Thursday's Saber-Links

Here's Thursday's edition of Saber-Links:

On Saturday Dan Brooks and Henry Pavlidis introduced Baseball Prospectus | Baseball Prospectus News: Introducing the BP Hitter Profiles, yesterday they introduced the version of those profiles for pitchers: Baseball Prospectus | Baseball Prospectus News: Introducing the BP Pitcher Profiles

We think these profiles will revolutionize the way people look at PITCHf/x data. Location is perhaps the most important attribute of a pitch, and the Pitcher Profiles allow you to examine the results of pitches across multiple spatial locations. PITCHf/x data has been available for five years, but we haven’t been able to examine it this way, at least publicly. (There are scouting services that provide this kind of data.) It was the first thing that a scout I talked to asked for.

You can now see how right-handed hitters slug against Clayton Kershaw's curveball.

I've always been fascinated by Zack Greinke, you probably have noticed because of the multiple posts I've written about him here. I also happen to be an Angels fan; which hopefully you haven't noticed. So, when Carson Cistulli wrote on FG yesterday about the possibility of a Greinke trade to the Angels, I got a little excited. A Hypothetical Angels Trade for Zack Greinke | FanGraphs Baseball.

In an inspired piece of writing over at Crashburn Alley, Bill Baer looked at the statistical and overall legacy of Cole Hamels with the Phillies: Crashburn Alley " Blog Archive " The Cole Hamels Legacy

Maybe Hamels does end up signing that contract extension. After all, there have been serious discussions surrounding it. Even if they don’t sign him to an extension now and do end up trading him, the Phillies can still sign him as a free agent in the off-season. So this eulogy-of-sorts may very well be premature. Still, it is worth reflecting on Hamels’ time in Philadelphia, being left in awe of just how much he accomplished in such a short time and at such a young age. The Phillies, and we as fans, were very lucky to have had him, and should wish him nothing but the best wherever he ends up in the future. Thank you, Cole Hamels. Thanks for everything.

In an interesting piece at FG, Bradley Woodrum discusses the possibility that Dice-K has been better this year for Boston, and even goes as far as to say that it might be a smart idea to tender him a contract after this season: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Improving Via Injury? | FanGraphs Baseball

So, in short, these first few, good starts are peculiar. In 2012, he has already had more low-walk starts than in 2008, 2009 or 2011 — and all with fewer games pitched.

The final link is one of the more ridiculous things I've read about baseball on the internet this year. Nationals pitching coach Steve McCatty believes fewer K's equals more W's, and so far so good - Yahoo! Sports

"If you try to strike out every hitter you're going to burn up pitches," says McCatty, the Nationals pitching coach. "Look, just do the math. If you're taking 15-20 pitches to get through every inning that will multiply fast." He would rather his pitchers let the hitters hit the ball.

This is an organizational emphasis of the Nationals. Instead of two strikeouts in an inning, how about just one along with a pop-up to second base? It's just easier, he says.

With the starting rotation that Washington has (hello, Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez), the stupidity of the link's title says it all.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that I can't wait for baseball to be back tomorrow.