The Red Sox have been on quite a roller coaster as of late. With the exception of Monday night’s 1-0 loss to Toronto in 11 innings, they’ve lost 10-0, won 12-7, lost 11-4, and won 14-0. With Tim Wakefield toeing the rubber tonight, I’m going to assume it’ll be another crazy game. After all, that’s how Wake’s starts have been going lately. The Red Sox will probably go up 6-0 with Wakefield cruising along through four innings. In the fifth, Wake will get into trouble, but mysteriously dance out of it. In the sixth, despite obvious warning signs, Francona will leave him on the mound a little too long. After laboring through 25 pitches, Wake will exit the game up 6-3 with two on and two out. First out of the bullpen will be a gasoline drenched Matt Albers. He’ll start off by walking the first batter, before predictably allowing a grand slam to put the Jays up 7-6. All hell will break loose from there, and the Jays will end up winning 11-7. Hey, don’t look at me. I’m just the messenger.
Now, on with the links!
- One of my co-writers at IIATMS created quite a stir with some of the sabermetric elites yesterday with his article titled “Is WAR the new RBI?” Despite my acknowledgments of WAR’s flaws, I’m not in the “let’s scrap it until we work out the kinks” camp. Although I disagreed with several of the points he made, I felt it was a solid article that raised a few interesting questions. For example, prior to yesterday, I’d never heard anyone mention a potential link between FB% and outfield UZR statistics. If the data holds up to testing, we could be looking at a whole new dimension from which we need to analyze defensive metrics. By the same token, is there a similar link between GB% and IF UZR rates? I don’t know the answer, but I’m dying to find out.
- In the same vein as Hippeaux’s post on WAR, JD Sussman at Beyond the Boxscore uncovers another flaw in advanced defensive metrics–it’s subjective nature. Like Hippeaux, he makes an interesting comparison to RBI.
- Alex Speier of WEEI examines the divergent path of three Red Sox prospects. Very interesting stuff.
- The boys at Sabeanmetrics had me in tears again. This time, they’ve taken on repeatedly baiting baseball writer Ray Rotto in an absolutely hilarious “lunch time chat.”
- Ryan Sommers of Crashburn Alley goes searching for true power, and comes up with some unexpected answers.
- In case you have been living in a cave for the past few days, Stephen Strasburg returned to the mound last night. Jeff Zimmerman of Fangraphs provides us with a pitch f/x review.
That’s all I have for today. For all of you that stayed up to watch last night’s Yankee-Oriole game, I wish you much luck in getting through the day.