From the editor: Smitty wrote this right after the Upton trade. Also: THE EDIT BUTTON IS BACK. All praise goes to Hap, who doggedly tested the functionality. Please thank him.
I am not going to lie. Martin Prado was one … Finish Reading
Month: January 2013
How Big Is Home Field Advantage? Part 4: Batting Last (by JonathanF)
Note from Alex: The previous piece in this series, Part 3, was pre-empted by rumors about the Upton trade within hours of publication. I’m linking to it here, so that you can go back and read it.
I started … Finish Reading
Chris Johnson
When the Braves traded their projected starting third baseman for Justin Upton, they needed to get an infielder back. So they got Chris Johnson, a 28-year old platoon third baseman. As of now, the plan appears to be … Finish Reading
Justin Upton
Okay, I guess I’d better eat some crow. I didn’t think we’d get Upton, at least not during the offseason, because we didn’t have the prospects to match the rejected Mariners trade. And, of course, we didn’t have the prospects … Finish Reading
Where Do We Go From Here? 2012.6 Free Agency and Trades (by W.C.G.)
In The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver looked at several different fields of prediction to illustrate both the power and the limits of trying to peer into the future. Some fields, like meteorology, have progressed to the point … Finish Reading
How Big Is Home Field Advantage? Part Three (by JonathanF)
So… if travel doesn’t seem to do much, what about teams? Once we go to teams, we can no longer just look at home and road winning percentages, since those will depend greatly on how good the team was. Instead, … Finish Reading
How Big Is Home Field Advantage? Part Two (by JonathanF)
So what does the home field advantage in baseball look like? In my database of almost exactly 200,000 baseball games which didn’t end in ties, the home team won 54.7 percent. But road teams did really badly in the early … Finish Reading
Some Evidence of a Greenie Effect (by JonathanF)
So some colleagues were discussing PEDs and the HOF, a topic which really doesn’t interest me much at all. (I say let ‘em in.) The inevitable amphetamine argument was broached, you know, Mantle used greenies, what’s the difference? This got … Finish Reading
How Big is Home Field Advantage? Intro (by JonathanF)
Alex has asked me to do something that scares me a little bit. So I’m going to try it. I am troubled by the size of the home field advantage in baseball — it seems way too small. So I’m … Finish Reading
Peanut Doesn’t Think We’ll Get Upton
Mark Bowman, in a mailbag published Jan. 14:
… Finish ReadingAs much as the Braves understand how beneficial it would be to add a second Upton to their outfield mix, general manager Frank Wren will not jeopardize the club’s future with a