Wei-En Lin is establishing himself as a prospect to watch in the Athletics system. The reason is largely two-fold. Signed by the AL West club out of Taiwan last summer, the 19-year-old southpaw has been opening eyes with an impressive combination of strike-throwing and an ability to miss bats. Over 77 1/3 innings between Low-A Stockton and High-A Lansing, Lin has logged a 33.8% strikeout rate and a 5.5% walk rate. Recently added to The Board with a 40+ FV, he currently ranks 14th in the A’s system.

His arsenal comprises a four-seam fastball, a slider, a curveball, and a changeup, the last of which Lugnuts pitching coach Dave Burba considers the best of the bunch. The erstwhile big league hurler described the pitch as “dirty,” adding that Lin not only gets good action with it, he delivers it with good arm speed. Eric Longenhagen likes it as well. Asked for his assessment, our lead prospect analyst shared the following:

His changeup is good. It has big parachute action, and it really dies as it reaches the plate. It’s slow, like 76 mph on average, and that’s weird enough to create some uncertainty as to how it will play against big leaguers. It definitely has bat-missing movement, though.

The pitch in question is gripped in an atypical manner. When I talked to Lin last week, I learned that he stopped throwing a splitter at the end of May and now attacks hitters with a Vulcan. Read the rest of this entry »

When he was first featured here at FanGraphs in August 2022, Emmet Sheehan was 22 years old and pitching for the High-A Great Lakes Loons. A sixth-round selection the previous summer out of Boston College, the right-hander had been assigned a 40 FV and a no. 25 ranking when our 2022 Los Angeles Dodgers Top Prospects list came out a few months earlier. But his stock was clearly rising. Sheehan boasted a 2.72 ERA, and he had fanned 93 batters while allowing just 39 over 59 2/3 dominant innings.

His ascent was rapid. Sheehan reached Los Angeles midway through the 2023 season, and enjoyed some immediate success. Debuting against the San Francisco Giants, he hurled six scoreless innings without surrendering a hit. He then went on to finish the year 4-1 with a 4.92 ERA and 4.85 FIP in 13 appearances comprising 60 1/3 innings. But the hard-throwing righty subsequently hit a speed bump. Sheehan opened last season on the IL due to forearm inflammation, and ultimately underwent Tommy John surgery in May. He didn’t return to the mound until this May.

He’s been rock solid since rejoining the Dodgers rotation. Over eight starts and a pair of relief outings, Sheehan has a 3.56 ERA, a 3.23 FIP, and a 27.6% strikeout rate over 48 innings. Moreover, he shoved his last time out. This past Monday, the erstwhile BC Eagle dominated the Cincinnati Reds to the tune of 10 strikeouts, allowing just three baserunners over seven scoreless innings.

Sheehan sat down to talk about his return to action when the Dodgers played at Fenway Park in late July. A night earlier, he’d allowed a pair of runs over five frames in a 5-2 win over the Red Sox.

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David Laurila: You’re back after missing a year due to Tommy John surgery. Has anything changed, or are you basically the same pitcher as before?

Emmet Sheehan: “I’m similar. With the rehab process and having a year to think about things, that has changed me in some ways. Obviously, learning from these guys up here has changed me, too. Getting to be around guys like Kersh [Clayton Kershaw], Glass [Tyler Glasnow], Yama [Yoshinobu Yamamoto]… all of them are amazing pitchers. I try to pick stuff up from them, just find little things. We’re all different, but we still do some things similarly.

“Pitch-wise, the one big change was my changeup. Before, it was really big. I was rolling it a lot, like really over-pronating and maybe dropping the slot a little bit, trying to get more depth on it. Coming out of rehab, pronating hard didn’t feel great in my elbow, so we tried the kick-change grip — I’m doing the little spike with my middle finger. And it’s been great. For one thing, I can sell it more like my fastball.” Read the rest of this entry »

Casey Mize had seven big league appearances under his belt when he was featured here at FanGraphs in January 2021. He also had high expectations. Drafted first overall by the Detroit Tigers out of Auburn University three years prior, the right-hander ranked 32nd when our 2021 Top 100 Prospects list was published that February. Bullish on his ability, Eric Longenhagen projected Mize as a “no. 2 starter capable of pitching at the top of a contender’s rotation.”

