Matthew Kory of Baseball Prospectus discusses Terry Francona's hiring with the Boston Red Sox: Baseball Prospectus | Out of Left Field: It's a Trap!
None of this is to discount the importance of good coaching and good managing, but to note the team-dependent nature of managerial success. When teams win, managers are smart. When they lose, managers are dumb and if the losing keeps up they get dumber and dumber, and eventually reach a level I like to call unemployably dumb. That’s what happened to Acta, by all accounts a smart and good baseball man. That’s also what happened to Francona in Philadelphia. He was saddled with a young team with mediocre hitting and bad run prevention. Because of that, and not because of him, they never won anything nor came particularly close to doing so. Fairly or not, Francona paid the price for that lack of production on the field.
Tom Tango of the Book Blog explains how FIP can be converted into a per plate appearance or wOBA form: THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball
So, what is Pedro’s FIP-based wOBA in his best year? In 1999, he faced 834 batters (excluding IBB). He struck out 313 batters, walked+hitbattered 45, with only 9 HR. The weights are -0.3 for the K, +0.4 for the BB, and +1.7 for the HR. That gives us -60.6 divided by 834, or -.073. We add in the standard +.300, and Pedro’s FIP-based wOBA is therefore 0.227
Wendy Thurm of FanGraphs explains where postseason ticket revenue actually goes: Who Gets What From Postseason Ticket Revenue | FanGraphs Baseball
The Orioles get a postseason revenue boost by playing the Yankees in the Division Series. So do the Reds, who are matched up against the Giants. The A’s and Tigers won’t clear nearly as much, as they both have relatively low ticket prices.
Matt Klassen of the Getting Blanked blog reveals his 2012 Catcher Defense Ratings, which used to find their home on this very site: Fogging the Measure: Catcher Defense Ratings, Final 2012 Edition | Getting Blanked | Blogs | theScore.com
Finally, we have 2012′s worst defensive catcher: Alleged National League Rookie of the Year Candidate Wilin Rosario, at about 11 runs below average. Superficially, Rosario’s numbers are nice: yeah, he doesn’t walk or get on-base much, but he has nice power and a decent overall line (.270/.312/.530, .351 wOBA), but it isn’t quite as good as it looks because of his home park (108 wRC+).