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Help Pick the Winners of the 2022 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards
The finalists have been announced for the 2022 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards, which will recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year.
Nominations were solicited by representatives from SABR, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, and your very own IBWAA. Here are the finalists for the 2022 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards:
Contemporary Baseball Analysis
Rob Arthur, “Better Defense Is Costing MLB Thousands of Hits,” Baseball Prospectus, June 4, 2021.
Ben Clemens, “Goldilocks and the Three Bunts,” FanGraphs, June 7, 2021.
Karen Gallagher, Scott N. Brooks, Ra Lofton, Luke Brenneman, Field Studies: MLB Manager Hiring Criteria and Career Pathways from 2010-19. Global Sport Institute, October 5, 2021.
Cameron Grove, “Some Games are Harder to Umpire Than Others,” Baseball Prospectus, September 17, 2021.
Eno Sarris, “What is ‘seam-shifted wake’ and which pitchers benefit most from it?,” The Athletic, January 21, 2021.
Contemporary Baseball Commentary
Michael Ajeto, “Major League Baseball Has an Assimilation Problem,” Baseball Prospectus, October 22, 2021.
Stephanie Apstein and Alex Prewitt, “This Should Be the Biggest Scandal in Sports,” Sports Illustrated, June 4, 2021.
Brittany Ghiroli, “Cockroaches, car camping, poverty wages: Why are minor-leaguers living in squalor?,” The Athletic, August 5, 2021.
Craig Goldstein and Patrick Dubuque, “We Need a Restrictor Plate for Pitching,” Baseball Prospectus, May 25, 2021.
Robert O’Connell, “Minor League Baseball is Designed to Exploit,” Defector, September 8, 2021.
Historical Baseball Analysis/Commentary
Bruce Allardice, “Runs, Runs, and More Runs: Pre-Professional Baseball, By the Numbers,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2021.
Emma Baccellieri, “Deadening the Baseball? MLB’s Done It Before,” Sports Illustrated, February 9, 2021.
RJ McDaniel, “Baseball on the Radio, 100 Years Later,” FanGraphs, March 10, 2021.
Lou Moore, “Major League Baseball Had a Chance to Stop the Drain of Black Players From Baseball. It Didn’t.” Global Sport Institute, October 6, 2021.
Andrea Williams, “ ‘We Have No Right to Destroy Them’,” New York Times, April 14, 2021.
Details and criteria for each category can be found here. Only one work per author was considered as a finalist.
Voting for the winners will be conducted online beginning next week at IBWAA.com, as well as SABR.org, BaseballProspectus.com, FanGraphs.com, with results weighted equally at 25 per cent.
Take some time to read up on the finalists’ submissions and be prepared to cast your vote!
Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Nolan Ryan struck out fellow future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, Jr. for the final out of his record seventh no-hitter . . .
Jorge Soler once signed a nine-year contract with the Chicago Cubs . . .
Before Lefty Grove of the Philadelphia Athletics blanked them by a 7-0 score on Aug. 3, 1933, the New York Yankees went 308 games without suffering a shutout . . .
The only catcher of the 20th century who threw out three runners trying to steal second in the same inning was Les Nunamaker of the 1914 Yankees . . .
Cleveland’s Ed Scott beat Washington, 8-7, by pitching a complete game and hitting a game-winning homer in the 10th on Aug. 3, 1901 but never played in the majors again.
Leading Off
What Could They Be Thinking?
By Dan Schlossberg
As a rabid baseball fan who remembers Bud Selig’s press conference that cancelled the 1994 postseason, the news of a Feb. 10 press conference by Rob Manfred inspires a sense of dread.
After all, Manfred is Selig’s hand-picked successor and, like his mentor, is the self-appointed leader of baseball club ownership — rather than a true Commissioner of Baseball whose constituents are the fans, media, executives, owners, uniformed personnel, and everyone whose livelihood depends upon America’s national pastime.
Unlike most of my pressbox colleagues, I am not sympathetic to the players — even though I’m a union guy with liberal tendencies who belonged to the Wire Service Guild during my days as Associated Press Sports Editor for New Jersey.
Most unions, including that one, were helpful to workers who needed it to earn a fair wage plus benefits through collective bargaining.
But there are exceptions — unions that can grow powerful enough to strangle an industry.
That is precisely the case with the Major League Baseball Players Association, which has forced nine work stoppages since 1972 and become so antagonistic to ownership that negotiations have been few and far between since the lockout began Dec. 2.
By far the longest lockout in baseball’s spotty labor history, this one has the potential to exceed the player strike that stopped the game cold over 232 days from Aug. 12, 1994 to March of 1995.
With pitchers and catchers supposed to report less than two weeks from now, I can almost envision a return to the days when teams used “replacement players,” including retirees, retreads, injured players, and walk-ins willing to cross picket lines outside ballparks.
A repeat of that scenario would be reprehensible — with blame due to both sides in this maddening squabble of the rich against the richer.
