Newsletter Excerpt, March 28, 2020 -- "A Shortened Season and the A's"

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 A’s were going to have to throw 1400 innings, plus who knows how many in the playoffs. That number has been cut nearly in half. The recent track records of their best pitchers were going to dictate some workload management over six or seven months. Now, the A’s can pretty much put the above rotation in play on Opening Day and let it eat. Luzardo, Manaea, Puk, and Montas threw just over 10% of the A’s innings last year and they would have projected to throw maybe 35-40% in a full 2020 season. It’s possible they could account for close to half now."

Newsletter Excerpt, March 25, 2020 -- "The Broken Hammer of Thor"

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 arc of the last 40 years is that we used to break pitchers by using them too much, on a seasonal and game basis, leading to overwork injuries of the shoulder. The emphasis on not doing that, on lowering intraseason and intragame workloads, allowed those pitchers to throw more often at maximum effort. That shift seems to have only moved the injury nexus down about nine inches along the humerus."

Newsletter Excerpt, March 19, 2020 -- "Poof"

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.

--

"Service time, of course, is going to be the watchword for these next few months, and as we have these conversations, it’s important to remember that this conversation doesn’t fit neatly into our 'players good, management bad' model. This stoppage isn’t happening because of a lockout or a strike, but because of a public health emergency, a global pandemic, that makes not playing baseball games the best thing for everyone involved. Both the players and the teams are, and please take this word in context, victims of the current circumstances."

Newsletter Excerpt, March 10, 2020 -- "Kris Bryant and the Cubs"

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 more interesting proposition here is that of Yu Darvish, who stayed upright last year and, at times, was utterly untouchable. From the start of June through the end of the season, Darvish had a 124/7 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which is peak-Kershaw stuff. If after years of physical challenges and command issues, that’s the Yu Darvish who shows up for 30 starts this year, the Cubs have a true #1, and probably a division title."

Newsletter Excerpt, March 9, 2020 -- "Chris Sale and the Red Sox"

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.

--

"Even with Sale, this rotation may not be good. Brian Johnson was let go after posting a 6.02 ERA; he was brought back out of some desperation. The Sox signed Collin McHugh, but he’s still coming back from an elbow injury, isn’t throwing yet, and might be a reliever once he is. There is no upper-level depth at all. The Red Sox can reasonably look at Alex Verdugo and say they replaced Betts with a younger player who could be 75-80% of what they dealt. By including Price in the deal, though, they left themselves open to a rotation deficit. If Boston's season goes pear-shaped in a hurry, it won’t be because they traded Betts, but rather, because their rotation blows up."

Newsletter Excerpt, March 6, 2020 -- "Christian Yelich and the Brewers"

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 would like this deal better if I thought the Brewers were set to put a team around Yelich over the next nine years. Right now, their window looks like it's closing almost as soon as it opened. They lost three of their six hitters who had positive value last year. Their rotation has been rebuilt with spare parts over the winter. Keith Law placed no Brewers on his top 100 prospect list and pegged their farm system as the worst in baseball. The latter is to be expected given the Brewers’ recent success, but it bodes ill for them being more than Angels East in 2023."

Newsletter Excerpt, March 4, 2020 -- "Cesar Hernandez and the Indians"

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 Indians had one of the best cores in baseball signed to far below market prices, and they just...stopped trying. It’s one of the strangest baseball stories of this century, and it may have a lasting effect on the team’s ability to be successful in Cleveland."

Newsletter Excerpt, March 3, 2020 -- "Stasis and the Rockies"

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 Rockies window has probably closed. They are 20 or 25 games worse than the Dodgers, and maybe the 11th- or 12th-best team in the league. They wasted a truly special stretch of player development by hiring a GM who spent nine figures on relief pitchers rather than getting the bats the team needed. By 2022, Arenado, Story, and Gray will be gone, and it may be a long time before the team is relevant again."

Newsletter Excerpt, March 2, 2020 -- "A Forever-Flying Flag and the Nationals"

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.

--

"In all of these offseason write-ups, I’ve been assuming teams will use a 13-man pitching staff, now that there’s a declared maximum and an extra roster spot. Personally, I think 13 pitchers, essentially eight relievers a day, is insanity when you consider the ways a 14th position player could be used. I mean, I’m old enough to remember crabbing when teams started carrying 11 pitchers. A 14/12 hitter/pitcher split, and even 15/11 coming out of the gate, could provide tactical advantages on a nightly basis."