I’m going to let you in on a little bit of a secret; writing about baseball for a living, in October, can be kind of difficult. Not because topics are hard to find — the playoffs hand us ideas on a silver platter — or because the samples are too small for us to be able to really forecast anything with certainty, but because the rise of the internet has empowered multiple websites to employ very talented writers, and we’re all watching the same thing at the same time.

In the regular season, there’s always a large diversity of events happening, so we can find our own little niche and write about something that hasn’t been widely covered. In the postseason, though, there’s usually only a couple of games going on on any given day, and those games often have specific moments that work really well for in depth analysis. And because there are so many good baseball writers watching those same moments, it can become a bit of a race to see who can produce a quality take that basically erases the need to read any other take on that event.

Last night’s event was Max Scherzer loading the bases with no one out, and then getting out of it, protecting a one run lead in the process. It’s the kind of moment that basically demands to be written about. Except, you know, Grant Brisbee at Baseball Nation basically cornered the market on analyzing that inning:

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There is always a bit of a lull between the end of the minor league playoffs in September and the start of the annual top prospects lists in early November. Because of that gap, I’m breathing new life into an old feature that I wrote for the site in FanGraphs’ infancy back in 2008 and 2009.

The series ‘A Minor Review of 2013’ will look back on some of the major happenings in each MLB organization since the beginning of April as a primer for the upcoming FanGraphs Top 10+5 prospects lists. This series will run throughout September and October. I hope you enjoy the series and are eagerly anticipating the start of ‘Prospect List Season.’

The player listed in the sleeper section was featured in a pre-season series that looked at one fringe prospect in each organization that was expected to take a big step forward during 2013, chosen by myself, a scout or a front office talent evaluator.

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Jake Peavy has had a rollercoaster career. The 32-year-old righthander won the National League Cy Young award in 2007 while pitching for the San Diego Padres. A three-time all-star, he twice led the NL in ERA and strikeouts. He has also suffered a career-threatening injury. In parts of five seasons with the Chicago White Sox, he failed to put up the numbers he did in San Diego.

Last night, he did what the Red Sox had in mind when they acquired him at the non-waiver trade deadline: He made a quality start in a postseason game. Peavy talked about the evolution of his career — including mechanical changes related to the injury — late in the regular season. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: I don’t actually know if Michael Wacha thinks that. The headline is hyperbolic in nature, designed to convey the ideas from the article in a way that make you want to read said article. Michael Wacha might think pitching inside is really smart. I haven’t asked him. I doubt it, though.

Yesterday, with his team facing elimination, Michael Wacha shut down the Pirates. Not just in a good October performance kind of way, but in a you-can’t-hit-this-so-stop-trying kind of way. He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and left having only allowed Pedro Alvarez to deposit one into the seats. For the day, he allowed a BABIP of .000, and it didn’t look like great defense being played behind him. It was just Michael Wacha dominating a pretty solid offense.

But perhaps the most amazing part is he did it with half the strike zone. The outer half, specifically. Michael Wacha decided that he simply didn’t have any interest in throwing to the inner half of the plate, and if the Pirates were going to hit him, they were going to have to do it by getting extension and driving a ball the other way.

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The Dodgers beat the Braves in Game 4 of the NLDS Monday night to clinch the series and move on to the LCS against either the Cardinals or the Pirates. The outcome of the game didn’t hinge on Clayton Kershaw‘s start on only three days rest, although for a while it looked like it would. The outcome of the game didn’t hinge on the Braves’ sending Freddy Garcia to the mound to try and save their season, although for a while it looked like it would. The outcome of the game didn’t hinge on Adrian Gonzalez‘s poor defense at first base or Freddie Freeman’s phenomenal defense there, although for a while it looked like it would.

Sure, those events played a role. They set the stage for the late-inning heroics that always seem to come from unexpected places in the postseason. Last night, in Los Angeles, the hero was Juan Uribe and his towering two-run home run into the left field bullpen that sent Dodger Stadium into a frenzy in the bottom of the 8th inning and sent the Braves home to Atlanta in defeat. A year ago, that moment would have been impossible to imagine.

