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
HR/FB Park Factors (10)
Why Baseball Needs a Visual Facelift (5) Building a Retrosheet database, the short form (4) Introducing Visual Baseball (1) Is peak at age 29? (7) 
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Monday, August 24, 2009LaPorta here to stayThe Cleveland Indians called up prospect Matt LaPorta last week and all likelihood he will be here to stay. LaPorta was the prize for the Indians in a deal last year that sent C.C. Sabathia to the Brewers. The 7th overall pick in 2007, he has done nothing but hit at every level of the minors. The 24-year old slugger is expected to immediately provide a boost to Cleveland's lineup. This season in Triple-A he was batting .299/.388/.530. His wOBA was an impressive .400 and his walk rate (11.1 percent) and strikeout rate (16.6 percent) have both shown improvement. LaPorta's numbers translate to a MLE of .263/.336/.446 which are nearly identical to the American League average of .266/.335/.430. Not bad for a rookie making the league minimum. He is well known for his power hitting ability as evidenced by his 17 home runs this year. His career isolated power in the minor leagues is .266 which is tremendous. There are concerns about whether or not he can stick as a corner outfielder as his defense is average at best. However, he should drive in enough runs to warrant a move to first base in the future. The Indians are smart to allow LaPorta to get his feet wet in the majors for the next month as he will probably be the starting left fielder in 2010. 2009 Fan’s Scouting Report - call for ballotsAs he does every year, Tom Tango is compiling the Fans' Scouting Report. He is seeking help from baseball fans to rate the defensive abilities of the players they have watched this season. Baseball's fans are very perceptive. Take a large group of them, and they can pick out the final standings with the best of them. They can forecast the performance of players as well as those guys with rather sophisticated forecasting engines. Bill James, in one of his later Abstracts, had the fans vote in for the ranking of the best to worst players by position. And they did a darn good job. If you've watched a lot of baseball in 2009, or at least enough to meet the guidelines, please participate in compiling this valuable resource. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||