Phil Coke and Tommy Hunter know a good song when they hear it. The same can be said of song titles and how they might pertain to baseball. Neither the Detroit Tigers southpaw nor the Baltimore Orioles righty is a huge fan of the Beatles or Rolling Stones — but that didn’t deter them from interpreting “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “19th Nervous Breakdown.” Read the rest of this entry »
According to the best data I can access, so far this year there have been 425 pitches thrown at least 100 miles per hour. Andrew Cashner‘s got one. Nathan Eovaldi‘s got one. Matt Harvey‘s got two. Bruce Rondon‘s got 104. Aroldis Chapman‘s got 196. To set a cutoff at 100 is arbitrary, but it feels natural, and 100 definitely has the feel of a magic number. A fastball at 100 is, officially, a fastball in the triple digits. Within the realm of 100+ mile-per-hour fastballs, Rondon and Chapman, combined, have thrown more than twice as many as everybody else. The next-highest total after Rondon’s 104 is Kelvin Herrera’s 45, and there’s long been talk that the PITCHf/x in Kansas City is miscalibrated.
What Chapman’s got over Rondon is peak velocity — Chapman, this year, has topped out at 104. What Rondon’s got over Chapman is consistency — 24% of Rondon’s pitches have reached 100, against Chapman’s 19%. Rondon has the harder average fastball. If you isolate only those fastballs thrown at least 100, Rondon and Chapman tie with an average velocity of 101. Clearly, these are the game’s premier flame-throwers. But while they both throw similar heat — similar, virtually unparalleled heat — the results have been considerably different. We’ve been seeing two types of 100 mile-per-hour fastballs.
There was a tempest in a teapot during Monday’s Yankees-Orioles game. Between innings, Joe Girardi screamed that Oriole third base coach Bobby Dickerson was stealing signs. Buck Showalter screamed back at Girardi so heatedly that umpires had to restrain him. Girardi claimed that Dickerson was stealing pitch signs from Yankee catcher Austin Romine, and signaling them to Oriole hitters. Showalter took umbrage, and the next day, he told ESPN’s Mike Lupica that the Yankees “are actually one of the better teams” at stealing signs. Others don’t think it’s a big deal. Trying to steal signs is fair, Lou Piniella told ESPN in an interview. “It is part of the game,” he said. If another team tries to steal your signs, “You just switch them.”
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The NL MVP race has a lot of good candidates. Clayton Kershaw is having an amazing year for the Dodgers. Yadier Molina and Matt Carpenter have been fantastic for the Cardinals. Joey Votto is his usual excellent self. Paul Goldschmidt is the run production candidate, and has had a great season on his own merits. This feels like the kind of year where a lot of different guys are going to get votes, and the winner probably won’t be unanimous.
But let’s not let the reality of a solid field of candidates obscure the fact that Andrew McCutchen is pulling away from the field. He might not look like a traditional MVP, but McCutchen is having a remarkable season.
It isn’t often you can say this, but the best show in baseball Wednesday took place in Miami. Though it was a game between the going-nowhere hosts and the certainly-going-somewhere Braves, the hosts had Jose Fernandez on the mound, and before the Marlins equivalent of a full house, Fernandez did everything in what would be his final start of the season. There were twists, there were turns. There were big swings and big pitches. There were players yelling at one another, and there were fans yelling louder. Wednesday night, Miami and Fernandez had it all.
Fernandez was dominant, but Fernandez has often been dominant, and the game was so much more than that. He got involved not just on the mound, but also at the plate and on the basepaths. Everybody knew it would be his last turn, and it doesn’t seem like he left anything on the table.
I’ve been pretty busy. I wonder what Andrelton Simmons has been up to of late? Most of my attention is dedicated to the actual races. Let’s go ahead and take a quick peek over at Simmons’ MLB.com video highlight page. What’s the most recent clip look like? Cool, it’s from just a couple days ago. Looks like a defensive play against the Marlins. I’ll stream it, and — ooh, slow chopper off the bat. Batter got badly jammed. You’re telling me Simmons turned this into some kind of out?
This afternoon, I had a bit of a brouhaha with one Jonah Keri, friend of the site and of mine. With the Royals leading the Indians 5-2 at the time of our fisticuffs, Jonah tweeted the following.