Our lead prospect analyst’s assessment came with an “if he stays healthy” caveat. Longenhagen wrote that he was “sufficiently scared of Mize’s injury history… to slide him behind players of a similar talent.” Those concerns have unfortunately been validated. The 28-year-old hurler required Tommy John surgery in June 2022, and he has also landed on the shelf with a handful of comparably mild maladies.

His numbers reflect the time missed, and the impact that it has had on his career. Entering the current campaign, Mize had thrown just 291 innings as a Tiger, and his ledger included a lowly 9-19 won-lost record to go with a 4.36 ERA — not exactly what was expected from a high-profile draft pick with a high-ceiling arm. Read the rest of this entry »

Tarik Skubal and Hunter Brown matched up at Comerica Park earlier this week, and the aces didn’t disappoint. In a game Detroit won 1-0 in 10 innings, the Tigers southpaw fanned 10 batters through seven stellar innings, while the Houston Astros right-hander tossed six scoreless frames with half a dozen strikeouts. In terms of modern-day pitchers’ duels, this was nearly as good as it gets.

On pace to win his second straight AL Cy Young Award, Skubal is currently 11-3 with a 2.32 ERA and a 33.1% strikeout rate. Brown, who is fast establishing himself as one of baseball’s best pitchers, is 10-5 with a 2.36 ERA and a 29.3% strikeout rate. Both cook with gas. Skubal’s fastball ranks in the 91st percentile for velocity, while Brown’s ranks in the 83rd percentile.

A few hours before they went head-to-head, I asked Detroit manager A.J. Hinch how — left and right aside — the two hurlers compare.

“I know my guy, and don’t know Hunter as well — how he goes about it or how he prepares — but if you’re looking at who has the best fastballs in the league, you’re going to look at both of those guys,” replied Hinch. “If you look at who has elite secondary pitches, both do. Tarik will use his changeup more than Hunter will. I just think there’s an it factor that comes with a guy where, when we come to a ballpark and Tarik is pitching, we expect to win. I’m sure when Hunter is pitching, the Astros expect to win. That’s the definition of top of the rotation.”

Which brings us to the baker’s dozen innings they combined to throw on Tuesday night. Once upon a time, it would have been several more. For much of baseball history, pitchers who were dealing were generally allowed to keep dealing. The legendary July 2, 1963 matchup between San Francisco’s Juan Marichal and Milwaukee’s Warren Spahn is a case in point. That afternoon, Marichal threw 16 scoreless innings, while Spahn (at age 42, no less) tossed 15-and-a-third of his own — only to then be taken deep by Willie Mays for the game’s only run. Read the rest of this entry »

Janson Junk is making the most of his opportunity in Miami. Inked to a minor league contract by the Marlins in February, the 29-year-old right-hander joined the big league club in late May and has since gone 6-2 with a 4.04 ERA and a 3.08 FIP over 82 1/3 innings. And while his 17.5% strikeout rate is rather pedestrian, it is accompanied by a 2.7% walk rate — the lowest among major league hurlers who have tossed at least 60 frames. Indeed, pounding the zone has become Junk’s M.O.

Not bad for someone whose track record is that of a well-traveled pitcher who’d done little to impress at baseball’s highest level. Prior to being signed off the scrap heap by the Marlins, Junk had logged a 6.75 ERA over 40 innings while toeing the rubber for the Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, and Oakland Athletics across the 2021-2024 seasons. Before then, he spent parts of five years and four seasons (because there was no minor league baseball in 2020) in the Yankees’ system. New York selected him out of the University of Seattle (where his teammates included Tarik Skubal) in the 22nd round of the 2017 draft.

Junk entered my radar in 2021 when he was pitching with the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate, the Somerset Patriots. That summer, Junk appeared as guest, along with big league veteran Clayton Richard, in a pitching-nerd episode of FanGraphs Audio. With that conversation in mind, I made it a point to catch up with Junk when the Marlins visited Fenway Park last weekend.

I began by asking Junk a question that has led to interesting conversations with other hurlers when we’ve talked later in seasons: What is the worst pitch you’ve thrown this year? Read the rest of this entry »

Jonathan India was highly regarded when our 2019 Cincinnati Reds Top Prospects list was published in December 2018. Drafted fifth overall out of the University of Florida earlier that summer, India was ranked fourth in the system, with Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel assigning him a 50 FV. Two months later, the reigning SEC Player of the Year came in at no. 75 in our Top 100.