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The reality of Jose Lobaton’s walk-off home run is that we don’t know what it’s going to mean yet. This is going to depend in large part on series context, on how the rest of the series goes, and if the Rays still lose to the Red Sox, Lobaton won’t be remembered forever. He’ll forever be a part of Rays history, but the next couple games will determine whether or not he becomes a legend. Dave Roberts‘ steal wouldn’t be Dave Roberts’ steal if the Red Sox still lost to the Yankees. It would’ve been a neat stolen base within a disappointing series. Maybe it’s not fair to have the significance of moments hang on the significance of other, related moments, but that’s the way things are. And speaking of things that aren’t fair, there’s the pitch that Lobaton hit out. I’d say that wasn’t particularly fair to Koji Uehara.

Something we know about pitchers: none of them are perfect. We know this because pitchers are people, and no people are perfect, even within their fields of expertise. Randy Johnson gave up hits. Lots of ’em. Mariano Rivera gave up home runs. Lots of ’em, kind of. Generally, when a pitcher gets hit, the response and assumption is that he made some mistakes. Mistake pitches get hit more often and harder than non-mistake pitches. But it has to be noted that not all of Johnson’s pitches that turned into hits were mistakes. Not all of Rivera’s pitches that turned into home runs were mistakes. One of the realities of pitching is that good pitches can get crushed, even if you do everything you want to do. That’s either frustrating or the source of some important perspective, and against Jose Lobaton, Uehara didn’t screw up. Against Jose Lobaton, at least this once, it didn’t matter.

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We don’t get a lot of time with the players this time of the year. So it was very nice of Doug Fister to spend some of that precious resource talking with me about his craft late last week. His thoughts could serve well as a backdrop for the six-foot-eight bulldog’s performance in Game Four today.

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The annual managerial carousel has started. Little more than a week after the completion of the regular season, there are already openings in Chicago [Cubs], Cincinnati, Seattle and Washington. Don’t be surprised if there are more.

Who will step in to fill these positions? Speculation abounds, with no shortage of names being bandied about. Some have previously managed in the big leagues, while others are looking for their first opportunity. Joe McEwing, who just completed his second season as the White Sox third base coach, is among those in the latter category.

The 40-year-old former infielder has been viewed as a future MLB manager since retiring after the 2006 season. “Super Joe” managed in the White Sox system for three years prior to joining Robin Ventura’s staff, and is highly-regarded thanks to his people skills and knowledge of the game.

In the first of a series of interviews with up-and-coming managerial candidates, McEwing discussed the approach and philosophies he would bring to the job. Read the rest of this entry »

There was speculation that, had the Dodgers lost Game 3 to the Braves, they would’ve asked Clayton Kershaw to start Game 4 on short rest in order to help the team avoid elimination. The Dodgers wound up clobbering the Braves in Game 3, moving a win away from the NLCS, and now they’ve asked Clayton Kershaw to start Game 4 on short rest anyway. The official announcement was made earlier Monday, with Kershaw figuratively taking the ball from would-be starter Ricky Nolasco.

Generally, something like this is a desperation decision, but clearly the Dodgers are a team that’s not desperate. They’ve got two chances to get rid of Atlanta, and they were guaranteed to have Kershaw get one of them. Now they’re lined up to give the starts to Kershaw and Zack Greinke, instead of Nolasco and Kershaw. That is, if a Game 5 is necessary. In making this decision, the Dodgers have demonstrated that they don’t want to see a Game 5 at all.

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The A’s and Tigers are playing Game 3 right now, but they played Game 2 on Saturday night, and that game was umpired by one CB Bucknor. Bucknor is routinely considered one of baseball’s worst umpires, and Saturday he made a few questionable decisions, the most questionable of which was probably a called strike three against Seth Smith in the bottom of the second. Now, granted, the A’s eventually won, and there were two out and none on at the time, so it’s not like anyone really cares anymore. The story isn’t Bucknor — it’s Sonny Gray and Stephen Vogt. But there’s something I want to bring your attention to.

Justin Verlander had fallen behind Smith 3-and-0, then he threw a couple strikes. In a full count, Verlander came with a fastball, and it seemed to miss both down and away. Smith took it, in theory for a ball, but Bucknor ruled it was a strike, and Smith expressed his disapproval before returning to the dugout during the inning break. People on Twitter were upset, and even the TV broadcast noted the pitch looked like a ball. Shortly thereafter, the game resumed, and Bucknor got a little better.

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