Show #172: Interview with Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus
Kevin talks about his Top 11 Braves prospects and the minor league system. And Spring Training story lines.
163 Responses to “Show #172: Interview with Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus”
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Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 » Show All
March 1st, 2012 at 7:42 pm
125 – absolutely. One thing this added team does is to make it more important to win your division. More important now than since the wild card was introduced.
March 1st, 2012 at 9:43 pm
The silence is deafening, so I’m either being a loud-mouthed bore or my angle is just too sour for the group. I’ll withdraw my cynicism, then. Mainly because I remember how infuriating it was to me when I would feel optimistic to have some ass going all doom and gloom.
I wish, though, I could go back and respond differently to pessimistic commenters now that the shoe is on the other foot. I always thought they were just joyless curmudgeons whose personal issues controlled their fandom. Now I think a pessimistic fandom is no more likely to be steered by personal issues than an optimistic one. Balanced or unbalanced minds can probably be optimistic or pessimistic.
At least I can say for sure unbalanced minds can be either. If Stevie ever becomes pessimistic (and will stick with it for more than a minute!) we can conclude the same for balanced folks.
Curt only proves that pessimistic people can be pessimistic.
Am I spelling that right? It looks wrong. Pessimistic. Pessimistic. I dunno…
March 1st, 2012 at 9:53 pm
What was the middle part?
March 1st, 2012 at 10:21 pm
On March 1 of every year, every fan is an optimist (well, almost every fan) and every team has the hopes of a better season. It’s the wonderful part of baseball! 6 weeks from now, we can rip on Fredi and the laggards.
March 1st, 2012 at 10:30 pm
heh, I was finishing that post up when a friend called my cell phone, and so I submitted it before making sure it wasn’t impossibly stupid. I’ll just be over here in the corner.
(Go ahead and say it: “your friend must call you a lot.”)
March 1st, 2012 at 11:03 pm
Bub – be as pessimistic as you want. I just think it’s a tough time of the year to get a lot of support about it.
I, on the other hand, am only consistenly pessimistic about Constanza.
March 1st, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Check out my interview at http://www.nysportscookie.com/ where I preview the upcoming season.
March 1st, 2012 at 11:39 pm
Great quick blog from Craig Calcaterra on the expanded playoffs:
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/01/quote-of-the-day-the-expanded-playoffs-arent-fair/
March 1st, 2012 at 11:44 pm
Bub, read this.
http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2012/02/29/atlanta-as-the-most-miserable-sports-city-guilty-as-charged/
March 1st, 2012 at 11:56 pm
Steve, nice job
March 2nd, 2012 at 9:05 am
Steve – agreed, nice job. When I mis-read the tweet about it, I thought you had interviewed Peter Moylan and was jazzed that he asked you to call him Pete.
March 2nd, 2012 at 10:02 am
Anne, Curt – thanks.
March 2nd, 2012 at 11:47 pm
Watching the weather…everybody safe? Speak to me!
March 3rd, 2012 at 12:36 pm
A couple of things on my mind today as Spring Training gets underway…
- It’s no secret that last year’s offense was awful, especially in September. Reasons it could be better this year: a healthy Prado and a healthy Heyward. But, perhaps even more than that, would be if McCann and Uggla — two guys in the middle of the lineup — can both be consistent at the same time. Last year, Uggla had a terrible first half while McCann was having an excellent, MVP-calibre first half. Then they were both good for a period of about 3 weeks in the middle of the season. Then McCann had a terrible second half while Uggla was having an excellent, MVP-calibre second half.
- Expanded playoffs: I’ll hold my opinion until I see if it helps the Braves win the World Series. If it helps, it’s the best rule ever made. If it hinders the Braves from winning, it’s the worst.
Seriously though, I wish that MLB had restructured the playoffs in a way that made sense. Two leagues, top 4 (or 5, if they want 10 playoff teams) teams from each league making the playoffs. Get rid of the uneven divisions and make sure that only the best teams make the playoffs.
This one-game Wild Card thing seems to place too much importance on a single game, especially when all of the other postseason series are 5-7 games. They’re effectively creating a Game 163 every single year — and I’m not sure that that’s the best way to go about it. Theoretically, there could be a huge gap between the two teams in their win totals. What if one team has 90+ wins and the other is in the mid-80s? I know that the 90+ win team *should* win, but anything can happen in one game. The playoffs are enough of a crapshoot to begin with — and wasn’t the Wild Card created to ensure that the top teams made the playoffs anyway?
Enough ranting and complaining, especially when baseball starts today. Go Braves!
March 3rd, 2012 at 2:31 pm
The one-game Wild Card playoff is stupid beyond words. The best thing about the Wild Card to begin with was keeping a team that might be the second best in the whole league, but just slightly less great than the leader of its own division, get into the playoffs, as they should.
But now that team which, again, might be the second best in the whole league, has to burn its ace pitcher in a one-game playoff. And you can’t settle crap about two baseball teams in a single game anyway. 162 games separates the two of ya by a couple percentage points, but here, go play one damn game to see who can advance. Yay.
As dumb as the Allstar-game-for-home-field rule is, it’s the Magna freaking Carta compared to this bulldook.
March 3rd, 2012 at 2:32 pm
What I meant was: Go Braves! 8)
March 3rd, 2012 at 3:26 pm
No doubt baseball has many issues of inequality they need to deal with.
March 3rd, 2012 at 3:32 pm
No hits after 5 innings. I know its the first spring training game, but…
March 3rd, 2012 at 4:44 pm
1 hit? The entire game? Am I reading that correctly?
March 3rd, 2012 at 4:46 pm
Picked up right where they left off. They’re already in September form.
March 3rd, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Jordan Parraz to the rescue in the 8th inning. I felt Jim Powell’s sigh of relief from all the way here in Manila.
March 3rd, 2012 at 6:55 pm
Are we buying what DOB is selling?
It’s 1st ST game. Braves hit balls hard, had subs in half the game. RT @JustinMain: @ajcbraves you think its just timing on hitting?
March 3rd, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Just one game, etc, etc.
But pretty damn pathetic.
March 3rd, 2012 at 10:18 pm
Even as a Braves fan I have to laugh. Lol @ 1 hit.
March 4th, 2012 at 11:17 am
Really?