What Makes an Elite Reliever?
The 2016 MLB Playoffs may be remembered for the Chicago Cubs finally breaking the curse, but for many baseball fans including myself, it will be known for changing the way we view a bullpen. In recent seasons, ...
Evaluating Zach Britton’s Cy Young Chances
A common take that has been spreading around the internet is that Baltimore Orioles closer Zach Britton should be included in the American League Cy Young Award talks due his sheer dominance this season. Lookin...
2016 RWAR Update
During the 2015 season, I debuted a metric I coined RWAR (Relief Pitcher WAR), which uses RE24 and leverage index to determine the most valuable relief pitchers in terms of a standard WAR scale. The article in ...
Fixing Liam Hendriks
To very little fanfare this offseason, the Oakland Athletics acquired Liam Hendriks from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Jesse Chavez. Hendriks was once a below-average starter for the Minnesota Twins and...
Evaluating Antonio Bastardo
Prior to their signing of Yoenis Cespedes several weeks back, the New York Mets were having a rather quiet off-season. Despite losing postseason hero Daniel Murphy, their only moves were several depth signing p...
Does Velocity Impact Reliever Success?
All throughout baseball, the trend has been that pitchers are throwing harder and harder. The average fastball according to Pitch f/x in 2015 was 92.4 MPH, the highest value of the Pitch f/x era (2007-present)....
What to do with Wilmer Flores?
This offseason has been a relatively quiet one for the New York Mets. While many other teams are making big splashes, the Mets have made minor moves re-signing Jerry Blevins and Bartolo Colon, signing Asdrubal ...
Should the Yankees trade Mark Teixeira?
Back before the 2009 season, the New York Yankees signed Mark Teixeira to an eight-year, $180 million deal. The deal has been a relatively good one for New York, as Tex has posted a 19.4 WAR over the first seve...
How Have David Price’s Historical Comps Aged?
David Price has reportedly agreed to sign with the Boston Red Sox for a record-setting deal worth a total of $217 million over seven seasons. For many around the baseball world the immediate reaction is that th...
Mychal Givens: Finding Potential Relief Aces, Part Two
A few weeks back, I wrote a piece outlining why I thought Carter Capps has the makings of an elite relief pitcher. This week I am taking my second crack at finding a player who has the makeup to dominate in the...