James Smyth Profile picture
Sports Researcher/Booth Statistician (YES Network), @ToeingTheSlab podcast with @dcone36 & @JustinShackil, former MiLB play-by-play broadcaster, He/Him
Oct 5, 2022 20 tweets 7 min read
Aaron Judge's 62 home runs this season 25,520 feet of homers! About 4.83 miles, if you stretch them all out down the LF line, that gets to Van Cortlandt Park. Down the RF line gets you to the entrance to the Whitestone Bridge. Some foul balls get you to Lincoln Center and the Central Park Zoo
Dec 8, 2021 9 tweets 2 min read
We hear a lot about MLB lack of "competitive balance" and "parity" compared to other sports leagues, but I don't think it's true

"Number of teams to win a title since X" isn't enough in my opinion, but going deeper shows it's still not an issue relative to NFL NBA NHL (thread) A common refrain against the "no parity in baseball" crowd

Won Championship Since 2000
MLB 15/30 (50%)
NFL 12/32 (38%)
NBA 10/30 (33%)
NHL 12/31 (39%)
(no Kraken for these purposes)

OK, but I don't think a one-off title validates the argument, so let's go a little further
Sep 2, 2019 22 tweets 5 min read
Mike Minor is having a terrific season, but how in the world is he leading the American League in Baseball-Reference's pitching Wins Above Replacement? Let's take a look (warning: mega-thread commencing)... Like with position players, WAR for pitching tries to find how many more/fewer runs someone was worth compared to league-average, then convert that into a win total. Throughout MLB history, roughly every 10 runs a player adds/subtracts, or a team scores/allows, is worth 1 win.