Inside Pitch

its not done on a team per team basis so much as a player by player basis... They compare and average out every player to each other in every at bat in every park and then they adjust for variances for every player in each of those parks. The park adjustment is really the most important component of OPS+ and ERA+ For instance an .800 OPS in Angel Stadium and an .800 OPS in Coors aren't equal -- the guy putting up that .800 OPS in Angel Stadium is doing a much more impressive job. The downside to this is that you can't really compare a NL hitter or pitcher to his AL counterparts.

I think I remember us talking about Abbott -- he was a guy I was expecting to see a little more than he showed last season.. A buddy of mine who scouts for another team was really high on him and how his bat had been looking in the instructs -- a lot of talk about the sound coming off his bat when he made contact.. Sucks he cratered as badly as he did in Burlington -- then again, 100 plate appearances is a tiny sample size. Hermosillo, Vega, Abbott and Jones could do a lot to help what's hurting this team. Let's hope they continue to make strides and in Abbott's case, shake off his struggles.

Some of us were excited about Ryan Vega when he was drafted because he was the rare athletic projectable type in the Dipoto drafts .. He didn't do much of anything last year but he's off to a really really nice start this season... Would be great if he ends up being a player.

You know, after adjusting for park effects neither Newcomb nor Ellis was really doing much of anything in AA.... http://www.statcorner.com/team/430/2016/Mississippi Braves I didn't realize the park had been making their numbers look as good as they have but after seeing Ellis get wrecked in both of his AAA starts, I went looking at the park data and man is that a nice park to pitch in. Going to be interesting to see how Newcomb does when he moves up to AAA -- his stuff is a lot better than Ellis's and he's been on a bit of a streak of late.

MLB has hit a HR with their tech.... There is so much money to be made there, and they know it. The next CBA is going to be very interesting in large part because of situations like this deal, MLBAM may end up spiking the value of owning a team significantly. This has a NFL Properties type vibe to it with a similar potential to make money for all the owners.

MLB has been quietly positioning itself for life after cable..... http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/mlbam-and-the-future-of-mlbs-revenues/ This just happened... http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/disney-invests-over-1-billion-in-mlbam/ I know many of you are hopeful Arte get's frustrated and sells off.. I don't know the man but IMO the potential profits that may work their way back to the owners likely means Arte won't be selling anytime soon...

The stuff I was talking about was AJ Preller's doing. All of those signed happened after Servais left and to the best of my knowledge the Rangers had Preller doing their international stuff since before 2009... He got popped once for some improper behavior and suspended by MLB. So, no, very little if any of the credit goes to Servais. He does however deserve a great deal of credit four our 2012-2015 drafts.

LOL.. It really was....

Rangers have great depth -- and they worked to get it. AJ Griffin was a great signing... They deserve a lot of props.

You're overstating the extent of their injuries.. Holland's been garbage this year and was all of last year too... I know he's had the occasional good start but his going on the shelf may have helped you. Darvish is Darvish so that's a legit loss and Lewis was fluking his way to an amazing season but he's only missed what -- one start?. Beltre's been in 75 of 82 games... so he's missed less time to injuries than the Angels starting 3B.. Choo is a legit argument. The Rangers deserve a lot of credit for being in the position they are and even more credit for having been EXTREMELY aggressive in Latin America prior to the rules changes. They invested heavily in top end guys and are reaping the benefits -- that's going to carry them a long long ways IMO.

Pst.. yo... The easiest way to spot when a person has lost an argument is to take notice of when they stop firing at the actual debate and start taking personal shots at those he is debating with. Considering I'm content with our draft whether or not this kid signs I'm not sure if Im a creeper or not, but I do know that the situation is one that deserves some discussion and that while you may feel the need to defend this kid's right to do whatever he wants, the reality is he's taking a pretty significant risk and there are far more examples of guys who didn't take a sure thing and ended up with less than those that said no, and reaped the benefits. Ever heard of Matt Harrington? I wonder how that 11.50 an hour he's making at Costco compares to the 4 Mil he turned down once, and the 1.2 Mil he turned down the second time he was drafted? Dude was drafted 5 different times with a worse showing each time.... Tommy Tanzer, Scott Boras.. they all gave him the wrong advice... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Harrington

And they were 2,987-3211 before he got here ... Dude will be gone soon one way or another. No doubt his replacement will be as successful as Bill Stoneman's have been.

Logged in to read Scotty's post... He best not disappoint..

Every year Cron has his awful start levels up and at some point has his apeshit 3-4 weeks. Wonder if this is the start of his apeshit month or just the benefits of Fenway Park.

I think one of the things that has been mathed out in recent years is that getting into MLB systems sooner ends up adding more to a guy's lifetimes earnings that holding out for a bigger signing bonus or starting your clock at age 24 instead of age 21. A 24 year old guy with three years of experience and thus arbitration behind him is in a much better place financially than the guy that is making his debut at age 24 and is still living off his signing bonus.

KSU has in recent years been getting a rep for being a good baseball program -- more a case of the coaching being really good than anything else. This happens at small schools a lot, some have had a lot of success getting guys drafted like Grand Canyon College in AZ and Chipola College in FL (a JC), while others haven't like Lewis and Clark in Oregon -- that program is in shambles now.. I know people are capping on Marsh, and I'm not trying to defend him but going to a school where the coaching staff is considered to be very good isn't the dumbest of moves.. a talented guy stands to benefit from quality coaching, even if he won't be facing top end competition. But not taking 1 mil guaranteed when there are things in your medicals that are raising flags is pure idiocy... Whoever his adviser is, they need to tell him all the cautionary tales of guys who didn't sign and saw their fortunes take a hit for the worse... A mil is a mil... That buys a person a lot of security.

Personally, I don't think we see guys being brought up until after the deadline -- they may be trying to give as much exposure as possible to everyone resembling a veteran player in hopes of seeing them spike their values. Wishful thinking most likely but it's not like it will alter the outcome of the season any.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=29683 BBP with a short commentary on Smith

Pitching is important? Who knew....

calscuf Halos Heaven has certainly built up a rather unique reputation for itself.

First -- I don't think there is any disagreement that the team is not good. As far as the plus stuff goes -- the league average is 100. So a 97 means they are 3% below average.... 103 would mean 3% above average. It's just a way to try to normalize and park adjust the raw numbers. So basically.... when compared to their league average the Angels bats are less crappy than the Angels pitchers. But both are below average.

OPS+ of 97. ERA+ of 91. People can cherry pick individual instances -- but yeah... the pitching staff is the biggest problem -- this was the case last year too. Run prevention >>>> Run production.

http://espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=4505 http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/angels-acquire-andrelton-simmons/ http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=27879 These are some pretty fair and rather well respected sources...

Nate Smith named to the Futures Game... Only Angel.