Last year I reintroduced VOL, a custom metric that attempts to measure the relative volatility of a hitter’s day to day performance. It is far from a perfect metric, but at the moment it’s what we have.
| 12:00 |
: Rule of Acquisition #286: Latinum is forever, but so is Jeff Francoeur sucking.
|
| 12:01 |
Carlos Marmol doesn’t appear to have any upside, but the Cubs keep giving him opportunities. Is the Cub’s FO just being stubborn by not releasing him at this point? I can’t imagine another organization willing to risk any potential success by adding this mess to their roster. |
| 12:01 |
: He’s been good enough in the past that it can sometimes be hard to let go. He’s a reclamation project at this point.
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| 12:02 |
I foolishly dealt for Moustakas in a 12 team keeper. Do I carry him ’til he breaks out, or do I cut my losses now? |
| 12:02 |
: If you have the roster spot, he’s probably still worth stashing
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| 12:03 |
Hey Dan! Let’s assume the next year’s draft is deeper than the current year’s. What keeps a team from low-balling a first round draftee in the hopes that they don’t sign netting them a 2nd first round pick in the stronger draft? Are they only awarded a compensation pick if they offer a set amount to the player? Also, would that team receive a larger draft budget seeing they have 2 first round picks? |
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Minutes of the Corey Kluber Society Meeting — 16 June 2013
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Minutes of the Corey Kluber Society Meeting — 16 June 2013
Called to Order
Meeting called to order in Cleveland, Ohio, at approximately 1:05pm ET by umpire Mark Carlson.
Members Present
As noted previously, not entirely clear. Although, one assumes that all members who are present are bound by their dual interests in Truth and Beauty.
It is a fact undeniable that people don’t often talk about the San Diego Padres. The reasons for this, presumably, are numerous. The Padres haven’t been good for a while. They have a relatively small fan base, and a limited payroll, and they’re overshadowed by bigger deals up north. They play out West, for whatever that might matter. They don’t have any stop-what-you’re-doing superstars, and the good players are frequently talked about in trade rumors. It’s just hard to talk about 30 different teams evenly, and if you’re in the business of ratings or traffic, the Padres aren’t a big draw. But the Padres as a team perform independent of the buzz. And on Sunday, in San Diego, they knocked off the Diamondbacks 4-1.
That capped off a series sweep, that followed another series sweep. This might have escaped your attention, but the Padres are now a game over .500, at 35-34. They’re right in the thick of things in the National League West, and if you forgive the arbitrary cutoff, since April 24 the Padres are tied for the second-best record in baseball. They started 5-15, slipping off whatever radars they might’ve been on in the first place. They’ve made it all the way back, quietly, and they’ve done so because of their position players. Almost entirely.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Meeting of the Corey Kluber Society, Again
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Meeting of the Corey Kluber Society, Again
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is to announce another meeting — in this case, at 1:05pm ET today (Sunday) — of the Corey Kluber Society.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Today’s Notable Games
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Today’s Notable Games
Los Angeles NL at Pittsburgh | 16:05 ET
Clayton Kershaw (100.1 IP, 83 xFIP-, 2.6 WAR) faces Brandon Cumpton (N/A). The latter makes his major-league debut in place of the injured A.J. Burnett. His most relevant numbers at Triple-A Indianapolis: 11 G, 10 GS, 65.1 IP, 6.75 K/9, 3.03 BB/9, 0.55 HR/9, 3.69 FIP. Tim Williams of Pirates Prospsects has a very current and also thorough scouting report on Cumpton. A brief summary of same: Cumpton is ground-ball oriented; his slider isn’t hopeless; might have trouble against left-handed batters.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Pittsburgh Radio or Television.
Hi! This is a post. You either want to read it or you don’t. This is last week’s edition of this post. You either wanted to read it or you didn’t. I really don’t care what you decided because I get paid just the same, and I’m just in it for the big FanGraphs take-home. If you don’t read these posts, you’re not reading this introduction. This introduction is selective for those of you who follow this series, so, thanks for your support. You are wasting your time reading this paragraph.
Here come the five wildest swings, from between June 7 and June 13. These are the swings at pitches that PITCHf/x says were the furthest from the center of the strike zone, which is one way of measuring this. There are other ways, but this is by far the easiest for me to investigate every Friday. In theory I exclude hit-and-run swings, but I have yet to encounter one. In practice I exclude checked swings, and that always makes this post take an extra while, because turns out there are a lot of those at really wild pitches. These posts consequently go up late, meaning you might well be reading this on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. If it’s a weekend, don’t complain about the .gifs. You’re not in a rush. Slow down, take a breath, we don’t take enough breaths. Onward!
In 150 at-bats back in 2011, Brett Lawrie captured our attention and imagination. “If he could hit nine homers in such a short time, Lawrie could have 30-homer potential over the course of a full season,” is likely a sentence you read before the 2012 season. It’s probably a sentence I wrote, as a matter of fact. In the season and a half since though, Lawrie has hit just 16 homers, and has battled a myriad of injuries. He’s just 23-years-old, but perhaps it’s time we stopped waiting for Lawrie to be a star.
Hey there, Pauls and non-Pauls, and welcome to the first part of the tenth edition of The Worst Of The Best. For the first part of the ninth edition, go here. For every post in the series, go here. This is what you have elected to do for the next five or ten minutes. This is how you’ve chosen to spend your time. How did you arrive here? Did you seek this out on purpose, or did you mindlessly click a link out of habit? How many mindless decisions do you make throughout your day? To what extend does this mindlessness end up controlling your time? It is important to free yourself of mindless behavior, of automation. It’s not like a switch you can flip, but, consciously involve yourself in all things. Actively make your decisions, and in this way you might re-wire previously inefficient networks. Thank you for reading!
There’s going to be a top-five list of the wildest pitches from between June 7 (not yesterday) and June 13 (yesterday). These are the pitches furthest from the center of the strike zone, according to PITCHf/x and math, and of each pitch there will be images, including .gifs. It would be great to have .gifs that only load when you click on them or mouse over, but at present we don’t have that capability, so. We’ve talked about it. Some pitches just missing this list: Francisco Liriano to Barry Zito on the 12th, Jeff Locke to Alfonso Soriano on the 9th, and Jason Hammel to Ben Zobrist on the 7th. We’ve still got some Jason Hammel for you, though, to fulfill all of your various Jason Hammel needs. We’ll begin with the fifth-wildest pitch, like we always do literally every time.
Episode 349
Al Skorupa is a prospect writer for Bullpen Banter and FanGraphs, with particular knowledge of the college game. He’s also the guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio.
Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.
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