The Futility Infielder

Clearing the Bases

Here's a handful of good links from around the web which I wanted to call your attention to before I get back to watching and writing about the Dodgers...

• James Surowiecki writes the excellent Financial Page in The New Yorker. His weekly takes on the business world bring a fresh sensibility to an often dreary subject. This week, the writer turns his eye to baseball, specifically the job Billy Beane has done as GM in Oakland:

Billy Beane followed a different path. Beane was frugal, Beane was shrewd. In three short years, he turned a stumbling outfit into a profitable enterprise that is the pride of its industry. If he hasn't been recognized as one of the most successful executives in America, it's only because his business isn't derivatives or microchips. It's baseball.

Surowiecki emphasizes the role sabermetrics plays in Beane's success, and points to a few ways it's influenced the A's organizational philosophy:

...Beane is the first G.M. to build his organization around [sabermetrics]. Beane uses actuarial analysis to figure out, say, the odds of a high-school pitcher's becoming a major leaguer. And, in drafting and acquiring talent, he relies on sabermetric truths. For instance, if your team draws a lot of walks and hits a lot of home runs while giving up few of each, it will win a lot of ballgames. So Beane has stocked his team with sluggers who take walks, and control pitchers who rarely give up home runs. This strategy wins games and, equally important, saves money, because even though the players Beane likes are as productive as many high-profile stars with gaudy stats, they come a lot cheaper. Think of Beane as the Warren Buffett of baseball.

Well worth reading.

• Elbow surgery made Tommy John a household name. It also put orthopedic surgeon Dr. Frank Jobe on the map for figuring out how to repair John's torn ulnar collateral ligament with such success that John won 164 games AFTER going under the knife. Baseball Prospectus' Jonah Keri had a fascinating interview with the doctor. Among the topics discussed are the complexities of repairing the shoulder as opposed to the elbow, recovery times for TJ surgery, and the phenomenon of pitchers claiming they throw harder after the surgery than before, an effect Jobe dodges the credit for: "What the surgery does is restore the ligament's stability to where it was four or five years ago. A pitcher might say the operation did it, but it's just more stability in the arm contributing to better mechanics." Jobe also offers his views on the way pitchers are handled, and points to regrowth of cartilege as one of the most promising areas of research in its impact on pitcher (not to mention the rest of the world).

• By hanging with the red-hot Oakland A's, the Anaheim Angels have shown everybody that they 're for real. Gary Huckaby of Baseball Prospectus analyzes the Angels over at ESPN and admits that Huckaby admits that nobody in BP's cast saw it coming: "Every single person at Baseball Prospectus picked the Angels to finish dead last in the AL West. Not a single contributor picked them to even beat out the pitching-poor Rangers for third in the division." He points out how the Angels are strong across the board, featuring some of the league's top pitching, an excellent (and economical) bullpen, and the benefit of several hitters at or near their peaks. Elsewhere within ESPN's vast media empire, Rob Neyer and Tony Gwynn offer their takes, with the former talking to GM Bill Stoneman and the latter extolling the virtues of manager Mike Scioscia.

• Twins Geek John Bonnes gets to celebrate early; as his team has already clinched its division. After the drama the Twins have been through off the field, it's impossible for any rational fan not to savor the irony of their success. So here's a hearty hoist of the mug to the team and its fans for getting the laugh on Bud Selig; let's hope the Twins can lose owner Carl Pohlad and find a way to build on this season.

Bonnes is looking ahead to the AL playoffs in his column. Today he examines the Yankees, and the way the Twins match up with them. Bonnes points out that the Yanks' two lefties (Pettitte and Wells) may spell bad news for his team, as the Twins don't hit southpaws very well (712 OPS, vs. 797 OPS against righties). More bad news for the Twinkies: their most consistent pitcher, Rick Reed, has posted a 10.39 ERA against the Yanks this season, and Bernie Williams owns Twins closer Everyday Eddie Guardado (1380 OPS in 28 ABs). But Bonnes notes that while the Twins went 0-6 against the Yanks, all of those games were played in a 10-day span in May, which might limit their applicability in drawing conclusions.

• Lest Twins fans get too down about their chances, ESPN's Tim Kurkjian points out that their home-field advantage is significant enough to be a factor in a short series. The fast turf, the white ceiling, the Homer Hankies, and the noise level--not to mention the team's 49-26 performance at home this season--are enough for Kurkjian to warn the Twins potential opponents to "Beware the Metrodome." As somebody who rooted for the team during its two unlikely World Series victories--during which they went 8-0 at home--I think Tim's definitely onto something.

• Twins fan Aaron Gleeman spent a lot of time watching baseball via DirecTV, enough so to offer his opinions (scroll down to the September 13 entry) about the announcers for half of the teams in the bigs, as well as ESPN and Fox. Among his favorites are the announcers for the Giants (Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow), the Twins (Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven), the Yanks (except for Suzyn Waldman, of course) and Braves groups, and of course, Vin Scully.

• I keep meaning to add this MLB Contracts site to my links page. This unofficial site (run off of a British server) is an incredibly handy resource for looking at the contracts of a particular team or at the year-by-year breakdowns of an individual player's deal. Though it's by no means complete, it's well worth a bookmark the next time you want to complain about the lousy, overpaid bum of your choice.

• Shilling for myself: I recently added a listing for this site (under "Stats and Analysis") over at HeavyHitter.com, "the world's largest baseball directory." You can stop by there and vote as to the quality of this site; positive votes help to increase this site's visiblity within their listings, and would certainly be appreciated.

Time for the Dodgers game...