On this episode, Mark Simon takes a break from talking defense (mostly) by welcoming in Sean Smith. Sean, a former consultant for the Blue Jays, is the inventor of the WAR you see on Baseball-Reference.com and the author of the new book, War In Pieces, a documenting of how he put it together and an explanation of how it works. The book's chapters are short and not hard to understand, with lots of pertinent historical examples.

Sean talked about the impact the stat has had within baseball, his perspective on WAR's usefulness in evaluating players, replacement level, win probability, the impact of Bill James on his work, and David Eckstein's justifiable 20-WAR career.

For more of Sean's work, visit his website https://baseballprojection.com/

Thanks as always for listening. Please check out the new-and-improved FieldingBible.com website, follow us on Twitter at @sis_baseball, and read our work at SportsInfoSolutions.com. You can e-mail us at Mark@sportsinfosolutions.com.

We talked to so many Fielding Bible Award winners that we couldn't fit them all into one episode.

On this episode we talked to Award winners Cleveland Guardians pitcher Tanner Bibee and Braves first baseman Matt Olson.

Bibee shared some of the keys to his success in holding baserunners (he allowed 6 stolen bases in 12 attempts but also had 4 pickoffs) and explained what it's like when a 105-MPH ground ball comes right back at you (watch Bibee pick off Shohei Ohtani HERE)

Olson went through some of his favorite plays in 2024 and discussed the preparation that goes into being so good at first base (watch the behind-the-back play Matt talked about - HERE)

Thanks as always for listening. Please check out the new-and-improved FieldingBible.com website, follow us on Twitter at @sis_baseball, and read our work at SportsInfoSolutions.com. You can e-mail us at Mark@sportsinfosolutions.com.

Thursday, Sports Info Solutions announced the winners of The 2024 Fielding Bible Awards. Each year since 2006 our voters have picked the best defensive player at each position. This year, we’ve added a Defensive Player of the Year award to the mix.

Mark Simon ran through the winners and shared what makes them great defensive players. We also talked to Tigers left fielder Riley Greene, Rockies center fielder Brenton Doyle and Red Sox right fielder Wilyer Abreu about their seasons and one of our voters, Ben Clemens from FanGraphs, about his voting process.

Ben's article about his vote- Part I & Part II

Thanks as always for listening. Please check out the new-and-improved FieldingBible.com website, follow us on Twitter at @sis_baseball, and read our work at SportsInfoSolutions.com. You can e-mail us at Mark@sportsinfosolutions.com.