A few hours after a near no-hitter by Shelby Miller (Atlanta Braves) and the first home run by Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco in Colorado, I engage you in a baseball conversation from what we saw, heard and smelled all across the Baseball World. Ready?
Baseball Notes – May 18, 2015
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*CBC reported yesterday that Montreal mayor Denis Coderre will be meeting MLB commissioner Rob Manfred at the end of May to discuss… well, baseball. Even I from the province of Quebec knows how to take this kind of development very lightly, it justs does not mean anything, but it is still a cool news when we think of the history and love for the sport in this part of North America. I will add that Denis Coderre has been a very hands-on mayor since he took office at the end of 2013, even taking the step of making money available to restore the amateur parks around the city, a great step that goes right at the grassroot movement and sends the right signal.
Add to that Russell Martin, a local star/hero, that gets a lot of exposure with the Blue Jays games on TVA Sports , a french-speaking sports channel in Quebec, and you have a kind of recipe for success and slow-building movement to getting baseball back in Montreal. My take on it? There WILL be baseball in Montreal in the future, but do not hold your breath, since government help definitely cannot be counted upon with the current political/economical climate and business leaders in the province have cold feet with these kind of projects without the involvement of the higher echelons of the State.
*Rays top pitching prospect and screwballer Brent Honeywell threw 7 hitless innings yesterday while striking out 8. From MiLB.com: “The 20-year-old right-hander is no stranger to these kinds of performances. He came within four outs of a no-hitter on April 22 against Dayton and followed that up with six innings of one-hit ball six days later against Great Lakes.”
*Former outfielder Jason Lane has been converted to full-time pitching since 2012 and while he has seen highs and lows, his Sunday outing was clearly in the “high” category with seven innings of one-run ball. The San Diego farm hand has a respectable 4.41 ERA, 50 IP, 60 H, 14 BB and 26 Ks line on the season for El Paso in the AAA. The Padres called him up in that capacity last season and he actually made a surprisingly good impression with 10 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB and 6 Ks.
*It was mentioned in the game notes for the first game of the Mets/Cardinals series on Monday that St-Louis has already used five different lead-off hitters this season and it made me look at the rankings for this position in the batting order, searching for a deficiency for the NL Central leading team. Not only are they tied for fifth with a .357 wOBA in the majors, but they have also been among the most adept at getting on base with an impressive .360 OBP and small 14,5 K%. Here are the seven players who have handled the lead off duties, ranking them by plate appearances: Carpenter, Jay, Bourjos, Wong, Grichuk, Heyward and Kozma.
*Here are a few names to watch for in AAA, players who could possibly show up soon in the majors due to the great numbers in their respective league. I’ll rank the batters (with at least 100 PA) by OPS and the pitchers (with at least 30 IP) by SO/W:
Hitters:
–Dan Black (1.051): he’s batted at least double-digits home runs in the past four years for the White Sox organization, but his path to the majors at 1B is crowded. Maybe a few reps in the OF or a promotion to bench player could allow the switch-hitter to help the club.
–Alex Castellanos (1.100): The 28 years old outfielder has been on a rampage in the hitter-friendly PCL and the Mets could soon make use of him and his .313/.404/.697 batting line.
–Dominguo Santana (1.043): The Astros have a bright future ahead and the 22 year-old outfielder, after a brief cup of tea in the majors last season, seems to be on the fast track with his eight home runs and his 75 total bases in 35 games so far in AAA Fresno.
Pitchers:
–Ty Blach (12.50): The former fifth-round pick in the 2012 amateur draft represents a nice insurance option for the San Francisco Giants rotation. Although not a fantasy baseball darling with a 5.3 K/9 rate, he gets by with the ability to not load the bases with damaging walks and a low HR/9 rate (0.9) in the PCL, a league known for its power numbers.
-Bruce Chen (7.67): the LHP was roughed up when promoted by the Indians and then sent back to the minors to continue his mission to return fully to the majors at 37 years old.
