No postseason shutout for Verlander this time, either.

Home-field advantage? What home-field advantage?

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I see that Wash is sticking with Michael Young….

I’m creating a page for each WC game so we can keep the talk somewhat organized. Here’s video of the controversial infield fly call. (Link works now — sorry, MLB changed it on the fly.)

I tried to be clever with the title of the Angels all-time team post, but I’m not even going to attempt that here.

How would that go? The All-Time Brooklyn/Los Angeles Atlantics/Grays/Grooms/Bridegrooms/Superbas/Robins/Dodgers Team?

Anyway, I want to make the point that this, and every other post in this series, is an all-time team considering the entire history of the franchise. In this case, that dates all the way back to the 1884 Brooklyn Atlantics.

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Perhaps the most fascinating of this year’s award debates is the National League Cy Young race. Johnny Cueto, RA Dickey, Gio Gonzalez, and Clayton Kershaw all have compelling cases, and if voters are looking for dominance over accumulated value, Ar

oldis Chapman, Craig Kimbrel, Kris Medlen, and Stephen Strasburg are worth discussing as well.

A quick look at fangraphs’ pitching WAR leaderboard suggests that Cliff Lee may have a place in this conversation as well. Lee ranks third in fWAR, just .6 wins behind Kershaw and .5 behind Gonzalez. Baseball-reference ranks Lee eighth, bunched up with five other pitchers behind Kershaw, Cueto, and Dickey at the top. After the jump, I’ll examine 12 candidates based on some key numbers.

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The 2011 card image on the left identifies Omar Vizquel as a third baseman. Vizquel, though, wrapped up his 24-year career this week as the all-time leader in games played at shortstop, a mark that Derek Jeter may surpass in 2014 or later. Over his career, Vizquel has competed against rival shortstops ranging from Alan Trammell to Elvis Andrus. Among all those opponents, I was curious which one, paired with Vizquel, represented the most combined game experience ever at the position.

After the jump, I’ll look at the question of which historical games featured  starters having the most combined games experience at each position.

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@Athletics 12, Rangers 5: The turnabout’s complete. Call it comeback or collapse, the AL West is draped in gold and green. Trailing Texas by 9 at the Break, and by 4 with 6 to play after a split in Arlington, Oakland won out, while the mighty Rangers — two-time AL champs, preseason favorites, alone in 1st from April 9 through October 1 — lost 5 of 6, and went 15-16 from September 1.

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In the wake of last night’s sterling hurling by the O’s and Rays, here’s a look back at the six previous Baltimore games in which both teams had 2 hits or less. (Why Baltimore games? Well, I could bluster, “Because history is written by the winners!” Or I could just note that Tuesday’s was the first such game in Tampa history.)

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Curt Schilling rates as the 16th best pitcher of all time, according to wWAR. (Photo via Wikipedia)

Last month, I asked you to talk about David Cone, a pitcher who my latest version of wWAR (weighted WAR) deems as Hall-worthy. What makes Cone unique is that he accumulated quite a bit of value in a limited amount of time. It’s not that he didn’t have a long career—it’s just that injuries limited the number of innings he threw.

For example, Cone ranks 50th all time in Wins Above Replacement but 40th all time in Wins Above Average. So, he didn’t last forever and pad his numbers, but he still provided value above average on par with many all-time greats.

Today I want to talk about somebody who is similar to Cone, but takes things to a whole new level.

Let’s talk about Curt Schilling.

Curt Schilling is a polarizing figure. There’s the bloody sock. There’s 38 Studios. There’s the outspokeness. There’s the postseason dominance.

DId I mention the bloody sock? Continue reading →