Sanchez ready to get rolling with Royals (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 10 November 2011 02:22:32 PM. © MLB News Blog

Jonathan Sanchez walked through Kauffman Stadium on a blustery fall morning, bundled up in a black coat with a black stocking cap pulled onto his head. He’s certainly not in San Francisco anymore. Sanchez was traded from the Giants to Kansas City this week in a deal that gave the Royals the kind of front-line [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2011/11/10/sanchez-ready-to-get-rolling-with-royals-ap
/

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

All True Diamondbacks Team

post from Beyond the Box Score on 10 November 2011 02:03:56 PM. © Beyond the Box Score

IntroductionThis True Team idea is based off of a Twitter conversation with Jason Wojciechowski about True Teams. This past season, Grant Green - a prospect in the Oakland Athletics organization - was moved from shortstop to center field because his[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2011/11/10/2486273/all-true-diamondbacks-team

Digg this

2011 SB Nation AL MVP

post from Royals Review on 10 November 2011 02:01:20 PM. © Royals Review

All week we've been announcing the winners of the major awards as determined by the bloggers here at SB Nation. Like Hosmer in the ROY race, we actually have a dog in this fight. As we noted earlier this year, Alex Gordon turned in a season worthy of down-ballot votes for MVP.

Results after the jump. Can you handle the drama?

Num Name 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Total1Jose Bautista109222112Jacoby Ellsbury79331963Miguel Cabrera21654421644Curtis Granderson125525111435Justin Verlander334231111306Dustin Pedroia1342412867Ian Kinsler12242311748Adrian Gonzalez225152579Evan Longoria222335110Alex Gordon2211123311Robinson Cano1112223212Alex Avila211322513CC Sabathia33112414Ben Zobrist23142315Adrian Beltre111222316Michael Young1111417Mike Napoli111218Paul Konerko2619Jered Weaver11420Elvis Andrus1321James Shields2222David Ortiz1223Victor Martinez1224Brett Gardner1125Dan Haren1126Mark Texeira11

Here was my ballot:

Ellsbury (7.2 bWAR, 9.4 fWAR)
Bautista (8.5 bWAR, 8.3 fWAR)
Pedroia (6.8 bWAR, 8.0 fWAR)
Kinsler (5.4 bWAR, 7.7 fWAR)
Gordon (5.9 bWAR, 6.9 fWAR)
Cabrera (7.1 bWAR, 7.3 fWAR)
Sabathia (6.8 bWAR, 7.1 fWAR)
Verlander (8.5 bWAR, 7.0 fWAR)
Gonzalez (6.9 bWAR, 6.6 fWAR)
Zobrist (5.1 bWAR, 6.6 fWAR)

The biggest flaw with my ballot is the absence of Curtis Granderson (7.0 fWAR), which honestly I can't explain. Just an oversight, as he definitely be in there somewhere. I don't feel like I even gave Gordon a homer boost, but my 5th place ballot was higher than any other ballot cast. When you look at the WAR numbers -- which frame but do not totally dictate my voting -- you see that Ellsbury and Bautista are really a notch above everyone else, with Verlander perhaps just below, depending on how you evaluate his huge bWAR number. Then there's a group of players, including Gordon, that can be placed in all manner of different orders.

It should be fascinating to see who wins the "real" voting.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.royalsreview.com/2011/11/10/2551222/2011-sb-nation-al-mvp

Digg this

SB Nation American League MVP Announced

post from Fish Stripes on 10 November 2011 02:01:18 PM. © Fish Stripes

Toronto Blue Jays' Jose Bautista, left, Detroit Tigers catcher Alex Avila, center, and home plate umpire Jerry Crawford watch Bautista's solo home run during fourth inning of a baseball game in Toronto Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. The Jays and opposing teams watched a lot of these fly in 2011, but was it enough to win the SB Nation AL MVP? (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)

I apologize for missing out on yesterday's NL Cy Young announcement. The winner, you ask? Congratulations to Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies AND Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers. That's right, they had a picture-perfect tie for the finish, which I find to be an awesome feat to accomplish.

Today, we'll discuss the SB Nation selection for American League MVP. The race looked tho be all but over after the first half ended, but a relatively cool stretch by the leader along with hot finishes by a variety of other very worthy candidates made this one too close to call. Who got the nod according to the baseball bloggers of SB Nation?

Congratulations to Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays for winning the SB Nation AL MVP.

