Baseball links from around the sabersphere...
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Ethier's Adjustment? | Baseball Analytics Blog
In the past, 19% of balls he put in play on outside pitches resulted in line drives. This season, 35% of those pitches turn into line drives.
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Johnny Damon and the Hall of Fame | Fangraphs
Dawson not only had the better cumulative WAR, but his peak was far superior. It isn’t just Dawson’s clear defensive superiority, either. Despite his OBP issues, once adjusted for the era he played in, Dawon’s 118 wRC+ is better than Damon’s career 109 wRC+. This really isn’t a contest.
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A Soria Subject | Baseball Prospectus
Mike Fast breaks down Joakim Soria. -
Which MLB Teams Are the Best at Spending Money? | Wahoo Blues
A look at the correlation between opening day payrolls and win totals. -
The Same Ol' Story for B.J. Upton | DRaysBay
He's swinging at roughly the same amount of pitches inside and outside the zone, and although his contact numbers are up slightly, he's still a very strikeout-prone batter.
More links after the jump...
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Comparing the Two Alex Gonzalezi | Minor League Ball
Their WARs are 13.7 and 13.6. Their list of comparable players feature many of the same names. Their strengths and weaknesses were virtually identical. One has a career OPS of .694; the other has a career OPS of .696. Their OPS+ marks are 79 and 81.
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Post ’49 Batting Leaders Highest Game WPA Where PA = 0 | Baseball Reference Blog
Some memorable pinch-running. -
Fire When Ready (Which is Always) | Ghostrunner on First
Hitters rake on the first pitch and Yunel is no different. His OPS rises high above 1.000 on first pitches this year and he has 9 first pitch home runs in his career.
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Mike Adams: Better Than Your Team's Closer | Baseball Nation
Since he gave up a three-run home run to Bengie Molina in 2008, he’s been one of the best pitchers of the game, with a 1.35 ERA over 133 innings. Over his last three seasons, he’s posted ERAs of 0.73 and 1.76, with a 0.75 ERA so far this season. Now, it’s worth noting that ERA is an imperfect metric, and he does play in Petco National Park, but those are still numbers to gawk at.
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Josh Johnson and home / road splits | Marlin Maniac
If Sun Life Stadium indeed adding approximately 11 percent more strikeouts on average and that the average pitcher at home throws about 1.1 percent more strikeouts (assuming the road numbers are in overall neutral parks), then we would expect Johnson’s home strikeout rate to be closer to 21.6 percent.