B Richard

I nearly split a gut laughing at this

Definitely something that will eventually become the norm, though it might take some time. Pitchers are creatures of habit and I could easily see some of them opting for the less protective option. This is a change for the better, IMO. Glad to see the discussion of pitcher safety becoming more prevalent.

Thanks for this. What sets him apart (or at least gives me more hope for him) in my mind is his age. The kid is 23. Let's say he recovers from the injury responsible for his poor performance last year-- to me, they could have a very effective back end of the rotation option. Unfortunately we have several of those. Still, nice to get ANY kind of return on a trade where the Braves ate the contract of maybe the worst pitch framer in MLB history

I recently bought my dad (former minor leaguer, very old school ideas) a great book. It serves as an introduction to sabermetric thought and poses many interesting questions. The title is "Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game is Wrong". It's authored by some of the great minds over at Baseball Prospectus. It's very non-offensive and is a great into to sabermetrics. I would highly recommend it to anyone who frequents Fangraphs or is interested in getting their feet wet in the analytical side of the game. Again, this book is very accessible and assumes no prior knowledge of sabermetrics or anything.

I'm no apologist when it comes to pitchers with poor senses of pace, but some of you guys are really overdoing it here. According to fangraphs, the league average for pace among starters was 21.9 seconds last year. Pelfrey came in at 24.6 in 2013 (coincidentally he has averaged a pace of 21.7 over his career). That makes 2.7 additional seconds between pitches we have to sit through. Let's say that the big Pelf averages 100 pitches per start next season. That adds 270 seconds to each start- less than 5 minutes. There seems to be a lot of outrage here over an extra five minutes per start. One of my favorite aspects of baseball is that it is not dependent upon a clock, but rather the players themselves. I do think it's silly sometimes when guys take too long between pitches, but I have a difficult time understanding the animosity towards a man who adds less than 5 extra minutes to your experience at the ballpark. I'd have an easier time understanding outrage towards his actual pitching performance, which has the potential to add much more than 5 minutes to each start.

This is a reasonable move. I'd much rather have Pelfrey at 2/11 than Colon at 2/20. Pitchers coming back from TJ are always questionable, but Pelfrey had a strong second half of the year. If you look at his overall numbers for the year, they are somewhat ugly, but the big Pelf showed marked improvement Per Fangraphs: 1st Half/ 2nd Half (2013) K%: 12.4/17.7 HR/9: .98/.51 Avg. Against: .311/.279 SLG: .478/.374 The one area of concern lies in BB%: 6.6/9.2 But his K:BB ratio still improved, albeit marginally: 1.88/1.93 I think this signing is fine. Again, it's a sign (no pun intended) of an improving rotation. Pelf might not be here for our WS, but he will help this team improve in the immediate future by bringing stability to the rotation.

As for Buxton and Sano, I'm not concerned. This past calendar year they played way more baseball than they ever had before. It's not entirely surprising that they might tweak something toward the end of an especially arduous season. These guys are human- they wear down after an extended season, especially one that they had never gone through before in terms of length. Meyer appears to be healthy and Sano has been cleared. I'm not incredibly worried that injury will be the factor that holds them back

Interestingly, Fangraphs just posted an article/tool that lets you explore pitching metrics, evaluating which are most closely related. For example, you can try to figure out how well K% might predict ERA. Ultimately, the findings are pretty interesting (ERA is not as valuable of a predictor as other metrics for projecting future ERA). All of this is great info if you are interested in projecting guys. Here's the link: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/tool-basically-every-pitching-stat-correlation/ One of the simpler advanced metrics I look at is xFIP, which normalizes unstable factors like BABIP and HR/FB ratio to a league average. You can think of xFIP as a more sophisticated version of ERA. K:BB is huge in my opinion, though not particularly advanced. Fangraphs has an excellent library for understanding advanced metrics, making them much easier to comprehend for someone new to that area of the game.

Only time will tell. For now, however, we can move forward with increased optimism since the immediate concerns regarding his elbow have been quelled.

This really is great news. I'm all amped up now!

