Friday, July 31, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 31, 2020 -- "The Shape of the Game"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"Prior to 2015, we’d never had fewer than 70% of plate appearances end in a ball in play. We are rapidly heading for a game in which fewer than 60% of plate appearances do. Tell me all you want about exit velocity and spin rates and pitcher GIFs; that’s not a game that’s going to entertain people."

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 29, 2020 -- "Nate Pearson Arrives!"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"Pearson projects to be among the most watchable pitchers in the game. We’ve lost some of that in recent years of course, between the use of openers and the diminished workloads of even the game’s best starters. Pearson, though, can be in that latter category, can be Chris Sale or Max Scherzer, who even in their developmental years could make you stop what you were doing and just stare in awe. Pearson has that kind of stuff, so whatever the stat lines are between now and October, he’ll be at the top of any 'What I’m Watching' list every five or six days."

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 28, 2020 -- "It's Time"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"We have threats to health and safety, both to players and support staff. We have threats to the competitive integrity of the season. It is inevitable that there will be more of both as a thousand people fly around the country in a pandemic.

"It’s time for the league to cut its losses and call off the season."

Newsletter Excerpt, July 26, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: AL Central"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"Dolan has had the absolute privilege of paying Francisco Lindor, a superstar and by all accounts a wonderful person, a tiny fraction of his market value for years. The entire point of operating a baseball team is to come up with players like Lindor and have them play for you for a long, long time. Dolan, with plenty of time to make that happen, and more money than Croesus, has not done so, and seems unlikely to ever do so. It will be a blow to the team, to the franchise, to the city when Lindor leaves or is traded, one cushioned only by the knowledge that this front office has, time and again, produced more young talent and more winning baseball teams, in spite of the owner."

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 25, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: NL Central"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"I’ve been thinking a lot about that Josh Hader/Juan Soto confrontation last October. The Brewers were the darlings in that moment, pushing to Game Seven of the 2018 NLCS, making a spirited run to reach the playoffs without Yelich, going to D.C. and taking an early lead on Max Scherzer. It wasn’t likely that Soto would get to Hader, who is so hard for lefties to hit. Soto did, though, and the Nationals won that game, won 11 more, and now are champions. The Brewers’ moment seemed maybe to have passed them by. That changes a bit with playoff expansion, but I wonder if those two elimination games in ’18 and ’19 were where this story peaked."

Friday, July 24, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 24, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: AL West"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"The Mariners, famously, have the longest streak in major pro sports without a playoff appearance, last making it in 2001. The playoff expansion is an invitation for them to change that by being more aggressive, but it’s not clear they will be. They could get needed reps for their best prospect, outfielder Jarred Kelenic, and possibly make the MLB team better, but they don’t appear set to do that."

Newsletter Excerpt, July 24, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: NL West"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"The Delayed Season...helps them. The Diamondbacks are maybe the biggest winner of the new format, no longer having to catch the dynastic Dodgers to escape a one-game playoff upside. They go from one of many teams chasing a place in the Wild Card Game to standing in excellent position to win a best-of-three, what with Madison Bumgarner and Robbie Ray in their first two rotation slots."

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 23, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: NL East"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"We’re going to learn how important Rendon was to this offense, as he’s taken his talents to Anaheim for the next seven years. This was a top-heavy offense a year ago, and it takes the field tonight without Rendon and now, without Juan Soto, who has tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and will be away from the team for a bit. Again, in context, this makes the Nationals very dependent on their top hitters -- Howie Kendrick, Trea Turner, and Victor Robles -- none of whom is a sure thing to be a well above average hitter. Not having Rendon only works if Soto is healthy, present, and raking."

Newsletter Excerpt, July 23, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: AL East"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"The Rays will shine when balls are put in play against them. The projected starting outfield of Kevin Kiermaier, Manuel Margot, and Hunter Renfroe is easily the best defensive group in baseball. That’s two of the best center fielders in the game and a strong right fielder with a terrific arm. The Rays have toyed with five-man infield concepts in part because of the range Kiermaier and Margot have."

Monday, July 20, 2020

Joe Sheehan Newsletter, July 20, 2020 -- "2020 Seasonish Preview: Turn Your Brain Off"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

Saturday night I was sitting at home working on Sunday’s piece, when my Twitter feed starting making references to baseball games. There were real live baseball games between different teams that night, part of the exhibitions teams are allowed to play in the run-up to this week’s openers.

For most of the pandemic-caused delay to the start of the season, I have been fine. There were some moments where the absence of baseball tugged at me, most notably around Memorial Day and into those first unofficial days of summer, but I didn’t miss the game as much as I thought I would. I read, I did household projects, I learned about epidemiology, I wrote a bit. It wasn’t an offseason, and it wasn’t a sabbatical, but it also wasn’t the end of the world.

