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This past week we have seen some great stuff from our writers and today's SaberSphere is all about bringing them together in one place for your reading pleasure.
Previously on Beyond the Box Score
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Lineup Styles, Part One - By Lee Trocinski - Beyond the Box Score
A balanced lineup has long thought to be the best one, but is it true? Whenever the teams we like end up signing a bunch of guys that can hit home runs but also strike out a lot we bemoan the front office for not providing us with better balance offensively. Lee takes a look at the correlation between the various lineup types to see which is more likely to produce more runs. -
Tampa's Triumphant Turnaround, David Price, & Pitching - By Ben Horrow - Beyond the Box Score
For those that were expecting the Tampa Bay Rays rotation to simply fall apart because David Price did probably aren't all that familiar with how they do things around there. Ben takes a look at how the Rays have remained competitive and relevant for as long as they have. -
Kevin Gregg Re-emerges in Chicago - By Andrew Ball - Beyond the Box Score
It's because of this piece that I went out and swooped Kevin Gregg up in my ottoneu league and a few of my friends laughed at me. Well, let's just say that I'll be the one laughing when Captain Chaos helps me in several important categories. Suckers ... -
Finding a home: The search for the next MLB city (Part 1) - By Ken Woolums - Beyond the Box Score
I'm of the belief that a team like the Tampa Bay Rays should be rewarded for how well they run their organization by being able to relocate to an area that is better able to support them. Ken has begun the process of identifying certain cities or areas that could be great potential fits for an MLB team to relocate to. -
BtBS Podcast #58: They Suck - With Blake Murphy and Bryan Grosnick - Beyond the Box Score
There are a few baseball podcasts that are in my regular rotation and this is one of them. Blake and Bryan have always provided some great insight in the on-goings of the baseball world - I mean, how can they not? They write for BtBS. Anyway, be sure to give them a listen and some feedback if you haven't already. These guys are really starting to hit their groove.
Around the Sabersphere
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Gems without whiffs - By James Gentile - The Hardball Times
James does some research on starting pitchers who had gargantuan pitch counts and then dives into some of the greatest "whiffless" games. This is some truly interesting data to look over because the pitch-to-contact pitchers have actually increased over time as James points out. -
The Worst of the Best: The Week’s Wildest Swings | By Jeff Sullivan | FanGraphs Baseball
Jeff brings us another edition of the week's wildest swings and the pitcher on pitcher "duel" between Stephen Strasburg and Edinson Volquez is pretty funny. Volquez doesn't even try and basically gave up before he was technically out.
Around SB Nation
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Blaming sabermetrics for strikeouts - By Rob Neyer - Baseball Nation
Rob responds to a piece written by FanGraphs' Dave Cameron concerning the rising level of strikeouts in the game and the assumption is that it's because of sabermetrics and hitters taking more pitches. The final few points made by Rob are spot on in my opinion but read and decide for yourself. -
Organizational droughts: First base - By Grant Brisbee - Baseball Nation
So Grant asked us when the last time our team developed a star first baseman was and I instantly felt bad because it's been so long for my favorite team. Thanks Grant! This is a fun piece to get into because it does a good job of showing the scarcity of quality first baseman in the game today and may also help explain my unhealthy love for James Loney. -
Rangers Q&A with Buster Olney - By Adam Morris - Lone Star Ball
Lone Star Ball's Adam Morris scores a Q&A session with Buster Olney of ESPN. His comments concerning Ian Kinsler and, recently called up, top prospect Jurickson Profar were pretty interesting.
Outside the Sabersphere
EPIC Motorcycle Fail!
