If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve heard a scout, general manager or talk-radio yakker call somebody a “five-tool player.” The label promises that a player can do nearly everything — hit for average, hit for power, run, throw and field — better than most. While the tools don’t capture everything about being a good player, the more tools a […]
If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve heard a scout, general manager or talk-radio yakker call somebody a “five-tool player.” The label promises that a player can do nearly everything — hit for average, hit for power, run, throw and field — better than most. While the tools don’t capture everything about being a good player, the more tools a […]
Two weeks ago, ESPN released its “Baseball Tonight” (BBTN) 100, a player ranking based on votes from a panel of 40 experts. The panelists graded each of a group of 277 players on a 0-100 scale and then ranked them accordingly. For instance, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels topped the list with a […]
Two weeks ago, ESPN released its “Baseball Tonight” (BBTN) 100, a player ranking based on votes from a panel of 40 experts. The panelists graded each of a group of 277 players on a 0-100 scale and then ranked them accordingly. For instance, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels topped the list with a […]
After we broke down the voting data on ESPN’s MLB Forecast results last week, an alert FiveThirtyEight reader, Andrew Jondahl, pointed out something weird in the panel’s predictions. Andrew noticed that — from last season to this one — no team was projected to move more than one spot in its division. Such little movement […]
