As an art historian might say when discovering Michelangelo's unfortunate "Dogs Playing Poker" period ... what was that all about? Click the title to read more. Order the Hardball Times 2009...

These NL prospects can help you in 2009...

A look at some pitchers from the second round of the WBC. Click the title to read more. Order the Hardball Times 2009 Season Preview today!

A couple of years ago I may have scoffed at the idea of depositing my money someplace simply because of a baseball connection, but in light of recent events, it may not be the worst idea in the...

The A's are warming up to their new infield coach, Mike Gallego: Former infielder Mike Gallego played 624 games at second base, 137 at third base and 434 at shortstop and was proficient...

Baseball has been around for awhile. Over a hundred years, with a VAST treasure chest of information and history. As a baseball fan I’ve often wondered why there was so little visualization of stats and other information. It seems like most of...

Hi there. I'm a new blogger at The Hardball Times and wanted to introduce myself and a topic that I hope you'll find interesting. It's called Visual Baseball and it's about the intersection of two things I love - baseball and infographics (the visual...

Today marks the latest release of Retrosheet's event files, including 2009, the 1952 AL and some corrections to other years. This is a guide written for someone who already has an SQL database (MySQL, that is) set up and is comfortable with it. I am in...

Just a quick hit to share park factors for HR/FB rate. I used BIP data and the methodology from Baseball Reference to determine simple HR/FB park factors for 2009 and 4-year weighed factors (weights are 5,3,2,1). Update: My spreadsheet was thrown...

Bill James has a couple of interesting articles up on his subscription site. The first one quickly chronicles the history and inexorable rise of the strikeout. To sum up: "Strikeout rates have increased in the majors in every decade since 1920, except...