There was a time when there was no such thing as bullpens and closers. In fact saves! weren’t even an official statistic until 1969. Starting pitchers were expected to pitch the whole game, and relief pitchers were used for spot starts and multi-inning relief appearances when a starter would struggle or get injured. Things changed however… starters went from pitching
Read moreFor the second year in a row, teams seem to have little interest to splurge in free agency, with the luxury tax becoming a salary cap. The players are upset and the next CBA is likely to be a major storyline because of it. The current CBA expires after the 2021 season and the owners and the players will sit
Read moreMinimum 100 innings pitched. 1. GB% HIGHER THAN FB% # TOTAL WAR 107 227.9 AVERAGE WAR PER PITCHER: 2.1 2. FB % HIGHER THAN FB% # TOTAL WAR 33 64.2 AVERAGE WAR PER PITCHER: 1.9 3. THREW FASTBALL 50%+ # TOTAL WAR 15 62 AVERAGE WAR PER PITCHER: 4.1 AVERAGE FASTBALL SPEED: 94.9 MPH 4. THREW CHANGEUP 20%+ # TOTAL
Read moreI decided to look at some famous and not as famous trades where star players and future star players were traded. I tried to avoid most recent trades as it’s too early to tell as to which team won the trade. I’m using WAR to analyze these trades and counting the WAR received by the team for the players that
Read moreWhat are some bad contract swaps that teams could do? I’m sure that the contract swaps that I’m going to list are not unknown to the teams themselves, but I think that it’s interesting to look at them and consider whether they would make sense. I should add that some of these contracts include no-trade clauses and so trades could
Read morePhoto courtesy of MLBTradeRumors.com. On March 28, 2014, Mike Trout gave up three free agent years in a contract extension with the Los Angeles Angels. It was a deal that turned to be a steal for the team and a surely regrettable one for Trout. Not only did he miss out on more money, but he could’ve been playing for
Read moreHow do some of free agent contracts this offseason (so far) look going into 2019? J.A. Happ re-signed with the New York Yankees and will receive $17 million next year. How does Steamer project him to do in 2019? GS: 29 IP: 168 ERA: 4.12 FIP: 4.17 K/9: 9.06 BB/9: 2.81 fWAR: 2.8 Doesn’t look like a pitcher worth more
Read moreI looked at the last 10 years for this data and used the criteria of a minimum of 4.0 WAR for starters and 2.0 for relievers. 2008 SP TEAM PLAYER WAR SALARY ARI Dan Haren 6.1 $4,050,000 ARI Brandon Webb 5.7 $5,500,000 BAL Jeremy Guthrie 4.1 $770,000 BOS Jon Lester 6.1 $421,500 BOS Daisuke Matsuzaka 5.4 $8,333,333 CHC Ryan Dempster
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