Owners have already lost money by imposing a lockout during prime time for selling season tickets. They will lose more once they start cancelling exhibition games. And heaven forbid if the March 31 date for starting the season — and the date player paychecks start — comes and goes with no progress at the negotiating table.
In short, what could they be thinking?
Two years after player-owner squabbles whittled the schedule to 60 games, can either or both risk keeping the iron curtain closed again?
How can the union even explain placing Max Scherzer on its eight-man executive committee in the wake of a Mets contract that will pay him $43 million a year to work every fifth day for six months (seven if New York reaches the playoffs)?
How dare the union demand more money for young, unproven players already getting more than a half-million dollars without a shred of major-league experience?
Yes, the average player career in short. But the average salary of $4 million is long — and it doesn’t take long to reach an arbitration process tilted totally in favor of the players.
For fans, minor-league baseball will have to suffice. Minor-leaguers, usually invited to camp on March 1, will be called in early and will have access to major-league coaching staffs at regular team facilities. The Triple-A season has even been expanded to 150 games and extended through September.
In previous labor wars, minor-league baseball was even shown on national television. Well, at least it’s better than football.
On a weekend that features Hank Aaron’s birthday tomorrow and Babe Ruth’s Sunday, I wish the news could be better. But the nuclear winter imposed by Rob Manfred & Co. has a nasty half-life with no expiration date in sight and way too much fallout to forget.
If attendance suffers a hit, the people who run and play baseball will have brought it on themselves.
A baseball purist, Dan Schlossberg has never seen a Super Bowl, Final Four, Indy 500, or Stanley Cup playoff. He says the only thing worse than the baseball off-season is one compounded by a labor war. See his work at www.DanSchlossberg.net or Tweet him @braves1.
Cleaning Up
How Well Do You Remember The 2021 Season?
By Dan Schlossberg
To see how good your baseball memory is, take this true-false test of events from last season. Answers at the end.
True or False? Jorge Soler was the first person to lead off a World Series with a home run.
True or False? Mike Shildt was a finalist for NL Manager of the Year when he was fired by the St. Louis Cardinals.
True or False? No players were chosen for the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2021 by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
True or False? The Yankees won the first Field of Dreams Game by beating the Chicago White Sox with a ninth-inning home run into the cornfield.
True or False? Thanks to hitter-friendly Coors Field, the two leagues combined for a record number of runs in the 2021 All-Star Game.
True or False? Jose Altuve was the only member of the Houston Astros who homered in the last World Series.
True or False? Chris Taylor hit more home runs in a 2021 postseason game than any other player.
True or False? Charlie Morton retired three Houston Astros hitters after breaking his leg in the World Series opener.
True or False? Noah Syndergaard’s only decision for the Mets was a loss on the last day of the season.
True or False? Eddie Rosario needed only five pitches to hit for the cycle.
ANSWERS: The first three questions are true. Questions 4 and 5 are not; the White Sox won the Field of Dreams with a walk-off homer and the leagues managed a puny seven runs in the Denver All-Star Game.
Altuve homered twice for the Astros, whose bats went silent in a six-game World Series defeat against Atlanta. Taylor’s three-homer game against the Braves in the NLCS was not enough to save the Dodgers but was the best one-game home run performance of the post-season.
After he was hit by a line-drive, Morton struggled on valiantly, retiring three Astros before the pain became unbearable. Syndergaard, recuperating from Tommy John surgery, went 0-1 in his final Mets season before jumping to the Angels via free agency. And Rosario did indeed hit for the cycle on five pitches, which just might have been a major-league record (if anyone keeps track of such things).
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ has been writing and talking baseball for more than 50 years. The author of 40 books, he covers the game for forbes.com, Latino Sports, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Ball Nine, and more. He answers all email sent to ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Jo Lasorda once said to husband Tommy, “You love baseball more than you love me.” He said, “Yeah, but I love you more than football and basketball.”
Fourteen years after hitting “the shot heard ‘round the world,” Bobby Thomson hit another home run for the Giants against the Dodgers – but at Shea Stadium rather than the Polo Grounds. It thrilled 40,603 fans who saw a two-inning Old Timers Game pitting former New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers on July 24, 1965. The victim was Van Lingle Mungo . . .
Mets manager Casey Stengel wore an old Brooklyn Dodgers uniform for Old Timers Day at Shea Stadium on July 24, 1965. That same day, Dodger great Don Newcombe wore a Brooklyn cap but Mets uniform (no Dodger uniform fit), while ex-Giant Davey (Beauty) Bancroft wore old-fashioned flannels with GIANTS in red letters across his chest, American flags on both sleeves, and stars on both sides of the high collar. He said the uniform was worn by teams that barnstormed through Europe in 1924 . . .
Dave Parker once said trying to hit Phil Niekro’s knuckleball was like trying to drink coffee with a fork . . .
Although wartime travel restrictions forced cancellation of the 1945 All-Star Game, the clever Baltimore Orioles hosted a two-inning contest involving many of those players 21 years later. On Shrine of the Immortals Night on July 24, 1965, 30,163 watched the NL beat the AL, 1-0.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Brian Harl [bchrom831@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.