TBO_Rays
@TBO_Rays
#Rays DFA OF Russ Canzler to clear room on the 40-man for Keppinger.
Well there goes any talk of him being on the opening day roster.
It's O-fficial. FYI--the @jeffkeppinger account was a fake. RT @rayspressbox: RAYS SIGN JEFF KEPPINGER TO ONE-YEAR CONTRACT— Jonathan Gantt (@Jonathan_Gantt) January 27, 2012
I've come up with a new, extremely complex statistic that I think will revolutionize baseball.
Let me go over how to calculate this statistic. Bear with me for a moment folks because it gets a little messy. First, you look at all the times a hitter comes up to bat. Give the hitter one point for every time they get on base by hitting the ball, except if the scorer feels like the fielder *probably* should've made the play (they get a point if the fielder is too lazy or inept to make it to the ball on time though). That's right, this statistic gives equal credit for home runs and singles, even though about 70% of the time a batter hits a single, he won't score, but a home run guarantees one run at minimum. We also don't give hitters any points for walking, because frankly, it's boring to watch, and who wants to tire out opposing pitchers and create run scoring opportunities anyways?
Then we divide the number of points accrued by the number of opportunities a batter has to get points, except we ignore some of these opportunities. Walks didn't count for anything at the beginning, so there's no reason to start counting them now, it's just easier to pretend they didn't happen. We WILL, however, count errors as opportunities, because even though the hitter succeeded in every way by getting on base, advancing runners, and not making outs... well we'll still hold it against them. If the hitter gets out but advances a baserunner, then we also don't count it as an opportunity, but only if the hitter did it on purpose, or if it's a fly out that leads to a run scoring. Ground outs that "accidentally" lead to a run scoring count as opportunities. The scorer will judge how pure the batter's heart was to decide if it was intentional or not.
To recap:
"Points"=Times on Base-BB-HBP-FC-RBOE-Dropped 3rd Strike-CI-SH
"Opportunities"=Plate Appearances-BB-HBP-SH-SF-RBOE-FC-Dropped 3rd Strike-CI-SH
Now to calculate this ground-breaking statistic, we divide the number of "Points" by "Opportunities". I shall call this "the batting average".
Rays Talk
First up, I'm late getting to this story, but the Florida legislature has uncovered an old law that requires publicly-financed sports stadiums to serve as homeless shelters while not in use. They're attempting to push a measure through that would enforce said law while also tacking on some extra provisions -- one of which includes fines a team for blackouts. If the bill passed, any stadium that hasn't been operating a homeless shelter while receiving public money would have to pay back millions of dollars.
I doubt anything comes of this, as it seems like a lot of grandstanding. But still...might Maddon get inspired to take his Thanksmas idea to a whole new level?
Jeff Keppinger has been talked about in these parts an insane amount these past couple days -- Spring Training can't come soon enough -- but there are another couple good pieces on him if you haven't already hit your #KeppTalk quota. Bradley Woodrum tackled how he fits in on the Rays current roster over at FanGraphs, and the tossed around the idea that signing Kepp could open the door for a trade of B.J. Upton.
And finally:
New #Rays reliever Fernando Rodney was wretched tonight for Leones del Escogido in DR:0.1 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 4 ER, 1 K, BS Yuck.
— John Gregg (@RaysDigest) January 27, 2012
It's only one game. It's only one game. It's only one game....
MLB Chatter
Prince Fielder's new contract has already had one great side-effect: it has served as inspiration for many of us writers who were struggling to come up with interesting things to write about. Jay Jaffe took a look at how the Tigers new infield will shake out defensively (hint: quite poorly), and the BP staff uncovered an old article from 2007 on the "worst contracts" in baseball.
What would it take for the Washington Nationals to sign Ryan Zimmerman to an extension? Wendy Thurm takes a look.
So remember that monstrosity of a home run feature that's going to be in the Marlins' new ballpark? It's under construction, and apparently it's massive.
Thanks to Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) for tweeting out the full list. You can find this list in the Baseball America Prospect Handbook:
So Josh Sale and Robinson Chirinos both didn't make the list. Any other notable omissions or odd rankings that you notice?
There wasn't much that happened in the baseball world yesterday, so this is going to be a short Tank. Jeff Keppinger was one of the biggest news stories of the day, so that should tell you something.
What was a rumor as early as last week gained steam yesterday afternoon and was finally completed very late yesterday, pending the required physical per ESPN's Jerry Crasnick. We know that Andrew Friedman loves to do work in January, but potentially making two moves official in the same week is a breakneck pace for him after a December that seemed like it was 57 days long.
Let's assume that passing the physical is as routine as accepting a four-pitch intentional walk and look at why the Rays were interested in acquiring a player that will be playing for his sixth major league team in eight seasons of professional baseball.
This was slightly surprising to see, given that prospectors generally seem to favor Harper or Trout, but there's no question Matt's deserving. Also on the list: Hak-Ju Lee at 46, Chris Archer at 74, Tim Beckham at 92, Mikie Mahtook at 96, and Taylor Guerrieri at 99.
