iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 11h

I really appreciate the effort from his holiness, but I see right through the Pope's disguise.

A suspicious man has great seats at the White Sox game.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 29/09/2026

We're mere days away from Kimmy Schmidt levels of Spider-Man.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 25/09/2026

Does anyone know if there's a way to find out if I have another instance of Acrobat Distiller running? Also, what is Acrobat Distiller?

Twenty some pop ups my idle computer produced, alerting me that Acrobat Distiller is already running.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 23/09/2026

I really enjoyed making GIFs for the #WPBL this season. But this one was super bittersweet. I just wish we could get three more months!

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 22/09/2026

This one is also viable. But I can't remember the last time I saw a balk. These pitchers know that they can't just be up there balkin'.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 22/09/2026

I think this right here is my path to victory. EGF sign? Gimme a break. Shimano SB? As long as she doesn't hit 5 HR. Williams spit? Easy. Done. IBB? Whitmore is in the lineup, duh. 8+ pitch AB? This is the Tough One. But much more feasible than the Tough Ones from other rows/columns.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 20/09/2026

Credit to the #Firebells -- they have put the ball in play today. But the #LAQueens defense has opened not just a door, but a hangar door, for the Firebells offense. So many errors and missed plays. #WPBL

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 18/09/2026

I'm so confused. Who is this hitter? And why is she never around when the superhero Jamie Mackay comes out of the phone booth?! #WPBL

A photo of a lady with glasses who looks nothing like Jamie Mackay but is purportedly Jamie Mackay.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 18/09/2026

Oh lordy, did I manifest this inning with my article on Wednesday? 😬 #WPBL www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

A clip from my article that reads: "Their other semi-regular options, Peyton Coria and Ela Day-Bédard, have been little more than dutiful punching bags, soaking up innings for the Firebells, scoreboard be damned."

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 17/09/2026

What would you say if I told you the score was 7-3?

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 17/09/2026

Seeing the #LAQueens string together a bunch of hits against Whitmore and the #Firebells the 2nd time through the order made me want to run this chart with the latest data. Letting a #WPBL lineup turn over is a big risk.

A bar chart showing how WPBL batting perform dramatically better with each additional time facing the pitcher in the game.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 16/09/2026

One of the big takeaways: The players and coaches keep talking about how hard it is to keep tricking the hitters when they see your pitches so often. And the raw data supports that idea. Repeat encounters have trended towards hitter advantage.

A scatterplot showing WPBL hitters' OPS by Nth time facing a given pitcher. The dots largely trend upwards, suggesting hitters improve their performance with repeated matchups against a pitcher.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 09/09/2026

This was something that really stunned me -- the age gap between the Hunters pitchers (~22 years old) and Queens pitchers (~27 yo) is about the same age gap between A Ball and Triple A pitching. Sadly, it's really hard to expected high level pitching from such a young staff.

A bar graph showing the average age of the WPBL pitching staffs, weighted by playing time. The Hunters on average are 21.6 years old. The Queens are 26.6 years old on average.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 02/09/2026

And I should mention, the first grand slam was a meaningful input to the ongoing #WPBL home run race! It sent Benites back into first place with Whitmore.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 19/08/2026

Home runs are happening in the #WPBL! www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 12/08/2026

Seriously, Benites has some crazy stats through the first 4 games. Looking closer at some of the more stable stats, though, it's reasonable to think some other players are due for big breakouts soon too.

A scatterplot showing OPS versus SB per PA. The point for Denae Benites appear in the far upper right corner, well apart from the rest of the league.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 05/08/2026

I'm very excited to be concocting way-too-early and very incomplete advanced metrics for the WPBL! I'm sure they'll update the league their website with more stats the moment I finish this code, but it's a fun exercise anyway.

A console printout that shows top exit and pitch velocities, as well as Miss% leaderboards, from a WPBL game.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 05/08/2026

A teacher I know in the south has to put these stickers in all of the students' textbooks. It's USSR levels of pointless waste out here.

A sheet of stickers that say "The Gulf of Mexico has been renamed as The Gulf of America."

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 29/07/2026

#Rockies pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano has long had the ability to outperform his peripherals. Strong, wild defensive plays like this have been part of the equation. www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 08/07/2026

Run scoring has taken a weird, big bump this summer. It's likely due to a one-two punch of the ball changes and the insane summer heat.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 07/07/2026

How can you not be romantic about baseball? theonion.com/mlb-players-...

Ronald Acuña Jr.: “Before my first game, a veteran came up to me and said, ‘Listen, kid. Don’t ever let an umpire show you what’s underneath his mask. It’ll drive you to madness.’ I thought he was kidding, but then, before my first at-bat, the umpire whispered, ‘Do you want to see?’ and there was smoke funneling out of his mask. I politely declined, but it really freaked me out. I didn’t sleep for a week.”

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 24/06/2026

One of the key takeaways: Stolen base success rate remains very high, but teams are attempting fewer stolen bases. But this isn't the 90s anyone. That bases-clearing dinger is hard to come by right now.

