Even in an era brimming with colorful characters and exceptional hurlers, Luis Tiant stood out. The barrel-chested, mustachioed Cuban righty combined an assortment of exaggerated deliveries with a variety of arm angles and speeds that baffled hitters — and tantalized writers — over the course of a 19-year major league career (1964–82) and an affiliation with the game in one capacity or another that extended through the remainder of his life. “The Cuban Dervish,” as Sports Illustrated’s Ron Fimrite christened him in 1975, died last Tuesday at the age of 83. No cause of death was announced.

The son of a legendary left-hander colloquially known as Luis Tiant Sr., the younger Tiant was exiled from his home country in the wake of Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro’s travel restrictions, and separated from his family for 14 years. Against that backdrop of isolation, “El Tiante” went on to become the winningest Cuban-born pitcher in major league history, and to emerge as a larger-than-life character, so inseparable from his trademark cigars that he chomped them even in postgame showers. He spoke softly in a thick accent, but that didn’t prevent his wit and wisdom from getting across, particularly during the latter half of his career, after he emerged from a serious arm injury to become a top big-game pitcher. “In boots, black cap, foot-long cigar and nothing else, he’d hold court with half-hour monologues Richard Pryor would envy,” wrote Thomas Boswell in 1988.

Tiant’s ascendence to iconic status centered around his 1971–78 run with the Red Sox, reaching its pinnacle in their seven-game 1975 World Series defeat, during which he made three starts: a brilliant Game 1 shutout; a gritty Game 4 complete game during which he delivered “163 pitches in 100 ways,” to use the description of Sports Illustrated‘s Roy Blount Jr.; and a valiant, draining Game 6 effort where he faltered late but was saved by Carlton Fisk’s famous body-English home run around Fenway Park’s left field foul pole in the 12th inning. Read the rest of this entry »

LOS ANGELES — There was a glint in the eye of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. Asked in the pregame press conference if his Game 1 starter, Jack Flaherty, would be making any adjustments after an unsteady start against the Padres in the NLDS, Roberts vamped for a bit before a grin broke across his face.

“I just feel he’s built for moments like this,” Roberts said. “I think the pulse, the stuff. I really feel a good one out of Jack tonight.”

Whether it was a premonition, insider knowledge, or — in the style of his fellow Angelenos — belief in his power to manifest reality, Roberts got exactly what he expected. Flaherty carried the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday night, shutting out the Mets for seven innings en route to a casual 9-0 victory and an early series lead.

The right-hander, acquired from Detroit in a trade deadline deal, was in control all night. He allowed two walks and two singles but otherwise held the Mets at bay, striking out six and holding New York to an .233 expected batting average. It felt like the Mets couldn’t figure out whether to sit on Flaherty’s loopy knuckle curve or his firmer gyro slider. Stuck between these two distinct breaking balls, the Mets flailed around, swinging through his breakers, lifting them for harmless fly balls, or — on the rare occasions when they squared him up — sending them straight into the gloves of the Dodgers defense. To right-handed hitters, Flaherty threw a near-identical number of curves and sliders, making it difficult to key in on a specific pitch type. Read the rest of this entry »

Zyhir Hope is one of the youngest and least experienced players participating in the Arizona Fall League. Acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the January deal that sent Michael Busch to the Chicago Cubs, the 19-year-old outfielder has just 315 professional plate appearances, in part because he missed three months this season with a shoulder injury. The raw tools are impressive. Since being selected in the 11th round of last year’s draft out of Stafford, Virginia’s Colonial Forge High School, Hope has slashed .289/.419/.492 with a dozen home runs and a 143 wRC+.

How he would define himself as a hitter is a question he wasn’t quite sure how to answer when I posed it to him on Wednesday.

“I try my best,” responded Hope, who is suiting up for the Glendale Desert Dogs. “I have amazing coaches and a lot of resources to kind of help me find myself, find my swing. I’m working every day, trying to stay consistent, trusting the process.”

Asked if his setup and swing are essentially the same as when he signed, he said that they are. As for how much he studies the intricacies of his craft, let’s just say that Hope is a believer — at least to this point of his young career — in keeping things as simple as possible.

