Friday, February 5, 2010

Some Snowy Links

If you are in the area of the country that's getting pounded with snow, like me, here are some links to help pass the time.

Our own RickyZ has joined the staff at DRB. He is a great guy and a talented writer. Congrats to Ricky! Smart move by DRB. [DRaysBay]

Professor Gaines at RI has updated the Rays projected 40-man roster and 2010 payroll. It looks like Elliot Johnson may be exposed to waivers. [RaysIndex]

Cork also wonders if Evan Longoria's contract may such a bargain that the Rays will be forced to trade him. [RaysIndex]

The Hudson Valley Renegades have started their own blog. The grassy background makes it hard to read on some (older) monitors. [RenegadesRundown]

The Durham Bulls 2010 Hospitality Team Job Fair is Saturday, February 6th from 9:00am until noon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. [Durham Bulls]

The Montgomery Biscuits Job Fair is also on Saturday, February 6th from 9:00am - 1:00pm at Riverwalk Stadium. [Montgomery Biscuits]

The Charlotte Stone Crabs are currently accepting applications for part-time and seasonal positions. [Charlotte Stone Crabs]

For you singers in Port Charlotte, the Stone Crabs will host open national anthem auditions for the 2010 regular season from 8:30-11:00am on Saturday, February 6th, at Charlotte Sports Park. [Charlotte Stone Crabs]

Andy Seiler takes a look at who the Rays might take with the 42nd pick in the 2010 draft. [MLB Bonus Baby]

And finally, active Winter League players wanting to leave Latin America to participate in baseball development programs or fan festivals for their MLB clubs in the United States will have to get permission from their Winter League teams, according to the terms of the new Winter League Agreement. [MILB]

11 comments:

  1. Doug - thanks for the links.

    Here are a couple that I came across. Here is one from a Phillies prospect site that ranks many milb shortstops based on his own "SONAR" rating system. Using that method, he ranked my son Tyler #5 overall and that includes over several other Rays prospects. Obviously, you can make numbers say anything so fwiw... here is the link and in the link are other links as to how his stats work....

    http://phuturephillies.com/2010/02/05/sonar-takes-on-ss-prospects/

    It's not the first time Tyler has showed up on a list like this. For 2007-2008 Harball Times ranked him as the best college shortstop in America. Here is a link to that article:

    http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/fielding-stats-for-college-shortstops/

    Obviously, I have been posting things relating to my son so if anyone is offended by that, I will cease and desist. I have no problem with people critcizing him in any way although with modern technology the way it is, everyone can challenge everything nowadays if they so desire.

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  2. Great idea Daniel, everyone is welcome to post links to interesting stuff whenever. BTW, I'd have to search, but I think I have pointed out your second link before. And if anyone is offended by you or your son's great writeups, I'll take care of that. :) We're all fans of these kids, whether they are ours or not.

    Hope everyone is safe too, it's a real blizzard here. Wind plus heavy snow, at least 8 inches deep on the roads when I came back from the office. If you are east of Ohio, look out!

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  3. Doug: Thank you Doug!

    Daniel: That SONAR post is interesting. A system like that would be very useful to baseball teams. That system in particular is probably not close to an idealized one but it's a start.

    As for son, maybe limit it to only two references a week.

    Just kidding.

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  4. I have a bone to pick with the SONAR system: namely, he doesn't even reveal what goes into the formula, so I have no clue what the score means beyond what he says. In regards to Bortnick, though, it might be useful. The main problem I noticed was that it gave way too much credit to a player for simply being young for his league, which Bortnick wasn't.

    We'll definitely need a few years for this system to build up a track record, but for now, hey, it's better than it rating Bortnick poorly, right?

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  5. Thanks for posting the extra links.

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  6. The explanation of SONAR is here: http://phuturephillies.com/2009/11/06/introducing-the-sonar-score/

    This exchange pretty much sums it up for me (and Kevin):

    Kevin Says:
    January 9, 2010 at 12:55 AM
    SONAR scores really aren’t at all useful unless we know what you’re taking into account that (seemingly) every other person on the planet ranking prospects isn’t.

    phuturephillies Says:
    January 9, 2010 at 1:02 AM
    Its been outlined in the intro piece which I linked above.

    Its component based, and it focuses on performance. I’m not going to give you the formula, that wouldn’t make sense.

    Link: http://phuturephillies.com/2010/01/08/sonar-scores-comparing-the-30-teams/

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  7. Maybe we should come up with a system for scoring minor leaguers based on performance. It also will be component based, and we'll keep the formula super-secret too, that would only make sense. We'll call it RayDAR.

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  8. Before I head back out into the snow, Andy Seiler has an interesting article: http://mlbbonusbaby.com/2010/02/06/weekend-column-the-scouting-glossary/

    Andy has agreed to do a Q&A about the 2010 draft, so if you have any questions you'd like me to ask him, drop me a line. Post them here or at dougmilhoan@hotmail.com.

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  9. Hey Doug-

    We were made aware of the background problem by a few people. Unfortunately, it all depends on the computer you're viewing it on :( However, all of our posts are posted on www.facebook.com/hvrenegades in our Notes section later in the afternoon so you can still read them!

    Sorry for the inconvenience, but thank you for the shout-out!

    Best,

    Megan Ogulnick
    New Media Manager
    Hudson Valley Renegades

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  10. Meant to weigh in on that: The site works fine for me, since the text is on a white background, not the grass one. I'm using Firefox v2.0 and it's not a problem.

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  11. Hi Megan,

    It was no inconvenience. I keep and old computer and monitor so I can make sure our site looks ok for our readers who have older equipment. I was using that computer when I posted the link, so I wanted to give our readers a heads up if your site looked funny. On my 'real' computers your site looks just fine.

    Before the season starts I'll be updating the sidebar for each team with their facebook, twitter, and in your case, blog links. Amazing how things change in just a year.

    And btw, welcome to the Renegades and the Rays organization. Your job sounds fun!

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