In Friday’s FanGraphs Live stream with Paul Sporer, Ben Clemens, and Dan Szymborski, the Atlanta Braves head to New York to face off against the Mets in a weekend showdown between NL East rivals.
In Friday afternoon’s FanGraphs Live stream, starting at 2 PM ET, we are bringing you a doubleheader of games featuring surprising early contenders.
In our first game, Wade Miley makes his 2020 debut for the Cincinnati Reds, a team off to a shocking 21-3 start and standing comfortably at the top of the NL Central. As we near the end of April, Jesse Winker leads the National League with a .405 batting average and Trevor Bauer, at 3-0 with a 2.24 ERA, ranks third in the National League with 1.2 WAR. Five Reds currently rank in the top 20 in position player wins: Eugenio Suárez (1st), Joey Votto (4th), Winker (12th), Shogo Akiyama (14th), and Tucker Barnhart (19th). Of the regulars, free agent signing Nick Castellanos has been the only disappointment, hitting .216/.303/.364 in the early going for -0.5 WAR.
That Arizona is tied for second place in the NL West, 3 1/2 games behind the leader, isn’t surprising. What is surprising, however, is that the leader is the Colorado Rockies, not the Los Angeles Dodgers! The Diamondbacks are coming off getting swept by the Atlanta Braves, but get Madison Bumgarner for today’s turn against Miley, likely Cincy’s weakest starting pitcher.
Over in our American League game, we get a prime Dallas Keuchel vs. Shohei Ohtani matchup as the 15-11 White Sox take on the 12-13 Angels. The White Sox have fallen back to second in the division with the Twins winning nine of their last 10 games, but get Luis Robert back in the lineup coming off a strained hamstring. Their Nomar Mazara gamble has paid off in the early going with Mazara standing at a .377/.402/.740 triple-slash with seven homers in 21 games. Gio González has struggled with a 7.23 ERA, but Keuchel has been a prime pickup so far and has yet to allow a home run in 33 1/3 2020 innings.
So join Paul Sporer, Ben Clemens, and Dan Szymborski for some hot virtual baseball action right here, on this very page!
Today’s virtual broadcast at 2 PM ET, featuring Paul Sporer, Ben Clemens, and Dan Szymborski, is a clash of aces as the Cleveland Indians (11-9) travel to Fenway Park to start a four-game set with the Boston Red Sox (12-8).
The Red Sox are coming off a much-needed day of rest following two blowout losses to the A’s (14-1, 14-5) that snapped Boston’s six-game winning streak. It’s a good time for an appearance for Chris Sale, who is 2-0 in four starts, with 30 strikeouts in 29 innings, a 2.83 FIP, and a 3.41 ERA.
The blazing start of Xander Bogaerts continued with a home run in yesterday’s A’s blowout, giving the shortstop five round-trippers in 19 games. With a .338/.483/.647 line, Bogaerts leads the American League in WAR with 1.8, ahead of Marcus Semien (1.5) and Mallex Smith (1.3).
Cleveland, third in the AL Central and a game behind the White Sox and Twins, turns to Shane Bieber (2-2, 3.45). Bieber was abandoned by the FIP gods in his last start, allowing 12 hits over 4.1 innings against the Rays in a 4-0 loss. José Ramírez is off to a better start than last year with five home runs already. In 2019, Ramírez didn’t hit his fifth home run until June. Francisco Lindor, on the other hand, is still yet to peek above replacement level and his .152/.243/.242 line in 17 games is reminiscent of Ramírez’s struggles last year.
So check back on this page for the live video and with integrated live chat, join in the action! And when the stream is done, drop us a follow on Twitch to be notified of the latest streams. As time goes on, we’ll be having a lot more than just MLB the Show!
In the new reality of sheltering in place, most schools are now closed. Parents might be looking for new problems and lessons that are interesting to students; it’s a lot easier to keep your mind on a problem when it’s about something that’s already interesting. Teaching addition is a lot easier when you’re counting balls and strikes, or shots and points, than when you’re counting Greek letters or something equally obscure.
To that end, we’re going to be testing out a new program over the coming weeks: FanGraphs Prep. I’ll lay out the project in this article, but in essence, FanGraphs Prep will use baseball as a teaching tool. What we teach is still up in the air, and you can help us with that part by answering a few questions.
For many of the writers at the site, part of baseball’s enduring appeal is the math underlying the game. It’s not the only reason we like the sport, or even necessarily the main reason, but in almost every case, it hooked us as kids. Batting average, ERA, wins and losses; baseball and numbers are inextricable.
