We were served with a light schedule on Monday, but I always like that since it gives us the chance to be more attentive to a bunch games and players. I’m pretty sure C.J. Wilson of the Angels did not like that kind of attention, getting shelled by the Jays bat on a sunny afternoon in Ontario’s capital.
Baseball Notes May 19, 2015
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*With a deal that I thought would be more talked about, the independent Atlantic League and Major League Baseball reached a Player Transfer pact. In fact, their relationship goes back a few years and has also been about more than player transfer as the article linked suggests:
The agreement is significant for the Atlantic League, though, because it’s the first time it’s been officially acknowledged by Major League Baseball. “It signifies that we occupy a place within the professional baseball hierarchy. That’s meaningful to the league,” says Atlantic League’s Rick White.
“Since 1998 the Atlantic League has been a great resource for experienced players looking to extend their playing careers,” said MLB in a statement. “With our new agreement MLB is looking forward to continuing our relationship with the Atlantic League.”
Cooper notes that the Atlantic League has long sought to strengthen its ties to MLB. For example, it hired former Rangers, Indians and Tigers GM Joe Klein to be its executive director and former MLB Properties president White to be its president. MLB, meanwhile, follows the Atlantic League to see which types of rules changes it might be able to emulate — Cooper writes that MLB’s pace-of-game changes this season were based in large part on rules that had already been implemented in the Atlantic League.
*With Travis Wood off to the bullpen for the Chicago Cubs (he registered his first career save Saturday) and Phil Coke designated for assignment, the major league club has called upon Tsuyoshi Wada, a left-handed 33 years old rookie last season, to take Wood’s spot in the rotation. Matt Zylbert has good and short résumé to present the japanese hurler:
“First off, as mentioned, he’s awfully old for someone embarking on only their sophomore campaign in the Majors, but that’s because he enjoyed a lengthy stint pitching in Japan, where he also racked up some big-game experience on their national team in the Olympics and World Baseball Classic. Then he made his big league debut in ’14, and proceeded to go 4-4 in 13 starts with a 3.25 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, while registering a modest 57:19 K:BB ratio in 69.2 innings.
Perhaps most impressive of all, Wada was consistent, surrendering less than three runs in ten of his starts, and he yielded more than four only once. Furthermore, he went at least five innings in just about all of them. He was effective enough that he most likely would have cracked camp with the Cubs on Opening Day if not for a groin injury that he was in the process of rehabbing from. Fortunately, it appears he’s picked up where he left off, at least as far as his Triple-A numbers are concerned, as in six starts, he was 1-3 with a 2.86 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, and a 29:10 K:BB ratio in 34.2 innings for the Iowa Cubs. He’s also only served up two home runs.”
I really like those moves overall, with Travis Wood more than capable of getting hitters from both sides of the plate out and could prove to be a great left-handed version of Edwin Jackson in that Cubs bullpen. They can both be stretched out and offer a versatile set of arms for the skipper, Joe Maddon. If you haven’t yet read my colleague Scott Habiger’s profile of the manager, please do so by following this link.
*With the news that Travis d’Arnaud (Mets) was cleared to swing a bat on Monday, I’d like to take a look at the top 5 backstop in offensive production in the majors, using wOBA:
Stephen Vogt (Oak): .448
Russell Martin (Tor): .400
Buster Posey (SF): .346
Derek Norris (SD): .343
Wilson Ramos (Was): .318
The most intriguing variable among all those qualifying catchers is that Buster Posey’s BABIP stands at a lowly .282, so just imagine his batting line (.287/.359/.434) once his luck slightly increases.
*Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports beat me too it yesterday night, interesting fact about offensive production so far in 2015, in that so-called pitcher’s era: “By the way, offense is up 4.2% from last season as far as runs per game. Higher than 2013, too. But lower than every year prior back to ’92.”
*Ichiro Suzuki, with his 2-for-3 night on Monday, has tied Babe Ruth in career hits: 2873. 601 home runs to go…
*Victor Martinez’s knee keeps making a scene whenever he needs to hit from the left side of the plate and I was wondering why he didn’t just try and hit from the right side. I found the answer in this piece from last night on MLB.com:
“He spoke, too, of his disinterest in batting right-handed against right-handed pitching. Ausmus had asked him to consider it, given his whopping numbers right-handed and his abysmal output from the left side.
