Weekend Open Thread

Pitchers and catchers are one week away, folks. Spring Training is so close that we’re starting to see the usual early-camp puff stories. Brian McCann worked on beating the shift! Nathan Eovaldi is working hard on his breaking stuff! Michael Pineda can’t wait for the season to start! Ah, the joys of February. Here are the weekend links:

• Here’s a must read piece from Ben Lindbergh on pitch-framing. Lindbergh explains he first learned about the true value of framing pitches as an intern with the Yankees a few years ago, when the Yankees stumbled across the data themselves. Make sure you check it out.
• Alex Speier examined the gap between Triple-A and MLB and why it’s so difficult for position player prospects to make the jump and succeed right away. Long story short, teams have so much information these days and they know all about a player’s weaknesses before he even gets to the big leagues.
• Great article by Sam Mellinger, who looks at an alternate universe in which the Royals don’t mount that incredible comeback to win the wildcard game last year. “Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking we were the best team in the American League,” said a team official. “We weren’t. We were one of them, but we didn’t even win our division.”
• Sam Dykstra wrote about the speed of top minor league prospects, specifically looking at their speed tool from a scouting perspective compared to their statistical speed score. By Dykstra’s measure, Aaron Judge was one of the worst prospects at underperforming his speed tool in 2014.
• Late Add: Make sure you check out Andrew McCutchen’s piece on baseball leaving lower-income families behind at The Players’ Tribune.

Friday: Here is your open thread for the night. The NBA starts their All-Star break tonight with the Rising Stars Challenge (9pm ET on TNT). The Devils are playing and there’s the usual slate of Friday night college hoops as well. Talk about anything and everything right here.

Saturday; Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. The NBA All-Star Skills Competition stuff is on tonight (8pm ET on TNT) and all three hockey locals are in action. There’s also some college basketball as well. This is your open thread, so talk about whatever.

Sunday: Once again, here is your open thread for the evening. The NBA All-Star Game is on (8pm ET on TNT) and there’s some college hoops going on as well. Talk about those games, No. 46 being retired, or anything else right here.