For others, the call of the game has been more literary. Roger Angell, Stephen Jay Gould, Jim Bouton — baseball’s written history is rich and varied. Many of us took a flashlight under the covers to read about baseball at night as kids.
In that spirit, we’d like to share our knowledge, and provide what we hope will be a welcome educational diversion for students and those helping to teach them at home. Our plan is to create writing prompts and sample problems that frame different school subjects in the context of baseball. Want to learn basic math? A box score is a treasure box of numbers. Want to learn algebra, or probability? The sport provides excellent examples of those as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Today at 2 PM ET, Paul Sporer, Ben Clemens, and Dan Szymborski will be viewing the home opener for the Los Angeles Angels (3-4), as the Houston Astros (5-2) come to town. Will the Astros bring a trash can large enough to contain Mike Trout?
Starting for the Angels is Griffin Canning (0-1, 23.63), seeking revenge after being roughed up on Saturday by these same Astros in his first regular season start since being shut down last August due to elbow inflammation. Canning had a short spring because of elbow soreness and received a PRP injection last month, so he may be on a short leash.
Tune in for all the “live” action and make sure to follow FanGraphsLive on Twitch to stay apprised of all of our streaming events!
Today we’re celebrating a first for FanGraphs: a live video stream!
Things have changed since FanGraphs’ founding 15 years ago. Nowadays, there are entire streaming platforms dedicated to communities of people who watch other people play games.
As an experiment (and to help fill the time until baseball comes back), we’re hosting a virtual Opening Day game, with the Mets and Nationals opener livecast by Paul Sporer, Ben Clemens, and Dan Szymborski using MLB The Show 20 on Playstation 4. So come hang out with us and watch the closest thing to a real game available!
To watch the game and listen to our live chat, you need nothing but your browser and our website. If you have a Twitch.tv account (free), you’ll also be able to join in the chat, just like in the ones we hold weekly.
Let us know what you think, and which other games you’d like to see streamed live!
There should be baseball today, only there isn’t. Baseball has given way to more important concerns – health, safety, social distance – but its relative triviality doesn’t mean we aren’t feeling its absence. MLB is endeavoring to fill the gap with a day-long marathon of Opening Days and meaningful games past; Ben Clemens wrote a handy viewing guide for Opening Day At Home, allowing you to choose your own adventure. But it isn’t the same. As I was reflecting on what we lose without live baseball, I wondered if part of what moves us about Opening Day isn’t just the promise of the new and its attendant optimism, but also the memories we spirit in with us. Opening Day’s form and place on the calendar has changed as baseball has changed, but it has been home to some special games, and a good many special days spent with friends and family. Here are a few of the FanGraphs staff’s favorites. – Meg Rowley
March 31, 1998: Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets
Despite 25 years of living in New York City and 22 as part of a Yankees partial season ticket plan, I can only remember attending a few Opening Days, all of them at Shea Stadium. It’s the first one that stands out. Before I was a baseball writer, or even a moonlighting blogger, I was a graphic designer, most notably at a company called Bill Smith Studio that specialized in textbooks and children’s books. Circa fall 1997, I was just another freelancer passing through, at least until the studio’s top project manager discovered I was a baseball fan. Soon Lillie, a Brooklyn-born Mets die-hard who annually purchased a four-seat partial season ticket plan through her one-woman corporation (she was an independent contractor) began inviting me to the occasional game. Suddenly, I also got placement on the studio’s more favorable projects, and quickly accepted an offer to join the staff.
Rightly, Lillie treated Opening Day as a holiday, and splurged for extra tickets, encouraging her guests to bring a friend or significant other. There may have been eight or 10 of us in tow at Shea Stadium for the 1998 opener, including one of my closest pals. On an unseasonably warm 82 degree afternoon, the Phillies’ Curt Schilling and the Mets’ Bobby Jones traded zeroes, with each team stranding several runners in scoring position. In the fifth, the Mets had first and second and one out, but Desi Relaford hit into a 4-6-5-6 double play in which Bobby Abreu (making his Phillies’ debut) was thrown out between second and third after the force play at second. In both the sixth and eighth innings, Philadelphia’s Rico Brogna made the third out, stranding a runner in scoring position. Schilling held the Mets to two hits and one walk while striking out nine over eight innings, while Jones worked around six baserunners in his six scoreless frames. Chants of “Yankees suck!” and boos for both mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-Met Gregg Jeffries resonated, as they generally do in Queens. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday, we introduced a few of our favorite games to rewatch, all of which shared a postseason theme. Today, we highlight six regular season contests, including a no-hitter, a perfect game, and a few more that either meant something special to the writer, or presented feats too intriguing to ignore. Enjoy, and be well. – Meg Rowley
Roy Halladay’s Perfect Game, May 29, 2010
One of the biggest influences in my life is my late grandfather, Pop-Pop. He had been a devout Phillies fan since 1950, and during the team’s late-2000s glory, I was lucky to share many joyous moments with him, including a championship in 2008.