He’s gone on to have a solid career. India made his major league debut on Opening Day 2021, proceeded to win Rookie of the Year honors, and he has since been a lineup mainstay in both Cincinnati and Kansas City. This past November, the Reds traded India to the Royals, along with Joey Wiemer, in exchange for Brady Singer. Assuming more of a super-utility role with his new team, India’s performance has taken a considerable step back. After putting up 2.9 WAR last year, he’s batting .237/.324/.352 with eight home runs, an 89 wRC+, and -0.3 WAR, though he’s been much better since the start of August (113 wRC+). Over four-plus big league seasons, India has 71 home run, a 104 wRC+, and 7.9 WAR.

What did his December 2018 FanGraphs scouting report look like? Moreover, what does he think about it all these years later? Wanting to find out, I shared some of what our former prospect-analyst duo wrote and asked India to respond to it.

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“India was a well-known prep prospect in South Florida, but the combination of a solid, but not spectacular, tool set and seven-figure asking price sent him to Florida.”

“That would have been 2015, 10 years ago,” replied India, who spent his prep years at American Heritage School in Delray Beach. “I wasn’t mentally ready, I guess. I wanted to go to college, learn how to be on my own, learn how to be a man. So, it was really about personal development. There was no baseball involved. It was more that I wanted to grow up and enjoy college. Live life.”

“His first two years were about as expected; India got regular at-bats but didn’t have any performative breakthroughs. In his draft year, India lost bad weight and added some strength, made some offensive adjustments, and exploded, torching the best conference in the country.” Read the rest of this entry »

Liam Hicks is on the receiving end of some serious heat in Miami. Selected second overall by the Marlins in last winter’s Rule-5 draft, the 26-year-old backstop is catching the likes of Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera, and Eury Pérez. Power arms aren’t new to him. Hicks caught Jackson Jobe in Double-A Erie last summer after joining the Detroit Tigers organization in the trade deadline deal that sent Carson Kelly to the Texas Rangers.

Who among the pitchers on the Marlins staff is most comparable to a healthy Jobe (the 23-year-old right-hander had Tommy John surgery in mid-June after making 10 starts for the Tigers and going 4-1 with a 4.22 ERA)? I asked that question of Hicks prior to a recent game.

“Comps are tough, but I would probably say the closest is Edward Cabrera,” replied Hicks, who is currently sharing catching duties with fellow rookie Agustín Ramírez. “Jobe had five different pitches he could throw [the same number the Marlins righty has in his repertoire].Their four-seams are pretty similar, although Jobe has a little bit lower slot and gets a little more ride, whereas Cabby’s is more just at the top of the zone. Cabby has a two-seam. Jobe wasn’t throwing a two-seam last year.

“Their changeups are very different,” added Hicks. “Cabby’s is more like a power changeup — it’s 94-95 [mph] — while Jobe’s had a lot bigger separation from his fastball. It was almost screwball-ish. Again, it’s hard to compare guys, but [Jobe] definitely had electric stuff.”

Cabrera’s stuff is likewise electric. Featuring a heater that is averaging 96.7 MPH this season, he has a 3.34 ERA and a 3.56 FIP over 21 starts comprising 113-and-a-third innings.

Hicks also caught Troy Melton in his month-plus with Erie. Called up to make his debut for the Tigers three weeks ago, the 24-year-old righty has a 2.82 ERA and 21 strikeouts over his first 22-and-a-third big-league innings. Melton has a six-pitch mix, including a heater that’s been averaging 96.5 mph.

Hicks couldn’t come up with a comp for Melton, but he certainly came away impressed with the arsenal.

“I like Troy a lot,” Hicks said of his short-time teammate. “I actually texted him a few days ago after I saw that he shoved against the White Sox. He’s got a really good fastball, as well as a really good changeup. Troy is another guy who has good secondaries that he can land. When you can also throw 97-98, it makes it pretty tough for hitters.”

As for the pitchers whose stuff most stands out, Hicks cited three of his current teammates.

“Cabby and Sandy are up there,” the Toronto native told me. “Eury, of course. His fastball is probably the best I’ve ever caught. It’s 98, and he’s also got seven feet of extension. It looks like he’s handing the ball to you.”

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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Chris Getz went 9 for 15 against Jeremy Guthrie.

Paul Janish went 5 for 6 against Ted Lilly.

Josh Barfield went 5 for 6 against Gary Majewski.

