Is Aroldis Chapman The Greatest Left-Handed Reliever Ever?

My parents don’t like Aroldis Chapman. They’re devout Yankee fans, but every time he enters the game, they expect him to blow it. Whenever he fails to record an immaculate inning, they cry out with exasperation. “Here we go again!”

Beyond The Boxscore

An Amazing Performance By Dazzy Vance Vs. Cardinals

Combining an effective hitting stroke with a strikeout pitch that dazzled a lineup stacked with fellow future Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby, Jim Bottomley and Chick Hafey, Dazzy Vance gave one of the best individual performances all-time against the Cardinals.

RetroSimba

The Hall Of wWAR: Pitchers

It's here! The last installment of Hall of wWAR series. The conversion from the Hall of Fame to the Hall of wWAR involved kicking 66 of the 206 members of the Hall of Fame out and replacing them with new, more deserving players. That means 32.0% of this new Hall is not in the old one. 19 of the 66 newcomers (28.8%) are pitchers.

Beyond The Boxscore

wWAR II: The Pitchers List

Yesterday, I posted rankings of all Hall of Fame position players by Weighted WAR (wWAR), with this year's Hall of Fame ballot mixed in for some perspective. Wait, what's wWAR again?

Beyond The Boxscore

Career Leaders In Wins Above MVP Level (WAM), Pitchers

A little while back, I published the career leaders in Wins Above MVP Level (WAM) among position players. Let's take a look at the career leaders for pitchers.

Beyond The Boxscore

Land Of 10,000 Coincidences

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column for THT titled "Land of 1,000 coincidences." Based on Burt Solomon's book Baseball Timeline and a collection of historic dates I had on hand, that article noted occasions when something interesting happened in the world of baseball and the real world at the same time. (Advance warning: there is a chance that some of the dates from my file might be a little off. As far as I know they're correct, but I rarely double-check them.)

The Hardball Times

The Big Red One

Most ballplayers have rather predictable careers: arrive, improve, plateau, decline, and depart. They rarely ever perfectly follow the script each season of their career, but the general trend is unmistakable.

The Hardball Times

Prospectus Hit & Run: The Pitchers

Finally, we come to the pitchers on the BBWAA ballot for the Hall of Fame, a mercifully short list this time around, featuring four holdovers and three newcomers. Among this group, Bert Blyleven is the standout, and while he's certainly no lock to gain election this time around, he jumped to nearly 62 percent in last year's vote, suggesting that the work done by statheads here and elsewhere to boost his candidacy is finally getting through to the voters.

Baseball Prospectus