I remember talking on the phone with Pop-Pop in 2009, when the Phillies had just traded for Cliff Lee. While he was certainly excited for another elite pitcher to aid in the postseason run, he felt that Philly had missed out on someone even better: Halladay. So when the Phillies ended up acquiring him that winter, my first move was to call my grandfather. My second was to order Halladay’s jersey.
In no time, the right-hander was my favorite baseball player. I tried to emulate his windup when pitching, wore his jersey every day he started, and begged my parents to let me stay past up past my bedtime when he was in the midst of one of his nine complete games in 2010.
I’ll never forget May 29. Naturally, I had donned Halladay’s jersey, and even oddly received a comment on it while my family was out shopping. “Are you a Phillies fan?” I was asked by a man trying to sell us furniture. “I love Roy Halladay. Nice jersey.”
We’ve all entered a new condition. I’ve gotten a lot of questions in the last few days from friends, who are self-isolating in response to COVID-19 and newly working from home, about how best to get through the day. Some have struggled to maintain their productivity (I try to edit and take calls from a designated place, separate and distinct from both my bed and my couch), while others have wondered whether it really matters if you get dressed in real pants before you start your work (perhaps, though I’ve found it to be much less important than remembering to drink water). Everyone has their tricks and tips, and of course work has to get done, but I think it is important to recognize just how unusual a circumstance this is, how overwhelming it can feel. Sometimes, we’re going to need to set aside our work, and our real pants, and take a break. That’s a little harder to do while baseball, our usual distraction, is taking its break. So to help you pass the time, the FanGraphs staff presents a few of our favorite games to rewatch from the relatively recent MLB archives. Today, one game with playoff implications and four more that peppered the postseason landscape. Enjoy, and stay safe. – Meg Rowley
2013 NL Wild Card: Cincinatti Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates
It’s been a tough couple years to be a Pirates fan. It’s been a tough couple decades, in fact, but the last years have been even worse: after three straight Wild Card appearances from 2013-2015, it’s been downhill in Pittsburgh. The front office leadership that put those teams together is gone now, and a new group is trying to find a new way to construct a winner in western Pennsylvania.
There won’t be much joy in Pittsburgh this year. There’s no reason to watch the recent, futile Pirates teams, and no reason even to watch the 2014 and 2015 editions, who were both bounced in a single game. Instead, watch the glorious day when Pittsburgh broke through; the first playoff game in the city since 1992.
Even years later, the atmosphere in the stadium is electric. Knowing what’s going to happen doesn’t change the excitement. Is that Francisco Liriano pitching in the most important game the franchise has played in 20 years? It sure is. But don’t focus on how much of a flash in the pan Pittsburgh-era Liriano was. Focus on peak Andrew McCutchen, on native son Neil Walker, on wait-he-was-on-that-team Marlon Byrd. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to FanGraphs’ top-50 free-agent rankings. Dave Cameron had previously been responsible for this annual post; I took the reins last year. I’m back leading the charge again, with some assistance from my colleagues.
In what follows, I’ve provided contract estimates and rankings of the winter’s top free agents, along with market-focused breakdowns for the top-25 players. As for why I’ve provided commentary on only the top 25, you can decide for yourself whether it’s because my take on No. 49 Eric Sogard was too hot for the internet, or because all of the players just kind of seemed the same to me by that point. Meanwhile, a combination of Ben Clemens, Craig Edwards, Brendan Gawlowski, Jay Jaffe, Eric Longenhagen, Rachael McDaniel, and Dan Szymborski have supplied the more player-focused breakdowns, which are designed to provide some context for each player at this moment in his career.
Note that players are ranked in the order in which I prefer them, in terms of the overall guaranteed money I’d spend on them. Usually, this is very similar to the order of the overall contract values as both the crowd and I have projected. But in some instances, that’s not the case. I explain my rationale where relevant.
The main theme that I hit upon multiple times in my comments below is the continued evolution of free agency: how hard teams compete with one another in the market, how quickly players sign, the types of player helped or hurt by the changing landscape, and the methods agents use to position their clients, and the deals they eventually sign. If you’re interested in more notes and rumors, I’ll have a corresponding post up to that end shortly, but I didn’t want to make you scroll any further.
Now let’s get to the list.