Out of Left Field Updated-The Edge of Tomorrow

I'm going to link to the first few Out of Left Field posts here as a reminder, since the site is still new (not yet sure how many, but at least a few). So, with that in mind, here's today's post on the new movie Edge of Tomorrow (which I very much enjoyed).

An Experiment

I had long been toying with the idea of adding essays about non-baseball subjects here. In the end, though, I decided it was best to keep all my writing separated into Baseball and Non-Baseball. To that end, I today started Out of Left Field. Right now, I'm thinking it'll be my writings on pop cultural things, but it may just evolve into whatever I feel like writing at the time. I also added a link to it on the main site.

The inaugural post is up over there, reviewing The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Go check it out!

Happy 2013!

Well, it’s several days late, but Happy 2013! The first full calendar year at Hot Corner Harbor went better than expected, with plenty of interesting articles as well as the continuation or start of several major series.

With 2012 officially in the books, it’s time to look at the year’s top articles.

2013 Hall of Fame Poll Added: The Apocalypse Ballot Is Upon Us

The Hall of Fame voting season is upon us; in anticipation of that, I added two polls on the right sidebar. One asks the standard "What would your ballot look like?", while the other asks "How many players on the ballot are deserving of induction?"

This year should be interesting. I think there are very easy cases to make for fourteen different candidates. I've already started writing about some of them. Either way, it's a crowded ballot. I'm going to have to leave off some players I think are deserving. I honestly don't know who I'll leave off for my BBA ballot when the time comes, although I have ideas. Who knows what havoc this will wreak on the election process, though.

Schedule Update

I know that I said yesterday that I would have the ordered list of players for the present-day Hall of Famers on Tuesday. However, that won't be happening. Look for some other (more timely) stuff, though! Some of it may be relevant to the trade deadline (4 PM EST Tuesday). Especially if the rumored Joe Blanton-to-Baltimore deal goes through (expect something totally different depending on whether or not they deal Jonathan Schoop, as the Phillies are apparently requesting). There will also be a Cape League Interview to look forward to. So yeah; plenty of exciting things, and worth waiting an extra day for the Hall piece.

Summer Happenings

Summer has finally arrived, and that brings with it something new and exciting here at Hot Corner Harbor.

For the next eight weeks, I will be interning for the Cape Cod Baseball League as a statistician, scorer and writer. For those of you who do not know, the CCBL is an amateur summer league for college players to hone their skills (located, of course, on Cape Cod, Massacheusetts). It’s notable for several reasons, like its use of wooden bats (very rare among leagues for college players, possibly unique, although I’m not 100% positive), and being older than the American League (no, really-the CCBL dates back to 1885, while the American League didn’t exist until 1901). It consists of two divisions, each with five teams. There’s the Western Division, which contains the Bourne Braves, Cotuit Kettleers, Falmouth Commodores, Hyannis Harbor Hawks, and Wareham Gateman; and the Eastern Division, which holds the Brewster Whitecaps, Chatham Anglers, Harwich Mariners, Orleans Firebirds, and Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.

The league does also have a lot of relevancy to MLB; the CCBL magazine I picked up the other day lists 925 current and former Major Leaguers as alums. I also heard the statistic that 1 in 6 Major Leaguers played in the CCBL at some point. Also, the magazine’s cover proudly shows the eight current managers who played in the league once upon a time: John Farrell (Blue Jays), Joe Girardi (Yankees), Mike Matheny (Cardinals), Buck Showalter (Orioles), Jim Tracy (Rockies), Bobby Valentine (Red Sox), Robin Ventura (White Sox), and Eric Wedge (Mariners) four-fifths of the AL East, you may notice).

To add to the name-dropping, skimming the list of players reveals the likes of Dustin Ackley (HAR 2008), Jeff Bagwell (CHA 1987-8), Jason Bay (CHA 1999), Lance Berkman (WAR 1996), Craig Biggio (Y-D 1986), Mike Bordick (Y-D 1986), Ryan Braun (BRE 2004), Sean Casey (BRE 1994), Will Clark (COT 1983), Jacoby Ellsbury (FAL 2004), Carlton Fisk (ORL 1966), Nomar Garciaparra (ORL 1993), Todd Helton (ORL 1994), Charlie Hough (CHA 1964), Jeff Kent (COT 1988), Jason Kipnis (COT 2008),Tim Lincecum (HAR 2005), Evan Longoria (CHA 2005), Mark Mulder (BOU 1997), Thurman Munson (CHA 1967), Carlos Pena (HAR 1996, WAR 1997), Buster Posey (Y-D 2006-7), Brian Roberts (CHA 1998), Tim Salmon (COT 1998), Nick Swisher (WAR 2000), Mark Teixeira (ORL 1999), Frank Thomas (ORL 1988), Pie Traynor (FAL 1919), Chase Utley (BRE 1998, COT 1999), Matt Wieters (ORL 2006), Kevin Youkilis (BOU 2000), and Barry Zito (WAR 1997-8). And those are just the ones I felt like mentioning, as there are plenty more to choose from.

So yeah, it’s kind of important. I am absolutely thrilled for the opportunity to help out with this league in any way possible.

What does this mean for Hot Corner Harbor, though? Well, I’ll still be writing MLB-based stories. I’ll just also be writing about this year’s Cape Cod Baseball League season too. There will probably be some game summaries and some articles about statistics in the league. There may also be some interviews with players or other things. I’ll just see where this goes. It’s definitely something else to look forward to in coming weeks, though.

Happy Anniversary!

Yes, it was exactly one year ago, June 2nd, 2011, that I started Hot Corner Harbor. And I would say it’s been a great year. That first day, I asked whether the Cardinals needed to make any trade deadline moves. Since then, I’ve made 121 more posts (counting this one), started a series (becoming obsessed with retired numbers in the process), re-run another series, joined the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, released a whole bunch of Sporcle quizes, voted on a few things, and even been sarcastic on occasion.