So my reaction to those innings I watched Saturday and then Sunday surprised me. It hit me. Rick Porcello and Michael King and Clint Frazier and O’Neil Cruz and Kyle Crick and all the other players I caught glimpses of in the background, they made me feel good. It felt like a normal summer Saturday night for a little while. Sure, you noticed the absence of fans, and the piped-in crowd noise, noticed just enough detail to remind you of the context in which these games are being played. But when I looked up from Excel, it was 2-2 with a runner on second, or a new pitcher was warming up, or Clint Frazier was circling the bases. I got a little lost in it, for just a few hours, got lost in exactly the way you’re supposed to get lost in baseball, before Rt and IFR replaced OBP and SLG in our daily life.

None of this felt real to me until this weekend. I didn’t think they’d get a season off the ground until just last week, and even then my opinion of them doing so was mixed, at best. Players are still opting out of the 2020 season, and others are testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, and others like Freddie Freeman and Eduardo Rodriguez are telling their stories of fighting off Covid-19.

Those scenes, though, those scenes of Citi Field and PNC Park, of Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field, of Aaron Judge and Francisco Lindor, they made it real. They don’t make the pandemic go away, even for a few hours, and they don’t answer the questions about whether these games should be played at all. They remind me, though, of what we gain when they are played.

I am grateful there will be real, meaningful baseball this week. I am a little scared that there will be real, meaningful baseball this week. Being a fan in 2020 is an exercise in cognitive dissonance, enjoying the sport while trying not to think of the risks being taken in a pandemic; not the games themselves, but everything that happens in the 21 hours between last pitch and first pitch, and the people, all the vectors, all the transmission risk. I’m still not sure the risks of those 21 hours outweigh the benefits of the other three, and the argument about that will go on. Fans, even die-hard ones who subscribe to baseball newsletters, are split on the issue. I’m split with myself on the issue.

For as long as this lasts, we all need to give each other a break, wherever we fall on the matter. Everyone is doing their best and dealing with the dissonance in their own way.

-


Watching some baseball while doing other things this weekend was a comforting, familiar feeling, but also an instructive one. Even though the games were the first competitive baseball since March, they were still exhibition games, and try as I might I wasn’t invested in the outcomes or the performances. The lineups and usage patterns were somewhat informative, as these games serve as some of the last remaining prep for the regular season. So Judge and Giancarlo Stanton both playing is information we can use. Eloy Jimenez batting second is interesting. Max Muncy back at first base for the Dodgers is good to see after he took a ball off his left ring finger. There will be eight games tonight we can glean more information from as well.

The thing is, there’s only so much we can learn. There’s never been a season like this. There have been short seasons, and seasons when players were asked to play after a layoff, and seasons when players were asked to play with very little prep time. We’ve never had all of those things in play at once, and surely never while asking players to learn entire new routines on the fly to stem the risk of catching a dangerous virus.

None of our models for looking ahead at a baseball season are attuned to the vagaries of what we’re going to see over 60 games in 2020. That can be a source of frustration, if you really want to win your fantasy league or just get things right in looking ahead. Me, though, I think it’s an opportunity to experience a baseball season in a new way.

Turn your brain off.

Forget everything you know about what a baseball season should look like, what wins and what doesn’t, who’s good and who isn’t. Forget strategies and tactics, forget probabilities and statistics, forget all of it.

We’ve had an awful, terrible, no-good year, with so many things taken away by the novel coronavirus. Kids didn’t get to have graduation ceremonies. Weddings were called off. Vacations, ballgames, even mundane things like happy hours and poker nights, gone. A hundred thousand people died alone, scared, in hospital beds, struggling for a next breath that would never come, hands unheld by a loved one. For Americans, you have to go back to World War II, or perhaps the Great Depression before that, to find a year filled with this much pain.

Let’s just enjoy some baseball. Enjoy the talent. Enjoy the competition. On Thursday night, the most highly-paid pitcher in baseball history will take on the reigning World Series winners. A few hours after that, one of the best teams ever assembled will try to salvage its 2020, maybe the only year it will all be together as planned. Come Friday, we’ll be able to watch Tim Anderson and Nolan Arenado; Ronald Acuña Jr. and Vladmir Guerrero Jr.; Jose Berrios will face Lucas Giolito, and the Rangers will christen their new ballpark.

Then we’ll do it all again Saturday.

A 60-game season defies analysis, so don’t do analysis. You can’t be the small-sample-size police when the whole season is a small sample size. The Mariners started 13-2 last year and I dismissed them; if a team starts 13-2 this year, they’ll be the favorite to win their division, no matter who they are. The Mets started 10-1 a few years ago. The Pirates were 12-7 three weeks into last season. Some team we think is bad, some team that may even be bad, is going to play well for a few weeks and look up on August 24 to find itself in first place a week away from the trade deadline. That’s a feature, not a bug.

