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This baseball season has turned out to be another great one as we still have four divisions that are turning out to be three team races, one could possibly become a four team race, and plenty of other story lines to follow such as the debut of Kevin Gausman and the surprise teams of the season so far.
Previously on Beyond the Box Score
WAR: Pros, Cons, and Alternatives - By Matt Hunter - Beyond the Box Score
There have been quite a few thoughts, concerns, and questions bandied about regarding WAR lately -- mostly coming from one Jon Heyman. But, Matt Hunter does a nice job of discussing the merits of WAR and even provides us with an alternative. Hop on the bandwagon folks!Is the MLB Draft Beneficial or Does it Deserve to Go? - By Ben Horrow - Beyond the Box Score
How fair is the draft? On the one hand it forces amateur players to play in an organization that they may not particularly want to -- unless they choose to not sign and risk their future. On the other hand it helps prevent the larger market organizations from offering ungodly sums of money to the amateur talent pool, which in turn would really hurt the small market organizations that can't compete with money alone.Which Catchers Intimidate Runners the Most? - By Chris St. John - Beyond the Box Score
Catchers have a tendency to be these big and scary guys most times. Chris takes a look at the catchers who, perhaps, intimidate runners the most with their gargantuan arms (ability to throw out runners), and how much of an effect things like that actually have.Taking a look at Kevin Gausman's first start - By Alex Kienholz - Beyond the Box Score
Kevin Gausman made his Major League debut last week and Alex gives us a great run down of how that went for him and the Baltimore Orioles.
Submit Your Questions to the Beyond the Box Score Podcast!
The Beyond the Box Score podcast is now accepting questions to be answered on the air by Blake Murphy and Bryan Grosnick.
Around the Sabersphere
Overthinking It: This Week in Catcher Framing, 5/25 | By Ben Lindbergh | Baseball Prospectus
Ben takes us through the best and worst frame jobs of the past week as he continues his regular pieces on catcher framing.Miguel Cabrera’s Ridiculous Plate Coverage | By Drew Sheppard | FanGraphs Baseball
Drew gives us the, phenomenal, run down of Miguel Cabrera's ability to cover the entire plate with his bat. I think I'm more in awe of the GIF that's been provided to us here.
Around SB Nation
The Rotation: The worst baseball conversations - SBNation.com
I thought this was a really good take on some of the worst conversations, or topics given attention to, in baseball right now. I really enjoyed reading the thoughts of various SBNation MLB writers on the various topics.Revisiting Jeff Nelson's blown call at first base - By Rob Neyer - Baseball Nation
Wellllll, well it's the Ump Show Yes it's a big bad show tonight Yeah, it's the Ump Show Come on crank it up and turn on all the lights y'all2013 MLB Mock Draft, Version 2.0 - By Matt Garrioch - Minor League Ball
As we get closer to the June draft we are going to start seeing more and more of these mock draft around the interweb. As much as I'd love to see the Baltimore Orioles select a position player, because they don't have too many good position player prospects in their system, the first round should be about drafting best available.The WAR Crutch, or 'Why it's OK to like sabermetrics, yet dislike WAR' - By Vreeland2 - Bless You Boys
This is one of the more finely written fan posts written on the SBNation site that I've seen in quite some time. This person states that it's A-OK to like sabermetrics but dislike WAR and I whole-heartedly agree.
Outside the Sabersphere
Baseball Savant: Advanced Baseball Statistics
This is a site I found within the last week that I think is incredibly useful when it comes to research regarding PITCHF/X data, match-ups, and more. After speaking, at length, with Daren Willman -- the creator of this site -- it's obvious that he intends to make this as useful as he possibly can for all of us. I definitely recommend checking it out and giving Daren a follow on Twitter at @darenw.
