Tag Archives: Web picks

Web Pick of the Week: Athletics After Dark

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Web-PickThis week’s web pick is a ‘homer’ selection for me as it is a website about the Oakland A’s.

Athletics After Dark is run by A’s journalist and fan Dale Tafoya.  Dale has been featured at BaseballGB before as he wrote an excellent book about Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, Bash Brothers, and was kind enough to participate in an author interview to go alongside my review of the book back in July 2008.

The site was launched in August and it’s defining characteristic so far has been the growing series of unique podcast interviews with people related to the A’s. 

Most recently, Dale interviewed Mychael Urban, currently a member of the CSN Bay Area crew and previously the A’s beat writer on MLB.com, about the A’s ‘Big Three’ starters from the early 2000s: Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito.  Previous interview subjects have ranged from the A’s Travelling Secretary Mickey Morabito, to an expert on the A’s minor league prospects (Melissa Lockard of Scout.com) and the actor Art Ortiz who will play Eric Chavez in the upcoming movie of Moneyball.

While he didn’t write the book (in contrast to what some people still seem to believe), the central character in Moneyball was, of course, the A’s General Manager Billy Beane.  He was the subject of the first podcast and it’s definitely worth listening to that one all the way through as near the end Dale asks Billy a question posed by a certain baseball writer from Great Britain!

Web pick of the week: Deadspin and MLB finances

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Web-PickThis week’s web pick is Deadspin’s publication of financial documents relating to six (so far) MLB organizations.

MLB clubs are notoriously secretive when it comes to their finances, which has made the leak all the more potent. Needless to say, the teams involved have been in PR overdrive to try to counter the plethora of negative stories that have sprung up. Many have been on the theme of lowly organizations pocketing their revenue sharing money to turn tidy profits while their teams languish in the standings.

The organizations have every right to be outraged at the public airing of what are supposed to be confidential documents and it’s no surprise that they are now rabidly hunting down the person who leaked the documents.  Still, for baseball fans keen to know a bit more about the financial side of the game, they are an absolute treasure trove as until now a lot of the figures used to evaluate ballclubs, player contracts excepted, have largely been educated guesses. 

What’s more, these figures will undoubtedly have an impact on the next Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Part 1: Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Part 2: Seattle Mariners

Part 3: Texas Rangers

Deadspin’s round-up of ‘the fallout’

Web pick of the week: Baseball America

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Web-PickThis week’s web pick is an interesting insight into the world of baseball scouts courtesy of Baseball America.

While statistical analysis has become ever more important over the last twenty years or so, all but the most ardent ‘stats’ people will admit that the numbers alone don’t provide the whole picture when evaluating a player. 

The traditional scouts still play an important part in player evaluation, and that’s especially the case when it comes to amateur players being considered for the annual draft.  An 18 year old high school pitcher might put up eye-catching strike-out numbers, but a scout needs to put that into context (what is the standard of the opposition? etc) and to assess whether his current success may translate into him becoming a Major League ballplayer 4 or 5 years down the line.

The signing bonuses received by amateurs these days, such as the $9.9m deal that 2010 Number One pick Bryce Harper agreed this week with the Washington Nationals, make it all the more important to get these decisions right (or at least to bring together enough info to give you best possible chance of making a selection that works out well).  This Baseball America article gives a great insight into how scouts evaluate players, namely what skills they are looking for and how they judge them.

Web pick of the week: Behind the scenes at Wrigley Field

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Web-PickThis week’s web pick provides a behind-the-scenes look at one of Major League Baseball’s most cherished Green Cathedrals: Wrigley Field.

The footage is courtesy of Alyson Footer, previously the beat writer for the Houston Astros on MLB.com and now the Senior Director of Social Media for the Houston Astros.  Alyson will be well known to Astros fans as she does an enormous amount, from blogs to tweets to videos, to bridge what often seems to be an ever-widening chasm between the media-trained, PR conscious players and the ordinary fan.

An occasional part of her video ‘Footnotes’ series is a tour of the visitor clubhouses in various ballparks and the recent one on Wrigley Field gives you a good insight into the somewhat aged facilities at this classic venue.  My favourite part of the video is the long, distinctly unglamorous walk from the clubhouse to the visitors’ dugout, replete with hand-written signs urging the intrepid explorers to ‘Keep Going’!

Those wanting a good comparison between Wrigley and a more modern ballpark should also check out Alyson’s footage from the Milwaukee Brewers’ Miller Park, a set-up that former Astro (and it still seems very strange to write that) Lance Berkman describes as “probably the best clubhouse in the National League”.

