High & Inside: 5/10/11

Baseball links from around the sabersphere...

• What to do with Juan Rivera? | Bluebird Banter
  

  I know it would be nice if Juan could build up some trade value, but I don't see it happening, so let's see what we have on the farm. Maybe Thames wouldn't hit any better, but at least there would be the chance that he'd improve and become part of our future. Rivera is 32, and he looks an old 32 at that moment. Some players get old early.

• Prospect Trade Value and The New York Yankees | Pinstripe Alley
  A look at what it would take for the Yankees to acquire Josh Johnson.
• Time to Give Up on Vazquez? | Fangraphs
  

  Despite the loss of velocity, a move back to the National League seemed like a wise choice for Vazquez. But whatever plagued him in the Bronx has followed him to South Beach. Coming into his Monday night start against the Philadelphia Phillies, Vazquez had a 5.61 FIP with an xFIP above 6.0. He had more walks (21) than strikeouts (16), and allowed 35 hits in 31 innings despite a .290 BABIP.

• Tuesday Trade Tree: The Mystery of Mitch Talbot | The Platoon Advantage
  

  Talbot is the last in a long line of Indians acquisitions that are left over from the heydays of Alomar, Vizquel, Thome, Nagy and Ramirez.

• Updated benchmarks for pitch types | The Hardball Times
  Title says it all.
• When Will Jason Marquis Go Away? | Roto Hardball
  

  The FIP and xFIP, annoyingly enough, both suggest that his performance so far has been even better than his already-good ERA would tell us. He's striking out more batters than he has since 2004, and is boasting a career best in walk, home run and groundball rates. His BABIP against is .326, which means hitters have actually been getting a little lucky against him, and his 72% strand rate is right where it should be. Whither the regression?

• Once again, Yanks are tops at working the count | River Avenue Blues
  

  Of the Yankees’ 1,210 team plate appearances this year, 503 of them have ended when the batter was ahead in the count, or 41.6%. The other 13 AL teams average 35.8%.

More links after the jump...

• Hard Throwers | Baseball Musings
  Manny Acta suggests that hard-throwing pitchers are responsible for the offensive decline.
• Most Squeezed Pitchers | Baseball Analytics Blog
  A look at the pitchers that have had tough breaks on close pitches thus far.
• Brad Bergesen, Flyball Pitcher | Camden Crazies
  

  Bergy has started to eschew his formally signature pitch a little* more, instead utilizing the four-seam fastball - and that's caused his groundball rate to tumble from 50% to just 37%. He's made up for it though, by striking out more batters (K/9 up to 5.9, which is still below average but a full point higher than it had been) and improving his control (if only slightly - 2.2 BB/9).

• Early 2011 Trends: Cards' Starting Pitchers | Gas House Graphs
  

  etween McClellan’s competence, Lohse’s resurgence, and Garcia’s emergence, you can see how the Cardinals have somehow managed to withstand Wainwright’s season ending injury.

• James Loney’s Total Eclipse of the Bat | Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness
  

  Loney’s not listed there because his streak is over two seasons, but you’ll see that he’d slot nicely into the second-lowest OPS of the last 64 years by a first baseman. If I’d waited until baseball-reference had refreshed with tonight’s results, Loney would be first on this because the threshold would have been higher than 405 PA, and Kranepool wouldn’t appear.