Just the other day, Johnny Cueto turned in his first good start in over a month. Though the Royals have been in position to coast to the playoffs for weeks, seeing Cueto actually get batters out came as a tremendous relief, an indication that the ace is getting back to being an ace with October around the bend. Maybe just as interesting as what Cueto did on the field were conversations that took place off of it. As Andy McCullough wrote, Cueto felt like he needed to express something about Salvador Perez.

Part of his trouble, Cueto explained to the team, was he tries to throw exactly toward the catcher’s glove. Perez often set the target high in the zone, intending to lower his mitt with the pitch. But the optics challenged Cueto, which may have led to him spinning a series of cutters and change-ups at the waist of opposing hitters in recent weeks.

This post will consist of observations, and nothing more. I want to lay that out for you now. Cueto wanted his catcher to behave a little differently behind the plate, and though that’s a difficult thing to actually analyze, it grabbed my attention because it’s an unusual thing to hear. So I’m drawn to trying to explore this. Feel free to explore with me, or alternatively remain in the comforts of home. Explorers frequently die.

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Episode 597
Dave Cameron is both (a) the managing editor of FanGraphs and (b) the guest on this particular edition of FanGraphs Audio, during which edition he’s compelled by the host to belabor a point.

This edition of the program is sponsored by Draft, the first truly mobile fantasy sports app. Compete directly against idiot host Carson Cistulli by clicking here.

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 45 min play time.)

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Ben and Sam banter about the Brewers’ hiring of David Stearns, then talk about why timing is everything when it comes to tags, interim managers and Weezer and Wes Anderson.

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The Mets have probably had the easiest schedule in baseball. That’s not to take anything away from them — it’s not their fault, and the Nationals have faced pretty much the same slate. It’s just a fact. Things have conspired to make the Mets’ schedule fairly soft. One notices, if you dig in, the Mets have really taken advantage of this. Against teams under .500, they’ve won 67% of their games. Against teams at least .500, they’ve won just 41% of their games. Against the Phillies, the Mets have gone 14-2; against the Pirates and Cubs, they’re 0-13. Their difference in record by opponent quality is the biggest in the game, edging out the Orioles and the Dodgers.

At the other end of the extreme, you find the Blue Jays. The Mets have mostly beaten up on bad teams. The Blue Jays have beaten everyone, but especially the above-average teams. Against teams under .500, they’ve won 53% of their games. Against teams at least .500, they’ve won 63% of their games. Their difference in record by opponent quality is the biggest in the game, in the other direction. They beat out the A’s and the Tigers.

With the playoffs looming, it’s easy to speculate. Once October rolls around, only good teams are left. It seems like the team that’s been better against good teams should stand a better chance. Does this mean anything for the Blue Jays and Mets? Below, I can provide not necessarily the answer, but certainly an answer.

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The Blue Jays acquired David Price expecting him to be an ace, and to this point he’s been exactly as advertised. While teams elsewhere are struggling to straighten out their deadline acquisitions, Price has allowed just 15 runs in 10 starts with Toronto. His surface numbers are terrific, and his more advanced numbers are terrific, and when everything agrees that a guy is terrific, he’s probably terrific. The Blue Jays are getting what they paid for.

Significantly, in just over a month and a half, Price has already pitched against the Yankees four times. Three of those games he won, and in the one he didn’t, he left with a 3-1 lead. Monday was Price’s latest win over New York, and he found himself in the most trouble in the third inning. With one out and the bases loaded, Price began his highest-leverage plate appearance of the evening, opposite Alex Rodriguez.

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Here’s a statement I think most people would agree with: Bryce Harper has been the best player in baseball this year.

Harper leads the majors in batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage, so naturally, he also leads in wOBA, wRC+, and just about any other offensive metric you can find here on FanGraphs. In most cases, it isn’t even close; his 205 wRC+ is 30 points better than the next best hitter (Joey Votto), and no one is within +1.5 WAR of his current total (+9.7, with Josh Donaldson’s +8.1 coming in second). Harper is having one of the best offensive seasons of all time, and while some other guys are having excellent years as well, no one is really performing at Harper’s level this year.

Now here’s a statement that I’m guessing would be a bit more controversial: the Washington Nationals are having the best season in the National League East.

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Suppose the amount of human knowledge in the universe is finite. And suppose we happen to have reached the limit; we have acquired as much as we can. And suppose further that this applies to baseball, as well. What if we have learned as much as we can about pitching, for example, and there is no more knowledge we can gain, try as we might? It’s a silly supposition, of course: there’s lots more to study and learn and there always will be until we crash into the sun. But I present this thought experiment to you because it’s as close to a real explanation for Rich Hill’s recent dominance as I can get.

There’s a very real chance you have no idea what or who I’m talking about at this point, so please, let me back up. Rich Hill the pitcher is who, and his two starts wherein he’s recorded 20 total strikeouts, a single walk, and given up all of three runs in 14 innings is what. The what is brought up because it’s odd. How odd? There have been 97 games this year in which a starting pitcher went at least seven innings with at least 10 strikeouts and walked at most one batter. There have been 2,235 games played this season, so 97 represents just 4% of the total games. The fact that Hill did it once is interesting. The fact that he did it twice is just bizarre.

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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
New York AL at Toronto | 19:07 ET
Severino (43.1 IP, 92 xFIP-) vs. Estrada (160.1 IP, 123 xFIP-)
By the methodology typically employed by the author to produce these dumb NERD scores, tonight’s Yankees-Blue Jays game is not the most highly rated. That largely fictional distinction belongs to the Angels-Astros encounter in Houston. And, indeed, that game could very possibly offer a relentless barrage of thrill and delight. One variable omitted from the haphazardly derived algorithm, however — and perhaps especially relevant during the postseason stretch drive — is the influence of the crowd on the game-as-spectacle. For while fan involvement during last night’s Houston game was relatively subdued, that was very much the opposite case in Toronto. Indeed, the numbers support that observation.

Attendance Relative to Capacity, 9/21/2015

Game	Stadium	Capacity	Attendance	% of Capacity
NYA @ TOR	Rogers Centre	54,000*	47,648	88.2%
LAA @ HOU	Minute Maid Park	41,574	25,318	60.9%

SOURCE: Baseball Reference

The Rogers Centre, which is capable of holding about 12,000 more people than Minute Maid Park, was also nearly 30 percentage points closer to capacity last night. The result: a greater sense of urgency for the observer. Reason dictates that tonight’s games will offer a similar set of conditions.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

*As multiple concerned internet citizens note, Rogers Centre capacity has actually decreased in recent years. The website for the venue itself now reports capacities of 47,000-49,000.

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