Kevin Duncan tries to bunt his way to first base (Bill Richardson/BDD)
BDD Offers -
New Article: Beyond the Diamond: January 24th, by Pete Toms
New Series: The Baseball Research Journal Project, by Dave Rouleau
The Most Productive Hitting Streaks Since 1957, by Dave Rouleau
The Rising Fastball (Detailed pitch analysis: part I), by Jonathan Hale
Hot Stove Cool Down: Team Vie for Remaining Free Agents, by Craig Brown
How to Build a Loser: a Case Study, by Rob McQuown
Home Runs and the Power of Perception, by Geoff Young
Legal Analysis of Clemens vs McNamee, by lawyer Gordon Berger.
The Bloggers Roundtable - Chicago Cubs (the White Sox are on the deck)
BDD's Big League Futures, our minor league department, is now up-and-running and even has a news feed on our main page. Original material is produced by Jim Pratt and Dave Rouleau.
You can hear the latest edition of the BDD Radio Show, with Jim Callis and a Phillies beat writer, Scott Lauber.
Join the Baseball Digest Daily Facebook group!
All Baseball Transactions Wednesday
- Troy Tulowitzki's six-year deal was finally made official yesterday. Read all about it, with my analysis, here.
- Barry Bonds asked a judge to dismiss the perjury charges against him yesterday, in a motion filed in San Francisco Federal Court.
"In the motion filed in San Francisco federal court, the former Giant neither admits nor denies taking the drugs but argues the questions asked by prosecutors during Bonds' December 2003 grand jury appearance were vague, ambiguous and confusing.
The lawyers said "the questions posed to him by two different prosecutors were frequently imprecise, redundant, overlapping and frequently compound."
Prosecutors asked Bonds several times whether personal trainer Greg Anderson supplied him with steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs beginning in 2000. Bonds answered "no" or "not at all," but his lawyers argued the questions were not clear."
- Jose Canseco has reportedly offered OF Magglio Ordonez to be cleared from his book if he invested in a movie project promoted by Canseco.
From the New York Times:
"Canseco denied that he — or any associate of his — ever asked Ordóñez for money to keep his name out of a book titled "Vindicated."
"Absolutely not," Canseco said in a telephone interview Wednesday. He also said he had not been told about being the subject of F.B.I. referrals.
Canseco said he tried to contact Ordóñez several months ago to talk about his books but did not hear back from him. Canseco refused to say whether Ordóñez would be named in connection with performance-enhancing drugs in his second book. "You are going to have to buy the book to see that," he said.
Reached at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Wednesday, Ordóñez said he did not want to talk in detail about Canseco. Although he criticized him for writing his tell-all book, he said he did not want to get involved with any formal investigation."
- Geoff Young examines the trades San Diego GM Kevin Towers made since 1995-96 by Win Shares.
- Baseball-Reference looks at the claim that Mets GM Omar Minaya is stockpiling Latin American talent since he's taken over the job.
"Two other stats of note. When it comes to the most position players born outside of the fifty states, the 2007 Mets are only tied for fifth since 1901. The 2004 Royals hold that record. For pitchers, the 2007 Mets are tied for eighth. However, Minaya's 2005 Mets are tied for 4th and the 2006 edition is tied with the '07 Rockies and '04 Dodgers for the most.
Finally, in case you thought that this is only a Met thing. The teams with the fewest US born position players: The '97 Blue Jays and Minaya's '03 Expos."
- New BDD writer Eric Sanlnocencio also has a blog on MVN (Rays Anatomy). He has a series called 'The Great Debates' and his most recent discussion centers around B.J. Upton and Robinson Cano.
- You can scan the list of free agents still available: position players and pitchers.
- Greg Smith, the new Pittsburgh Pirates Scouting Director, talks about his new job, his philosophies and also his plan with the team selecting second in next June's Amateur Draft.
- In a press release sent yesterday, MLB announced that they will be sending two teams to play a pair of games in China. The LA Dodgers and SD Padres will be in Beijing in March 15th and 16th for the unprecedented showcase of baseball in Asia.
"China is a leader in international sport, and we know from the enthusiasm and talent the Chinese team displayed in the World Baseball Classic that China may soon become a force to be reckoned with in baseball, too," Donald M. Fehr, Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said from New York. "We are honored that the China Baseball Association has invited us to share Major League Baseball with the people of China, and look forward with great anticipation to being in Beijing for these historic games."
Both the Dodgers and Padres franchises have international playing experience. Most recently, Los Angeles took on the New York Mets in a Mexico City exhibition series in 2003 and first established relations in China in 1980. The Club helped build the first practice field in Beijing and funded construction of a baseball stadium, named Dodger Stadium, in Tianjin, 75 miles southeast of the capital."
- The Red Sox will wear a uniform with an advertisement for the first time in their history when they play the Oakland A's in Japan to open the 2008 season.
"Ads are usually prohibited from uniforms in Major League Baseball, but the sport has made exceptions for games in Japan. The New York Mets and Chicago Cubs wore uniform patches for AIU insurance when they played in Tokyo in 2000 and batting helmet stickers for AM-PM markets.
When the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays played at the Tokyo Dome in 2004, their uniforms had white three-inch patches on the shirt sleeves with the word "Ricoh" in red. Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina kept running his fingers over the patch to smooth it out."
The Nerd Zone
When looking at the home run production in the post-seasons since 1903, many interesting nuggets of information can be dissected:
...a total of 1959 bombs have been hit...
...there has been three 7-HR games, seventeen 6-HR games and forty-seven 5-HR games...
...the first ever hit in a playoff game came in the seventh inning of a Boston-Pittsburgh matchup on October 1st, 1903, with Jimmy Sebring going yard against Cy Young. That would one of three to be hit in that World Series and it would take until Joe Tinker in 1908 to hit another one...
...the left fielders lead the list of home runs hit in post-season play with 288, one more than first basemen...
...Yankees Stadium has seen 290 of those HR at this particular time of the year, 185 more than the runner-up, Fenway Park...
...