Bautista had a truly deserving season at the plate. After his monstrous first half, many were flirting with the idea that he would end the year with one of the best offensive seasons of all time. Unfortunately for him, after finishing the first half with an incredible .334/.468/.702 batting line, he finished the season batting "just" .257/.419/.477, a valuable but not "once-in-a-lifetime" batting line. Still, his season line was still worth a .441 wOBA and a 181 wRC+. Since 2002 (going back ten years), that 181 wRC+ ranks as the ninth most prolific offensive campaign, trailing only seasons put up by Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, and the 2002 versions of Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome. That is some healthy company to be in.

Bautista's 8.3 FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement (fWAR) was quite a feat, but it was actually outdone by Jacoby Ellsbury, if you buy into UZR's opinion of his 2011 defense. On the back of a career-best .321/.376/.552 line (.402 wOBA, 150 wRC+) and 15 runs better than average on defense according to UZR, Ellsbury put up a 9.4 fWAR season. Other systems disagreed to varying extents about Ellsbury's defense however, and it was enough to sway voters to the side of reliable offensive performance.

Among the other names that received recognition were Miguel Cabrera, Curtis Granderson, and SB Nation AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. Verlander had a lot of steam behind his MVP argument during the regular season, so it is no surprise three first-place votes -- the third most in the balloting.

Congratulations again to Jose Bautista for winning the SB Nation AL MVP award for a fantastic 2011 season.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.fishstripes.com/2011/11/10/2552135/sb-nation-american-league-mvp-annou
nced

Digg this

Pirates sign C Barajas to 1-year deal (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 10 November 2011 01:52:31 PM. © MLB News Blog

The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed veteran catcher Rod Barajas to a one-year deal with a club option for 2013. Terms of the contract were not immediately disclosed Thursday. The 36-year-old Barajas hit .230 with 16 home runs and 47 RBIs last season while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Pirates are in need of [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2011/11/10/pirates-sign-c-barajas-to-1-year-deal-ap/

Digg this

The Pittsburgh Pirates sign Rod Barajas

post from Pittsburgh Pirates MLB News - Pirates Baseball Blog on 10 November 2011 01:14:47 PM. © Pittsburgh Pirates MLB News - Pirates Baseball Blog

The Pirates have signed 36-year old righty swinging catcher Rod Barajas to a 1-year deal worth $4 million bucks with a club option for 2013 valued at $3.5 million bucks. Barajas played in 98 games for the Dodgers last year and he was 70 for 305 (.230 avg, .717 OPS) with 29 runs scored, [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.bucslocker.com/2011/11/10/the-pittsburgh-pirates-sign-rod-barajas/

Digg this

Investigating Foul Balls as a Skill or Signal of
Skill

post from Beyond the Box Score on 10 November 2011 01:03:41 PM. © Beyond the Box Score

It's often said that good hitters have an ability to protect the plate and extend at-bats by fouling off pitches. We've all heard some version of this, typically during broadcasts and almost certainly during sequences where a hitter manages to work a[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2011/11/10/2551718/investigating-foul-balls-as-a
-skill-or-signal-of-skill

Digg this

Thoughts On Travis Buck and Nick Stavinoha

post from The Crawfish Boxes on 10 November 2011 01:01:16 PM. © The Crawfish Boxes

Nick Stavinoha was one of two outfielders signed Wednesday night by the Astros.

Tim's already given you his conspiracy theoryabout why Travis Buck means the Astros are preparing to move to the American League. I offer a little synergy in my breakdowns of Buck and Stavinoha's backgrounds over at SB Nation Houston. But, I wanted to talk about the signings here in more general terms.

The short of it is: I like both moves.

They're not going to win the Astros more games next year, but they both bring something to the table that this team lacks. Neither are perfect players, but that's why they were freely available for Houston to go get.

Buck, while he's not an inspiring choice as an outfielder, could be one of those buy-low, high-upside options. At this point, I think the fantasy that his power will someday come around is gone. But, as a doubles hitter with a good batting eye, he could hit .280/.360/.420 pretty easily. Only one Astro had an OBP higher than .360 last season and that was Michael Bourn.

I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Buck will win the starting right field job, but we really don't know what he's capable of. He hasn't been given a chance to settle into a lineup and play regularly and he's at an age when he should be hitting in his prime. Even as a fourth outfielder, he'd be valuable.

