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Posts under ‘General Baseball’

Giants In Pursuit Of Wagner Mateo?

According to a post on MLBTR, the Giants could be in the running to sign 16-year-old Dominican prospect Wagner Mateo.
ESPN.com’s Jorge Arangure reports (via Twitter) that the Giants may be on the verge of signing 16-year-old Dominican prospect Wagner Mateo.   A deal could be finalized  “within [the] next couple of weeks.”
If you’ll remember, Mateo was [...]

Friday Graph: Defense And Pitching

Run prevention is a hugely important team skill in baseball. Baseball highlights will often be composed of those who can hit the longest home runs, but having a top defensive team can do wonders for a team’s record. For example, take the Giants. Collectively as a team the Giants can’t hit their way out of [...]

Two-Win Pitches

Yesterday we talked about Lincecum’s changeup being worth +2 wins by FanGraphs’ linear weights for pitch-types. I thought it would be helpful to show some of the other top pitches in the game by their pitch-type values. The following table illustrates the pitches, and the pitchers who throw them, that are worth at least 15 [...]

I’m Back.

There’s nothing like 2 weeks of work-related training to sweep you away from baseball. Things I missed: The All-Star Game, most of the Pittsburgh series (this wasn’t a bad thing), and a few other odds-and-ends news items. While I’ve been away, I’ve been jotting things down here and there.
Here’s a few quick thoughts:

Looking through some [...]

Giants Grab Zack Wheeler

The Giants have selected RHP Zach Wheeler with the 6th overall pick in the 2009 First Year Players Draft.
From SFGiants.com:
Wheeler, 19, has a fastball that reaches 95 mph but typically hovers in the 90-93 mph range, according to scouting reports. Experts believe that Wheeler can gain velocity as he adds strength to his 6-foot-4, 170-pound [...]

Happy Draft Day!

The 2009 first-year player draft kicks off today at 6 PM EST. The Giants have the #6 overall pick this year after picking at #5 in 2008. After a few years of uninspiring drafts, the Giants have been on a roll as of late. Recent drafts have netted the team Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner, Tim [...]

Congrats, Randy.

In a rain-soaked affair, Randy Johnson defeated the Nationals last night to secure his 300th win. The Giants managed to score 5 runs for Johnson — the majority of them came in the 9th after he left the game — and thanks to some tight-rope bullpen work from Brian Wilson, the night ended in victory.
Johnson’s [...]

Small Sample Size All-Stars (and Duds)

In baseball statistics, you’ll often hear the phrase: “small sample size” thrown around early in the season. Most teams in baseball have played about 15 games so far — give or take a game. 15 played games results in 9.2% of your total baseball season. At this point, if you’re a full-time position player you’ve [...]

Tim Lincecum’s Velocity

There’s been some chatter about Tim Lincecum’s fastball velocity in his first two starts. By most data points, it’s down by about a 1 mph or so. Here’s a plot of Lincecum’s first two starts by only the velocity on his fastball.

The difference between the two starts isn’t large. He was throwing slightly harder in [...]

Monday Jam-packed News Links!

Good morning on a Monday. I hope everyone had a nice weekend and is strapping in for another work week.
Something I had forgotten about Spring Training  — it’s really long. The games have been going on for a couple of weeks now and yet, we’re still about 20+ days away from Opening Day. Trust me, [...]