Share your interesting baseball reads here

[jasonnorin]

Was amazed reading about 9 baseball hall of famers who don't deserve their spots. I will try to search for the link again. Must have been taken down already.

[madducks]

Here's an interesting read on the changes made in the manufacturing of baseballs over the years and how it contributed to the end of the dead ball era in 1920.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...-through-today

[madducks]

This article explains the orientation of all MLB ballparks in accordance with the often ignored rule 1.04 of the MLB Official Baseball Rules.

from the rulebook: "It is desirable that the line from home base through the pitchers plate to second base shall run East-Northeast."
from the article: "Therefore, a properly aligned ballpark will be oriented northeast-ward to keep the sun out of the batters’ eyes during the game. As a result, the sun is often in the eyes of the outfielders."

Let’s see how well the 30 ballparks meet this requirement. Using data from Google maps, the chart below shows arrows in the direction of the line that joins home and second base for each of the current major league parks. In the diagram, up the page is northward so east is to the right. Notice that the east-northeast direction of Rule 1.04 is indicated with the green arrow. The red arrows are either indoor parks or parks that can be covered.




It sounds like a boring topic but the article is actually quite interesting and a very short read.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/lost-in...k-orientation/

[Judge Jude]

http://grantland.com/features/yankee...BRay%20LeMoine

a bunch of young guys got rich in the late 1990s selling "Yankees Suck" t-shirts outside of Fenway Park, leaving them with so much money that....

well, I think Jeter may be the only baseball player mentioned in the entire article, and it's long. but interesting.

[rhd]

http://grantland.com/features/yankee...BRay%20LeMoine

a bunch of young guys got rich in the late 1990s selling "Yankees Suck" t-shirts outside of Fenway Park, leaving them with so much money that....

well, I think Jeter may be the only baseball player mentioned in the entire article, and it's long. but interesting.

Great article!

[madducks]

When's the movie coming out. The kids will love it.

[mjl]

This three-part series on the Nationals' season is very long and has a ton of inside information about the players (especially Desmond and the Storen/Papelbon situation): https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...f65_story.html

There's also a set of six articles linked at the bottom that's worth reading.

[TranaGreg]

a fabulously written piece on Wednesday night's craziness ...

http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/blu...-martin-throw/

I believe I heard an announcer say, at some point in this series, that he is named Rougned because his father is named Rougned, and that he comes from a long line of Rougneds. I could easily look up whether this is true, but I don’t want to, on the off-chance it is not. I want to believe there is a massive, sprawling, Gabriel Garcia Marquez-novel-style intergenerational family in Venezuela where all of the men are named Rougned. And the women, too, for that matter.

Love in the Time of Rougned Odor. He cracks a single off a 99-mph Aaron Sanchez fastball, and, our journey begins.

[TranaGreg]

With the announcement today that Barry Zito is retiring it made me go back to an article I read about the Tim-Hudson vs Barry Zito game in Oakland in the last week of Sept, and a retrospective of them + Mark Mulder coming up for Oakland in 2001 ...

Together at the start, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder are reuniting at the end

[mjl]

The Ballad of Bronson Arroyo

http://deadspin.com/the-pitcher-who-couldnt-lose-1736262596

[rhd]

Court vacates the $60 arbitration award in the MASN revenue dispute between the Nats and the O's. Link to the FanGraphs article:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/court-tosses-arbitration-award-in-masn-case/

As the article points out, altho it's a short-term victory for Angelos and the O's, MLB may just hold a 2nd arbitration case which might result in an even higher award for the Nats. But this ruling would seem to potentially impact how much the Nats (and O's) will spend this off-season. Whatever the final result ends up being, it doesnt look like the Nats will get paid for a while.

[rhd]

Interesting article re: the shift of baseball viewership from TV (and Cable) to the internet:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-24/baseball-moves-closer-to-cutting-the-cord

I've been wondering for a while whether the Cable companies have their fingers in the internet pie or not and judging by this article they apparently dont. So in 10-15 years or so, what happens to huge revenue streams that teams get from these cable contracts that they're depending on to offer these huge and ever-increasing contracts to players? How much of what MLB will get from these internet streaming deals will they share w the teams?

