Sabersphere 1/3: DH, Giancarlo, and... Freddie Freeman?

Rob Neyer at Baseball Nation talks about the DH rule: To DH or not to DH: That is the question (again?)

Hey, I can follow baseball writers on Twitter as well as the next guy. It's a good thing too! Because otherwise I wouldn't have begun to think that today would be the day to argue about the Designated Hitter! My thanks to The Week's Anna Hiatt for raising an issue that will, I hope, live forever:

Tom Tango at The Book Blog links to his archive of DH posts: DH archive

With interleague every day, it’s just a matter of time until we get interconference games instead (one league, one rule). There will be consistency across the board, and that means how to handle the pitcher-as-batter. We’ve had plenty of good threads on the subject, so for those interested, below is the whole list. If you want to make a comment, find the appropriate thread, and post there.

Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus looks at value that pitchers provide when not pitching: Pebble Hunting: The Non-Pitching Value of Pitchers

I was talking to a friend the other day who pointed out that, had Johnny Cueto not been knocked out in the first game, and had not Mike Leake been the Reds' uninspiring only option to replace him, the Giants probably wouldn’t have won the NLDS or, consequently, the World Series.

Matthew Kory of Over the Monster continues the ongoing debate over the trade value of Giancarlo Stanton: What The Boston Red Sox Might Have To Give Up For Giancarlo Stanton

Way back in late October, we OTM'ers wrote up our off-season prescriptions for the Red Sox. I don't mention this because I won the vote, although I did, I bring it up because my plan hinged on a somewhat outlandish idea: trading for Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton.

Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs talks about Freddie Freeman: Freddie Freeman and Embracing the Teases

People have expected big things from Freddie Freeman. I know this because Freeman is a professional baseball player, and all of those guys — each and every last one of them — was at one point considered a future star. The backup catcher, the disappointing first baseman, the 36-year-old in triple-A — former superstars, somewhere, thought to have the brightest of futures. Sometimes they fulfill their promise and most of the times they do not.

Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times talked about the 25,000th day-versary of an intentional walk with the bases-loaded, as well as other day-versaries: 25,000 days since a bases-loaded intentional walk

25,000 days ago, Cubs slugger Bill Nicholson had the greatest game of his career. It was very nearly a day for the ages—and topping it off, the opposing team paid Nicholson the highest of all compliments.

If you have any work you would like to submit for Sabersphere, please email me at SpencerSchneier22@gmail.com.

Today's BtB Retro is an old post involving VORP (instant classic), written by Sky Kalkman: Introducing JustVORP (12/8/08)

One of the most popular sabermetric statistics ever invented is VORP, Baseball Prospectus' measure of offensive value over replacement player. Not only does it measure offense, it compares each player to his positional peers, because a catcher with an .800 OPS is much more valuable than a first baseman with an .800 OPS.