March 2009

  • POTD Yu Darvish

    By jemanji on 3/24/09 9:17pm
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    Yu Darvish, as an amateur, was sort of the Japanese version of Stephen Strasburg, though a high-schooler.  He threw a no-hitter for famed Tohoku High, in general had super results ... more to the point, he is unusually tall and strong for a Japanese youngster (Darvish's father is Iranian) and was lighting up the radar guns in a way very seldom seen there.

    He also seems to have something of a rebel-without-a-cause persona, is good-looking and stylish, and has the mystique to go with the electric arm.  Some Japanese seem look to Darvish as a type of savior of NPB popularity in the midst of the emigrations, sort of like Americans looked to Kobe and LeBron to resuscitate a lull after Michael Jordan.

    ................

    Perhaps the MLB team most interested in Darvish has been the LA Angels.  Trey Hillman, an American coach expert in both MLB, and NPB, said,

    "How good do I think he can be? I think he can be the best in the world.

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  • 2 for $45M - Disposable Income?

    By jemanji on 3/19/09 7:06am
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    $22.5M for Manny? Well, sure, if he's worth 40-50 runs ...

    JedC, after THT's fine article, pointed out a critical factor in the free-agent signing process:

    There is a great article over at The Hardball Times by Dave Studeman that includes some analysis on Replacement Level Players, why RLP analysis isn’t appropriate for evaluating Free Agents, $ value per win, looking at the $ value based on how a player was acquired, and more. I’ve pasted the key findings below and hopefully the link actually work. By the way, I’m going to post the link at USSM to see what their thoughts on the article are.

    http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/net-win-shares-value-2006/

    For every win above a bench player from a player making the minimum (essentially, first- and second-year players) teams pay essentially nothing (because the system assumes that an average bench player makes the minimum salary.

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