The Kansas City Royals have a very real shot at making the playoffs. Last time they made it was nearly 6 years before Mike Trout was born.
— Jonah Keri (@jonahkeri) September 11, 2013
Because I have a reputation as a Debbie Downer to uphold, I went to our Playoff Odds page and noted that the listed playoff odds for Kansas City stood at just 2.7%. That didn’t account for the game the Royals were winning at the moment, so it understated their odds to some degree, but even with the victory over the Royals, I called out the Tall Canadian on his liberal use of the term “very real shot”, noting that math says that the Royals are pretty big long shots to end up with a wild card spot.
Of course, Mr. Keri prefers to poutine and Youppi to cold hard facts, so he waved off the numbers as something born out of a witches cauldron. Bah and humbug, he said, or something to that effect, before donning his Chris Getz jersey and resuming his cheerleading.
@DCameronFG I'm not a total believer in the odds reports, when you drill down to specifics. Also doesn't account for today's about-to-win.
— Jonah Keri (@jonahkeri) September 11, 2013
Because I like Jonah and want him to see the folly of his ways, I figured this was worth a post. Even with just a couple of game deficit with a few weeks still go to, why do our playoff odds calculations think the Royals have little chance of actually making the playoffs? In large part, it can be summed up by the remaining schedule.
Several news outlets reported on Tuesday that the Yankees will ink a new contract with CBS Radio worth $15 million to 20 million per year. As part of the deal, the Yankees’ radio broadcasts will move from one CBS Radio-owned New York station to another. Starting in 2014, Yankees games will be heard on WFAN (660 AM), the sports-only radio station that’s been home to the Mets since 1987. The Mets are in discussions with several radio broadcasters and expect to announce a new radio home in the next six weeks.
Radio broadcast rights in the $15 million to $20 million range are a rarity in MLB. The Red Sox are the only other team that reportedly rakes in close to $20 million per year from its radio broadcaster, WEEI (93.7 FM). It was big news when the Red Sox signed that 10-year/$200 million deal in 2006, to cover the 2007 through 2016 seasons. At the time, WCBS paid the Yankees only $10 million a year for the right to broadcast its games.
But the Red Sox deal doesn’t appear to have led to an escalation in radio rights fees, the way the Rangers’ multi-billion dollar contract with Fox Sports Southwest did on the TV side. Indeed, the Yankees’ radio revenue jumped from from $10 million in 2006 to just $14 million this season.
Many of my younger years were spent living in San Diego. As such, I got to watch a lot of the Padres and the Braves — the Padres, because they were local, and the Braves, because they were inescapable. As such, I got to watch a lot of Ryan Klesko, and of all the things Klesko ever did, one in particular stands out in my own mind. I remember few of the important details — I don’t remember the year, I don’t remember the pitcher, and I don’t even remember for whom Klesko played. What I know is that Klesko hit a pitch for a home run, and the pitch was somewhere up near his eyes. Over time, my reenactments probably grew exaggerated, and my memory now is that Klesko homered off a pitch literally over his head. Wherever the pitch really was, though, it was up. Klesko chopped at it, and it soared 400 feet, over the fence and into my brain.
I thought of Ryan Klesko when I saw the most recent clip of Wladimir Balentien in Japan. The single-season Japanese home-run record, if you don’t know, is 55. At present, Balentien’s home-run total, if you don’t know, is 54. He’s mighty close, and he’s got a lot of time. Many of Balentien’s homers this year have been impressive, but I’m guessing none have been quite like his 54th. That homer is unlike most; that homer is straight-up hard to believe.
Two things jump out when you watch Nate Jones deliver a pitch. The Chicago White Sox righthander has an unorthodox delivery and he throws hard. Working primarily as a setup man, he features a 97-mph fastball.
What doesn’t jump out is that he is putting up better numbers than last year. The 27-year-old Northern Kentucky product is 4-5, 3.86, compared to 8-0, 2.39. But a closer look tells a completely different story. Jones has improved in nearly every other category, with a markedly better FIP.
Jones, who has made 63 appearances this season, discussed his evolution as a pitcher — including his funky delivery — on a recent visit to Fenway Park. Also weighing in were former teammate, and current Red Sox reliever Matt Thornton, and White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper. Read the rest of this entry »
