Earlier this week, Banished to the Pen asked Effectively Wild listeners to take part in a World Series prediction poll, doubling as a contest for those so inclined, based on Sky Kalkman’s annual ’32 Predictions’… Read more »
FEATURES
The Kansas City Royals and New York Mets are this year’s participants in the World Series. Interestingly enough, this is the first Fall Classic since the expansion era began in 1961 to not feature one of… Read more »
I discovered this while playing around with the amazing, indispensable Baseball Savant: There have been just nine pitching staffs in the eight-year PITCHf/x era that have thrown over 3,000 pitches at 95 miles per hour… Read more »
Royals fan Matt Jackson and Mets fan Seth Rubin join Ryan Sullivan to discuss their teams’ seasons so far, and look ahead to the World Series matchup.
The 2015 MLB playoffs are continuing their scheduled march toward the World Series summit in the usual fashion, but the excitement surrounding playoff baseball has not ascended in quite such a steady fashion. Unless you… Read more »
As many of you know, Joe Sheehan is a Baseball Prospectus alumni who now writes for Sports Illustrated. He also has his own e-mail newsletter, which I highly recommend. For $29.95, you get a full… Read more »
Schedule: Game 1 – Fri, 10/9 at LA Game 2 – Sat, 10/10 at LA Game 3 – Mon, 10/12 at NY Game 4 – Tue, 10/13 at NY (if necessary) Game 5 – Thu, 10/15 at LA (if necessary)… Read more »
Writers Julien Assouline & Rob Mains join Ryan Sullivan to recap the Wild Card games and look ahead to each of the four Division Series matchups: Chi/StL, Tex/Tor, Hou/KC, and NY/LA.
Schedule: Game 1 – Friday, 10/9 6:30 PM EDT at St. Louis Game 2 – Saturday, 10/10 5:30 PM EDT at St. Louis Game 3 – Monday, 10/12 at Chicago Game 4 – Tuesday, 10/13 at Chicago (if necessary)… Read more »
Schedule: Game 1 – Thu, 10/8 at KC Game 2 – Fri, 10/9 at KC Game 3 – Sun, 10/11 at Houston Game 4 – Mon, 10/12 at Houston (if necessary) Game 5 – Wed,… Read more »
Schedule: Game 1 – Thu, 10/8 at Toronto Game 2 – Fri, 10/9 at Toronto Game 3 – Sun, 10/11 at Texas Game 4 – Mon, 10/12 at Texas (if necessary) Game 5 – Wed, 10/14… Read more »
Here is an explanation of this weekly feature. This entry lists the best and worst for the last 30 days of the 2015 regular season, through games of Sunday, October 4. Comment of the week:… Read more »
Comment of the week: Here’s where the five American League pitchers with the best ERAs over the past 30 days were at the beginning of the season: Suspended, Class AA, Majors, Disabled list, Class AA.
Comments of the week: The five American League pitchers with the best ERAs over the past 30 days had an average won-lost record of 8-7 last year, and the top two are rookies. The five American League pitchers with the worst ERAs over the past 30 days had an average record of 16-9 last year.
Special guest Tim Livingston joins Ryan Sullivan to talk about the Sonoma Stompers, working with Ben & Sam, getting into the announcing business, and local independent wrestling.
Comments of the week: (1) Toronto and Boston have the best and third-best records in the American League over the past 30 days. The reason is offense. The two teams have at least three of the top five hitters over the past 30 days in batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, home runs, runs scored, and RBI.
Comments of the week: (1) Take a look at the top three and bottom three in the American League at OPS. Couldn’t you easily imagine those lists being reversed at some point this season?
In my career as a financial analyst, one of the repetitive jobs I performed was reviewing companies’ quarterly financials. While it was always important to see how companies performed relative to expectations, one quarter wasn’t… Read more »
One hundred at-bats is a long time in baseball. Has anyone ever failed to record more than a single hit over such a span?
Last week, I took a look at defensive shifts and how players could possibly fight back by understanding game theory. We used bunt probability research conducted by Tom Tango to give us a better idea… Read more »
Barring a rule change outlawing them, it seems defensive shifts are here to stay. In fact, teams are using them increasingly and becoming more efficient at them in the process. This is not a good… Read more »
The future is now in Houston. After losing an average of 108 games over three seasons in 2011-2013, the Astros took a big leap forward last year going 70-92. The pre-season consensus, including here at Banished… Read more »
As July wraps up and the All-Star break has come and gone, the Pittsburgh Pirates are firing on all cylinders after starting the season a little slow. Two games into the second half and the… Read more »
Let’s get this out of the way: the A’s have been bad in close games, but their peripheral numbers suggest they’re better than their record. We all know that. The struggles the A’s have had… Read more »
Mike Carlucci, Brandon Lee, and AD turn a triple play with mini-reviews for LAD, SD, and Detroit.
Prior to this season I had the opportunity to preview the Miami Marlins. It was a fairly optimistic preview. Coming into Spring Training it seemed like there were a lot of things to like in… Read more »
All stats current as of Friday, July 17. The Minnesota Twins are 50-40 and the American League’s top wild-card team in the middle of July. I just wanted to type that sentence to see if… Read more »
The 2015 New York Mets season has been one to remember. The season started off strong with an eleven-game winning streak that launched them into first place in all of Major League Baseball. Since then… Read more »
Before the 2015 season began, Banished to the Pen writers, Effectively Wild preview podcast guests, and numerous projection systems all offered predicted win totals for each of the 30 MLB teams; numbers that were recorded… Read more »
Tampa Bay Rays Picked by most to finish last in the AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays have outpaced their projections by being only 3 games out of first with a 46-45 record. This outpaces… Read more »