Phil Nevin went 5 for 6 against Chris Holt.

Carlos Quentin went 7 for 15 against Brian Bannister.

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How similar are Cincinnati Reds southpaws Andrew Abbott and Nick Lodolo?

“We’re a little similar pitch-wise, but our shapes are completely different,” Lodolo told me in early July. “Andrew has more carry than me, as he’s got a true four and I throw a two-seam sinker. We kind of throw the same breaking ball, although they’re from different arm slots — he’s more over the top than I am. He’s throwing a changeup more this year, but I don’t know if those are even close to mine.”

Even with their differences, the southpaws discuss how to go about attacking opposing hitters.

“He pitches in front of me, so I’m definitely going to pick his brain about what he saw,” said Lodolo. “But at the end of the day, our plans are going to be different. We’re going to attack guys a little bit differently, although with some guys it may be close to the same. But yeah, we have those conversations for sure.”

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While starting pitchers routinely throw a bullpen session between starts, that’s rarely the case for relievers. Much for that reason, I was surprised to see a sweaty Brent Suter strolling in from the visiting bullpen prior to an afternoon affair at Fenway Park. What had the 35-year-old Cincinnati Reds hurler been up to?

“Since April 2018, I’ve been doing dry visualizations,” Suter told me. “It’s kind of a mental and physical sensation of getting on the mound and doing my resets. I get the catcher down, giving a target for a common pitch that I throw, and then go through little dry-work throws. It’s not full arm action. I’m basically working on conviction, belief, and intensity with my visualization, getting the ball where I want it. I do this every day.”

The veteran of 10 big-league seasons went on to explain that if he hasn’t pitched in the previous three days, he will do “actual throws on that fourth day.”

The Harvard alum has other routines as well, and they go beyond studying scouting reports. On the first day of a series, Suter does “core activation,” while day two is “a total body lift,” and day three is “mobility/soft-tissue mobilization.” Moreover, he does “meditation/visualization” for 10 or 15 minutes on a daily basis. About 20 minutes before each game, Suter showers, then has Atomic Balm applied to his pitching arm, at which point he is “ready to rock.”

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A quiz:

Henry Aaron is the Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta franchise’s all-time leader in home runs. Who ranks second?

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NEWS NOTES

Roki Sasaki made a rehab start on Thursday with the Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets. In his first game action since May 9, the Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander allowed six hits and three runs over two innings, with one walk and no strikeouts. He threw 41 pitches and reportedly topped out at 95.7 mph.

Bill Hepler, a left-hander who appeared in 37 games for the New York Mets in 1966, died earlier this week at age 79. Just 20 years old when he made his MLB debut, the Covington, Virginia native went 3-3 with a 3.52 ERA over 69 innings.

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The answer to the quiz is Eddie Mathews, who hit 493 of his 503 career home runs with the Braves (the Hall of Famer did so playing in all of Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta). Chipper Jones ranks third in franchise history with 468 home runs.

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Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro was effusive in his praise when asked recently about Maikel Garcia. That’s understandable. The 25-year-old third sacker earned an All-Star berth this summer amid a breakout campaign.

“He’s grown up in front of our eyes.,” Quatraro told reporters prior to a recent game. “Off the field. Maturity level. Strength: he’s put on a good amount of muscle this year. He’s really worked on his swing, keeping his body in better control, so he’s hitting pitches that last year he was fouling off. He’s using the whole field. Defensively, he’s put in a lot of work on his range and his first-step quickness. We’ve seen a lot of growth.”

Garcia is slashing .301/.364/.467 with 11 home runs, 22 steals, and a 128 wRC+. Moreover, his 4.2 WAR is sixth-best among American League position players, while his nine Outs Above Average ranks first at his position. Overshadowed by Bobby Witt Jr. in small-market Kansas City, Garcia is emerging as a big-time performer.

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When our Bold Predictions For the 2025 Season were published in late March, I wrote that Ceddanne Rafaela would win a Gold Glove, record a wRC+ of 110 or better, and be worth 4.0 or more WAR. My optimism was based in part on how Rafaela would be “unburdened by having to move between the infield and the outfield.”

Boston manager Alex Cora is doing his best to foil my prediction.

Through July 11, Rafaela had played all but one of his 90 games in center field and boasted a 114 wRC+ and 3.0 WAR. Since July 12, Rafaela has had little stability, starting 15 games in center and 13 games at second base. Moreover, he’s had a 44 wRC+ and 0.0 WAR.

