November 23, 2009
Order Now The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 is now in development and will ship in mid November! This year's book will feature articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Tom Tango and Craig Wright. If you use this link to purchase the Annual, you will be in the first group to receive it and you'll be supporting THT. Most Recent Comments
Introducing Visual Baseball (1)
Why Baseball Needs a Visual Facelift (4) Building a Retrosheet database, the short form (4) HR/FB Park Factors (6) Is peak at age 29? (7) 
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Monday, August 10, 2009ChiSox, Jays both benefit from Rios waiver claimToday, we found out that the White Sox were indeed the claiming team on Alex Rios. The White Sox received the 28-year old off waivers -- not even giving up anyone. The waiver claim of Alex Rios generated quite a bit of furor in the blogosphere, much to the bewilderment of Dan Novick. In the article, Novick passes judgment on the claim, saying that the Jays should be looking to build around Rios for the duration of the deal, not trying to dump him: He's been worth just one win above replacement so far, which prorates to about 1.5 wins over a full season, compared to 5.5 wins in 2008, 4.6 in 2007, and 3.3 wins in 2006. The most notable difference this year for most baseball fans has been his offense. He's been slightly below average this year, with -1.7 batting runs (park corrected version). The last three years he's been between 12 and 25 runs above average. I'm going to go ahead and disagree here. I don't think Rios is anywhere near a bargain, and I think Rios wouldn't even sniff $12-$15 million in free agency, never mind net an average $11.7 million that he is making under his current contract. It's not to say that he's not valuable or he can't be worth that money for the remainder of his deal, but he hasn't been worth it to date. Click for more... Brewers scrambling to stay relevant with Weathers tradeAt 55-56, the Milwaukee Brewers are on the fringes of both the division and wild card race, six back of both leaders. The Brewers have had a tough go of it this year, losing second baseman Rickie Weeks and being unable to shore up their concerning lack of starting pitching depth. An uninspiring deadline trade brought Claudio Vargas to town to help address this issue, but improvement was still needed. Former Brewer David Weathers (1998-2001) will come in and try to give the Brew Crew a shot in the arm out of the bullpen. Weathers has spent the last five years in Cincinnati and has served an underappreciated and undervalued role as a primary setup man/pinch-closer. In 2007, he saved 33 games while leading baseball in 60 games finished. The Brewers certainly aren't going to win the division or wild card based on the addition of Weathers alone, but an incremental upgrade is better than no upgrade at all. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||