Stavinoha is a little more problematic, but there's no questioning his power. He's hit for power at every minor league level but wasn't successful in his short major league stints. I'm not sure he wins an everyday job, but if he's the fifth outfielder and pinch hitter off the bench? That power becomes an asset. Plus, he could spell Carlos Lee at first or J.D. Martinez/Brian Bogusevic or Buck in the outfield.

Houston isn't a very patient, OBP-friendly team and they surely don't have a lot of power. By picking up each of these guys on small deals, the Astros are buying a couple of lottery tickets that may or may not impact the 2012 season. We can't hope to sign Jose Reyes, but we can hope that the Astros continue to pick up interesting guys who can add value in different ways.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2011/11/10/2552024/thoughts-on-travis-buck-and-nick-
stavinoha

Digg this

OMalley, Park, Nomo to run Dodgertown (AP)

Former Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley and ex-Los Angeles pitchers Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Park will run the team’s former spring training complex at Dodgertown with minor league baseball’s governing body. O’Malley’s sister, Terry Seidler, also will operate what is now being called Vero Beach Sports Village together with the National Association of Professional Baseball [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2011/11/10/omalley-park-nomo-to-run-dodgertown-ap/

Digg this

Guest Post - The UK League Needs US Help

The UK League Needs US Help

Although the Brits claim to have invented baseball, they are still in need of further US assistance if they?re to bring the leagues up to US standards. With just 35 clubs and 51 league teams in a population of 65 million people, few towns have a representative team.

Jane Austen and Baseball

Jane Austen mentions baseball in her novel Northanger Abbey, written around 1798-99, some 43 years after the English first started playing the sport. The game came back to England ? Derby to be precise ? in 1890, after Francis Ley discovered the game in the US. This led to the first baseball club in the town and although survived for just eight years, the stadium was called the Baseball Ground which became home of the local soccer (football in the UK) team, Derby County FC who remained there until 1997.

Local pressure, which didn?t agree with the number of Americans in the Derby team, forced them out of the first league after just one season. Now teams are calling out for more American experience to bring the quality of the games and therefore the numbers of spectators up to acceptable levels.

The peak of interest in baseball in the UK was in the years just before the Second World War. Professional standards were attained and as many as 10,000 people attended matches. The year before the war the Brits managed to beat the US to win the first World Cup of baseball ? so what happened after that? Well, the British are still playing baseball, but not to US standard.

The British Baseball Federation

The British Baseball Federation (BBF) governs the game in the UK. All teams have to be members of the BBF to be able to compete in the national league and the three AAA, AA and A tier leagues below. A full program of young and junior leagues hopes to bring players to the forefront in years to come.

The national league consists of just ten teams. The AAA league has 4 teams in the north and 6 in the south. The AA is set into three zones; 5 north, 5 midlands and 13 south. The A league has all 8 teams in the south.

The national league, AAA and AA compete in a four team finals tournament at the end of the season. The top 2 from the Southern Conference and the top two from the Northern Conference play knock out matches with the tournament winner going through to the Championship series. The championship series of the National league is a best of 3, while the AAA and AA matches are just single games.

The Dominant Teams

Four teams have dominated over recent years. The Richmond Flamers, London Mets, Croydon Pirates and Bracknell Blazers give the league a very southern, almost London only feeling. If the game is going to expand you will need to see teams from major towns competing in the highest leagues.

Another International Team Due For 2012

The British national baseball team is currently ranked 23rd in the world. Players consist almost entirely of British born players who have lived most of their lives in either Canada or the US, with two South African born members. There are 40 teams on the list so there are plenty below, although it must be galling for the British team to see many smaller nations ahead of them in the rankings.

The national team set up will be expanded in 2012 with the introduction of an under 23 team. This will hopefully allow players to play in international matches helping the individuals? progress through to the full national team.

The national junior team is at a major dilemma stage. Six of the team will reach the maximum age of 18 this coming year and won?t be able to play for the team any more. This means they won?t be able to play internationally unless they achieve selection to the senior national team. With the introduction of the under 23 team, more players will continue to compete internationally with a more gradual feed through to the senior squad. It?s the senior team that battles with local games in the European Championship and internationally in the World Baseball classic.

If British baseball is to expand, more Americans and Canadians currently living in the UK need to get involved in the game at all levels. Only then will the experience of the few help the many who need to learn from experienced players, for the long term stability of the game.

-----

Izzy Woods is a travel writer and sports fan. Since moving to London, she has written on behalf of numerous clients (including a cruise deals company) in between keeping up on Britain's progress in lesser-played, American sports.