Baseball: - Dusty Brown, The Goat, Yu, Small Market Thinking, Toshiyuki Yoshida,

Dusty Brown – C - Dusty Brown was a Boston fan favorite in sabermetric circles during his run in the Red Sox minor league system from 2001 through 2010.  This 29-year-old showed that he has strong defensive skills and could take a walk over his professional career, as indicated by a 32% caught steeling percentage and an 11.1% walk rate last season.  He won’t provide much power, evident by his 55 career HR in over 750 minor league AB, but there are signs of life in his bat after posting a .501 slugging percentage in his first season in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm.  He’ll never be a star, but with a player like Brown available essentially for free, there is no excuse for any Major League team to have a backup catcher that costs more than the league minimum in 2012. - http://www.replacementlevelbaseball.com/2011/10/secret-free-agent-men-triple-a-free-agent-hitters

Regardless of whatever else you’ve done — or will do — in the game, one timely play, one untimely strikeout, one good hop or one bonehead play in a World Series and you, too, can become a permanent part of baseball lore.  • It’s Bill Wambsganss’ unassisted triple-play for the Indians against the Dodgers in 1920. (“Funny thing,” ‘Wamby’ once said, “I played in the big leagues for 13 years … and the only thing that anybody seems to remember is that once I made an unassisted triple-play in a World Series. … You’d think I was born on the day before and died on the day after.”)  http://www.canada.com/sports/World+Series+guarantee+There+will+hero+goat/5558375/story.html#ixzz1axXqdSyW

Baseball officials are increasingly convinced that the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters will post righthander Yu Darvish to the major leagues, and industry folks wonder: How much will teams pay for the right to negotiate with Darvish? The Red Sox paid $51,111,111 five years ago to talk with Daisuke Matsuzaka, and that hasn’t worked out very well. The expectation is that, given Boston’s disappointment with Matsuzaka, teams won’t bid as high to get to talk with Darvish. - http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ken-davidoff-s-baseball-insider-1.3248797

Behind each of the surviving teams is a story of shrewd management that flies directly in the face of Beane’s self-serving assessment of the state of the game, starting with the Cardinals, who have essentially turned into the perennial contender that Beane’s A’s were supposed to be. This year they made the playoffs against all odds, after losing their ace, Adam Wainwright, in spring training and then falling 10 ½ games behind the Atlanta Braves in the wild-card race with just over a month to play. A lot has been made of the Cardinals’ pluck and resilience. But what has kept them on the field into mid-October isn’t character or, for that matter, a carefully crafted long-term plan. It was a few risky yet ultimately vindicated moves, like asking an aging Lance Berkman, who hadn’t been an everyday outfielder since 2004, to man right field. - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/sports/baseball/look-around-baseball-its-all-moneyball-now.html

A 15-year-old local baseball star who aspires to play in college and one day turn pro, Rinnosuke spends his free time training—lifting weights and trying to perfect his swing—and grappling with the biggest decision of his life so far: to stay here or move to a bigger city inland to play high school baseball. It is a choice he will have to make without the guidance of the person whose counsel he wants the most.  "My dad always used to give me advice on baseball and what to do next. I don't have that anymore," he said. "I think that's what I miss the most." Rinnosuke's father, Toshiyuki Yoshida, was dragged off by the swirling black waters that ravaged this coastal community on March 11. - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204002304576628832891374722.html