The Seattle Mariners, and the San Francisco Giants,are looking at trading for Chicago White Sox outfielder Dayan Viciedo according to MLB Trade rumors. General Manager Jack Zduriencik is looking to add more right-handed power bats to the line-up to help balance out the left-handed hitters on the roster. Seattle is also in desperate need of more consistent offensive production from the left fielders.

That’s why the interest in Viciedo makes a lot of sense for the Mariners. He is a right-handed power bat, that is young (25) and under club control for a few years (until 2017).

Apparently the Mariners initially engaged in discussions to acquire Viciedo during Spring Training. But with the White Sox scuffling — 40-46 record, 10 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central on July 4th — and the Mariners currently in the second wild card spot — and trailing Oakland by 4.5 games in the AL West — it makes sense for these two squads to again be talking about the “struggling” outfielder. Continue Reading->

MLB offensive decline is due to pitching, not more home runs

Sports with Neil and Friends

The decline of offense, and scoring, in the MLB since the end of the steroid era has been something that has been a topic of discussionfor a while now. With the end of the steroid era, came the end of baseball’s dominating era of offense. No longer were players juicing up and able to smash extra base hits with regularity; now batters are facing pitchers who aren’t terrified of pitching over the plate. As a result, offensive production has been trending downwards across the league.

But that doesn’t mean that fans are going to except the offensive decline without postulating a reason for said decline (like this).

The part of that article that got my attention was this:

“In modern baseball the hero’s are the guys who hit the walk-off homerun, not the guy that started a rally in the sixth inning with a one out single…

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A quick look at Endy Chavez’s MLB performance in 2014

Sports with Neil and Friends

Endy Chavez was first called up from the minors in 2001. He has since spent the entirety of his 14-year career bouncing the minors and the majors. The 2014 season has been more of the same for Chavez, as he started with Triple-A Tacoma before being called up to Seattle on May 30th. Chavez has been getting plenty of playing time since his call-up, a move that has generated a lot controversy among fans. That controversy is for a good reason, as his peripherals are really weird — no like really weird — but he hasn’t been a black hole for the Mariners; and most of his production has come with him at the top of the batting order.

Chavez is in his third stint with the Mariners

Chavez’s slash line this season isn’t exactly encouraging, and in fact gives you the impression of an aging athlete who is over…

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MLB Divisional Power Rankings for May

So far in the 2014 MLB season has seen an exceptional amount of mediocrity from the majority of its teams, and only a handful have clearly established that they are better (or worse) than the middling pack. This is especially true in the American League, were there are only five teams that posses a positive run differential; and five teams are within two games of the second wild card spot — the NL has only one team within two games, the rest are three or more games back.

It’s kind of interesting to see how people are complaining about how mediocre the AL has been over the first 50, or so, games in 2014. But in reality, the AL isn’t nearly as mediocre as people want to think…and this shows in our divisional power rankings, as the junior circuit has 11 more points in our divisional power rankings than the senior circuit.

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An early look at the MLB playoff race

As the MLB season has completed its first month, there are only a handful of teams that appear to be out of the playoff picture *cough, cough..Astros*. This is easily the most optimistic time of year for many fan bases around the MLB landscape, and it means that a lot of fans are wondering whether or not their team still has a chance at making it into the playoffs. So that’s what we are going to do, take a look at the odds of teams of making it into the playoffs.

To do this,we are going to look at each league and break down how the divisions stack up*. And then we will take a look at the surprise teams that I feel can sneak into the playoffs in October.

*Playoff odds come from this Fangraphs link

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AL Central Power Rankings: the post April edition

The American League Central, according to our divisional power rankings, is the fifth worst division in the MLB. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to take a look at the individual teams within the division, after all…it’s only fair.

Here’s another reminder of how these rankings work, we will be ranking each team in three sabermetric categories — wOBA, K/BB, and UZ. The way the teams rank in each statistical category will earn them points and then those points will be added together to determine who the best team in the AL Central is.

So now, onto the rankings!

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NL West Power Rankings; the post April edition

We continue our look at each of the six divisions within baseball, by handing out rankings to each team within the division using sabermetrics. The three statistics that we will use are wOBA, K/BB, and UZR; each team will earn points by how they end up in the standings in each statistics. At the end of the post, the points will be added up and the team with the most points is the best division.

This post takes a loot at the National League West, and we think you will be surprised by the results.

Continue Reading->

AL West Power Rankings; the Post-April Edition

For those of you who saw our divisional power rankings for April, this next part of the series shouldn’t be that hard to follow, as we go through each of the six divisions and rank each team within the division. This way we can figure out which team is the best in the division, outside of the wins and losses on the field.

One major difference that should be noted is the fact that since each division only has five teams, there points awarded will start at five and then descend down to one in reverse order of the teams respective rank.

Oh, and we will still be using strike out to walk ratio (K/BB) for the pitching stat — despite having access to a team’s FiP and xFiP — for consistencies sake.

So anyway, onto the power rankings:

Continue Rankings->

Obscure Spotlight: Deivi Cruz

MLB Divisional Power Rankings for April

Sports fans are weird creatures, we always look to way to prove that our favorite team is better than yours…and that the competition said team plays is tougher than that other team. One of the ways that fans can show that their team plays tougher competition is by looking at the win-loss record of the conference/division and making broad statements about the strength of the division based off of those numbers.

Unfortunately, win-loss records aren’t always the best way to say which division is the best; and that’s where this series of posts comes in — these will be going up once a month.

We will be using three sabermetric statistics to figure out which division is the best in baseball. The three stats that will be used are wOBA, K/BB (I have no clue how to find a division’s FiP), and UZR. Each division will earn points based on how they rank in each category — first place gets six points, second gets five points, third gets four, so on and so forth — and then those points will be added up at the end of the post.

The division with the most points at the end of the season is the best in baseball! Continue Reading->

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