Newsletter Excerpt, March 12, 2024 -- "Reading Through Rotowire"

 

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.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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With a generous nod towards Juan Soto, Cole and Judge are the Yankees. The two accounted for 42% of the team’s bWAR last year, 29% over the last three years. Losing one of them would be disastrous, and any missed time by either chips away at their chances in the crowded AL East and AL wild-card races. It’s rare for any team to have an important week in March, but this is becoming one for the Yankees.

Newsletter Excerpt, March 11, 2024 -- "Sometimes a 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.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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You have to take three catchers in the best-ball format, so I would reach a bit for Danny Jansen in the 21st and 22nd rounds. Because catcher playing time can be fraught, having three starters gives me the best chance at avoiding zeroes and even negative weeks. Jansen has 32 homers in 549 PA over the last two seasons.

 

 

Newsletter Excerpt, March 10, 2024 -- "Gary Huckabay"

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.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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Thirty years after Gary and his hand-picked group published the first BP annual, the site continues on as a place for great baseball writing and analysis. We spent a lot of time talking about BP’s legacy Saturday, but the takeaway from the day is that Baseball Prospectus is still building one.

 

 

 

Newsletter Excerpt, March 4, 2024 -- "Zack Wheeler and the Phillies"

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.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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As we head into the 2024 season, the Phillies are more complete than they have been since the 2000s, projected to be average or better at the plate, in the field, in the rotation, and in the bullpen. (Sidebar: Unit rankings for all four phases will be a part of the 2024 season preview series, starting late next week.) Some of that rating relies on Rojas hitting enough to hold the center field job, keeping Schwarber’s glove in his locker, and you can pick at the bench and the team age as well. Still, this looks like the third-best team in the NL, if a bit behind the Braves in the East.

 

Newsletter Excerpt, March 2, 2024 -- "Matt Chapman Signs"

 

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.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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In the bigger picture, though, this is just exacerbating the Giants’ bigger problem. They keep missing out on the best players in free agency, which isn’t entirely their fault, but then they spend a lot of money on these average, maybe average-plus players to fill in the gaps. Last year, it was Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto and Sean Manaea and Ross Stripling. This year, it’s Chapman and Jordan Hicks and Jorge Soler, plus a trade for Robbie Ray. To repeat a phrase, it’s movement, but is it action?

 

 

Newsletter Excerpt, March 1, 2024 -- "The New Rules, Reprised: Epilogue"

 

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.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"When you evaluate the rules changes from a marketing perspective, they were wildly successful, with 90% of that being the pitch clock. Fans liked it, the media liked it, the players mostly signed on to it, and we didn’t have any nightmares, any playoff games decided on clock violation with a 3-2 count and two outs in the ninth inning."