The Pastime

It hardly seems like a year has passed since I first wondered about optimizing lineups after reading an interesting article by Cyril Morong at Beyond the Boxscore on the value of spots in the lineup.
I couldn’t have predicted the avalanche that I’d help create, after my work was noticed by Ken Arneson, and then David […]

The A’s have apparently given up on trying to sign Darin Erstad.
I’ve mentioned how I’m torn on this issue, being an A’s fan from Nebraska, but I’m more relieved than saddened by the news.
The A’s, thought to be a front-runner for Erstad, no longer are bidding for the free agent, FOXSports.com has learned.
The team, after […]

According to the experts at Baseball America, Nebraska has really risen to national prominence since the onset of the 64 team field in 1999.
Unsurprisingly, Texas is ranked #1, with Miami, Stanford, Cal State Fullerton and Rice rounding out the top five.
If you’re a BA subscriber, you can see the complete rankings with stats here. In […]

The only real news from the Fremont City Council meeting that A’s managing owner Lew Wolff attended on Tuesday night was bad news. No, the A’s aren’t being contracted in a surprise preemptive strike by Bud Selig. And no, Billy Beane didn’t sign Darin Erstad.
The bad news comes via the authoritative New A’s Ballpark Blog. […]

Oakland has locked up four more players that were arbitration eligible. Joe Kennedy, Milton Bradley, Kiko Calero and Marco Scutaro are now all signed up for the 2007 season. Here’s a rundown:
Joe Kennedy - $2.8 million
Kennedy comes into 2007 as a top candidate for the #5 spot in the rotation. He’s been effective but not […]

Up until now, I’ve been using OpenOffice’s built in graphing feature to produce the many graphs I’ve posted on The Pastime. It’s kind of a hassle, but one that I’m used to.
I got an email earlier today from the guy who runs Swivel.com, telling me that he’d borrowed some of the data I’d used for […]