Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 6/5/18

FanGraphs | Sheryl Ring: Even though the trend of publicly-funded stadiums is a nauseating one, highlighted recently by the Diamondback’s dispute with Maricopa County to invalidate their lease over unpaid maintenance and capital expenditure fees, Seattle has taken a different approach in taking on those expenses themselves. This means that even though subsidies are a net-neutral or negative proposition, this lessens the effect. Hopefully, all subsidies go the way of the dodo bird.

Baseball Prospectus: This is a cool post. Drafts are composed of talent, but also of names. In this year’s draft, we have the following: Sharts, Blaze, and Osiris, for example. Baseball is of course fun, but so are funny names.

The Ringer | Ben Lindbergh: Mike Trout has been amazing since he first stepped on a field, but this season, he’s on pace for a 14.6 WAR season, the highest single-season mark in baseball history. Yes, higher than Babe Ruth’s 14.1, so the actual best season ever. This is possible not only because he has neutralized his offensive weak spots, but because he’s also improving his defense—doing drills to read hitters better, taking drills, etc. He’s the best, and he’s still getting better.

Tangotiger Blog | Tom Tango: Tango gives us a primer on xwOBA. It’s a simple, elegant, and mathematical explanation on hit probability, and you should read it even knowing the limitations we know now.