Links of the Weekend 4/22/06

by Intern Sharkey

Still reeling from the loss of my first round pick, it’s time for some serious linkage.

We’ll start with the bad news. Our on-base machine came up lame the other day, as you might have heard. Things don’t appear overly serious, but he didn’t play yesterday against the Champs. L-Rod should be fine in the short term, but with Castillo’s history of leg troubles, this will be one to watch closely.

It appears the one of the Nicks is none too pleased with how the Skip used the bullpen in the finale against the Angels. It’s a common sentiment among the statistical community that managing bullpens around the save is foolish, and Baseball Prospectus has a stat, Leverage that measures the importance of a situation, the idea being that a team should bring in its best reliever in high-Leverage situations, regardless of whether it’s the 7th or 9th.

But not everyone loves stats as much as I do; I wonder if things like this are part of the reason why.

Speaking of stats, KENtastic is keeping a running tally of Bill-James-style Win Shares (each win share is equal to 1/3 of a win, the idea being that we can calculate just how many wins individual players produce over a season) for the Home Nine this year. His update through the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California of the United States of North America of Planet Earth series is here.

If you’re not checking Will Young’s Win Probability Graphs, you’re missing out. More about Win Probability here and here.

On the business side of things, Forbes released its list of the values of every Major League team; a certain team that I seem to remember taking two out of three from becomes the first MLB squad to crack the billion-with-a-b mark.

And finally, the good news on the stadium front. The House Tax Committee defeated the referendum requirement by the narrowest of narrow votes, 15-13. Maybe soon, Shane will get some real sleep.

Two more with the Champs this weekend; enjoy the hardball.