Here's Thursday's edition of Saber-Links:
Dan Lependorf of the Hardball Times provides us with a great visualization of what went down at this year's trading deadline: Visualization: The 2012 trade deadline--THT
In the two weeks before this year's trade deadline on July 31st, 52 major league players were traded to a different team, totaling more than 25 WAR among them. Which teams got the biggest piece of the pie? Who sold off the most?
Chris Cwik of FanGraphs posits a theory for the reason behind Justin Upton's unsuccessful 2012 campaign: Justin Upton Needs To Hit More Fly Balls | FanGraphs Baseball
Based on Pizza Cutter’s research, we know that it takes just 250 plate appearances for fly ball rate to stabilize. Upton has already reached 406 plate appearances, and there hasn’t been any significant change in his batted ball data that indicates he’s getting better after a slow start.
Our own Adam Darowski, has rolled out a hall-of-fame of sorts, at High Heat Stats: High Heat Stats--Hall of Clearly Above Replacement But Not Quite Average
Consider this an homage to the Hall of Nearly Great. Just like the book, we’re going to cover 43 players. Just like the book, we’ve invited some guest authors. Unlike the book, we don’t have an author for each player. Also, we’re capping the player bios at 100 words. This is a blog post, not a book! Today, we give you The Hall of Clearly Above Replacement, But Not Quite Average.
Patrick Hayes, of Full Spectrum Baseball, tries his hand at interpreting A.J. Burnett's comeback season: Sabermetric Spotlight: A.J. Burnett | Full Spectrum Baseball
Jumping down to the next portion we realize that his GB% has jumped way, way up, to 55.5%, easily a career high. Naturally, with more balls being hit on the ground, a drop of flyballs is incurred. Now does playing in PNC Park over Yankee Stadium have something to do with the decrease of HR/FB? I’m sure a case can be made, but nonetheless, A.J. has been stellar in 2012.
Bradley Ankrom of Baseball Prospectus explains why it may have been a good idea for the Mariners to have traded Felix Hernandez at this year's deadline:Baseball Prospectus | The Process: The Mariners' Missed Opportunity
The subject of dealing their homegrown superstar is a sensitive one for Mariners fans, but an objective look at the facts suggests that the future of the organization would be much brighter if general manager Jack Zduriencik had moved Hernandez to a contender for a package of young impact bats that are close to big-league ready prior to this summer's non-waiver trade deadline
Saber-Links will return tomorrow.