–Eduardo Rodriguez (6.80): with the Red Sox rotation in shambles and costing them important win, the left-handed 22 years old could make an impact if we judge his 2.86 ERA at the highest echelon of the minors.
–Scott Diamond (4.75): another arm in that Rays organization who seems poised to make his mark in the majors with the 28 year old LHP posting a respectable 1.27 WHIP in Durham.
*Regardless to service time, the Marlins announced on Monday the hiring of Dan Jennings as their fifteenth manager in franchise history (est. 1993) after Mike Redmond was fired on Sunday. 15… yes, owner Jeffrey Loria is a very stable person and knows where to look when the on-field product fails to live up to his expectations (sarcasm index: extreme).
*The New York Mets have by far the most players on the disabled lists with 13 injured baseball men: Dilson Herrera, Buddy Carlyle, Dillon Gee, Rafael Montero, Jerry Blevins, Travis d’Arnaud, David Wright, Cesar Puello, Jenrry Mejia, Vick Black, Josh Edgin, Bobby Parnell and Zach Wheeler.
*The Cubs have turned fewer double plays (28) and committed more errors (27) than most National League teams, ranking 12th in the league in standard defensive ratings, the Chicago Sun-Times revealed. I went and looked at the leaders in double plays and was surprised to see that four of the five leading teams in that department do not even own a .500 record so far in 2015 (Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Colorado, Detroit and Philadelphia). While we expected the Royals to be good defensively this year (and they are the best with a unapproachable 32.7 DEF rating), the Detroit Tigers is the team that surprised me the most when looking at the numbers, ranking near the top in most defensive categories, with SS Jose Iglesias, 2B Ian Kinsler and 3B Nick Castellanos leading the way.
*Steve Gilbert of MLB.com tweeted yesterday that the Diamondbacks have scored one or fewer runs in 10 of the 36 games they have played this year. That prompted me to look at bit deeper into their numbers in order to compare reality with the doomsday predictions that seemed near-unanimous at the beginning of the season:
They rank 13th offensively in the majors in WAR with 4.9, just behind the Orioles and Astros, two teams that receive positive coverage these days, but they get a 2.5 WAR on the pitching side with the relievers picking up most of the blame for the lowly result.
All in all, the production is concentrated around Paul Goldschmidt (.333/.436/.644), Mark Trumbo (.282/.323/.538), Ender Inciarte (.309/.333/.417) and A.J. Pollock (.292/.340/.400). Mind you, this is almost half of their lineup and the numbers look actually good, but when you look at possible regression, this is where it gets a little tricky: Trumbo’s K% rate is down compared to his career average and better years with the Anaheim Angels, along with higher BABIP that leads me to believe a cooling down period is on the way, but his power numbers like ISO and SLG are on the rise and at 29 years old in the middle of his prime years.
Goldschmidt, with an unsustainable .386 BABIP will also come down to earth, although the rest of his metrics look similar to past season and could actually improve when you consider he gets the ball in the air a lot more than he did in the past and lets the ground balls be Inciarte’s forte. The latter keeps putting up good numbers on top of spreading the ball to all sides of the field to create scoring opportunities for his team. Add to that his speed on the bases and you have the making of a solid leadoff hitter if he keeps this up and, at 24 years old, this could only be the start of an interesting career for the left-handed batter.
In the case of Pollock, the outfielder seems to respond well to the change in approach by the opposing pitchers, who have been giving him a healthy dose of breaking balls compared to past seasons, but his .327 wOBA is still standing proudly alongside his excellent .372 wOBA from last year, although the power numbers are the main victims, with a 90-point drop in the ISO department to a current .108. Add to that the return of Jake Lamb (1.204 OPS in only 29 at-bats before he went down) soon from a foot injury and you have a potent lineup that’s weighted down by the pitching staff (ranking 23rd or worst in MLB in these stats categories: ERA, Quality Starts, Batting Average Against and WHIP).
