Happy birthday, Barry Bonds! You're the greatest! I say "you're" because I know Barry is reading this link dump on his birthday. How else would he be celebrating? With a Kickstarted statue of himself? Don't be silly.
San Francisco Giants need Buster Posey to be a superstar
Do you remember 2012? I know there's not a lot that happened that year for Giants fans to fondly recall and occasionally mock Mat Latos about, but Buster Posey actually won multiple awards that year for being so good at baseball. In this article, Jerry Crasnick argues that an excellent performance from Buster Posey, such as the one from 2012, is essential for the Giants to win the NL West. Now, I ain't no fancy number-cruncher, but my instincts tell me that this point is right on.
The Argyled One looks at which teams' hitters have benefited and been hurt by opposing catchers framing pitches. The Giants grade out as a little fortunate in this area, with 26 fewer strikes called against them than the system shows there should have been. So if you have friends who root for some other team, and they tell you that the Giants success is based entirely on luck, this study proves them absolutely right. No talent gap can overcome 26 strikes, and the team should probably disband out of courtesy.
BP Unfiltered: The Baseball Fan's Guide to the Summer of New Yorker
The New Yorker has opened its archives for the summer, So if you wanted to read Malcolm Gladwell's 2006 masterpiece "How Practice And Talent Lead Baseball Players To Success Except When They Don't" or the 7,000 words Garrison Keillor wrote about America's folksiest baseball team (the Pilgrimville Country Boys, fyi), this guide will help you get started.
Arizona Diamondbacks must ask: Is bad pitching luck really about luck?
What is it about Diamondback incompetence that lends itself to such glorious schadenfreude? Is it the 2001 championship that they bought three years after coming into the league? Is it Kevin Towers's pursuit of being the most unlikable GM in baseball through relentlessly catty comments and demands that his pitchers throw at batters? Is it the overhyped grit fetish that Kirk Gibson probably pays a dominatrix to see to, or a Diamondback blogger celebrating Buster Posey getting injured, or just the mere fact that Arizona is awful? Yes. Yes, it is.
Why going all out for the second wild card spot just doesn't make sense
Apparently, it's a bad idea for AL teams in the hunt for the second wild card to make big trades. I agree. They shouldn't sell the farm for David Price or Ben Zobrist. If the price for either of them happens to come down as a result of less teams being involved, making it cheaper for the Giants to acquire them, that would be a bonus. But that's not why I'm advocating this. No, it's all because of the analysis or whatever in this link. Listen to that. And stuff.