Corollary to yesterday, when I wrote a whole thing that was about stuff: Sometimes links beg, nay, DEMAND, to be dumped. So that'll still happen sometimes, just less frequently. Sorry, Fangraphs, but I won't be linking to you twice a week because I can't find anything else I like anymore.
Treasurer’s golden-pitch statistic comes out of left field
Here's a stat that I'd never heard of before: the golden pitch. It's a pitch that could decide a World Series for either team, and Madison Bumgarner threw six of them in Game 7. If Sal Perez made an out, the Giants would win. If he homered, the Giants would lose. I've given the matter a lot of consideration, and I think Bumgarner made the right decision in getting him out. I am willing to entertain arguments to the contrary, though. I try to be open-minded.
Winter League Updates
There's a prospect thread going on right now over here (RANKING CHRIS STRATTON OVER BLAKE MILLER? HOW COULD YOU ROGER I THOUGHT YOU WERE COOL), so this seems like a good time to find out how assorted Giants are doing in winter leagues. In case you're too busy to click on anything in this new era of that not happening every day, here's the summary: Some guys are doing well and some are doing badly and it's all a small sample so don't read too much into it.
No excuse for Hall of Fame voters to pass over Pedro Martinez
I, for one, think it's great that there's never been a unanimous selection in Hall of Fame history. What, after all, is the point of the museum if not to serve as a monument to how important baseball writers are? They have to maintain their position, and the best way to do that is to remind the public of their august station in life during every HoF voting season. Sure, there are some few who think that the voting is the important part, and just put check marks next to the most deserving candidates like suckers, but the glorious visionaries who refuse – who go out of their way to tell you why they won't vote for Randy Johnson or whoever – are truly our greatest heroes.
Baseball’s annual PED report has been released
Over almost eight thousand drug tests, twelve resulted in what baseball refers to as "discipline," which means the players had to sit in a corner and think about what they'd done. But it's great that baseball's drug problem has been completely eliminated. Over the course of a few short years, steroids have gone from The Greatest Threat To America to a total non-factor. Players totally don't use steroids anymore, because why would they? They've learned that PEDs are wrong, and therefore have totally stopped looking for ways to beat the system, thus becoming the first generation of baseball players to not try to cheat. Way to make that totally real thing happen, Bud Selig. What a factual accomplishment.
Whatever happened to Wendell Kim? The sad story
I literally can't stop calling him "Wave 'Em In Wendell" in my head, and I'm so, so mad at myself over that.