On ground balls, synergy, and Justin Smoak

Every year, we see teams hunting for every possible hidden advantage they can find. The Red Sox often look for right-handed power to take advantage of their wonky park dimensions. The Yankees do the same from the other side of the plate to maximize their Little League right field. Teams in homerun-suppressing stadiums can load their rotation with extreme fly-ball pitchers, and teams with smaller outfields can afford outfielders with less range.

An ode to defence

During games I like to talk a lot about dps (double plays) and good D (defence) partly because it's a lot of fun to play with the double entendres but also because it's an aspect of the game that doesn't get talked about as much as offence and pitching. I find it every bit as sexy as a dinger.