(*) The 2014 Re-Watch Project: An introduction

Welcome to our newest off-season feature, the 2014 Re-Watch Project. 

There's a lot of baseball going on during the regular season—2,430 separate games, in fact. Obviously, on a individual player level—our primary interest as fantasy baseball participants—that's a truckload of ups and downs, breakouts and disappointments, unexpected developments and even mundane performances. Sure, we catch a lot of it as it happens via in-season highlight shows, year-to-date statistics, and extensive second-level analysis as you find here on BaseballHQ.com. But the sheer volume of games almost ensures some circumstances get forgotten or even overlooked. The Re-Watch Project will attempt to highlight some of those in-game moments that may give some insight into both a player's 2014 season and the season to come.  

Our method will be to access the MLB.tv library of the 2014 season to view random individual games from beginning to end. Rather than to re-create the game story, each week we will highlight a few notable player performances from each contest with a fanalytic twist. 

Sometimes, it might be an analysis of a pitcher's (successful or unsuccessful) game plan. Other times, we might use one at-bat as a jumping-off point to look further into a specific skill that the player displayed over the course of the season. Some of these observations will have a scouting feel. Others will dig into the numbers, at times using the voluminous amount of tools across the Internet to analyze player performance. In each article, we will categorize a handful of these into "Fanalytic Storylines," with an eye on what this game, or larger season, might tell us about that player's future performance.

Of course, context is essential in every case. But unlike watching a live game, we now know how the rest of the season unfolded, both for the player and the team. For example, perhaps the Brewers game we'll pull out is in the middle of their unexpected early-season hot streak. Or, maybe one player's 4-hit night is a microcosm of his BABIP-friendly second half. We could catch Kyle Kendrick's 8-K game vs. Atlanta on June 27. Or Clayton Kershaw's 50-pitch, 7 ER in less than two innings debacle vs Arizona on May 15. By combining a one-game snapshot with our end-of-season knowledge, we hope to stay away from rash small-sample size judgements and provide a unique perspective to help you prepare for 2015.

The goal is re-watch and discuss 15 games, one per week, between now and early March. The individual games will be selected at random, though our intent is to see every team once. The idea is that any one game—even Eric Stults vs. Jair Jurrjens (July 9 in COL, for those interested)—has multiple touchpoints for analysis. 

It's a bit of an experiment; we'll all see how it works out. Consider it your bridge to spring training games.

In addition, we also our hope to make it an interactive exercise, and encourage reader participation in the comments section of each article. Fans or close watchers of a team may have additional insights or counterpoints to add to your analysis. Even better, if you are an MLB.tv subscriber, watch it along with us. The date and teams of the next game in the series will run at the end of each article, and we'll archive the entire set below. We'll start Tuesday, December 2, with Tampa Bay at Texas from August 14, 2014.  

So let's get started. The MLB.tv archive is waiting. 

 

Links to the series (updated as they publish)

Game 1: Tampa Bay at Texas, August 14, 2014 (FREE)
Game 2: St. Louis at Colorado, June 25, 2014
Game 3: Houston at Cleveland, August 22, 2014
Game 4: Boston at Baltimore, April 2, 2014
Game 5: Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox, May 8, 2014

 

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