A lifetime switch-hitter has his reasons for saying no. Rarely has he experienced a straight match-up in professional baseball. He isn’t sure how he would react to a tight pitch, a dangerous pitch, in a right-hand versus right-hand situation.
It’s easy for fans to snort at his reticence. But big-league hitters know what he’s talking about.”
They really are in an unenviable situation with Martinez, knowing that a lengthy absence is the best course of action for that kind of knee injury, but not having a productive back up option as a left-handed bat for their lineup is a huge problem. Could we finally be seeing the start of tough times for the Tigers in 2015?
*I really did not think, a just a few weeks ago, that I’d making this kind of positive intro for the Minnesota Twins, but they are now back in contention in the AL Central with a 21-17 record and they are doing this with a lot of different things going right at the same time. Let’s face it, they are not dominant in any facet of the game, just doing the right things at the right time and they deserve the recent run of success.
Their collapsing pitching comes to mind when we talk about something not going quite right for the team, ranking dead last in SIERA with their relievers (4.06) and third worst with their starters (4.74). Not all his looking bleak on that front, though, with Tommy Milone, the left-hander demoted earlier this season, making waves in AAA and Twins Daily had a good report on the hurler and all the options making sense for their rotation in order for Milone to get a chance to contribute at the highest level of their organization.
Exhibit A: In his first Rochester start (May 8), he threw 6.1 shutout innings. He gave up five hits, walked two and struck out eight batters.
Exhibit B: In his second Rochester start (May 13), he threw 8.0 shutout innings. He gave up three hits, walked none and struck out 12.
Exhibit C: In his third Rochester start (May 18), he threw 9.0 scoreless innings, his first professional complete game shutout. He gave up six hits, walked none and struck out 13.
Exhibit D: In his three Rochester starts (consolidated), he has thrown 23.1 scoreless innings. He has given up just 14 hits, walked two and struck out 33 batters.
*Did you get the chance to catch the pitching duel of Kluber vs Sale last night? If you didn’t, you missed a great game that was finally won by the White Sox, good for their sixth straight win after a dismal start to the season. I want to especially point out the daring, if not almost stupid, but productive move by Adam Eaton who stole home on a passed ball that was only about 10 feet from the plate, but Roberto Perez, the Indians catcher, could not hold on to the ball. I found this interesting bit of information about Chris Sale this morning on ESPN:
When Chris was at his best last season, it was because he paired his fastball with an almost unhittable slider. Sale and White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper have previously noted that Sale’s feel for his slider typically comes slower than for his other pitches. He hasn’t found quite the right touch yet in 2015.
Whether it’s his defense not coming through for him, or the pitch is just less effective, opponents already have 11 hits against the 80 he’s thrown this season. They totaled 17 against the 507 he threw in 2014.
*The Tampa Bay Times declared that pitcher Jake McGee hit 97mph on the radar gun in his season debut Sunday, a notable development considering his recent left elbow surgery. Power displays being a big part of the game for a lot of fans, here are the leaders in average baseball velocity this year in Major League Baseball:
Aroldis Chapman (Cin): 99.5 mph
Arquimedes Caminero (Pit): 98.4 mph
Kelvin Herrera (KC): 97.6 mph
Carter Capps (Mia): 97.5 mph
Craig Kembrel (SD): 97.3 mph
I’m glad to see the large majority of pitchers in the top 30 in fastball velocity are relievers, since it’s in their best interest to really pump it up to hitters and they don’t need to save their arms for 3-4-5-6 or more innings when they get the call from the manager. When it comes to starters, I’ve always preferred to see a guy shave off 2-3 mph off their fastball in order to preserve their arm, but also create more movement on the fastballs, in turn creating a better chance of inducing a ground ball. Sometimes, it seems like their need to show off their power arm is greater than the logic behind slowing it down just a bit and put all the chances on their side to help out the team by not going on the disabled list.
Wondering yet who’s pitching with the lowest baseball velocity? Well, the Blue Jays have the “honor” of having the two slowest in their rotation, R.A. Dickey (80.9 mph) and Mark Buehrle (82.9 mph)
*Mat Latos might have just a so-so year on the mound for the Marlins in 2015 (37.1 IP, 23 ER, 14 BB and 29 Ks), but somehow he seems to have a hang of a new pitch out there. Eno Sarris of Fangraphs explains:
“It probably shows up as a split finger in the Brooks Baseball system, in which case it’s an effective pitch despite strange movement. It averages almost no fade at all, but has five inches more drop than a regular changeup — and gets whiffs nearly a quarter of the time, about 50% better than average for a splitter. It has the drop of a curve and the horizontal movement of a slider, and the velocity of a changeup.”