On the season, Rafaela has 16 Defensive Runs Saved as a centerfielder, and minus-one DRS as a second baseman. At the plate, he is slashing .257/.318/.483 in 377 plate appearances as a centerfielder, and .143/.182/.159 in 66 plate appearances as a second baseman.

Cora claims there is no correlation. Color me skeptical. Comfortability taken out of the equation has clearly done Rafaela no favors.

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Cody Ponce now has a record of 15-0, as well as a 1.61 ERA, a 1.93 FIP, and a 36.8% strikeout rate over 145-and-two-thirds innings for the Hanwha Eagles. The 31-year-old former Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander leads KBO pitchers in most categories.

Teruaki Sato leads the pitcher-friendly NPB in doubles (26) and home runs (31). The 26-year-old Hanshin Tigers third baseman/outfielder has gone deep eight more times than Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters DH Franmil Reyes, who has the circuit’s second-highest dinger total.

Miles Simington slashed .332/.385/.517 over 291 plate appearances while playing for three teams in the Mexican League, primarily the Tigres de Quintana Roo. The 25-year-old former Purdue Boilermakers outfielder spent last year with the independent American Association’s Winnipeg Goldeyes, as well as the Australian Baseball League’s Canberra Cavalry.

The ABL’s Brisbane Bandits announced that 18-year-old second baseman/outfielder Max Durrington will be back with the team for the 2025-2026 season. The Tweeds Head, New South Wales native — and son of former big-league infielder Trent Durrington — has spent this summer in the [don’t call us Sacramento) Athletic system, logging an 86 wRC+ between the Arizona Complex League and Low-A Stockton.

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A random obscure former player snapshot:

Fans of a certain age will remember Steve Renko. The tall right-hander logged 134 wins and a 3.99 ERA over 2,494 innings while playing for seven teams from 1969-1983. Renko’s rookie season was spent with the Montreal Expos in the expansion club’s inaugural campaign, and he went on to have his best years with the Quebec-based club. In 1971, he went 15-14 with a 3.75 ERA, and in 1973 he went 15-11 with a 2.81 ERA. Prior to pro ball, Renko played baseball, basketball, and football at the University of Kansas, where as a quarterback he shared a backfield with Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers.

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On April 16, 2023, Sunday Notes led with my addressing the question, “Are Kenley Jansen and/or Craig Kimbrel Cooperstown Bound?” Sixteen months later, I’ve more or less come to a decision on the former. While Kimbrel remains a question mark, I am increasingly of the opinion that Jansen is having a Hall of Fame-worthy career.

Still going strong at age 37, Jansen now ranks fourth all-time with 470 saves, and he is poised to shortly move past Lee Smith (478) into third place. Moreover, Jansen ranks 21st all time with 920 appearances, and he is fourth in strikeout rate — right in front of Billy Wagner — among relievers who have thrown at least 500 innings (Josh Hader, Aroldis Chapman, and Kimbrel top the list).

Wagner is a meaningful comp, given the his recent induction. Jansen not only has the edge in saves and strikeout rate, he also has more WAR, WPA, and innings pitched. He also boasts a better FIP.

The belief that relievers — even closers — don’t belong in the Hall of Fame isn’t without merit. That said, if relievers do deserve the honor, Jansen has numbers on his side. They include 23 saves and a 2.74 ERA with the Los Angeles Angels so far this season.

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FARM NOTES

Nate George is slashing .345/.420/.502 with four home runs and a 166 wRC+ over 292 plate appearances between the Florida Complex League and Low-A Delmarva (and briefly) High-A Aberdeen. Drafted in the 16th round last year out of Minooka (Illinois) Community High School, the 19-year-old outfielder is No. 39 on our updated Baltimore Orioles Top Prospects list, with a 40 FV.

Yorman Gómez is 11-0 with a 2.62 ERA, a 2.91 FIP, and a 27.3% strikeout rate over 99-and-two-thirds innings between High-A Lake County and Double-A Akron. A native of Coro, Venezuela who was signed in July 2019, the 22-year-old right-hander is No. 38 on our updated Cleveland Guardians Top Prospects list, with a 40 FV.

