Umpires vs. PitchFx Game Day Data

Posted on January 23, 2016 by DonH

The post The Automated K Zone & Technology. Is it time? generated a discussion of how good/bad are the umpires at calling balls and strikes. So lets take a look at that question using the Game Day data which is presumably the same data used by the  BrooksBaseball.net PITCHf/x Tool. Continue reading →

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The waiting game……Cespedes has time! Rizzo lacks patience. #Nats

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The twitterverse and the air waves were loaded with Cespedes rumors swirling with offers from the Nats. The deal isn’t done yet, and the waiting game is so much fun when the team that finished ahead of you last year in the standings as a fanbase on the edge. Ken Rosenthal reports that Cespedes still has a desire to stay with the Mets who don’t seem to be moving off of their 3 year offer according to Rosenthal in this piece.

As we reported earlier on Thursday about a mystery team and Rizzo going from 3 years to 5 years and a higher AAV, etc., our source didn’t have much to add late last night so just go back and read our comments in the last article.

Read the comments attached to this (caution NSFW due to severe language) and a h/t to Bernie Candide Gilbert :

Continue reading →

Posted in FreeAgents | Leave a comment

How does the Nats line-up matchup to the Mets?

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

When sjm308 put together his projection of the Nats vs Mets for positional players, it seemed to be the perfect post as we close in on less than 30 days to the opening of Spring Training.

The NL East looks to be the Mets and Nats once again fighting it out for 1st and 2nd with the Marlins not far behind.
Continue reading →

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The Automated K Zone & Technology. Is it time?

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The discussion came up over the weekend in ZMunchkin’s articles on the Nats catchers that FP Santangelo incessantly praised Lobaton on his pitch framing ability to which you think a strike should be a strike, and pitch framing while legal was trying to steal a strike and was just another form of legal cheating in baseball. No big deal, or is it, as nobody really sees this as a major problem in baseball or should this be part of the problem at-hand, but what about “a strike should be a strike”? Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Feature | Leave a comment

The Free Agent Market. Who is remaining? Rankings. Is Rizzo done?

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals are not done in the Free Agent market as Mike Rizzo will sign some additional veteran players to Minor League deals with invitations to Spring Training. Some call it filler, but Rizzo is looking for his next Clint Robinson type of player.

We will go down the list of Top Free Agents and see who Jim Bowden thinks the Nats will be in on.  Here is Bowden’s Top 7 list:

  1. Justin Upton –  signed on 1/18/16 with the Tigers
  2. Yoenis Cespedes
  3. Dexter Fowler
  4. Ian Desmond
  5. Yovani Gallardo
  6. Howie Kendrick
  7. Austin Jackson

Bowden lists 3 to 7 teams to fit each player.  On Justin Upton, the Tigers weren’t on his list of 6 by the way.

For the Nats, the only player that Bowden sees a small fit for is Ian Desmond.  Here are the teams that Bowden thinks Desmond could fit with: Rays, White Sox, Royals, Angels, Athletics, Nationals, Dodgers

Screengrab from ESPN.comJim Bowden Free Agent Projection

 

Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, FreeAgents, Roster | Leave a comment

Assists by Position

Posted on January 18, 2016 by DonH

In the post Should an upgrade at Catcher be a Rizzo Priority? #Nats, Section222 asked this question

One additional thought — do the available fielding stats show how many assists players had throwing to the different bases? It would be interesting to see how our IFs and OFs compare to other teams on throwing runners out at 3B or HP.

And Ghost paged me thinking I could answer it. Well, I can’t quite answer that question with the Game Day data, but I can tabulate how many plays involve multiple positions. Continue reading →

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Speed is the part of the game that is the hidden intangible #Nats

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

They say ‘speed does not slump’.  Speed also isn’t all about stolen bases; however, that is the easiest speed stat to look at, and the Nats were poor in 2015 in stolen base attempts ranking 4th to last with only 57 successful stolen bases.

Screengrab via ESPN Stats

sb2
Continue reading →

Posted in Dusty, Revere, Turner | Leave a comment

Jim Bowden tweets on Angelos and MASN. Chris Davis signs 7 yrs. $161 Million

Posted on January 16, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

In a Friday afternoon tweet from Jim Bowden, the MASN cash debate started again with many O’s and Nats fans commenting back to Bowden.  Can the Orioles afford to sign Yoenis Cespedes and Chris Davis?  Probably and Chris Davis signed for 7 years and $161 million and we will see if they sign Cespedes also.  According to Jim Bowden, “should be enuf to sign Davis/Cespedes”:

That 60% figure quoted by Bowden is way off as it’s much larger.  We know from court documents (pictured below) that in 2014 the Nats ownership interest was only 15% making the 2015 ownership interest 16% as the Nats ownership interest in MASN grows at 1% per year until they reach 33% ownership 17 years from now. For 2016, the Nats will own 17% of MASN.  Bowden thinks MASN is worth over $2 billion.  MASN is worth whatever somebody will pay for it and rumors have said that is well in excess of $1 billion.
Continue reading →

Posted in Lerners, MASN | Leave a comment

Nats get all arbitration eligible players under contract for 2016

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats had 5 arbitration eligible players at the beginning of the week and Wilson Ramos agreed to his deal quickly followed by Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg, Ben Revere and Danny Espinosa.

This was the tweet (below) earlier in the week from Bill Ladson that all arb-eligible players formally filed for arbitration.  Today marked the day that the agents and teams would exchange figures in case there would be an arbitration hearing in February.  Rizzo worked swiftly and there will be no “Jerry Blevins” situations this year unless Rizzo trades for a player set for arbitration and decides to head to a hearing.

Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Harper, Revere | Leave a comment

Should an upgrade at Catcher be a Rizzo Priority? #Nats

Posted on January 15, 2016 by DonH

There has been quite a bit of discussion lately regarding whether the Nationals need to go out and get a catcher to replace Wilson Ramos.

  • There is concern about his offense given his performance in 2015.
  • There is also concern over his defense from some Nats fans.
    • The key concern seems to be dropped throws from the outfield, thus allowing runners to score.

Lets start with his defense by looking at the standard catcher metrics. Continue reading →

Posted in Lobaton, Ramos, RizzoForADay | Leave a comment