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John Dewan's Stat of the Week
Top ten reasonsto like what the Cubs are doing this winter
January 07, 2009 #10—Dollars. Let’s look at the three big recent deals the Cubs have made taken together: Jason Marquis to the Rockies for reliever Luis Vizcaino. The Cubs rid themselves of $9 million of Marquis' $10 million salary. Acquired three rookie pitching prospects for infielder Mark DeRosa. The Cubs save $5 million of [...]
Thanksgiving in Chicago
November 26, 2008 Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. A big THANK YOU from me to you for reading Stat of the Week. Each week I do a Stat of the Week radio segment on WSCR—670 The Score in Chicago. Ninety percent of the time I focus on the Chicago teams. For my web and email Stat of [...]
Michael Young, Gold Glove shortstop?
November 18, 2008 Michael Young was the other big surprise winner of a Gold Glove in 2008 (see last week's Stat of the Week about Nate McLouth). Here's what we had to say about Young in The Fielding Bible three years ago: "Before switching over to shortstop, Young had a reputation as an excellent defensive second [...]
Who are the Fielding Bible Award winners for 2008?
October 30, 2008 Three strikes and you're out. But three wins of a Fielding Bible Award puts you in pretty exclusive company. How does it feel, Albert, to belong to a club that has only you as a member? The 2008 Fielding Bible Awards have been officially announced and Albert Pujols has won his third-straight [...]
Have the home run parks changed in the last five years?
November 06, 2008 The very first Stat of the Week on www.StatOfTheWeek.com looks at the easiest and toughest home run parks in baseball five years ago. Let's take a look if it's changed much in the last five years. We'll use park indices again (as shown in The Bill James Handbook 2009). The easiest park five [...]
Which is the best situation to score?
December 03, 2008 You're the manager of a major league baseball team in 2008 and you have a choice to make. Which of the following situations would you prefer? Man on first and third, two outs Man on first, one out A clean slate—no one on, no outs Based on all the events that [...]
Is scoring lower in the postseason?
October 15, 2008 Yes, but not as much as the TV and radio guys might lead you to believe. I was just recently at our offices in Pennsylvania working with the staff there to prepare The Bill James Handbook 2009. Steve Moyer, the president of Baseball Info Solutions, and I were discussing the playoffs. We both [...]
Who are the best teams in this year's playoffs?
October 01, 2008 Everyone has their own opinion to offer on this topic. A lot of folks favor the upstart Tampa Bay Rays. Look what can happen when you take the "Devil" out of the team? Others favor the Los Angeles Angels who are the only 100-win team this year. The best story would be the [...]
Is it easy to score a runner from third with less than two outs?
September 25, 2008 It's one of the more frustrating things to watch as a fan. There's a runner on third with one out. There's a million ways to score him. And the batter strikes out. Or pops out. All he needed was a little single. Or a medium flyball. Or even a squib grounder. Geez Louise! [...]
Who are the best fielding pitchers?
September 18, 2008 Greg Maddux has won the National League Gold Glove Award for pitchers in 17 of the last 18 years. The American League Award has gone to Kenny Rogers in five of the last eight years. But are they truly the best fielding pitchers in baseball? Were they really the best in each and [...]