I wanted to write something really profound and moving about how it’s changed me, but I don’t think it has too much. I’m still a huge fan of baseball, I just happen to write about it more often than I used to. And it’s been really fun writing about it, too. I suppose I’m slightly more responsible, in that I actually have to stop what I’m doing (usually procrastinating) and take time to write (granted, the writing itself is sometimes procrastination, but I’ll leave that issue for another time).

Thank you to everyone who’s been reading over the past twelve months! It means a lot to me, and I hope you all continue to visit. 

And now, as some additional trivia, the most-read posts of the first year of Hot Corner Harbor:

1) NL Central Predictions, or: How Not to Make Projections

2) Retired Numbers Series: Boston Red Sox

3) Paul Konerko, 500 Home Runs, and the Hall of Fame

4) 50 Best Players Not in the Hall of Fame Ballot Explanations, Part 1

5) Comparison: Ken Griffey, Jr. vs. Chipper Jones

6) Retired Numbers Series: Los Angeles Dodgers

7) A Post in Which I Try and Emulate Ken Tremendous

8) Retired Numbers Series: Detroit Tigers

9) 50 Best Players Not in the Hall of Fame Ballot Explanations, Part 2

10) Pitchers, the MVP, and the Hank Aaron Award

Happy 2012!

Well, 2011 went better than I expected. When I started Hot Corner Harbor back in June, I didn't really have any expectations other than to continue writing. Well, here I am, six months and nearly 4,000 hits later. Thank you to everyone who reads this.

Now then, in honor of my six months writing, the top six articles of the year (and yes, there was a three-way tie for second):

1. A Post in Which I Try and Emulate Ken Tremendous
2. 50 Best Players Not in the Hall of Fame Ballot Explanations, Part 1
2. Pitchers, the MVP, and the Hank Aaron Award
2. Comparison: Ken Griffey, Jr. vs. Chipper Jones
5. Are the Cardinals Worthy Champions?
6. Should Justin Verlander Win the AL MVP?

Happy 2012 everybody!

General Announcement

Just as a warning (so that none of you die of shock tomorrow), I finished the next part in my Retired Numbers Series. It's been sitting on my computer, waiting to be finished for four months, but it's finally done. It just needs to be edited and posted for tomorrow. As a side note, I have now covered 1/3 of MLB teams.

Awards Season Explanations, Part 2

With MLB wrapping up the major awards over the next week, I was planning on finishing explaining my ballots. (Part 1 of my explanations can be found here.) I figured that it should be quick; after all, the first part I did had five awards, and I wrote that reasonable quick. But the MVP ballots are long, and I could either delay the NL Cy Young until after the award is announced, or break up the series further. So, my thinking on my NL Cy Young ballot, plus a public service announcement about something exciting coming up.

NL Cy Young-1. Roy Halladay

2. Clayton Kershaw

3. Cliff Lee-I feel like these three more or less had to be the top three; it was merely a matter of arranging them. Both Baseball-Reference WAR and Fangraphs WAR agreed that the order was Halladay-Kershaw-Lee. But Kershaw did win the pitching triple crown (which is one thing I hope to write more about, hopefully by next week). So, I was somewhat pre-disposed to put him first. But, everything I looked at seemed to indicate that Halladay was the better pitcher by a slight margin. Halladay made one fewer start than Kershaw, but threw one third of an inning more. Kershaw had 248 strikeouts to Lee’s 238 and Halladay’s 220 (first, second, and tied for third, respectively), and a 9.57 K/9 Innings (to Lee’s 9.21 and Halladay’s 8.47). But Halladay has both of them topped in BB/9 innings, with 1.35 to Kershaw’s 2.08 and Lee’s 1.62. Halladay also led the group in HR/9 innings, .39 to .58 (Kershaw) and .70 (Lee), despite the fact that Kershaw played in a better pitcher’s park. Their ERA’s were close as well, with Kershaw leading Halladay and Lee 2.28 to 2.35 and 2.40. But playing in a pitcher’s park hurt him; ERA+ put him second (163) to Halladay (164), with Lee and incredibly close third (161). Really, they were all incredible, but it seemed like Halladay consistently edged out Kershaw while playing in a better hitter’s park, leading to this order.

4. Ian Kennedy

5. Cole Hamels-Again, my down-ballot spots are less rigid. Kennedy seemed like a good fourth place, and I was split on whether to try and slide Carpenter into the fifth slot. In the end, I went against it, which is totally the opposite of what I did on my AL Rookie of the Year ballot. So yes, my philosophy on the final ballot spots fluctuates quite easily.


Now, for an announcement. The project for this site that is currently taking up my time is this Baseball Past and Present idea. Basically, it’s just what it sounds like (if you clicked the link, then came back); Who are the 50 Best Players who currently aren’t in the Hall of Fame? My ballot currently stands at 42 players, with 12 more fighting for the last 8 spaces (and I actually am being very deliberate with these final picks). I feel like this may lead to numerous future updates; there will be at least one, to be sure. Keep your eyes open.

Baseball Bloggers Alliance

In some short news, Hot Corner Harbor has been added to the Baseball Bloggers Alliance!

PSA on the Blog Itself

I'm going to be incredilby busy over the next few weeks. That, plus the amount of time that it takes to write entries in the Retired Numbers Series, means that I will most likely be posting twice a week (likely Monday-Thursday), rather than the tree times a week schedule I was doing. Until I learn how to write shorter articles, there's a good chance I'll stay at two articles a week (who knows, though; I may be able to slip in extra articles as time allows).