Pretty good piece.

What is Theo Epstein's real value to the Cubs? As the Cubs and Red Sox continue attempting to figure that out, here's my take...

Where is Matt Garza headed and why is it so important? I think the answer to the first part is the AL East, the answer to part two is in the article...check it out!

I made a WAR Spreadsheet, just download it, it includes a wOBA calculator too if you need one.

On the left side of the spreadsheet, a user fills in the yellow information and the spreadsheet will populate the player's projected salary for a different number of years.

On the right side, a user fills in the yellow values of a contract and the spread sheet will crank out the projected WAR needed over the life of the contract to break even. With this side, there is only 1 aging coefficient, so you may need to adjust the number a little by hand if their are 2 or more coefficients. Also, only look at the Year rows and columns for the time frame selected.

To download the file, goto File -> Download as

Check out my article on Peanuts and Cracker Stats about pitcher deception and how it relates to getting swinging strikes on sliders.

A look at one of the most distinct, enigmatic players in baseball. There are some mind-blowing stats at the end of the piece.

"Jerry Johnson, who leads the league in batting average against left handed pitchers faced at home for the first time in the last month of the season". ~Little Big League

If seasons are arbitrary endpoints then I don't know what to think.

"Nationals super-pitcher Stephen Strasburg is nearly back in the majors after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The question is, what should we expect him to be going forward?"

Jeff Sullivan | Baseball Nation

I have finally gotten around to launching, along with my brother, a new website called baseballheatmaps.com. We are just letting a few people know at once because the processing behind the applications is intense and we want to see how the servers hold up. It contains applications to create hitter and umpire heat maps along with others that look for changes in data using LOESS curves. The application login for everyone will be:

beyondtheboxscore pw: Justin

Feel free to look around and let us know what you think.