“I don’t really think about that stuff, about mechanics,” explained Hope, who takes his cuts from the left side. “I just go out there and swing, to be honest. I love to just go out there and swing. It’s just feels, man. Just feels. I’ve been that way my whole life. See ball, hit ball.” Read the rest of this entry »

It’s likely not too many people have heard of or seen the movie Wolfs, even though it features Brad Pitt and George Clooney in a crowd-pleaser action movie, throwing witty banter at each other for two hours. However, the film dropped three weeks ago on Apple TV+. No wide release, little marketing power behind it, and available only on a streaming service that lags behind Netflix, Hulu, and other platforms. Likewise, the MLB playoff picture began to take shape around the same time, and casual fans of the sport probably hadn’t heard or seen much of the Detroit Tigers or the Cleveland Guardians, who play in the AL Central and don’t receive much national media attention.

Nevertheless, the two teams met in an ALDS that spanned the full five games. The Guardians outlasted the Tigers 7-3 in Game 5 on Saturday to earn a trip to the ALCS, where they’ll meet the New York Yankees in a best-of-seven series with a World Series berth on the line.

In Wolfs, Pitt and Clooney play fixers who are sent in to clean up messy situations created by people with enough money and power to avoid facing consequences for their actions. The two are assigned to the same job despite this being the type of work better suited to a lone wolf. The dual fixer scenario highlights how the two men who have never worked together still generally follow the same playbook. They ask the same questions, follow the same procedures, and tap into the same network of resources. Both fancy themselves not only the best at what they do, but Clooney declares, “No one can do what I do,” mere moments before another character proclaims, “No one can do what he does,” in reference to Pitt. Read the rest of this entry »

Forget second-guessing — I first-guessed Dave Roberts as the fifth inning of Game 5 ended. It was partially his hugging form – a little too hands-off-y for my tastes – but mostly, it was who he gave the hug to. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history. Eleven months ago, he pitched the game of his life in the biggest spot of his career. His complete game, 14-strikeout masterpiece in Game 6 of the Japan Series was one of the great playoff performances of the 21st century. Against the Padres, he looked nearly untouchable. He rolled through five innings on just 63 pitches, and he seemed to be picking up steam as the game wore on.

Roberts didn’t agree. The top of San Diego’s order was due up for a third time the following inning, and Yamamoto has exclusively turned in short outings since returning from injury in September. He simply hasn’t had a ton in the tank, and the Padres had roughed him up in Game 1 of the series. The Dodgers bullpen has been dominant, and had just turned in nine shutout innings to force this deciding game.

Maybe Roberts felt like he had no choice. Yamamoto’s counterpart, Yu Darvish, was no slouch himself. He’d allowed a second-inning home run to Enrique Hernández, but other than that, he’d given up pretty much nothing. He did it with smoke and mirrors – or, to be more specific, a curveball that vanished like smoke into the night every time the Dodgers took a swing. He threw that hook a whopping 19 times, more than any other pitch, and the Dodgers managed to put exactly one into play, a harmless groundout off the bat of Mookie Betts. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: October baseball. As always in the playoffs, I’ve been keen to observe lineup construction and offensive personnel, particularly from a bat path perspective. Over the last few years especially, the matchup game has become more and more important as managers navigate the platoon advantage that comes from switching pitchers in and out of the game.

In 2023 and 2022, I explored how Vertical Bat Angle (VBA) can serve as a proxy for analyzing swing diversity in a team’s lineup. At first it started as a way of investigating why the Astros were so consistent in the playoffs, then it became a way for me to understand which lineups have the most versatility in bat path and handedness. In theory, the more versatility, the harder it is for a pitcher-catcher combination to game plan. If a lefty with a flat bat path hits ahead of a righty with a steep bat path — as is the case with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge — a pitcher is forced to execute two different approaches. If that variance carries through an entire lineup, good luck! Spoiler alert, I’m basically describing the Dodgers, but more on that later.

As I’ve said in countless blogs of mine, VBA is not a catch-all metric for describing bat path. Attack Angle (AA) and Vertical Entry Angle (VEA), among other metrics, are important for understanding the full story of each player’s path. But in this piece, I’m going to stick with just VBA because that’s what I’ve used for this piece in previous years. Here are a few key points that are important to rehash before showing the results.

