Burma currently faces a major humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Nargis, which has killed approximately 120,000 people and has affected an estimated 1.7 million people. The story has faded from the news quickly, but emergency supplies and support are still needed. Large parts of the population remain without drinking […]

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If you haven’t seen it yet check out MLB.com’s draft page. I don’t know why but I’m consistently (and pleasantly) surprised how much coverage the draft is getting nowadays.
On the page is a mock draft by Jonathan Mayo. It’s a Top 10 — which, even just 10 is admirable considering how volatile the draft seems to be. This […]

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Thanks to David Chalk for pointing this item out. For the past couple months Jeremy Cummings has been playing in Taiwan, pitching for the Sinon Bulls of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. But someone working for the Rays apparently saw what they liked, signing Cummings to a deal and assigning him to Triple-A Durham.
In his Bulls […]

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Unless they hate their job and want to be fired, no one working for MLB would put the Reds on the ESPN Sunday night game. Consequently, I never see the Reds on Monday mornings because the game is over by the time I wake up over here. Usually I get up, drink a few glasses […]

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I’m not a sports talk radio host. I’m not going to scream “I told you so!” into my blog dashboard, but I do want to gloat a little about the fact that I said I wouldn’t be surprised if Eric Gagne didn’t last seven weeks as the Brewers closer prior to the start of the […]

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If there’s still any doubt about Wang Chien-ming’s ability as a pitcher, you can put to rest any ideas of him doing anything batting 1.000 once the pinstripes fall to the floor.
Four limited edition bobbleheads, each part of the “life style” series on the Authentically Wang page found on MLB.com, apparently commemorating Wang not as a baseball player, […]

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People are paying more attention to the MLB draft now. What with the publicity blitz MLB put on the thing last year who wouldn’t? I’ve been late getting on the bandwagon but I’m going to give it a shot — I’m that much more interested in amateur baseball due to my new gig.
Incidentally the first […]

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Here’s a piece to get you set for Wang’s run at 7-0, a piece in the NY Sun by Tim Marchman, who I don’t link to often enough.
Here are the money shots:
For most of his time in the majors, Wang’s biggest weakness has been against left-handed hitters. Last year, for instance, he struck out 7.9% […]

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Sorry. Couldn’t resist with the title.
Hard to believe the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays turn 10 this year. Here’s a story by Jonah Keri of ESPN taking a look at the genesis of the two franchises, both of whom seemed poised for greatness.
As Keri illustrates, neither road has been easy. Arizona had several good […]

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By Simon Currie  
Just did some comparisons of NPB and MLB offenses for 2005-07 – also condensed into the individual leagues (Central/Pacific of the NPB and American/National for MLB).
Just scratching the surface here, so nothing deep yet.
Runs per game

R/G

Year・年

CL・セ

PL・パ

NPB

AL・ア

NL・ナ

MLB

平均試合

2005

4.40

4.46

4.43

4.76

4.45

4.59

得点

2006

4.12

3.92

4.03

4.96

4.76

4.86

2007

4.11

3.94

4.03

4.90

4.71

4.80

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I didn’t really talk about it here on EWC, but I thought ESPN’s outing of Miguel Tejada’s age was outrageous. Classless. Well, at any rate, here’s good story from the Houston Chronicle, mostly concerning the Astros’ Wandy Rodriguez’s road to the majors, talking about how he lied about his age in order to reinvent himself […]

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One of the biggest difficulties I have in learning how to scout players is identifying pitches and measuring how well prospects throw them. With high school and university level pitchers, the difference between a curveball, slider, or lord forbid, a cutter, isn’t always as simple as looking at the radar gun. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Natural movement is […]

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Last night Westbay-san of japanesebaseball.com posted this into the comments section of a story about the Giants considering a switch to a six-man rotation (a situation they’ve avoided by sending Barry Zito to the bullpen). Just in case there are those who don’t always read the comments, I’m going to turn the “comment” into its […]

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I’ve really been enjoying the new and improved Fangraphs. There’s actually nothing all that new about it, but in hiring some of the better statistics-oriented bloggers around in Dave Cameron, Marc Hulet and Eric Seidman, who seem to be posting every day, Fangraphs is no longer just a place to find statistics and WPA graphs. […]

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In case you missed it (I certainly did) the Rays coming out party has officially happened. One of the key plays over the weekend came off the bat of Akinori Iwamura, who hit a clutch 2-run blast to right during the Rays sweep of the Red Sox.
Here’s former Seibu Lion Orestes Destrade making the call […]

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Written by Matt DeWoskin
This is my attempt to settle a barroom debate. If you’re a baseball fan and you’ve spent any amount of time in the Pacific Rim talking about baseball in a bar, you’ve had this discussion. “Who would you like to see play here?”
Before I start this, I feel it’s important to set […]

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John Kalk, who’s one of the kings of pitch f/x analysis on his own site has done a guest post at rotoauthority analysing Fukudome’s nice start. The man is sporting a .396 BABIP these days, which is pretty amazing and unsustainable, but as Kalk diagnoses, Kosuke doesn’t swing at many bad balls. There are a couple […]

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I wanted to point out an article I saw yesterday in the Wall Street Journal online called The Evolution from Homers to Holds, written by the site’s fantasy baseball guy. The article is more-or-less a har har rundown of some of the more obscure fantasy stats, which for the writer’s purpose includes holds. He’s kind […]

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A couple of minor league teams in South Dakota, the Sioux Falls Canaries and Dakota Provisions, are teaming up to bring fans a new item at the concession stands — Fowl Balls.
But these aren’t any ordinary balls, these are testicles. Deep fried turkey testicles.
The press-release says turkey testicles are delicacies in Japan and China. For […]

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How about this? The Giants, with Noah Lowry aiming to come off the disabled list sometime next month, are seriously considering going with a Japanese-style six-man rotation.
Noah Lowry hopes to make his 2008 debut in May. The question becomes which starter gets dropped from the rotation to make room for Lowry? The answer might be […]

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