*Angels manager Mike Scioscia announced on Monday that Kole Calhoun will be the permanent cleanup hitter going forward and that comes as no surprise, since the team ranks dead last in the majors with a .256 wOBA at that position in the lineup. He is the fifth player from the team to try and bring value to that part of their offense, a far cry from the MLB-best .468 wOBA the Nationals have posted with the same number of batters. The Angels might also want to make a few changes elsewhere in the lineup, with the team also ranked last in overall offensive production with a .280 wOBA.
*From a report on Avisail Garcia, the White Sox’s outfielder who’s leading the recent charge by Chicago’s squad with a .346/.380/.492 batting line:
In order to make up for some lost time, the White Sox gave Garcia their blessing when it came to playing in winter ball. His 125 at-bats in his native Venezuela appeared to have played a big role in helping Garcia to reach the level he is at now. “Yes, it helped me a lot because I lost, like, three months last year and playing and I was able to see more pitches,” Garcia said. “They had really good pitchers over there, so I saw pitches, curveballs, sliders, and I made adjustments.”
*Here are a few items that caught my eye in the official game notes around the majors on Monday, something you can also consult by visiting this web page that offers the information for every major league club, great tool for the nerds like me.
- Overall, the Mets’ 3.00 team ERA this year is the second-lowest in the majors…St. Louis is first (2.87 ERA)…New York’s pitching staff has allowed 80 walks, the fewest in the majors and the fewest in team history after 38 games…The Mets have six games this year where they haven’t issued a walk, tied for the second-most games without a walk this year in the majors… Detroit has seven such games.
- Wilmer Flores leads the team with six home runs…He is tied for the most home runs among major league shortstops with Cincinnati’s Zack Cozart, St. Louis’ Jhonny Peralta, San Francisco’s Brandon Crawford and Oakland’s Marcus Semien.
- The Mets are hitting .469 (15-32) with the bases loaded this year, the second-best mark in the majors, behind Washington (.550)…New York leads the majors with 41 RBI with the bases loaded.
- In seven starts this season, Dan Haren has walked a total of eight batters, and none in any of his last three starts. Over his career, he has totaled just 470 free passes in 366 appearances. His 1.86 walks/9.0 ranks over his career ranks as the fifth-lowest mark since 1969 (min. 2000 IP), behind Brad Radke (1.63), Bret Saberhagen (1.65), Jon Lieber (1.73) and Greg Maddux (1.80).
- Since 1914, Dee Gordon has the fourth-highest hit total (63) through the first 35 individual games played to start a season, trailing Hank Aaron (67), George Sisler (65) and Rod Carew (64).
- Over the last four games, Miami’s bullpen has allowed just two runs in 16.1 innings for a 1.10 ERA. Brad Hand has provided 3.2 scoreless innings in two appearances in that time, while Tom Koehler (3.0) and Steve Cishek (2.0) have combined for 5.0 scoreless. Prior to May 13, the bullpen had a 7.43 ERA in its previous nine games, allowing 20 runs (19 earned) in 23.0 innings.
*Travis Sawchik’s book, “Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the end of a 20-year Losing Streak” is about the Pittsburgh Pirates and their turnaround since 2013 and the way data/stats, in baseball in general, have changed the game. Here’s a quote from the interview by Brendan Kennedy (Toronto Star):
The Pirates’ collaborative culture seems to have been as much a key to their success as the strategies themselves. Why haven’t other teams been able to create that kind of alliance between the front office and the field?
Not every player bought in. A.J. Burnett, for instance. He hated shifts for the whole season. He had a very public blowup with shortstop Clint Barmes. But I think part of it was having the right players, like Barmes, who was open-minded. The coaches felt if they could get the middle infielders to buy in, they wouldn’t have a problem ratcheting up defensive shifts 500 per cent like they did.
Quote of the day
“Even my mom, who I love, asked me if I was crazy,” “She said, ‘Have you lost your mind?’”
- Dan Jennings, new Miami Marlins manager.