Can someone with reliable knowledge comment on Sano and to what extent we should be concerned about his elbow? I hadn't heard anything since he was pulled from the AFL

Is TJ surgery really a concern for Sano right now? I hadn't heard anything negative on his elbow injury recently so I assumed his recovery/rehab was going well. Would much appreciate it if someone who knows more than I would comment on to what extent we should be concerned over Sano's elbow and the possibility of TJ.

Fixed it. (Though I suppose DiPoto deserves a large portion of the credit for the latter.)

Per MLB Trade Rumors: "Twins in, Orioles out on Rajai Davis." Link: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/12/rajai-davis-nearing-deal.html Apparently we are willing to commit multiple years to Rajai, Orioles no longer in the bidding.

K% is getting thrown around a lot here, I see. Another stat worth mentioning is BB%-- Price walked 3.7% of hitters faced last year (league average was 7.9%). Price may have lost a tick of velocity, but he has made up for it in walking far fewer batters (2012 his BB% was 7.1%). I see Price as an extremely valuable piece, albeit one that the twins should not trade for. I believe that Price would be a better candidate if our window of contention began now.

I think Arcia still might have some growing pains to get through this year. The kid can rake though. I voted for Willingham, half optimistically with the hope that a healthy wrist/knee can push his production back up. Age isn't on his side though. I think that Mauer surprises many and hits somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-22 HRs

4 prospects for Anderson with his contract and history? Pass

It's always fun to speculate, but I'll reserve judgment for when he takes the field after pitcher and catchers report

Thanks Parker, I always look forward to hearing from an analytic perspective. I was messing around with Nolasco's Pitch f/x data and found something interesting. Using the time period you do (comparing 2011-July 2012, and after the switch, July 2012-Today), I looked at swinging strike % by pitch, a significant indicator of success. By far, Nolasco's pitch that benefited the most from the change is his splitter. Hitters often confuse splitters with fastballs, which is to say that the success of a pitcher's splitter relies on his ability to effectively use/locate his fastball. Here are the numbers: Fastball: Swinging Strike % before change- 10.46%.....After- 11.24% Frequency Used before change- 31.64%.....After- 22.88% Splitter: Swinging Strike % before change- 26.32%.....After- 34.82% Frequency Used before change- 11.85%.....After- 12.40% Nolasco still throws his splitter with roughly the same frequency, but its effectiveness has spiked. I believe, as you pointed out, that Nolasco has benefited from his shift and improved his control. He doesn't need to rely on his fastball nearly as much, but hitters seem to respect it more, frequently confusing splitters for fastballs. In my opinion, Nolasco has done a better job locating and using his fastball (inside) and hitters have had to respect it. As a result, his splitter has spiked in efficiency. This was my personal take on it, let me know what you think. Thanks again Parker (all data comes from Brooks Baseball)

Last year was his first full-season of pitching-- it wasn't really shocking to see him fade towards the end of the year. With last year under his belt, he should be interesting to watch this year. Only time will tell, but I'm betting on him.

It's not entirely unreasonable to question whether his body can hold up, but the kid had a phenomenal work ethic. I recall watching several videos around the time of the draft showcasing his workouts- he himself has reiterated the importance of durability. He appears incredibly fit and dedicated to maintaining physical excellence. I would think this puts him slightly ahead of other short pitchers in terms of starting rotation probability.

Where are you getting this $2-3M AAV figure? In a reasonably competitive market I don't see this guy going for less than $5M/yr, minimum. There are many teams who would take a flier on someone like this for more than $2-3M/yr. What's the maximum you would offer this guy?

Interesting to see us linked so strongly to him. The shoulder/other injuries are a big concern here, however. Maybe giving him some consistency in his roles would limit the chance of future injury. I wouldn't make a huge commitment to get him, but I wouldn't be disappointed if we gave him maybe a 3-4 yr. contract heavy on incentives.

This might not be the place to inquire, but since I have you guys here, where the hell did the like button go?

This is a real punch in the groin. Better than Sano testing positive I suppose. On the very, very dim bright side, at least we have a clearer picture of what 2B at the MLB level will look like for now. Here's to hoping that Dozier performs.