Baseball Prospectus 2013

Annual out at month's end, but PECOTA just launched. Their depth charts have the Dodgers leading the majors in wins with 93, Toronto 85, Mets 80, and somehow the Astros winning 63.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=19602

PECOTA's an out of touch old man at this point imo

wow, they project a lot of really boring division races! They put the Cardinals at 84 wins (seems a little low - I'd guess more like 87 wins this year), but that's still good enough for the 2nd wild card spot.

new york-boston 1-2 in the East is just bonkers

so PECOTA is me?

also, I thought this was interesting from a recent chat w/ their head scouting writer on "makeup" as opposed to character.

richardkr34 (Saint Paul, MN): Could a prospect have work ethic and baseball focus AND be an alcoholic womanizer (like, say, Mantle) and still have good makeup?

Jason Parks: Baseball makeup is not the same thing as being a good person (whatever that means). I don't care if a player is a douche bag or a jerk. In fact, I assume most players will struggle with social interaction on some level. Look at it this way: the best players in the world reached that level because of an incredible focus on the developmental process. Because of this intense focus, they were forced to remove themselves from standard social development. It's not a license to be a jerk, and its not a universal truth or outcome, but on a reductive level, players aren't normal people. I don't care if I can carry on a conversation with a player or if the player likes to have a few drinks or likes to write love poems to Hitler. I only care if those outside pursuits and interests have negative consequence on the field or on the ability to reach their baseball potential. Bonds and Clemens are great examples of players with tremendous baseball makeup that also happen to be highly unlikable human beings.

hey watch out old geezer, you're in the way of me and the skateboard i am traveling on!! ~~*is ZiPS*~~

have the annual, so set for the hospital.

everything free on the site through Monday

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/

Aaron Gleeman will take over as Editor in Chief of BP on Monday from Sam Miller (going to ESPN).

twins fan (poor guy)

i ran into Miller at the Saberseminar, we talked mostly about the MPAA ratings for the Indiana Jones movies.

@AaronGleeman
Just occurred to me that the BP annual will have a Tim Tebow comment. Trying to decide if it should be assigned as a reward or a punishment.