Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 12/27/18

The Ringer | Zach Kram: You can’t talk about baseball in 2018 without talking about Shohei Ohtani, who, despite his injuries, broke every analytical model we have about modern baseball, proving that players can, and will, play on both sides of the ball.

ESPN Insider | Buster Olney ($): If there’s a team poised to sign Bryce Harper, it’s the Dodgers. They cleared payroll and despite missing on the highest paid figures recently, they are now merely mulling whether to give him that record deal, or coax him with the highest AAV ever for three or four years.

Banished to the Pen | Bill Thompson: We talk a lot about the best pitcher seasons. Roger Clemens had a few in a more modern age, and Cy Young dominated pre-live ball. Pedro Martinez had the best peak ever, but he doesn’t hold the best season ever. That honor belongs to Dwight Gooden, whose 12.2 rWAR 1985 is, hands-down, the best pitching season ever.