Statistical significance is a tricky thing to deal with. If you talk people who work with stats professionally, the answers you get on this subject are often long, detailed, and complex. I learned (and taught) many of those answers in a former life.
But when the goal is to talk about baseball in a few hundred words a day, that level of rigorous detail is probably overkill. Instead, a few years back I just adopted a 100 plate appearance rule of thumb – after about 100 PA, I’ll consider baseball numbers statistically significant.
So if you want to start getting excited that Isaac Paredes has an OPS of .900 with just one strikeout to his name, you’ll be jumping the gun a little. But given that some of us have been excited by Paredes for some time now, that’s probably excusable.
Triple A: Iowa Cubs New Orleans 2, Iowa 1 in ten innings
I’ll give you two guesses on who accounted for six of the Cubs’ eight total bases. Â Hint: their names rhyme with Capp and Handelario.
Pedro Silverio is up to 13 strikeouts in just 6.1 total innings. Â He’s allowed one hit, no walks, and is getting a lot of ground outs. Â If you are looking for an early candidate to be 2017’s breakout pitcher, his name needs to be in the hat.
So you’re reading Bleacher Nation daily, you follow all the Bleacher Nation crew (@BleacherNation, @ltblaize, @lcm1986, @michaelcerami) as well as all the Cubs’ farm team on Twitter, but you still want more prospecty goodness on a regular basis? Then turn to YouTube. The Cubs’ affiliates have been pushing an ever higher number of good videos onto their channels the past few years, and there is no reason to not to subscribe to all of them.
For example, if you were subscribing to the Iowa Cubs channel you would have already seen this nice video of Happ and Candelario both going long on April 8.
And from South Bend, you would have already learned that the Cubs mascot, Stu D. Baker, is surprisingly good at playing drums for someone trapped in a large, anthropomorphic bear suit:
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Yesterday, the Chicago Cubs won a game started by Kyle Hendricks and closed by Adbert Alzolay. Factually, that is what happened. I know. That's wild. Of course, that's what would've been the expected outcome last season for two of the...
Summer in Milwaukee sizzles with baseball fever, and American Family Field is roaring with the energy of the Brewers faithful! Whether you’re a die-hard fan of the Brew Crew or just enjoy catching some local baseball, we’re here with the...
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Fans can now watch MLB games via Roku. Do with that what you will. The "MLB Sunday Leadoff" games will begin this weekend. The first game, featuring the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, starts at 12:05 p.m. CT,...
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The South Florida sun is shining, and there’s plenty of baseball still to be played at loanDepot Park. Whether you're cheering the Marlins on from the stands or following the action remotely, they have a loaded remaining 2024 MLB schedule....
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The Buccaneers have made Antoine Winfield Jr the highest-paid defensive back in the history of the NFL. On Monday afternoon, Winfield Jr and Tampa Bay agreed to a four-year, $84.1 million deal. It also guarantees the Bucs' star $45 million....
I've said it, and I'll continue to say it: this chapter of Chicago Bears football feels different. Perhaps it's because the last time we did this, we were in a pandemic, and when the Bears jumped up to No. 11...
NEWSLETTER
Statistical significance is a tricky thing to deal with. If you talk people who work with stats professionally, the answers you get on this subject are often long, detailed, and complex. I learned (and taught) many of those answers in a former life.