A line chart timeseries graph that shows stolen base attempts per opportunity, as well as the highest and lowest rate teams in the league. Since the rule changes in 2023, teams have become increasingly more selecting about stolen base attempts.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 17/06/2026

I think this graph represents the key detail: Working 1 extra pitch per AB can force teams into undesirable bullpen management on a regular basis. The problem is that averaging +1 pitcher per AB is a HUGE change in plate approach. Not an easy accomplishment.

A pair of area charts show the rates of bullpen usage in my Monte Carlo simulation. The team that works longer at bats (1 extra pitcher per at bat) is more frequently accessing long relievers in late innings.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 03/06/2026

This was probably the biggest realization for me -- the idea that we should be hunting blowout wins, no small-margin victories. Looking for 1-run game magicka is tantamount to playing hoopaloo with the wind. The effort is better redirected towards talent ingestion.

A trio of bar graphs showing the distribution of result margins among playoff contenders, .500 teams, and losing teams. The big takeaway is that good teams win by large margins, but everyone has about equal qnatities of 1-run games.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 30/05/2026

I do not, it so happens, require a paternity test. She is indeed my daughter.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 20/05/2026

It's very rare to get a top tier #MLB hitter from someone who didn't crush minor league pitching. To quote Billy Beane from Moneyball: “If he’s a good hitter, then why doesn’t he hit good?” www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

A bar graph that shows the percentage of above average MLB hitters, grouped by their minor league OPS+. By far, they come from hitters with 130 OPS+ or better in the minors, and that group has produce a median 19 WARP.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 20/05/2026

It's a very optics-oriented day at @baseballprospectus.com this morning.

There are two headlines on the homepage about eyes and visibility.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 13/05/2026

I'm not saying it's inevitable, but it's the direction things are going: By 2030, the #Brewers' Brice Turang is going to break all of MLB's single season records. www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

A line graph showing how Brice Turang's annual improvement puts him on an improbable pace.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 22/04/2026

But seriously, this is just my same plate approach in #MLB The Show.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 22/04/2026

The #Padres closer is elite for entirely predictable reasons. And it is all the more delightful for the same reasons. www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

A plot showing the top velocities for 2026 right-handed pitchers. Mason Miller is way ahead of the crowd.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 22/04/2026

Some badass things happening on the Chicago River this Earth Day.

A pair of geese, I think they're in love, go for a swim with their little goslings.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 15/04/2026

Pitchers aren't adding velocity mid-season like they used to. Finding out why is as difficult as being sure it's happening at all. www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

A plot showing total velocity added per month. Colored lines represent individual seasons, 2008, 2013, 2019, and 2025. Pitchers in 2008 added about 0.6 mph by the season end. In 2025, that number was closer to 0.3 mph.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 08/04/2026

This was a terrible call. And I say we bring it back.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 01/04/2026

Over at least the past two game, the #Cubs have already been using the 1114 W Grace St location for paid parking.

An image of the 1114 W Grace St location, showing the gate open with a parking attendant standing in front.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 25/03/2026

The above plot shows Kikuchi's 2025 season (all batters). Yordan is interesting because, in his abbreviated 2025 season, the whole league pitched to him like they were channeling Kikuchi.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 25/03/2026

Some players zig with the league zags. And some players have to be zigged around because they're so terrifying. I present: Yusei Kikuchi vs Yordan Alvarez. Zig meet zig. I had a lot of fun putting together the visuals for this one.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 24/03/2026

I'm old enough to remember the early days of PITCHf/x when we all collectively realized with a pained gasp that #MLB lefties had a vastly different strikezone than righty hitters. That "lefty strike" disappeared quickly (thank goodness!), but how many decades had it been there?!

A screenshot of the article that notes how umpires have improved their strike-calling accuracy by almost 6 percentage points since 2009.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 23/02/2026

Sweeper dotted down and away. No problem of Okamoto-san. He blapped it 103 mph over the CF wall. Wow!

A pitch plot showing the locations against Okamoto in the at bat. The final pitch is highlighted with a red arrow. It is a sweeper low and away in what is essentially a perfect locaiton.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 03/02/2026

A commentor named TDMOC asked how far Barrels need to slip in run value in order to be more like a Single in RV. A great question! And I should have included it on the original bar chart. In short, they've got a long way to fall. At the current rate of decline, I estimate circa the 2046 MLB season?

A 2015 to 2025 timeseries line chart that shows MLB home run run value (about 1.4 RV), doubles run value (about 0.8), and singles run value (about 0.5) as horizontal lines. A jagged black line representing Barrel run values start about at 0.9 and decline down to around the 0.8 mark where Doubles sit.

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 30/01/2026

But there's got to be a better way to phrase this.

"Sure enough, Tillman gave Bush a Peanut Punch, knocking the ball out."

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Bradley Woodrum @bradleywoodrum.com · 13/01/2026

It's been 10 years since David Bowie died, and I still am deeply sad during my annual listening of this album. He lived an exceptionally good, long, successful life. An accomplished artistic career beyond any standard. But I'm greedy. I still wanted more. As he said, he couldn't give it all away.

A vinyl copy of David Bowie's final album, Blackstar, sits on the record player.

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