Griffin Herring is 7-3 with a 1.79 ERA, a 2.76 FIP, and a 29.9% strikeout rate over 100-and-a-third innings between Low-A Tampa and a pair of High-A affiliates. Acquired by Colorado from the New York Yankees as part of the Ryan McMahon trade, the 22-year-old left-hander — a 2024 sixth-round pick out of LSU — is No. 21 on our our updated Rockies Top Prospects list, with a 40 FV.

Kendry Chourio has a 30.7% strikeout rate and a 1.2% walk rate to go with a 3.05 ERA and a 2.72 FIP over 41-and-a-third innings across the Arizona Complex League, the Dominican Summer League, and Low-A Columbia. The 17-year-old right-hander was signed out of Venezuela by the Kansas City Royals in January.

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These back-to-back passages in Jane Leavy’s new book, Make Me Commissioner (I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How To Fix It) caught my eye:

“[Jim] Palmer threw the first of his 211 complete games at Fenway Park in April 1966. He threw 177 pitches that day and hit a home run too. After the game, someone said to Orioles pitching coach Harry Brecheen, ‘Harry, that’s a lot of pitches,’ Palmer recalled. ‘Harry says, ‘Yeah, we wanna get that pitch count down into the 140s.’

“He missed most of the 1967 season and all of 1968 because of shoulder surgery, The Orioles left him unprotected in the 1968 expansion draft. The Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots passed on him.”

Palmer went 16-4 for the Orioles in 1969, then won 20 more games in eight of the next nine seasons. The Hall of Famer won four Cy Young awards.

And then there is this passage, regarding a managerial moment from Buck Showalter’s time with the New York Mets.

“When a valued relief pitcher, Trevor May, melted down over the death of his cat and couldn’t pitch for three days — that was in Buck’s portfolio. “I couldn’t tell the media that. So, I had to wear it. ‘Why didn’t you use Trevor May?’ Was I supposed to say because his cat died?”

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

Baseball America has released its midseason farm system rankings, which have the Milwaukee Brewers on top and the San Diego Padres on the bottom.

Why do the small-market Milwaukee Brewers win, and the small-market Pittsburgh Pirates lose? Pittsburgh Baseball Now’s John Perrotto talked to Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold in an effort to find out.

The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman wrote about how the Pohlad family’s pulling the Minnesota Twins off the market is a crushing blow to a fanbase that deserves better.

At NPR’s Morning Edition, Becky Sullivan delved into who is still trying to be an MLB umpire in an age of replay review and robot umps.

Unlike MLB, Little League Baseball wants nothing to do with gambling. Scooby Axson has the story at USA Today.

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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

The Detroit Tigers are 19-8 in one-run games this season. They are 7-1 in one-run games since the beginning of July.

The Boston Red Sox have 10 walk-off wins and 11 walk-off losses. The Baltimore Orioles have one walk-off win and three-walk-off losses.

In 2007, Greg Maddux allowed 221 hits and issued 25 walks. In 1975, Nolan Ryan allowed 221 hits and issued 202 walks.

Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young went 2-0 with a 2.02 ERA over five postseason appearances. The right-hander pitched three hitless and scoreless innings and got credit for the win as the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets 5-4 in Game One of the 2015 World Series.

The San Diego Padres beat the New York Mets 15-10 in Monterrey, Mexico on August 16, 1996 in the first-ever MLB game played in a country other than the United States or Canada. Fernando Valenzuela was credited with the win.

On today’s date in 1990, Ruben Sierra hit a walk-off single in the 13th inning to give the Texas Rangers a 1-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. Nolan Ryan went the first 10 innings for the Rangers, allowing three hits, walking none, and punching out 15 batters.

Ernie Banks took Don Drysdale deep for a walk-off home run to give the Chicago Cubs a 1-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on today’s date in 1960. The blast was the All-Star shortstop’s 34th on the season. He finished with 41, the fourth consecutive year that Banks hit 40 or more home runs.

Players born on today’s date include Dick Lines, a left-hander who went 7-7 with six saves and a 2.83 ERA while making 107 appearances for the Washington Senators across the 1966-1967 seasons. A native of Montreal, Lines went 1-for-19 at the plate, his lone hit coming against Wally Bunker in a 9-7 Senators loss to the Baltimore Orioles in a game that took 19 innings to complete. Andy Etchebarren hit a walk-off homer.

Also born on today’s date was Dave Lemanczyk, a right-hander who led the 1977 Toronto Blue Jays with 13 wins in the team’s inaugural season. Originally with the Detroit Tigers, Lemanczyk went 37-63 with a 4.62 ERA while appearing in 185 games for three teams from 1973-1980. He threw a one-hitter against the Texas Rangers in 1979.