For left-handed hitters, I made their average VBA negative to account for the fact that they swing from the other side of the plate. (VBA data is provided by SwingGraphs.) For switch-hitters, I multiplied their average VBA by -0.72 because the league-wide rate of switch-hitter plate appearances that come against righty pitchers — when they are batting lefty — is 72%. Additionally, even though I used regular-season VBA data, I included only hitters who’ve recorded at least one playoff plate appearance this year in the sample. By not including guys who didn’t bat during the postseason, the dataset is more representative of each playoff team’s VBA variance based on how its offense is currently constructed. With the remaining group of players, I took the variance of the VBAs on the given team and adjusted it to be a percentage above or below average. The average is set at 100, just like wRC+. Without further ado, here is the update on VBAVar+ for 2024:

As I alluded to earlier, the Dodgers come out on top this year. Their addition of Shohei Ohtani is a big help. Shocker! He comes before Mookie Betts, who is then followed by Freddie Freeman. From a VBA perspective, these three hitters offer immediate variance atop the lineup. Ohtani’s VBA sits around 34 degrees on average (although we know he can alter his swing a ton). Betts offers a very similar VBA at just around 33.7 degrees, but his comes from the other side of the plate, and he is much shorter than Ohtani. After that, Freeman has one of the steepest swings in baseball at just over 40 degrees on average. The different angles are one way to illuminate how different they are as hitters. They force pitchers to execute multiple pitches in different locations because each of them has different strengths or weaknesses due to the shapes of their swings.

Being without a healthy Freeman takes a versatile layer out of the lineup. The first baseman is nursing a sprained ankle and bone bruise, an injury that would typically warrant a recovery time of four to six weeks. He did not play in the Dodgers’ 8-0 win over the Padres in Game 4 on Wednesday, but he is in the lineup for Friday night’s Game 5. Either way, he is not at full strength. During his Game 4 absence, Max Muncy moved over to his old home at first base, while Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernández split the third base duties. As the Dodgers showed in their Game 4 rout, they have plenty of other boppers following the three stars in their lineup. It starts with Teoscar Hernández’s neutral VBA of 33-34 degrees. He is followed by Muncy’s slightly flatter swing (31 degrees). Then comes the righty Will Smith with his steeper angle of about 36 degrees. The bottom third is highlighted by Gavin Lux and Tommy Edman, who provide pitchers another different look with their flatter swings (both less than 29 degrees on average). I know, I basically listed the entire lineup, but that’s exactly the point: The Dodgers have a ton of talented hitters with different swing profiles, making it very difficult for pitchers to come up with a concrete gameplan to get them out. Last season, the Dodgers were second in this metric. The additions of Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández, and Edman, as well as the return of Lux from injury, have helped push the Dodgers to the top of the list.

The Yankees also have plenty of star power in their lineup. They’ve struggled offensively thus far through their four playoff games and are just slightly above average in terms of lineup swing variance. Judge is their only hitter in this sample who has an average VBA above 33 degrees. However, as I mentioned earlier, the top of their lineup is all the more dangerous because their two best hitters, Judge and Soto, have completely different VBAs. Judge’s is 41 degrees, while Soto’s is 26, and they also come from different sides of the plate.

The Padres and Royals appear third and fourth on this leaderboard, respectively. San Diego’s placement is largely due to its ability to rotate left- and right-handed hitters. On Wednesday, the Padres’ lineup went like this: L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L. There is one spot that sticks out especially: Batting Manny Machado fourth and Jackson Merrill fifth. Machado’s flat swing is geared toward crushing heaters, while Merrill’s steeper swing (and versatility) allows him to hit sliders well. If pitchers want to spam sliders to Machado, they’re forced to adjust quickly and take a different approach with Merrill. Yes, that’s possible. But if it makes things even just slightly more difficult for pitchers, it’s worth it.

Kansas City is quite different from the other teams discussed so far because its offense is top heavy. Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez are the two key threats. If you’re not going to overwhelm pitchers offensively with a bunch of star power, at least give them varying looks, right? That’s what this lineup does. The Royals have a handful of lefty hitters with different VBAs, ranging from Kyle Isbel (very flat) to Adam Frazier (very steep). The Tigers, the other AL Central team to secure a Wild Card berth, are a similar story.

The Tigers have done just enough offensively during the playoffs so far. They haven’t really had a big breakout game, but their versatility has allowed A.J. Hinch to make pinch-hitting decisions that put his team in a better position to play against the strengths of Detroit’s opponents. A good example of this came in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Houston Astros, when Andy Ibáñez pinch-hit for Zach McKinstry against left-hander Josh Hader in the eighth inning. From a handedness perspective, the move is straight forward; McKinstry bats left-handed while Ibáñez is a righty. But what makes this an especially shrewd move is the fact that, from a bat path perspective, Ibáñez might be an ideal matchup for the Tigers against Hader. Hader has a flat approach angle on his fastball, which he’s trying to keep above the bats of hitters, and Ibáñez has a flat swing — on average, his VBA hovered between 26 and 27 degrees this season — which helps him to avoid swinging beneath higher pitches. That’s exactly what happened. Hader fired a sinker up in the zone, and Ibáñez hammered it for a go-ahead double.

