Daily Archives: January 22, 2004

David Pinto, whose Baseball Musings is one of the most prolific and popular baseball blogs going, is going to work for Baseball Information Solutions–the company behind “The Bill James Handbook”—as a programmer. Pinto has previously worked inside the industry for Stats Inc. as well as ESPN’s Baseball Tonight. Check out David’s post today for the skinny on his new gig. The good news for us is that Baseball Musings isn’t going anywhere.

A well-deserved and hearty Mazel goes out to David. I wish him all the luck in the world with this exciting opportunity.

“Those who come from Brooklyn know just what I’m talking…” MC Lyte

Developer Bruce Ratner has reached a tentative agreement to buy the New Jersey Nets for $300 million. As you have probably heard already, he would like nothing more than to move the team—originaly from Long Island—to Brooklyn. The Nets’ lease in New Jersey doesn’t run out until 2008, and Ratner faces a myriad of obstacles in getting a state-of-the-art facility built in Brooklyn. Still, the news has a lot of New Yorkers excited. The proposed arena would be built near the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which is at the heart of the borough’s recent gentrification, just a stones throw away from Fort Greene, and Park Slope. Mark McClusky links several good articles regarding the pro’s and con’s of the prospective site for Brooklynites. While I think the notion of Brooklyn having its own franchise again is romantic and fitting, the reality is too far off for me to get too amped up yet.

Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci has a column this week about closers and the Hall of Fame. Essentially, Verducci believes that closers are similar to kickers in football, and that it is fitting that is has been difficult for them to reach the Hall:

There is one kicker in the NFL Hall of Fame: Jan Stenerud. There are three closers in the baseball Hall of Fame: Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersley. That sounds about right to me. These guys are specialists and as such deserve a more critical eye when weighing their careers.

Verducci is skeptical about whether Bruce Sutter should make it, and he compares Mariano Rivera’s career to Troy Percival’s. The two have awfully similar regular season numbers, though Rivera still comes out on top:

Of course, Rivera has something else in his favor. He has been knighted as The Greatest Postseason Reliever in History. Rivera has thrown 96 postseason innings (15 percent of his career regular-season total) and allowed only eight earned runs, a 0.75 ERA. Those numbers alone, like Eckersley’s solid years as a starter, could put Rivera over the top when voters consider his career.

Rivera is the specialist’s specialist. Someday he might break through the bias writers have against relievers, a bias that deserves to be in place.

Speaking of specialists, Jesse Orosco, who will turn 47 in April, is finally calling it quits. Mama, pray your babies grown up to be southpaws…