Count Campau played professionally from 1885-1905, with a handful of his seasons spent with teams in his home state of Michigan. The outfielder suited up for the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Wolverines, Detroit Creams, and Grand Rapids Bob-o-links. Campau recorded 1,999 hits, including 153 in the majors.

Noah Cameron has been one of the best rookie pitchers in the American League this season. When the 26-year-old Kansas City Royals southpaw takes the mound tonight against the Chicago White Sox, he’ll do so with a 2.52 ERA and a 3.67 FIP over 16 starts comprising 93 innings. Moreover, his 6-5 won-loss record isn’t representative of his overall effectiveness. In his five no-decisions, Cameron has tossed 29 innings and surrendered just one run.

Ranked third on our Royals Top Prospects list when it went up in late May as a 50 FV prospect, Cameron was described by Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan as “a very stable rotation piece… though he lacks star-level stuff.” That assessment rings true. Not only does Cameron’s 92.2 mph fastball rank in just the 19th percentile in terms of velocity, none of his pitches stand out in a vacuum. By and large, the 6-foot-3, 220-pound lefty dominates lineups by mixing and matching with aplomb. This season, he has thrown 27.2% four-seamers, 19.5% cutters, 18.96% changeups, 18.0% curveballs, and 16.6% sliders. Any pitch at any time is his modus operandi.

“I’m more of an old-school pitcher,” Cameron told me recently. “I’m not a flamethrower — I don’t throw upper 90s or anything like that — so I more lean on reading swings, looking at scouting reports, finding the hitters’ weaknesses. My mentality is to keep guys off balance and try to get quick outs by attacking the zone early. I’m OK with a strikeout, but I’m also OK with a fly out or a ground out. Getting guys outs as efficiently as I can is what I’m trying to do.” Read the rest of this entry »

When Hunter Brown takes the mound tonight, he’ll do so with some of the best numbers in the junior circuit. Among qualified pitchers, the Houston Astros right-hander ranks third behind Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet in WAR, ERA, FIP, and strikeout rate. An All-Star for the first time this season, the 26-year-old Wayne State University product has established himself as a top-shelf starter.

When he was first featured here at FanGraphs in April 2021, Brown was still a prospect; our initial conversation centered around his background and repertoire. When I next caught up with him in August 2023 (Brown had made his major league debut in September 2022), we covered a recent change to his delivery.

What did we discuss when I sat down with Brown in Fenway Park’s visiting dugout during the Astros’ trip to Boston earlier this month? The answer lies below.

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David Laurila: We last talked two summers ago. What has changed since then?

Hunter Brown: “Two years ago would have been before I started throwing a two-seam sinker and before I started throwing both cutters and sliders. That’s probably the biggest change.” Read the rest of this entry »

Jack Dreyer has been one of the top performers on a Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff that includes no shortage of better-known hurlers. Amid relative obscurity, the 26-year-old rookie left-hander has logged a a 2.98 ERA and a 2.95 FIP over 46 appearances comprising 57-and-a-third innings. Moreover, only Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been worth more WAR (3.5) than has the 2021 non-drafted free agent out of the University of Iowa (1.3).

Our lead prospect analyst was early to the bandwagon. When our 2025 Dodgers Top Prospects list was published in late April, Eric Longenhagen described Dreyer as “incredibly deceptive,” adding that his whippy arm action delivers a fastball that has “20 inches of due north vertical break as it explodes toward the plate.”

The southpaw’s signature pitch wasn’t seen as plus during his injury-marred Iowa Hawkeyes days.

“In college, I was always told that I have average spin rate, so I can’t really throw my fastball at the top of the zone,” recalled Dreyer, who missed much of the 2019 season with a shoulder injury, then all of 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. “I was told that I had a very average fastball. I kind of believed that, but then I got to the Dodgers and they were like, ‘No, actually, your stuff is really, really good. You can live at the top of the zone because of how your pitch moves.’ So, that’s kind of how I’ve adapted my pitching, using heaters at the top, which opens up my other pitches.”

Dreyer’s secondaries comprise a curveball that he’s thrown at a 10.8% clip this season, and a “bad slider” that he’s thrown far more frequently at 45.2%. More on the latter in a moment. Read the rest of this entry »