Used to be I’d refer to these as the worst called balls, or something. But I feel like that puts too much of the blame on the umpire. Which isn’t to say the umpire doesn’t deserve blame, because of course he does, but when an obvious strike gets called a ball, it tends to be due to a number of things, involving a number of people. I’m not here to umpire-shame. I just want to show off some called balls on pitches thrown basically down the heart of the strike zone, because it’s a fun thing to look at while baseball takes a little vacation.

According to Baseball Savant, in 2009, there were 111 balls on pitches middle-middle. Here are the year-by-year rates, calculated as balls / all pitches taken down the gut:

2009: 1.01%
2010: 0.37%
2011: 0.28%
2012: 0.34%
2013: 0.27%
2014: 0.25%

In a sense, 2014 is showing overall improvement. But 0.25% isn’t 0.00%, and pulling up balls on pitches in the middle third yields 15 different instances. Whenever anything is controlled by human observation, there are going to be mistakes, and when there are mistakes, there are going to be worse mistakes. Standard deviations, and everything. Out of those 15 different instances of pitches down the middle being called balls, here are the top five strike-iest since the start of this regular season.

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Welcome to the time of year where it’s all about fractions. If the regular season were a game, we’d be at the start of the sixth inning, and the leverage is beginning to climb, making everything more important. Your team’s in the race and you want it to make a trade. Maybe the deal projects to add half a WAR over the course of the remainder. What’s the value of a win on the free-agent market, $7 million? And wins are more valuable in high-leverage positions on the win curve, right? A half-WAR improvement might be worth five or ten million dollars. That’s a lot of dollars! For many of the teams in baseball now, runs are more important than they would’ve been in April.

People care now about every last little detail. You never know which detail might end up determining which teams do and don’t make the playoffs. Among the details to care about: strength of schedule. Schedules, as everyone knows, are unbalanced. So some teams might have easier schedules than others. Now that we’re at the All-Star break, who’s looking at a schedule advantage, and who’s looking at a schedule disadvantage? Not a single race has been decided, so opponent identity will be some kind of factor in how the rest of the season plays out.

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Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona had this to say before Wednesday’s home game against the New York Yankees:

“Early in the year, there’s always some inconsistencies that take a while to kind of play themselves out. That’s just the way a year is. It happens with every team. Then, once guys get settled in and get on a roll, then you see how good you can be. For whatever reason, sometimes it takes a while.”

Carlos Santana started this game at first base for the Indians. Lonnie Chisenhall played third. Nick Swisher served as the designated hitter.

There’s a reason I’ve presented those three facts to you immediately following that quote. The reason is because the “inconsistencies” Francona spoke of relate to an experiment the Indians underwent to begin the season, concerning those three players and those three positions.

Well, the experiment really had just one subject, Santana, but it ended up effecting all three players. The experiment was a big deal when it was first announced. Quietly, nearly two months ago, the experiment came to an end without an official announcement or much fanfare.
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Art Kusnyer has had a long and fulfilling life in baseball. Currently on the coaching staff of the Chicago White Sox, the 68-year-old has been around the game since being drafted out of Kent State University in 1966. A big-league catcher for parts of six seasons, Kusnyer caught Nolan Ryan’s second no-hitter on July 15, 1973.

A journeyman who spent much of his career in the minors, Kusyner was a member of the 1974 Sacramento Solons. It was no ordinary season. His 17 home runs were eighth most on the team as the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate banged out 305 home runs in 144 games.

“We played at Hughes Field, which was a football field,” explained Kusnyer. “It was used for baseball for a few years, but it just wasn’t compatible. It was 230 feet down the left field line and 315 down the right field line. Center field was maybe 385-390. In left field they had this great big net – this 30-foot net you had to hit it over – but at 230 feet, guys would pop balls up and they’d go out. Bill McNulty, who ended up going to play in Japan, hit 55 home runs for us. Gorman Thomas hit 54. Sixto Lezcano hit [34]. Tommy Bianco hit close to 30 home runs. He went to the big leagues and his claim to fame is pinch-hitting for Henry Aaron.

“I was there two years and they were the worst I ever had as a catcher. Not only did we keep home and road ERAs for our pitchers, you couldn’t see for the first five innings, because the sun was so bad. I’d have balls clanking off of me and hitters would sometimes step out of the box when the pitcher released the ball, because they couldn’t see it. After the fifth inning, when the sun went down, that’s when the fireworks started. Balls would be flying all over the place. In one game, the Tacoma Twins hit something like nine home runs in the ninth inning to beat us.”

Nolan Ryan gave up 324 home runs [including playoff games] on his way to the Hall of Fame. It goes without saying hitters didn’t see the ball very well off of him. The all-time leader in strikeouts tossed seven no-hitters. Kusyner remembers No. 2 like it was yesterday.