Root for chaos. A .400 hitter? Pshaw, maybe someone hits .500. If the Mets put their shoulders into it, they could produce a 0-4 Cy Young Award winner in Jacob deGrom. Maybe three NL Central teams will finish 32-28 and require a playoff to get into the playoff to get into the playoffs.

There is simply no player or team performance that can be truly shocking over two months of baseball. We have to go into this not just accepting that, but embracing it. We have to pull this season out from the line of baseball history stretching back to the 1870s, and know that it will forever be the pandemic season, the exception, “that one year when....”

We have to turn our brains off, turn the games on, and just enjoy this for as long as it lasts. The three-batter rule, the universal DH, the migratory Blue Jays, the unbalanced schedule, the huge rosters, even the godforsaken extra-innings rule...just let it all go. It’s baseball.

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 19, 2020 -- "2020 Seasonish Preview: 2019 Report Card"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"Pretty, Pretty Good

           Predicted     Actual

Giants       77-85       77-85
Cardinals    91-71       91-71
Orioles     53-109      54-108
Mets         85-77       86-76
Astros      108-54      107-55
Phillies     82-80       81-81


"That’s two teams exactly right, and four others within a single game, spread across the distribution. Throw in another eight teams I got right to within three wins, and I picked almost half the league to within that three-win margin. It wasn’t as if I was just getting lucky, either. Remember, I start by projecting runs scored and allowed, and then move to wins and losses from that, making adjustments -- mostly bullpen and manager -- along the way. I had those Cardinals outscoring their opponents by 102 runs; they outscored them by 107. I was within ten runs of accuracy for six teams, including the Rays and White Sox, where I was off by just three."

Friday, July 17, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 17, 2020 -- "What We've Lost, and the Dodgers"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

 "We’ll never know how good the Dodgers could have been, of course. Their depth won’t be tested over 60 games the way it would have been over 162, their edge over the field dulled by a shortened season. Even if they go 42-18 or something, it will never feel the way a 110-win season would feel."

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 15, 2020 -- "Escaping Into Fantasy"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"There has been a lot of fantasy analysis predicated on the idea that wins would be distributed strangely in this new season. I wonder if we’ve all underestimated how ready the top 50 or so starters might be for this campaign. I’ve moved up regular starters and moved down the middle relievers with vulture chances relative to two weeks ago. In general, though, I’m valuing hitters over pitchers because I’m projecting a lower run environment. I think there will be a lot of pitching value out there relative to hitting."

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 12, 2020 -- "A Big Moment"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"The thing about MLB’s plan is that it isn’t designed to keep players from catching SARS-CoV-2; it’s designed to keep them from spreading it. Individual players catching the virus and contracting Covid-19 aren’t enough to being the season down. The threat to the season is in breakouts, in events that wipe out a staff, a lineup, a roster."

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 9, 2020 -- "The Schedule"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"MLB seemed to prioritize creating a baseball schedule that looks normal above all else. If I showed you this schedule in February, you wouldn’t blink an eye, at least until you noticed the limited number of opponents. Teams play weekday series and then a weekend series, almost always ending in a Sunday day game. It’s not at all clear to me why this should have been emphasized, especially when it creates extra road trips. I mean, teams are playing ten road series where they could have played seven."

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 7, 2020 -- "The Speed of Change"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"At the time baseball was negotiating its return, we seemed to have the virus under control. Now that baseball is beginning to return, it’s clear we do not. At the time baseball was negotiating its return, its hogging of tests -- through its own lab, to be sure -- didn’t seem like a moral dilemma. Now that tests, test supplies, and lab capacities are being strained, it’s harder to defend MLB’s 7,000 or so tests a week, ad infinitum. At the time baseball was negotiating its return, we seemed like a nation in recovery, on the upswing. Now that 50,000 people a day are testing positive, we seem like one where the virus is still in control.

"The world in which baseball wrote its plan is far different than the world in which baseball is trying to execute its plan, so much so that it may render the plan moot."

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Newsletter Excerpt, July 2, 2020 -- "Coming Back From the Break"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"Setting aside all of the non-baseball issues in play, I think the game we get, at least in those first few weeks, could be hard to watch. Pitchers are likely to be ahead of the hitters, and that’s the last thing a sport already burdened with a lack of action needs. If the baseballs aren’t as lively as they’ve been in recent seasons, we could be talking about a run environment that looks like 1981 -- four runs per team per game -- without all the balls in play and base stealing and starting pitching that made ’81 fun."

Newsletter Excerpt, June 30, 2020 -- "For Entertainment Purposes Only"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

--

"The Royals are 250-1 to win the World Series, and there’s just enough high-variance talent there -- Adalberto Mondesi, Salvador Perez off the knee injury, Jakob Junis -- for me to want a small piece of that. They could accidentally assemble a bullpen; righty Josh Staumont was turning heads before everything shut down. They just have to hang on for 60 games, and no one in that division overwhelms me."

Royals 100-1 to win AL Central
Royals 250-1 to win World Series