The Indians’ Strange, Strange Season

Last season, a lot of thing went right for the Cleveland Indians. They won 92 games, appearing in the wild card game against Tampa Bay. Justin Masterson assumed ace status, winning 14 games and posting a 3.45 ERA; Corey Kluber enjoyed a breakout year with 11 wins and a 3.85 ERA; and Ubaldo Jimenez and…

Can Sabermetricians and Scouts Get Along?

Where do advanced statistics belong in the game of baseball? This is the question that has, for the most part, consumed baseball discussions for the past 10+ years. By and large, the Sabermetrics community (the term coined by the pioneer of advanced statistics, Bill James) has gained ground over the traditional scouting community during these…

Don’t Trust Charlie Blackmon

Charlie Blackmon has gotten off to a roaring start in 2014, batting .323 for the 3rd place Rockies, including one particular 6 for 6 hitting performance in early April. His power numbers, his speed numbers, and even his defensive numbers have climbed up the MLB ranks, putting him in a good position to be an…

FIP: A Simple, Predictive Stat.

  Many different, complex statistics have been created over the past couple decades that tend to overwhelm the average fan. It’s impossible to memorize all of them, and they all speak at so many different levels that the average fan often doesn’t know which one to listen to. The result: all the stats just get…

Assessing the Braves’ Extensions

Instead of exploring the free agent market, the Braves occupied their time during the winter by extending some, or all, of their core players. Freddie Freeman went for 8 years $135 million, Julio Teheran 6 years, $32.4 million, Craig Kimbrel for 4 years, $42 million, Andrelton Simmons 7 years $58 million, Chris Johnson for 3…

Rapid Fire

Here are some rapid fire thoughts: -I am not a fan of the new 2014 Topps baseball cards, since they’ve added the Wins Above Replacement stat, a stat that is definitely not universally known. In fact, even fewer people even know how to calculate WAR. Years ago when I was into baseball cards, I wouldn’t…

Welcome

This is the blog of Isaiah Salazar.