Nothing preoccupies players, managers and fans during the postseason like an umpire’s strike-zone judgment. While there’s plenty of outcry over balls and strikes in the regular season too, the stakes are much higher — and the complaints correspondingly louder — when an entire championship can hang on one errant call. But although this year’s playoffs […]
Baseball is, fundamentally, a game of probabilities — measurable probabilities. We can estimate the likelihood that a player will get a hit based on all kinds of factors — whether he bats right- or left-handed, whether the pitcher is right- or left-handed, the size of the ballpark, the quality of the defense on the field, […]
Baseball is, fundamentally, a game of probabilities — measurable probabilities. We can estimate the likelihood that a player will get a hit based on all kinds of factors — whether he bats right- or left-handed, whether the pitcher is right- or left-handed, the size of the ballpark, the quality of the defense on the field, […]
There are two ways of looking at Tuesday night’s American League wild card playoff game between the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics. If you’re a Royals fan — or a fan of baseball in general, with no real stake in the outcome — it was an instant classic. If you’re an A’s fan, though, […]
There are two ways of looking at Tuesday night’s American League wild card playoff game between the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics. If you’re a Royals fan — or a fan of baseball in general, with no real stake in the outcome — it was an instant classic. If you’re an A’s fan, though, […]