“It was at Tiger Stadium and he had 17 strikeouts, the most in any no-hitter,” said Kusnyer. “Usually he just beat the shit out of you, because he had the hard curveball and you’d be blocking balls. That particular day he was right on. You know how the infield grass is cut out in front, in a half circle? When the ball got just a little bit past that, it would explode. It would just take off. I remember when he struck out Norm Cash early in the game. When Cash was walking back to the bench, one of his teammates asked him, ‘How is he throwing?’ Cash said, ‘Don’t go up there.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday was a rough day for baseball on the injury front. For Cincinnati, Brandon Phillips was diagnosed with a thumb injury that’ll knock him out a month and a half. For New York, Masahiro Tanaka was diagnosed with an elbow injury that’ll knock him out at least a month and a half. And for St. Louis, Yadier Molina was diagnosed with a thumb injury that’ll knock him out for 8 to 12 weeks. All of these teams, of course, are trying to make the playoffs, and all of these players, of course, are important.

The commonality: significant injuries. Upon deeper investigation, though, the injuries have different meanings. The Reds should be able to survive without Phillips, who’s no longer a star. The Yankees could be devastated without Tanaka, who’s all but irreplaceable and who might still eventually need Tommy John surgery. And the Cardinals should be able to survive without Molina, even though he is still a star, unlike Phillips. Other than Adam Wainwright, Molina’s the most valuable player on that ballclub, but even still, the Cardinals aren’t in a terrible situation.

Read the rest on FoxSports.com.

This is a trade-deadline season defined by available pitching. We’ve already seen a handful of arms on the move, with more still to get dealt, and for the teams who’ve been looking for bats, there’s not nearly the same kind of market. But one player out there who’s gotten a little attention is Marlon Byrd, who’s been a good veteran hitter on a bad team. There’s little reason for the Phillies to keep Byrd on the roster through July, and while, a year ago, the Pirates took a bit of a risk in acquiring the bounceback outfielder, now there’s every reason to believe the version of Marlon Byrd that suddenly came into existence in 2013 is the version of Marlon Byrd that there is.

The changes, see, have only been sustained through this season’s first three months. Byrd still strikes out more than he used to, but he also hits for more power than he used to, and he’s right on the edge of being an all-or-nothing slugger. When I was first getting into sabermetrics, I learned about the concept of old-player skills, and I was told that players near the end of the line will often sell out for dingers and fly balls. Based just on the numbers, Byrd has indeed sold out for dingers and fly balls, but in his case, this seems to be less about his approach and more about the swing he modified a year and a half ago. And that makes it seem like he has a little more left in the tank.

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There were a lot of good pitchers in the American League last year. Jose Quintana was one of them. There are a lot of good pitchers in the American League this year. Jose Quintana is one of them. You may not have noticed until recently, as he’s been on a very nice run of late, which was punctuated by five perfect innings to start yesterday’s game at Fenway Park.

Quintana is an easy guy to ignore. He isn’t especially young. This is his age-25 season, and he’s in the midst of his third big-league season, and in his first season he wasn’t called up until early May. That’s pretty good, particularly for a pitcher, but it certainly isn’t remarkable. There are plenty of pitchers who have more than two full seasons under their belt by the time they get to their age-25 season.

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LeBron James is a basketball player. Let’s imagine a LeBron James equivalent as a baseball player.

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Brandon Belt was once thought of primarily a pitcher, so the Giants’ first baseman knows a little bit about change. He’s been accused of walking too much, striking out too much, and now perhaps swinging too much. But he’s still found his way to just outside the top ten at a position with a high offensive bar.

The process hasn’t been easy, but past changes to his game, combined with his current mindset, can both give us hope that he’s got what it takes to continue improving, while also dishing us a dollop of despair — hitting seems hopelessly hard, a continual game of adjustments, even on the game level.

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The Rockies 2014 season is essentially over. They stand 39-53, and our Playoff Odds model gives them a 0.1% chance of reaching the postseason. And that’s just a one-tenth-of-one-percent chance of getting to the Wild Card game, where they would be heavy underdogs and likely eliminated after Game 163. As Mike Petriello wrote earlier this week, the Rockies need to seriously think about changing course.

There are good arguments against trading Troy Tulowitzki, however. He’s a superstar signed to one of the most team-friendly contracts in baseball. They can rebuild around Tulo and build a winner while he’s still a productive player. He needs better teammates, but it’s generally easier to find new good role players than it is to develop another MVP-caliber shortstop and sign him to a long term extension for half of his market value.

But the key to building a winner around Troy Tulowitzki is to properly determine which players should be kept, and which players should be replaced. Given the recent rumors, it appears that the Rockies may not have figure that part out yet.

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