Lies, Damned Lies: Flipping the Switch by Nate Silver

Links (7)

Silver on the Rays
Published 7/2/2008 by R.J. Anderson at DRaysBay: Front Page Posts
Baseball and political projections guru Nate Silver has a subscriber only piece on the Rays, here's a taste: Addition by Subtraction: In contrast to last year, the Rays have just six players who have compiled a negative VORP in any amount of playing time, and all but Jason Bartlett have ...

BPros (Silver): Lies, Damned Lies: Flipping the Switch
Published 7/2/2008 at BBTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog
BPros (Silver): Lies, Damned Lies: Flipping the Switch The whole point is that the improvements the Rays have made are structural. Yes, it is a lot of fun when you are a team like the White Sox, and you have guys like Carlos Quentin and John Danks who break out when nobody is quite expecting it. But when that happens, you also have to hope those guys aren’t first-half flukes. The Rays do not really have parallel concerns. The handful of transactions the Rays made this winter were not by any means overly complicated; in retrospect, they almost seem obvious. But they were moves ...

This Week's Links (6/30-7/4)
Published 7/3/2008 by Vegas Watch (noreply@blogger.com) at Vegas Watch
A day early this week, since I can't imagine this site will be getting a whole lot of traffic tomorrow. How good are the Angels? Sean Smith knows. The streak lives! (See here for reference.) The Schilling/Jack Morris comparisons are awesome. Buster Olney, reporter? Fine. Buster Olney, analyst? No. Something about some team that's doing well, or something. A logo conspiracy? I think so. A proposal (#17) to add a new wing to the Hall of Fame titled, "What The Hell, ...

Brian Cashman Saw the Rays Coming
Published 7/3/2008 by Eamonn Brennan at FanHouse
... The Rays, fresh off their entertaining sweep of the Red Sox, are in full-on euphoria mode. The team is young and entertaining, the fan base is slowly buying in, and the millions of people who breathe baseball every day are still trying to figure out how a team with no payroll and no history of success is leading baseball's toughest division. The answer came to different people at different times -- Baseball Prospectus predicted it well before this season -- but ...

Ray Pride Part II
Published 7/4/2008 by Brandon Heikoop (noreply@blogger.com) at The Outsiders Look at the Insides of Baseball
Nate Silver over at Baseball Prospectus discusses the success of the Rays in a much more eloquent manner then I was capable of doing a few days beforehand. And the best part, no subscription required! What stands out to Silver is the improvements the Rays made with their defensive play, bullpen, and bench. Changes in these three areas, and recognizing exactly what the club had, allowed the club to make the right moves and fill in players at the perfect moment. The Rays took advantage of a market which undervalues defensive play. In doing so, the Rays ...

Game 88 Open Thread - Royals (39-48) at Rays (53-32)
Published 7/5/2008 by royalsreview at Royals Review: Front Page Posts
... It was something like Rays Week at BP the last few days, and one of the more interesting pieces was Nate Silver's Flipping the Switch article (free): ...

Prospectus Preview: Sunday`s Games to Watch by Marc Normandin
Published 7/6/2008 at Baseball Prospectus
Today's Full Slate of Games Matchup : Mets (43-44) at Phillies (48-40), 1:35 p.m. ET Probable Starters : Oliver Perez (90 1/3 IP , 5.58 RA , 1.47 WHIP , 76 K) vs. Kyle Kendrick (92 1/3, 5.36, 1.44, 41) Pythagorean Record : New York, 44-43 (415 RS , 406 RA ); Philadelphia, 52-36 (446 RS , 366 RA ) Hit List Rankings : New York, #15; Philadelphia, #6 Prospectus : The Mets' collection of top talent and poor producers has caused them to stick around the middle of everything, with a near-.500 record, a decisively mediocre 15 th -place ranking on the ...