The Hot Stove League heats up with the inaugural Field of Dreams Barnstorming Series, where anything's possible and everyone's on a first-name basis. It's the Sparkies, managed by the late Captain Hook, vs the Bucks, managed by the the only legend to be nicknamed for his post-game habit of lingering in the clubhouse buck naked.

The rules are simple: Each team brings eight position players and five starting pitchers. Five games will be played. No substitutions are allowed. Each pitcher must pitch a complete game, regardless of the score or pitch count.

Study the rosters. Then, based upon your intimate knowledge of baseball history, statistical acumen, and deep appreciation of the always important intangibles (glove size, will they show up in shape or sober?), let us know in the poll below how this will play out. Click on the links if you need to, ahem, refresh your memory . . . or just downright cheat.

The Sparkies

• Yogi (C)
• Rocky (1B)
• Pumpsie (2B)
• Heinie (3B)
• Pee Wee (SS)
• Cookie (OF)
• Mookie (OF)
• Ducky (OF)
• Whitey (P)
• Dizzy (P)
• Dazzy (P)
• Daffy (P)
• Lefty* (P)

The Bucks

• Pudge* (C)
• Boog (1B)
• Red (2B)
• Pie (3B)
• Stick (SS)
• Babe** (OF)
• Duke (OF)
• Hack (OF)
• Chief (P)
• Rube (P)
• Rip (P)
• Doc (P)
• Dock (P)

* The earlier one
** The lesser one

Updated: Thanks everyone for signing up. We got a nice full 14 team league. Should be interesting. Will keep everyone updated with goodies throughout the season.

Chris St. John and I have been talking this over for the past few days. Anyone interested? Click here and type in League ID and password listed below:

If you have any questions, leave a comment here or tweet me @cobradave

The Hall of wWAR welcomes Billy Pierce. (image via Wikipedia)

The beautiful thing about the Hall of wWAR is that it is a fluid institution. Just because you're in there one day doesn't mean you'll be in there the next. As the formula is improved, the population of the Hall is adjusted accordingly.

I've made a few tweaks to the formula recently and we had some turnover. But before we honor the new "inductees" (and say goodbye to the old ones), I wanted to talk about the changes I made.

1. WAR/162 and 19th Century Players

John Autin of High Heat Stats emailed me with some questions about WAR/162, the modified version of WAR that projects WAR totals for seasons with shorter schedules. John (rightfully) pointed out that in some cases, players were getting over five times the credit for the WAR the earned (like in 1871 when Ross Barnes earned 2.9 WAR in a 31-game schedule).

After some discussion and experiments, I decided to take John's advice and put a cap on the adjustment. A player's WAR/162 can now be no more than twice his WAR. This affected only seasons that were shorter than 81 games—essentially, 1871–1878).

The following players saw the biggest decrease in their wWAR:

1. Ross Barnes (–25.1 wWAR)
2. Cap Anson (–16.8)
3. Deacon White (–14.9)
4. Ezra Sutton (–9.2)
5. Jim O'Rourke (–8.0)
6. Al Spalding (–5.0)

As a result, Sutton falls below the induction line, so he will need to be replaced. He does, however, now sit close to Hardy Richardson. It was a Richardson/Sutton comparison that John made when he emailed me. That's what sparked this change. Their wWAR difference didn't match up with their relative value.

Continue reading this post »

Just in time for prospect season, we take a look at the idea of "windows" and a team's prime time to win. Inspired by what seems to be a once every three years rebuild for the Oakland Athletics, is there going to be a time where all their premier prospects hit and they'll have the best chance to win? Here we present the pleasures of trying to maximize production during one's service time.

Ninth in the series, we look at the San Diego Padres. Ranked 2nd overall by John Sickels, they have 0 A-rated prospects, but they're stocked in terms of B-rated prospects with 15. In Keith Law's organizational rankings released yesterday, he has them at #1 overall. Here's what KLAW says:

Without Anthony Rizzo, they no longer have a top-25 prospect in their system, but in terms of total future value of players likely to play significant roles in the big leagues, they're ahead of everyone else. Some of these players, especially from the 2011 draft, will develop into stars. But there are so many prospects here with high floors, players who would be top-10 or top-five in other systems but are 11-20 here (such as Robbie Erlin or Edinson Rincon), that they are well-positioned to compete even with modest major league payrolls during the next five to six years. Fans who were upset at the sudden departures of GM Jed Hoyer and assistant GM Jason McLeod for the Cubs should find solace in the fact that the prospects they helped bring into the system (along with many other scouts and execs, including Chris Gwynn, now with Seattle, and Jaron Madison and Randy Smith, still in San Diego) remain in place.

With the Padres top-ranked system, how long is it going to take before it all clicks?

Continue reading this post »

• Tier 1 (4 points): Major League Star -- Number One Starter
• Tier 2 (3 points): Stand Out/Above Average Regular -- Number Two/Exceptional Three Starter
• Tier 3 (2 points): Solid, Average, Every Day Regular -- Number Three/Solid Four Starter
• Tier 4 (1 point): Bench/Below Average Regular -- Borderline Four/Number Five Starter/Relief Pitcher

Seattle Mariners - 32 points

Continue reading this post »

• Tier 1 (4 points): Major League Star -- Number One Starter
• Tier 2 (3 points): Stand Out/Above Average Regular -- Number Two/Exceptional Three Starter
• Tier 3 (2 points): Solid, Average, Every Day Regular -- Number Three/Solid Four Starter
• Tier 4 (1 point): Bench/Below Average Regular -- Borderline Four/Number Five Starter/Relief Pitcher

Oakland A's -- 30 points

Continue reading this post »