Twenty years ago today, I showed up for my first day of work as Bill James' research assistant. I mention this not because I'm particularly sentimental, but because I happened to be reminded of this anniversary last week when I ran across this photo -- that's Oskaloosa, Kansas, and Bill's (and my) office was inside the fourth storefront up from the corner. And it all seems like only yesterday …
• Speaking of Mr. James, here's
the Sports Illustrated story that made him famous … after publication had been delayed for a year or two because SI's fact-checkers just couldn't believe all these crazy things James was saying could possibly be true.
• Statistically Speaking's Brian Cartwright has come up with
a park-adjusted fielding metric and concludes that (among other things)
Manny Ramirez isn't nearly as terrible an outfielder as we thought. I can accept that conclusion -- although of course we always can quibble about the degree -- and I can report that the Red Sox front office never believed Manny was as awful as the numbers seemed to suggest.
• Speaking of Mr. Ramirez, according to
this report, the Giants are "quietly making an aggressive play" for him. But a team spokesman supposedly said, "It's not happening." And the L.A. Times' T.J. Simers suggests the source for the report about Ramirez and the Giants
might be Scott Boras, which of course would put a different cast on things. It would be easier to discount the report if the Giants hadn't signed
Randy Johnson, though.
(H/T: BBTF's
Newsstand)
• Speaking of Mr. Boras, River Ave. Blues says this winter has become
one big test for him.
• Troy Patterson offers a list of hitters who seem to have been
particularly unlucky in 2008. In passing, I'll note that two of the players on the list --
Mark Ellis and
Daric Barton -- are
Oakland Athletics and another --
Jeremy Giambi -- has been discussed as a prospective Athletic. I know the Angels are going to enter this season as prohibitive favorites in the West. Even without
Mark Teixeira. But I'm not quite convinced yet.
• Calling upon the wisdom of the crowd, RotoAuthority asks readers for
sleeper candidates, and among the popular choices are
Max Scherzer,
Nelson Cruz,
Brandon Morrow and
Kevin Slowey. Can't argue with any of those guys.
Rob Neyer
