Sports Writing

Of course, after doing all that work, I notice that Baseball Primer has had the same discussion. Sabernomics has an alternative calculation, one which predicts Nolan Ryan’s 7 no-hitters more accurately. Both sets of calculations say Rajah and Pedro are the two most likely active pitchers to throw a no-hitter who still haven’t done so.

As usual, Bill James is a giant font of baseball insight. In this letter to Rob Neyer, he calculates the expected number of no-hitters a pitcher is supposed to throw, and figures out the pitcher who was most likely to have thrown one by now who didn’t - it was Don Sutton before the 2004 season (0.891 expected no-hitters), and now it’s Roger Clemens (0.867 by 2003, 0.936 after the 2004 season).

In ESPN’s series of rating the best in MLB at specific skills, Pedro gets ranked the best at owning the inside part of the plate. What with body armour and all, hitters seem to be willing to take pitches to the body (hey, it’s a one-pitch walk after all) - but that shouldn’t mean pitchers give up on the inside. Pedro’s clearly great at it - high HBPs, low wild pitches - and the league knows it, but I thought Greg Maddux was a good #2 choice, for the vast contrast in styles.

No Sox news - please, pitchers and catchers report! - so instead, via Blue Cats and Red Sox (nee Feline Anarchy), here’s Matt Chatham playing Twister with Mitch Fatel:

There’s a new designer steroid, apparently, and it goes by DMT: Anti-doping officials said the new drug, desoxymethyltestosterone, which they dubbed DMT, was uncovered after an anonymous e-mail tip directed the agency to investigate a substance seized by Canadian customs officials in June 2004. They also said they did not have any evidence the drug had been used. (The New York Times)

If you’re the kid who can’t get anyone to play football with you… try the Passback Football! (Via Mekkem.)

Tom Verducci has more on the Steinbrenner/A-Rod summit: Often using coarse language, Steinbrenner told Rodriguez to take more of a leadership role on and off the field. GEORGE: You’re trying too @!&%ing hard to blend in like one of the guys! I didn’t bring you here to be just one of the guys! And where’s my eggplant calzone!

Yogi Berra has sued TBS for using his name in a “Sex and the City” ad. To wit: … Berra, 79, contends that TBS improperly used his name in outdoor ads (on buses and subway kiosks) promoting the cable channel’s reruns of the racy HBO show starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Noting that he is a married grandfather and a “deeply religious man who has maintained and continues to maintain a moral lifestyle,” the former New York Yankee claims that he has been tainted by the ad, which references the loose lifestyle of “Sex” character Samantha, portrayed by Kim Cattrall. The offensive ads, Berra reported, sought the definition of the term “Yogasm.” One of the possible definitions listed in the ad was, “b) sex with Yogi Berra.” The correct answer was “c) what Samantha has with a guy from yoga class.”

As per uberblogger Robert Scoble’s idea that bloggers should have full disclosure, here’s a quick word on the appearance of “sponsored links” on the sidebar: I was already using Google AdSense, and still do so, but these firms offered to pay for those links, which was just about enough to cover maintenance of my webhosting. I can’t imagine that this would ever affect my blogging (I don’t get any more if you click on those links), but thought I’d let everyone know, to avoid any possible ideas about conflicts of interest. Hope that’s okay with readers. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

So apparently Steinbrenner wants A-Rod to stop seeing so much of Jeter. Other highlights of Bob Klapisch’s interview with A-Rod include this gem of a quote on his slap: “I thought it was a smart play, and we almost got away with it. We put an umpire in the position of having to turn over a call like that in Yankee Stadium.”

Since everyone’s thoughts are on football (heck, I’m spending next Monday morning watching the Superbowl), I should note that David Ortiz was on the sidelines of the Packers-Rams game in Green Bay back in December (link).

Since the hot stove has finally died down, and while we warm ourselves by its flickering embers until pitchers and catchers report, here’s Tangotiger’s study on banner years. Good for thinking about FAs like Beltre.

You know, thinking about the Denny signing - a while back the Sox were claiming some sort of advantage in East Asian scouting, but it seems like they knew just enough Korean to get conned into taking on bad players. Sun-Woo Kim? Sang Hoon Lee?

More on Denny Tomori. His real name is Tomori Yui, and apparently the “Denny” name is a means for him to try to meet his father: The reason why he goes by “Denney” is because he has never met his father, a U.S. serviceman. Just like Sachio Kinugasa, he has hopes of someday meeting his father, and that’s why he decided to have “Denney” stitched on the back of his uniform. He thought that by doing that, then he could catch the attention of his father, wherever he might be. (Japanese Baseball)

Via Daily Kos, an Athletics Nation interview with Billy Beane that mentions why Beane thinks sports blogs rule: Right, and that’s what is interesting about these trades. And that’s what I love, for lack of a better word, about the blogger’s world. There is a tendency to really analyze things in detail. Ultimately, because there is so much conversation and investigation on a site like yours, people may not ultimately agree with it, but they stumble onto what you’re trying to do. Someone emailed me something written on a Cardinals blog, and they had nailed all the things we were talking about. The economic reasons, the personnel reasons, and the reasons we made the exchange. The world of a Web log will lend itself to a lot of investigation. And you will often stumble across the answer more than someone who has to write in two hours to meet deadline just to make sure something is out in the paper the next day.

Immature, I know, but the following photo made me laugh: (From the Taipei Times.)

Just added to my blogroll these Sox blogs that I’ve recently discovered: Empyreal Environs (who had this funny piece on Wally supporting Spongebob) and Hoo’s on First. Speaking of which, here’s the legendary “Who’s On First” bit by Abbott and Costello.

Apparently he was on the beach. Since the article’s in Spanish, I fed it through the Google translator, which gave me: The ex- relevista of the Red Averages, Richard Garcés, appeared safe and sound in the Guaira, after ten days of disappear, according to the Dazzling Venezuelan newspaper.

The Sox have apparently signed Denny Tomori, he of the claimed 95mph/152kmh sidearm fastball. He certainly seems like the eccentric sort the Sox quite like, more in the Millar-Damon mold. And he has a nice leg-kick. Some analysis of Tomori here. I wonder if anyone out there saw him pitch in the Pioneer League for Butte?

Boy, it looks like the Cubs really wanted to get rid of Sammy Sosa, sending him to the Orioles for Jerry Hairston and prospects. Jerry Hairston! And the Cubs are picking up a lot of Sosa’s salary as well. One of the first trades this offseason moving a major hitter from the NL to the AL (Beltran fortunately stayed in the NL, and Delgado went to the NL).