), yet his career BABIP is .293. In the 11 seasons in which Schilling was a qualified starter (162+ IP) he lead the league in K/BB-rate three times (2001-02,2006), finished in the top-5 six times, and finished seventh one other time; thus, he was in the league's top-10 in seven out of the 11 seasons.

Yet, Schilling finished with a BABIP that was among the top-20 highest in baseball four times, three of which came in the seasons that he lead the league in K/BB. This is the interesting aspect of Schilling's career that Tango refers to, " there is a modest relationship between a low-BABIP and a high-K rate. So, Curt really bucks the trend here." Schilling seems to display all of the qualities that I was attempting to claim Greinke had, but are these two pitchers really that similar? I listed their career numbers below:

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