Over the last two years, only one National League third baseman has had better defensive numbers than Nolan Arenado. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
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: here is a video of a volcano https://www.youtube.com/wat…
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: Let’s chat about baseball! Let’s not chat about fantasy baseball.
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: As a word of warning, I was completely out of touch over the weekend, so good luck getting an insightful answer on anything that’s happened extremely recently. One can catch up only so much
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Favorites from the NL, AL? |
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: A’s and Nationals
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: Still think of the A’s as the best team in the AL, but now I highly doubt they’re catching the Angels in the division, so that makes things complicated
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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.
Most Highly Rated Game
Seattle at Oakland | 22:05 ET
James Paxton (39.1 IP, 79 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR) faces Sonny Gray (178.0 IP, 92 xFIP-, 2.9 WAR). As recently as August 10, Oakland had a four-game lead over Anaheim and possessed odds of 79% and 90%, respectively, of winning the AL West and qualifying for the divisional series. Pretty convincing, those figures. As of Tuesday morning, however, only Kansas City faces less certainty with regard to the playoffs than the A’s. Emil Cioran’s mother was correct, then, one finds, when she told that same anguished Romanian philosopher: “Whatever people try to do, they’ll regret it sooner or later.”
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland Radio.
They encountered one another on a major-league field for the first time this past weekend — the first two picks of the 2009 draft, the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg and the Mariners’ Dustin Ackley. The two names are forever linked in Mariner lore, as it was their ill-timed winning streak at the end of the 2008 season that landed both players in their eventual homes. Strasburg made the Mariners look silly on Saturday night, but Ackley got in a solid counterpunch, drilling a late homer that cost the Nationals’ righty his shutout, ending his night a bit earlier than expected. Truth be told, the Mariners’ return on their first-round selection has looked better of late, as Ackley’s second-half surge has helped keep his club firmly entrenched in the wild-card race. Which is the real Dustin Ackley? The one that struggled for the better part of the last three seasons, or the guy who has shown up for the last month and a half? Read the rest of this entry »
It makes sense, on a day like Labor Day, to highlight the struggles of a middle reliever. Even a great one like Danny Farquhar has had to work hard to find his niche on the fringes of the big leagues. Turns out, some of Farquhar’s particular success has come from ignoring management even.
If you remove the guys that have closed for their teams this year, Farquhar is probably the eighth or ninth best middle reliever in the game right now. He’s done it with lots of strikeouts based on 93-94 mph gas and a great cutter/curve combo. And the best command of his career.
It’s been a long winding road to this point. And it’s required ignoring some of the voices in his ear.
Note: this was originally published last Friday. Just not here! Whoopsadoodle!
If you’ve watched an Angels game lately, you’ve probably seen it. If you’ve just read about the Angels lately, you’ve probably heard about it. Every hitter in baseball has his own relative hot zones and relative cold zones, but Mike Trout’s been running a particularly interesting heat map.
It looks something like this:
The general message being sent: Mike Trout has been absolutely killing pitches down in and beyond the zone. Yet, he’s been struggling against pitches up. You can see it in color form, as above, or you can see it in numerical form. Against pitches in the lower third of the strike zone this year, Trout’s slugged a spectacular .875. Against pitches in the upper third of the strike zone this year, Trout’s slugged a feeble .211. The former is among the best in the league. The latter’s among the very worst.
Everyone’s picked up on it by now. Trout, I’m sure, knows what’s going on. This is information that’s been noted repeatedly on ESPN and the MLB Network. Based on this, it seems like Trout shouldn’t actually be all that difficult to put away. But, yeah. He’s probably on course to win the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. And despite what the numbers say, Trout’s seen more low pitches than high pitches. To this point, 11 percent of his pitches have been in that upper third. And 14 percent have been in the bottom third. It seems odd, but Trout is just an extreme example of a league-wide trend.
Ben and Sam discuss which lineups have deviated from preseason projections by the most, and what it means.
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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.
Most Highly Rated Game
Detroit at Cleveland | 16:05 ET
David Price (203.1 IP, 72 xFIP-, 4.6 WAR) faces Corey Kluber (192.2 IP, 72 xFIP-, 5.8 WAR). Following a pair of victories against Kansas City — and a probably imminent, but also currently suspended, third win from Sunday’s game — Cleveland is now a non-negligible participant in the race for the AL Central. Even omitting that suspended game, the Clevelanders now possess better than 5% odds of winning the division — up from less than 2% entering play Saturday. Endeavoring to aid their clubs’ respective causes are Price and Kluber, two of the American League’s probably five most likely candidates — along with Felix Hernandez, Jon Lester, and Max Scherzer — for the Cy Young award.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland or Detroit Radio.