Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 18, 2016

MLB Reports

Lionsgate – Millenium Films

Lots of players are still available as free agents.

Maybe they should team up and create a renegade team like The Expendables.

It is a “Loner Gun For Hire” episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.

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A Look at the Tigers’ 5th Starter Battle

It’s starting to get exciting over at the ballpark

The weather has been cool, wet and windy here in SW Florida since the calendar rolled over to 2016 but the last few days have been sunny and in the mid 70’s here and the population of Twins players and Twins wannabees is growing by the day. I stopped by the  CenturyLink Sports Complex again yesterday and was surprised at how many players had already shown up and how many fans were out watching the players go through their paces.

                                   Max Kepler

The players that show up this early come and go, some show up every day and others show up now and then. Miguel Sano was out here on  my first visit but I have not seen him the last two times I have been out here. Yesterday I saw Max Kepler for the first time this spring and he said that he just arrived the day before. I was shocked when I first saw Max because he was not the baby-faced player I had gotten used to seeing, he was sporting a beard and mustache or maybe I should say he was trying to grow a beard.

You can read the rest of the article where it was originally posted at Twinstrivia.com.

MLB Reports Placed Bets: Gambling 101 In 2016

I take my betting style from a philosophy used from a few decades of research. This book was one of the templates followed for success.

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_hunter21

Follow The BBBA On Twitter Follow @baseballblogs

So I have let my profits ride on this winter heading into futures betting in 2016 MLB.  I thought I would take you into a little look on what I have thrown down so far.

In 2014, I made 3 over/under selections (Washington over 91.5 wins, Kansas City over 81.5 Wins, and the Padres under 79.5 wins).  Made a nice profit of a few hundred dollars for that.

For my initial World Series picks I wagered the Rangers, Rays but I was smart enough to take a +2500 preseason SF Giants selection.

Halfway through the season I plunked down some money on the Royals when they were near .500, talking of firing Ned Yost, and running at an +8000 odd to win the World Series.

I also was able to win money on the Orioles for the AL East Division, and at +5000 to win the World Series, I was able to hedge bet both KC and BAL in the 1st round of the postseason, and also the World Series.

Foul Ball Rates Jumped in 1999-2000: Are Maple Bats the Reason?

The most recent updates to the historical foul ball rates (four more seasons worth of data has been added—updates to missing games and teams as well as three more full seasons) show the three foul ball increase discussed in an earlier post becoming more pronounced.

What is also interesting with the updated numbers, retrieved from retrosheet.org, is the growing difference in rates between the American League and the National League. The AL out paces the NL by .68 foul balls more per game. This is the equivalent of about 1650 more balls per season in the American League.

 

1999 and 2000 Account for 99% of Foul Ball Rate Increase

The updated data (the addition of about four more seasons of information) didn’t significantly change the historical 47.7 foul balls per game rate, but it does show that starting in the 1999 season and through 2000, foul rates in the AL jumped to over 48 balls per game. The frequency of foul balls in the AL leaped 1.23 balls in 1999 from the previous year which had seen a minor dip in foul ball production. The AL rate add another .95 in 2000 before appearing to level off over the next decade and a half. In a matter of just two seasons, the American League saw an overall increase of 2.18 balls per game. When 2001 is thrown into the calculations, the AL frequency jumped 2.68 balls per game in only three years. Since interleague play started, there has only been a three ball increase in both leagues, and a 2.33 balls per game increase in the AL; this constitutes a .233 increase in fouls between 1997 and 2014. These three years account for the entire jump in foul ball rates over the 10 years of data collected to this point since the start of interleague games.

READ the rest at FoulBallz.com

Perhaps It Is Time For The MLB To Adopt The Boomerang Concept For Drafting Rounds

The MLB should consider doing what all ‘even level playing field’ sports pools do and that is to use the boomerang method of each draft round. A team that drafts 1st in round one would draft last in round 2, before picking 1st in round 3 again and so forth. It wouldn’t alleviate tanking altogether – with the best talent still being absorbed in the top 10 most times, but it would level out the middle rounds for sure.

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_hunter21

Follow The BBBA On Twitter Follow @baseballblogs

We have all gone into pools/player drafts where we drew the worst card possible and then picked last.  To offset the sting of this a lot – in the ‘interest of fairness’, the draft worked like a boomerang.

If there are 30 guys picking, the 30th guy picks the last selection in the 1st round, but then he is able to pick 1st in the 2nd round.  Maybe it is time for the MLB to take this action for its Amateur Draft each year?

There has been so much talk about tanking by the teams like Phillies, Braves, Reds, Brewers, Padres and Rockies all following the path paved by the Cubs, Astros, Royals, Pirates, Nationals, Rays and Twins in yesteryear.

KC and Pittsburgh both had 2 decades of shame before they turned their franchises around to respectability.  The Rays (once named the Devil Rays) failed to top 72 wins for the first 9 seasons since their inception to the MLB in 1998. before showcasing 80 wins for every year since 2008.