By: S. Christopher Michaels (Just a boy and his new dad. Notice the resemblance?) I don’t see my dad nearly as often as I would like. But I hear from him almost every day when we text about the Kansas City Royals. I cherish these moments. In truth, I’ve been lucky. For more than forty years, I’ve held baseball dear to my heart. And that all comes from one man. I remember meeting Dad the first time. Yes, you read that right. I was adopted a month past my third birthday. About a week before I went to live with my forever family, I met my soon-to-be mom and dad. I climbed into this strange man’s ..read more

As a lifelong New York Mets fan, I am accustomed to fast starts to the season in April and May followed by miserable slogs through summers of losing and giving up division leads. So, I know better than to get ahead of myself and declare the 2022 NYM the inevitable World Series Champions. That being said, as every baseball fan does, forming quick and unbudging opinions of your favorite team is as much a part of America’s pastime as is the actual play on the field. So, let’s form an opinion of these New York Mets; starting with the offense. Opinion #1: The New York Mets have a Top 3 run-scoring ..read more

By: S. Christopher Michaels (How many runs does defense really save?) Image from bosoxinjection.com Defense saves runs. It is axiomatic—one of many truisms in baseball. But how many runs, really? And how would we even go about measuring such a thing? Like most of the topics I write about here, the idea for examining defensive metrics came from a conversation I participated in on the line (online, just a funny bit). I was scrolling Twitter, and my timeline was filled with posts about which team led the league in defense. One metric, Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), was repeatedly touted as the ..read more

By: S. Christopher Michaels (Inside the horsehide cowhide and other concerning developments in baseball.) Image from Sportavida.com “Chris Bassitt is hardly alone in his outcry that something has changed regarding the tool of his tradecraft. Questions were asked by experts and fans alike.”   The dam has broken. Near the end of April, Chris Bassitt of the Mets blasted Major League Baseball over the construction of current baseballs (Chris Bassitt calls out MLB). Whether it was seeing another teammate headhunted in a particularly frustrating game or some internal gnawing beast let loose fro ..read more

By: S. Christopher Michaels (Statcast data has changed how we understand baseball.) Image from SportBusiness.com Everyone knows how runs are scored in baseball. Just ask them… It seems simplistic. If you ask ten different baseball fans where runs come from, you’ll get a handful of answers—maybe two handfuls. The problem with these common-sense answers is they are incomplete. As a result, it sends fans and baseball executives scampering down dead ends to draft or sign the next big name which fits those preliminary conclusions. I should tell you about me before I address these incomplete conclus ..read more

By S. Christopher Michaels (HOF legend Randy Johnson balanced controlled aggression with a chess master’s approach to dominate hitters.) Image from SI.com As the title suggests, effective pitching in Major League Baseball is knowing when to accept the challenge with an opposing batter. To illustrate this, I’d like to share two examples before we examine data from the 2021 season for its predictive insights into games played today. The first is innocuous, buried in a game where both teams were already out of playoff contention. The second is both more recent and divisive in its risk-reward calc ..read more

INTRODUCTION With the new MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in place, baseball has hit the ground running again; albeit, with some potential changes on the horizon. As part of the CBA, starting with the 2023 season, MLB will be permitted to implement rule changes with only 45 days’ notice to the MLBPA. One of these potential changes includes the banning of the defensive shift. You don’t have to look too hard to find plenty of major league hitters in favor of banning, or, at least, restricting the defensive shift. Joey Gallo, Daniel Murphy, and Freddie Freeman have all made headline-wor ..read more

(Ron Bloomberg was Major League Baseball’s first designated hitter in 1973.) Image from Newsday.com Welcome to another edition of Saber rattling. It’s that time. Baseball time is here. Everybody knows there’s not a better time of year. Hear that ump; the pitcher’s on the bump—hip-hip-hooray for spring training baseball. That’s my underwhelming rendition of Mavis Staples’ title song from the iconic movie Christmas Vacation. I still get giddy each March as the calendar gives way to actual games—even if they don’t count on the back of playing cards. If I’m honest, that’s where my excitement fizzl ..read more