[TranaGreg]

Interesting article re: the shift of baseball viewership from TV (and Cable) to the internet:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-24/baseball-moves-closer-to-cutting-the-cord

I've been wondering for a while whether the Cable companies have their fingers in the internet pie or not and judging by this article they apparently dont. So in 10-15 years or so, what happens to huge revenue streams that teams get from these cable contracts that they're depending on to offer these huge and ever-increasing contracts to players? How much of what MLB will get from these internet streaming deals will they share w the teams?

Thanks for posting this.

I've been wondering the same. I've heard some numbers of people opting out of cable & they're significant. I suspect the impact will be felt well before 10-15 years.

[rhd]

Nice article by Jayson Stark about potential issues for discussion at next year's CBA negotiations:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14214254/what-awaits-negotiations-major-league-baseball-next-labor-deal

I like very much the idea of having expanded MLB rosters but having a max of only 25 players active for any particular game. similar to the NFL. You could have a roster size of 29 and you could designate as inactive the other 4 starting pitchers in the rotation whose turn it wasnt to pitch that day. That would give you 4 extra players right there. But I think this is unlikely to happen as this would mean 4 more MLB salaries the owners would have to pay, which would be at least several million dollars. I dont at all like the idea of requiring relievers to be inactive if they pitch in 3 consecutive games. In the first place, LOOGYs and ROOGYs might pitch 3 games straight but only face 3 batters and throw only 10-15 pitches. Doesnt make sense to require them to sit out the 4th game. Secondly, the managers, coaches and players themselves should be the only ones to control this anyway. Having the expanded rosters will give the managers much more flexibility re: bullpen use.

I'm fine w shortening the season but this is something that is very unlikely to happen. I'm all for shortening ST, which I think is entirely too long. You could shorten it as much as 2 weeks w/o any major issues. If some players are not quite in shape by opening day, having the expanded rosters could help w this.

Interesting that he said implementing an international draft will be almost impossible. I thought this would be almost a sure bet since the commissioner wants it, the owners want it and the players union wouldnt seem to care much, as the draftees are not union members and the players arent much concerned w anything outside of their own interests.

I'm not sure how I feel about an NBA-style draft lottery. Yeah, some teams can tank to get high draft picks, and maybe some teams have already done this. But so what? This represents a way for small market/revenue teams like Houston to build a competitive team if they're smart. Taking this away could make it much harder for these teams to compete. I do think that it's high time MLB allowed the trading of picks.

And the article didnt mention this but I'd like to do away w the divisions. Still have 2 rounds for the AL and NL playoffs but just select the 4 teams w the best records. That would eliminate the need for the 'wild-card' game, which I never liked, and shorten the playoffs by 1-2 days. This effectively is what the NBA does now.

[Kevin Seitzer]

FAngraphs article about how the luxury threshold has reduced the percentage of MLB team revenues going to the players.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/mlbs-evolving-luxury-tax/

This was an eye-opening article to me for 2 reasons. First, I didnt appreciate how much effect the luxury tax,and the fact that it hasnt been raised much in the last 6 years, has on MLB payrolls. Second, I didnt realize how much revenue MLB teams are getting now. They're getting $300 mil per year and last year's average MLB payroll was only about $110 mil (!!!!). They have other expenses besides payroll but I'm thinking they still keep over half their revenues, i.e. over $150 mil. That's staggering! It used to be that MLB franchise owners didnt make much money from year to year, their money was made on the back end when they sold the franchise, like real estate investors. Now, they're making a killing annually. The players' union needs to explore and debate this issue in the new CBA.

BTW, I think Nathaniel Grow (evidently Wendy Thurm's "replacement" at FG) is excellent.

Brief LA Times article today that is closer to the truth on this topic:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-baseball-players-owners-tony-clark-scott-boras-20151203-story.html