Web Pick of the Week: Josh Chetwynd’s ESPN America blog

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Web-PickIt’s been great to have Josh Chetwynd back on the British airwaves of late thanks to BBC 5 Live Sports Extra’s MLB coverage.

Josh had a tough act to follow on Baseball on 5 all those years ago when he took over from the popular Todd Macklin.  He successfully filled those shoes by combining the experience of his playing career with a great sense of knowing how to pass on his knowledge to a broad audience that often ranged from complete newcomers to established fans.

Digital radio isn’t the only way you can find out Josh’s views on the game.  He writes a regular blog on the ESPN America website and it’s as considered and thought-provoking as you would expect.

Web pick of the Week: MLB Trade Rumors

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Web-PickIt’s an obvious selection, and I’m sure many of you will be familiar with it already, but there’s nowhere more relevant and useful to direct you to for this week’s web pick than http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

It’s a ‘Ronseal’ website, in that it does exactly what it says on the tin (or in the website name, in this case).  The writers trawl every relevant news source and bring together every trade rumour they find.  It’s the ultimate one-stop-shop for trade news as we head towards the non-waiver deadline, which is 21.00 BST tomorrow (Saturday).

The MLB.com ‘Trade Buzz’ blog is also worth keeping an eye on as it is updated by the beat writers who are right there in the clubhouse, offering scoops and instant reaction to the trades that take place.

Web pick of the week: European Championship 2010

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Web-PickThe European Championship is now officially underway, making it completely appropriate that we focus on some websites featuring the international event. 

There are various sites at which you can keep up with all the latest news.

I normally find that the tournament section on the Confederation of European Baseball website is the easiest to navigate. Here you will find results, stats, live play-by-play and, by the looks of it, some live footage from each stadium (probably just a fixed ‘web cam’ type arrangement, but a nice touch if so nonetheless).

The official tournament website can be found here, with an English version also available thanks to Mister-Baseball.com. 

Finally, British baseball fans need to bookmark the Great Britain Baseball website to get all of the latest news and reports from within the Team GB camp.  There is also a Facebook group for the Great Britain Baseball National Teams and a Twitter feed.

Web Pick of the Week: Midterm reports on MLB.com

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Web-PickThis week’s web pick is the ‘Midterm reports’ feature on MLB.com. 

The official website runs a few features like this every year and they’re always a great way to catch up on what has happened and what the next few months will bring. 

There are various ‘feature stories’ (potential trade targets, players gunning for the triple crown etc), but the main part of the feature involves each of the MLB.com team beat writers passing on their report on how the first half has gone for their respective team, dishing out a few awards in the process.  Reading through the reports gives you a great overview of how the 2010 season is panning out up to this point for each team. 

And we don’t just have text to read; we also have video recaps for each team and each division.  Definitely something to delve into now that the All-Star break is over and the games have started up again.

Web Pick of the Week: New York Times shows how Mariano Rivera dominates hitters

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Web-PickThis week’s web pick is a video clip from the New York Times that explains how the New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera has been able to dominate hitters throughout his career. 

It’s insightful and contains excellent graphics that give you a sense of what it must be like to face the greatest closer of all time (i.e. it makes you wonder how anyone ever gets a hit off him).

Highlights for me are the concise explanation of the different ways he uses his cutter against left and right-handed hitters and the graphics that show the spin on the ball that hitters see when Rivera throws his fastball and cutter, compared to the spin of a slider.

Hat tip goes to Billy-Ball.com, another excellent site that will be a ‘web pick’ in its own right one week soon.

Web Pick of the Week: Realignment and Interleague play

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Web-PickA recent article on BGB proposing a new MLB structure, ‘The “Final Cut” system: Nellie’s big league view’, looked at a topic that is being debated by many right now, as shown by a recent ‘Game Changers’ article on MLB.com

Game Changers is a series that sets the scene for some of the biggest debates in baseball today (use of Designated Hitters etc) and then provides a forum within which baseball fans can argue their points of view. 

Division realignment was the most recent topic under consideration and the article notes that the matter was reportedly “raised in discussions held by the Special Committee for On-Field Matters appointed by Commissioner Bud Selig late last year”.  So maybe they’ll pick up on Nellie’s idea?!

Division realignment and Interleague Play are two topics that go hand-in-hand and the latter was looked at in the previous ‘Game Changer’ feature. 

One of my pet hates of the current system is the way in which the unbalanced scheduled basically creates an unfair competition, in which teams fighting for a division can get a boost by playing a more favourable schedule than their opponent(s).  Interleague play accentuates this problem and a recent article by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci shows how.