How do we know, what we know, even if we don't know that we really know it?

I mostly enjoyed Jeff Passan's 25 Things column (tip o' the cap to Neyer).

I definitely did learn a few things in there. One of them, and I'm surprised Neyer didn't mention this, as he's a big fan of knuckleballers in general, is that it looks like it might be time for Tim Wakefield to retire. His knuckleball is the worst off-speed pitch in the majors so far this year. That surprised me a great deal, even if Wakefield didn't seem to be doing so great (ok, yes, that's an understatement) in my casual following of his performances.

One disappointment was in note thirteen. For pitchers, what he says about it being largely a luck-based metric is true (not entirely, but mostly). Hitters, however, do show the ability to influence their BABIP from season to season. That being said, Teixeira does seem largely a victim of bad luck, as xBABIP does indicate.

The two notes about Tyler Clippard were pretty cool.

Ahh, the other note I had a bit of an issue with was calling Billy Sullivan's 1909 ISO of .012 the most unbreakable record in baseball. Obviously it's incredibly unlikely, but I could envision someone managing it. Tug McGraw's number of seasons as a manager, though, or Cy Young's win total? I cannot envision either of those ever being broken. Well, maybe the former, if medical anti-geriatric advances improve as much as some people believe they will. Though, even then, it would be awfully unlikely.

Oh, and the peripheral note about Gagne's 2003 season FIP? Had missed that one. Very cool.