Pimping My Fangraphs Work
I mentioned last week that I had been invited by David Appelman to join his staff and begin writing for the invaluable FanGraphs website. I’m having a lot of fun blogging over there, in an arena where I have a chance to explore some things that interest me that aren’t really Mariner related. Plus, I get to make use of the tremendous data that FanGraphs hosts.
I’m posting twice a day over there, so if you’ve missed any of the first eight posts, here’s your chance to catch up:
Have You Seen Justin Verlander’s Fastball?
A-Rod and Clutchness: Part 894
Several stories in there that I find interesting, as well as a few notes on guys who are performing better or worse than we would have expected out of the gates. Anyway, check them out if you’re so inclined, and add FanGraphs to your daily readings – there’s a lot of good stuff being written over there, and it’s worth checking out.
The Twins…Gem story is coming up “page not found” but the rest is pure beauty.
I really like your signature line at the end of your posts. I feel the same way about rooting for this team sometimes.
Good stuff, Dave. It’s nice to get a familiar perspective on some non-Mariner teams/players. I am getting the same thing as argh re: the last link.
Wow, twice a day…guess it deserves a bookmark for sure. Especially enjoyed the piece on Kapler…apparently you even write Buster Olney-type articles a billion times better than Buster Olney could (not a dig, just sorta read like a human interest piece, only you managed to make it relevant and not fluff!).
I can only get the Kapler and Jones stories to load.
Nice work though.
Are we allowed to ask you questions about your posts over here or should we reserve them for that site?
It’d be better to comment over there, unless you just have a comment that isn’t specific to any single post. Part of the reason that David Appelman brought me (and Eric Seidman) in was to develop a community over there based on our content, and having people comment over here on posts I write over there doesn’t do much to develop community.
But, if you’d rather just comment in this thread, that’s fine.
It’s a comment about the A-Rod article. I’ll pose the question on that site.
Nice work Dave. Don’t you also have a real job? (Though if all of this gets you a full-time gig paying you to do what you clearly love…)
I’ve been watching Patterson’s numbers, and wondering, because this makes me sad. But given their career numbers, you really couldn’t have predicted he would’ve been the better choice. I suppose there’s a chance that by the time the season is done and all the numbers are in, he still wouldn’t have been. B-R certainly doesn’t offer an impressive set of “comparable” batters.
9 – It is still early in the season, though if you’ve watched him run it’s clear that there is just no way that Wilkerson is in the same health he was expected to be in. He appears almost Ibanez slow.
Dave, I’ve been wondering about some stuff. I looked up Silva’s GB% today and then Eric Gagne’s GB% while I was watching the Twins game.
So I have a couple different questions about those, but they seem to amount to the same thing. Silva’s GB% from 2002-2006 seems to be in a steady decline. What causes this to happen? Or is it coincedence?
And Eric Gagne’s GB% is simply all over the place! How does that happen?
So a couple specific questions, but really, what can we learn, if anything, from the trends in Groundball percentages?
If you’ve already covered this in a post that I’ve missed, point me there and please accept my apology.
I’m loving the posts over at fangraphs! I update it probably 7 or 8 times a day to see if there is anything new.
So I have a couple different questions about those, but they seem to amount to the same thing. Silva’s GB% from 2002-2006 seems to be in a steady decline. What causes this to happen? Or is it coincedence?
Loss of velocity. Look at Silva’s average fastball speed over the same time frame; 92.1, 91.9, 91.1, 89.3. Silva’s not throwing as hard as he used to, so his sinker is no longer as effective at getting ground balls. This is why all the talk about him being an extreme groundball guy when they signed him was bunk – he used to be, back when he could touch 93 with regularity, but that guy doesn’t exist anymore. It’s one of the reasons I’m not overly optimistic about Silva’s production once his command begins to slip.
And Eric Gagne’s GB% is simply all over the place! How does that happen?
Gagne’s transformed himself into a different pitcher thanks to all his injuries. Once a guy has surgery and loses that much on his fastball, his past record doesn’t really matter that much anymore.
So a couple specific questions, but really, what can we learn, if anything, from the trends in Groundball percentages?
Groundball rates correlate very well from one year to another, and the groundball/flyball tendencies of a pitcher generally show up very quickly. Jarrod Washburn’s never going to post a 15-2 GB/FB rate in a game, for instance. If a guy estabilshes himself as a GB or FB guy over the course of several months, you can probably be pretty sure that is his natural tendency.
Librocrat,
That’s interesting…I was watching the Sox-Indians game the other day, and they had Shapiro up in the booth (what a great executive–I’m jealous, and he did mention Antonetti’s excellence as well), and he remarked on how many teams don’t scrutinize health nearly enough when they sign/deal/etc. After Bedard to the DL and now seeing Wilkerson run, maybe the M’s are in that group?? Wouldn’t surprise me, but I don’t see how we could prove it one way or another. I don’t think the O’s hoodwinked us or anything, but Bedard being fragile isn’t really news either.
Yeah, but are we ever going to get to see the new version of the “Future Forty”?
And by the way, I thought Corey Patterson would have made a great acquistion for the M’s. He would have upgraded the defense greatly and given them another left-handed bat in the lineup with some punch. Good for the Reds; another opportunity lost for the M’s. Of course, maybe he wasn’t interested in being here….
Well, if you look at their career numbers Wilkerson looks like a better choice over Patterson, which is what I was alluding to in 9 above.
Thanks for the self-promotion, Dave. I’d missed three of those.
Nice stuff, can I make a recommendation that you move the Fangraphs link in the sidebar out of the section titled Resources? Makes it sound very dry, and when people are looking for something fun to read dry is not going to encourage them to click.
The whole time I was reading the Corey Patterson article, all I could think was “Yeah, but he is no Brad Wilkerson!”.
Agh! I read the Sinker article not knowing you wrote it. I was like, “why is this so awesome?”
It all makes sense now.
Can we start baseball on this thread about tonights game? I dont know where to post …
Great Job Dave,
Before I logged on the computer I was watching a little of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, and Steve Phillips was talking about Verlander’s struggles and how they are related to his decreased velocity, Phillips also rattled off some stats and sounded kinda like a USSM/Fangraph writer, well now I know why cause he stole your story.
Dave,
You’re being so nice over there. It’s creepy.