The reshaping of baseball this century has pushed more than a few charming and once-common archetypes to the periphery: the slap-hitting infielder, the tinkering top-step manager and, most lamented of all, the workhorse ace. Time was, you could watch Bob Gibson, Roger Clemens or Clayton Kershaw go their eight-plus innings every five days, ignoring pitch […]
If there is one thing we know about hitters vs. pitchers, it is that a hitter’s stats tend to stabilize much more quickly. This means it takes a bit smaller of a sample for us to figure out what to make of their performance. That isn’t to say there is no noise in small samples […]
When May comes around, we can reliably count on at least three things: spring fully blooming, millennials posting a certain Justin Timberlake meme and MLB fans debating whether their new favorite players can maintain their hot starts. The phrase “small sample size” may be as ubiquitous as Mother’s Day cards this time of year, but […]
The first moment the general baseball-watching public knew Miguel Cabrera would be special might have come nearly 20 years ago, in Game 4 of the 2003 National League Division Series. Then a 20-year-old phenom for the Florida Marlins, Cabrera strode to the plate in a clutch situation: tie ballgame, bottom of the eighth inning, two […]
Last year, the Miami Marlins were the biggest surprise in baseball, overcoming modest preseason expectations — and an early season COVID-19 outbreak — to not only make the playoffs, but also win a postseason series. Along the way, they needed breakout performances from pitchers (like Pablo López and Sixto Sánchez) and hitters (like Miguel Rojas […]