John Edwards
Bio
Staff Writer for The Unbalanced, Contributor at Sporting News.
Stories (57/0)
Ichiro Shot the Moon
Ichiro is one of the most bizarre players of the past 20 seasons. While many hitters have come over from Japan to the MLB, Ichiro has stuck in North America like no one else. The NPB is famous for its ground-ball-heavy approach—per Deltagraphs, the NPB ran a GB% of 48 percent compared to 44 percent for the MLB last season—but that approach usually doesn't work that well across the pond. That wasn't the case for Ichiro. He made it work, and he made it work all the way to capturing the single-season hit record. And he did it in a really, really weird way.
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
An Exercise in Generating Similarity Scores
In the process of writing an article, one of the more frustrating things to do is generate comparisons to a given player. Whether I am trying to figure out who most closely aligns with Rougned Odor or Miguel Sano, it is a time-consuming and inexact process to find good comparisons. So, I tried to simplify the process and make it more exact—using similarity scores.
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
How Do You Hit 30 HR While Being the Worst Hitter in Baseball?
On the surface, Rougned Odor had a pretty decent 2017. He got paid $1.3 million, was healthy the whole season, and on top of it all, he hit 30+ home runs for the second straight season. That is about as far as good things go; Odor posted the single worst wRC+ and OBP of 2017 among qualifiers, and barely hit above the Mendoza line. Yes, someone who hit 30 home runs was worse at the plate than Alciedes "What's an extra-base hit?" Escobar.
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
Has the Qualifying Offer Been Worth It?
The off-season is officially upon us, and the ups and downs of the playoffs have been replaced with hushed whispers of trade rumors and the frantic refreshing of Ken Rosenthal's Twitter feed. Free agents officially filed this Monday, and nine players were tagged with qualifying offers — one-year contracts for a league-set salary from a player's former team that, if declined, entitle the former team to a draft pick between the first and second round of the 2018 MLB Amateur draft. Of all of the players who have received qualifying offers, only five have ever accepted them for various reasons. How has each player who took the QO fared after taking the offer?
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
MLB shows bark, no bite with Gurriel suspension
I'm going to save you the trouble of every other take on the Gurriel suspension that you've already read, and skip over the general talking points. Yes, Gurriel has no excuse for that behavior and his actions, he played in Japan and he should know better, racism is bad, yadda yadda. You've heard it all ad infinitum before. Glad we can all agree that racism is bad. It's far more important to address the MLB's response to Gurriel's actions, because we'll all forget about Gurriel come next spring (hell, Houston fans have already forgotten), but the precedent of the MLB's ruling will linger on for years and possibly decades.
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
The New Home Field Advantage Rules Stink as Bad as the Old Ones
Thanks to years of complaints by fans and media alike, for the first time since 2002, home-field advantage for the World Series was determined not by the All-Star game results, but instead by regular season record. I'm sure everyone out there who lobbied for this change is patting themselves on the back for getting a change that, in their minds, fixed the All-Star game. I'm hesitant about the new CBA, however, because I fear that in fixing the All-Star game, the MLB broke the World Series.
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
The Dodgers' Schedule will Win Them the World Series
If you've been a Dodgers fan since the last time the Dodgers won the World Series, you've been through a lot. You've seen Hershiser's career ruined by injuries, you've seen Jamie McCourt drive the team into financial ruin, and you've seen Manny Ramirez be, well, Manny. You've also had only three losing seasons in the past 25 years, so things haven't been all doom and gloom. But, in spite of eight postseason appearances since 1988, you've never seen the Dodgers win a pennant. And I can assure you, Dodgers fans — that long-promised World Series title is coming this year, too.*
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
Pythagorean Yardage: A New Way to Evaluate CFB Teams
You’ve probably seen ESPN NY radio host Don La Greca’s rant against the use of the Pythagorean theorem in football. If you haven’t, you can watch it here. It’s highly amusing, especially considering that no one uses the Pythagorean theorem in football — most football players today learned it back in middle school (or at their senior year at UNC), and have never used it since. What La Greca might be trying to rant about is Pythagorean expectation: a formula used to predict a team’s win percentage based on point differentials. La Greca’s rant got me thinking — could we use Pythagorean expectation in football? And how can we apply it?
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
It's Time To Talk About Fenway
Fenway Park is quite the odd beast. The Pesky Pole sits only 302 feet from home plate with about a four-foot high wall separating the fans from the field, and the Green Monster is, well, the Green Monster. The strange dimensions of Fenway have led to some memorable moments — Fisk waving it fair, Ortiz's incredible grand slam, etc. And now, we have Fenway to thank for possibly drastically changing the outcome of the ALDS.
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
Sorry Mets Fans, Firing Ray Ramirez Isn't Going to Fix Things
News broke Monday morning that long-time athletic trainer Ray Ramirez was being let go by the Mets in a host of other personnel moves. If you're at all familiar with #MetsTwitter, the responses of fans on social media shouldn't surprise you in the slightest.
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
The AL Cy Young Race Is Close as Can Be
In all honesty, I wish that we could give out two AL Cy Young awards. Why? Because to reward only one player this season would be to do a disservice to the other contender. If Kluber wins, Sale will have been robbed, but if Sale wins, Kluber will just as equally been robbed.
By John Edwards6 years ago in Unbalanced
