With five outfielders already on the disabled list, the Red Sox were already spread thin in a position once thought to be a strength. Then Cody Ross factured a bone in his left foot in Monday’s game. Adding insult to injury is the promotion of Scott Podsednik just a couple of hours before game time, a move which portends a trip to the 7-Day DL for Ryan Sweeney (concussion).

As a result, the Red Sox have two options: play bad outfielders like Podsednik and Che-Hsuan Lin and wait for the cavalry to return, or get creative. Bolstered by the return of Kevin Youkilis, Bobby Valentine has chosen the latter with his lineup for tonight’s game. Youkilis will man first base, shifting Adrian Gonzalez to right field for his first outfield action in a non-interleague game.

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Episode 184
Managing editor Dave Cameron makes his weekly appearance. Topics discussed: how Josh Hamilton‘s offensive approach sort of does — but also totally doesn’t — resemble Delmon Young’s; this week’s iteration of SI.com’s Power Rankings and the challenges of assessing team defense; and the Tampa Bay Rays’ sabermetric broadcast from Sunday.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 34 min. play time.)

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One of the more confounding parts of baseball, and surely if you’re a baseball player, is the disappearance of what appeared to be an entirely reliable skill set for extended periods of time. Some of it can be explained away by statistical measures while others are attempted to be explained away by a narrative. But frequently, it’s hard to unearth a tidy explanation. And that’s simultaneously frustrating and rather fascinating.

I was scanning the leader board recently, looking at strikeout and walk rates for hitters and those who have seen notable changes this year. For curiosity’s sake, here’s what caught my eye after a cursory glance:

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The Detroit Tigers are in third place in the American League Central at 20-21.  They’re not where they — and many of us — expected them to be at this part of the season. Yes, the starting rotation’s been inconsistent, other than the supremely good and consistent Justin Verlander. The bullpen has sprung a few leaks, and leads the American League in losses with eight. But it’s the offense that’s been the most disappointing.

Through 41 games, the Tigers have scored 180 runs, just the seventh-most in the American League. The Rangers have scored 236. Even with Evan Longoria sidelined, the Rays are ahead of the Tigers with 184 runs. The Yankees, who haven’t had a hit with a runner in scoring position in two weeks (or so it seems), have scored 189.

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Nolan Arenado, 3B, Colorado Rockies
Current Level: AA
2012 Top 15 Prospects Ranking: 1st
Current Value: Star-in-the-Making

It’s not even June but the Rockies are fading fast from the playoff picture. The hot corner has been a gaping hole and the organization’s top prospect just happens to be a third baseman. Unfortunately, Arenado is not exactly forcing the club’s hand to promote him. He’s currently hitting .303 in double-A but his OPS is just .788 as he’s not exactly getting on-base at a huge rate and he’s just hitting for OK power. Never one to take a huge number of walks, his rate is down to just 5.6 BB% this year after topping out at 8.1% in 2011. His strikeout rate is still good at 14.0 K% but it’s up to the highest mark of his career and 5% higher than last season. Arenado, 21, has 13 doubles but just three home runs after slugging 20 last year; his power, as witnessed by his ISO rate, has dipped each of the past few seasons from .212 to .190 to .137. After a breakout 2011 season in the California League and then an even better performance in the Arizona Fall League (.388/.423/.636 in 121 AB), the organization was probably hoping for a little bit more from Arenado and it looks like he won’t be ready before 2013.

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Last night, Josh Hamilton and his teammates went up against Felix Hernandez in Seattle. Hamilton came to bat four times, seeing 13 pitches in the process. He swung at eight of them. Here are the pitch locations for when Josh Hamilton decided to swing the bat last night:

One of those eight pitches is within the box that PITCHF/x defines as the strike zone, and two others are close enough that they fall well within the margin for error, and very well might have been called strikes had he not swung at them. The other five, though? There’s a slider up and way off the plate outside, two change-ups down off the plate outside, a change-up in the dirt, and a slider at his ankles.

Now, here are the pitches that Hamilton let pass.

One curveball on the outer half that was taken for a called strike, and then four pitches that weren’t particularly close that Hamilton wisely let go by, all of which were called balls.

Between these two graphs, you can see the 13 pitches that Felix Hernandez threw Josh Hamilton last night. Two of them are within the strike zone. Two of them are close to the strike zone. Josh Hamilton saw four pitches worth swinging at last night. He swung eight times. This is Josh Hamilton.

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Mets first baseman Ike Davis has seen the number of fastballs thrown to him drop significantly since his rookie season in 2010. In that year, 57% of the pitches thrown to Davis were some type of fastball. So far in 2012? Only 51%. There have been only 30 seasons between 2007 and 2011 where a hitter with more than 100 plate appearances saw a lower percentage of fastballs in a season than Ike this year — and only five where a player accumulated more than 500 plate appearances.

Clearly pitchers are adjusting to Davis, altering their approach based upon Davis’ perceived offensive strengths and weaknesses. This got me thinking about the extent to which major league pitchers adjust to hitters from year to year. Was this change significant, or more common based on the normal adjustments hitters can expect to see from year to year.

As a first cut, I decided to look at changes in the pitch types that batters faced in consecutive years. Throwing hitters a different mix of pitches (i.e. fastballs, curveballs, sliders, etc.) is just one way the league can adjust. Pitchers can alter location, sequence and speed. However, the data was more readily available for pitch types, so the choice was made to focus there first. Read the rest of this entry »

Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Featured Game: Washington at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Washington at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
Regarding a Thing Bill James Said
Bill James said — while promoting his true-crime book last year on Sounds of Young America, I think it was — Bill James said something to the effect that “People are interested in things that other people are interested in.”

An Example of That Phenomenon in Action
An example of that phenomenon is any article you’d read in the Daily News, probably. Like about the murders in the Daily News. Or about how a woman was fired from her job for being too busty in the Daily News.

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