Ninety-nine — a number rarely seen once, let alone multiple times from the same pitcher. In his last start, Mauricio Cabrera touched 99 mph enough for teammates charting in the stands to chuckle and shake their heads in disbelief.
Video after the jump Read the rest of this entry »
Scott Kazmir’s return to Major League Baseball has been pretty well documented at this point. After bottoming out by pitching in independent ball, Kazmir’s velocity started to pick back up this winter, and the Indians brought him to spring training on a non-roster invite. The velocities continued to impress and he pitched extremely well in Arizona, and with the Indians in need of useful starting pitching, they gave him a spot in their rotation, but then a strained ribcage forced him to begin the season on the DL. In his first start of the year, he gave up six runs in 3.1 innings, beating back some of the spring optimism about whether or not Kazmir could ever get back to what he used to be.
In the two starts after his debut, he was better, but neither the Royals nor the Twins are offensive juggernauts. There were encouraging signs, as his velocity was picking up and he was getting strikeouts again, but he hadn’t really put it all together yet. Until yesterday.
| 11:33 |
: Hello all. Welcome to this week’s chat. We’ll get started at noon, but feel free to start posting questions.
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| 12:01 |
I don’t have a question but my boss didn’t show up for work today. Hooray Friday! |
| 12:01 |
: My kind of Friday! I’m sure every reader in here is in the same situation. Right?
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| 12:01 |
What are your feelings on Braves pitching prospects? Alex Wood has looked GREAT so far. Where do you rank him, Cabrera, Sims, Graham, and so on? |
| 12:03 |
: I’ve seen all four. Graham and Wood are very good pitching prospects. Not elite, but mid-rotation/high leverage reliever types. As for Sims/Cabrera, I just submitted a piece with HD video on both to FanGraphs.
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| 12:03 |
Who reaches the majors first, Byron Buxton or Miguel Sano? |
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Table: Every Team’s Park-Adjusted Home-Run Rate
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Table: Every Team’s Park-Adjusted Home-Run Rate
The reader might be surprised to learn — as the author was surprised to learn — that the Cleveland Indians currently lead the entire major leagues in home runs. Nor is their success merely an illusion of park factors. In fact, Cleveland’s Progressive Field allows home runs at a rate somewhat below league average.
Below are the raw and adjusted home runs totals and rates for every major-league team currently. Note that home-run park factors for Mariners, Mets, and Padres don’t reflect all recent structural changes to those teams’ respective home parks. Note also that park factors have already been halved for use on full season stats.
Ben and Sam talk to Sports on Earth Senior Writer Will Leitch about the evolution of baseball coverage and the fan’s relationship with sports media.
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Episode 335
Dayn Perry is a contributor to CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball and the author of three books, now — one of them serviceable and one of them, against all odds, something more than serviceable. In this edition of FanGraphs Audio, he answers questions provided by the Unwashed Masses.
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 55 min play time.)
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Truth be told, I don’t know all that much about Chris Cornell. Were I in charge of a massive Chris Cornell museum, I’d constantly be thinking to myself, “I don’t know how this happened.” But I know a few years ago, Cornell went solo and released an album that was a complete departure from his previous music. It sold, but people didn’t really like it that much, and before long Cornell was back to being Cornell again. Soundgarden released “King Animal” in 2012 and the solo album is just this weird thing that people remember. Maybe Cornell had to try it, just to see.
A little under a month ago, Dave Cameron wrote an article here titled “Adam Dunn’s Failed Experiment.” Dunn, of course, is one of the first guys you think of when you’re playing three-true-outcome free association, as he built a solid career upon dingers, walks, and strikeouts. Dunn was always a patient sort, but he got off to a miserable start in 2013, and that was accompanied by a curious uptick in aggressiveness. Cameron highlighted a quote showing that Dunn was going to be more aggressive on purpose. Dunn was pretty good in 2012, all things considered, and no one would’ve predicted him to try to change things up at 33, but he made a change and the early results were deplorable.
Two of the great players of the aughts are on their last legs. Two days ago, apropos of Roy Halladay’s shoulder surgery, Eno Sarris asked, “Is Roy Halladay Done Done?” and a month ago, Paul Swydan asked a similar question about Todd Helton. It’s a shame to see two of the greats — or at least two of the Very Goods — look like shadows of their former selves. So it may be worth reliving the good times by taking a look at what the scouts thought of them two decades ago.
Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve often wondered what would happen if a group of umpires came together to make a call that was so obviously wrong, so over-the-top blatantly inaccurate as to be completely nonsensical. Like, what if a pitcher threw a pitch, and the batter grounded out, and the umpires signaled for an automatic double? Obviously, the defensive team’s manager would get ejected, and a bunch of other guys would probably get ejected too, but, then what? If the umpires all agree that the batter doubled, who steps in to prevent the double? Does the defensive team leave the field in protest? Are they then given a forfeit? Does the commissioner get involved? The commissioner would have to get involved. But this is a thought experiment — of course, something like this would never happen.
But, you know. There are bad calls every day. Some of them are dreadful. Inexplicably dreadful. And now we have one that even followed a video review. You already know all this by now, but Wednesday night in Cleveland, in a high-leverage spot, the umpiring team did something nonsensical, and shortly thereafter the A’s were handed another loss. At least, Oakland should’ve played a bottom of the ninth. They didn’t, and won’t.
You’ve probably heard that MLB umpire Angel Hernandez is in the news again, because he’s awful at his job and does embarrassing things to the sport on a too regular basis. You may also know that Hernandez has something of a reputation for drawing attention to himself, and is annually rated as one of the worst umpires by Major League players.
What you might not know, and what I didn’t know until I saw Joe Posnanski retweet something from Buffalo News writer Mike Harrington, is that Hernandez’s reputation for brutal calls and a total lack of professionalism goes back over 20 years. Harrington linked to this article written in 1991 by Bob DiCesare, covering Hernandez’s performance in a Triple-A game between the Buffalo Bisons and Iowa Cubs. The piece is brutal in its honesty, and rings true even today.