And sometimes, you have similar personnel who are all playing so well that having variance doesn’t matter all that much! That is exactly what’s happening in Queens. Almost the entire Mets lineup is within five degrees of VBA. The only exception is J.D. Martinez, who has a steeper path in the high 30s. I don’t think the Mets’ position all the way down on this leaderboard is a bad thing; good hitters are good hitters regardless of their swing paths. Putting together a lineup with a high VBA variance is just one way to build a winning team, but it’s far from the only way.

This is the third year I’ve done this exercise and it’s one of my personal favorites. The more context that can be added to a team’s lineup, the better you can understand matchups and managerial decisions. In the small sample of the playoffs, teams have to flex whatever competitive advantage is available. When you have the personnel to make life harder for your opponents, you better exercise it.

Colson Montgomery learned a lot about himself as a hitter this season. The result of that introspection? He’s going back to the approach that not only helped make him the top prospect in the Chicago White Sox system, but also has him ranked 17th overall on The Board. Striving for more pull-side power, the left-handed-hitting shortstop slashed a disappointing .214/.329/.381 with Triple-A Charlotte. And while the 22-year-old did hit a career-best 18 home runs, he also fanned 164 times while logging a 28.6% strikeout rate. With the caveat that the 2021 first round pick was one of the youngest players in the International League, Montgomery clearly underperformed expectations with the bat. A readjustment was in order.

Montgomery, who is currently doing some fine-tuning with the Arizona Fall League’s Glendale Desert Dogs, discussed his learning-curve season earlier this week.

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David Laurila: What has the development process been for you in terms of your mechanics and approach?

Colson Montgomery: “Earlier in your career, it’s kind of an experiment of who you are as a hitter. You don’t really know yet, because you probably haven’t faced adversity or failure. Also, when you’re a lot younger, you aren’t facing the best arms. The sooner you can go against the best of the best arms is when you can learn a lot about yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday afternoon, across his seven innings of shutout work against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 2 of the ALDS, Tarik Skubal threw five pitches that moved to his glove side. His other 87 pitches — fastballs, sinkers, and changeups — went the other direction. Here’s what that looked like on a pitch movement plot:

Skubal’s “Oops! no breaking balls” approach was an extreme version of the arsenal that powered his Cy Young-caliber campaign, and may well be his primary plan as he takes on the Guardians in Game 5 of the ALDS on Saturday. Unlike most of our contemporary aces, Skubal doesn’t dominate with huge shapes or funky angles. There are no Sale-esque sweepers, knee-buckling splitters, gravity-defying heaters, or mind-meltingly flat vertical approach angles. Few pitchers thrive while concentrating 95% of their pitches in one quadrant of the pitch plot. But Skubal does. He excels by pitching like a turbocharged Kyle Freeland. Read the rest of this entry »

The postseason is at its most fun when both teams have something to prove. The ZiPS projections may have been bullish on the Cleveland Guardians coming into the season, but the computer was in the minority, with most observers thinking the Minnesota Twins were the clear favorites in the division. The Guardians are no longer the habitual losers they were from the 1960s-80s, but their last World Series championship was still in 1948. For their part, the Detroit Tigers dominated the AL Central 15 years ago, but lost both of their World Series, dropping eight of nine games. And Detroit wasn’t even supposed to be here; the team traded Jack Flaherty at the deadline and if someone had bowled them over with an offer, Tarik Skubal might be wearing a different uniform this month.

Game 4 was do or die for Cleveland, with the Tigers’ plan of “Tarik Skubal and then pitching chaos” winning two of the first three games. With a bullpen whose second-half performance led the American League with a 2.50 ERA and 3.0 WAR (the Tigers weren’t far behind with a 3.00 ERA and 2.8 WAR), the Guardians had high hopes that they’d be able to send the ALDS back to Cleveland for one winner-take-all showdown. And that’s precisely what they did, winning a closely fought game that was one of the most entertaining we’ve seen so far this October.

Cleveland struck first and in old-school fashion, with a single and a stolen base from Steven Kwan, and singles by Kyle Manzardo and Lane Thomas, the latter of which scored Kwan. But Will Brennan’s groundout on a low changeup allowed Detroit starter Reese Olson to escape the first having only surrendered one run. Read the rest of this entry »

After Jazz Chisholm Jr. told reporters, “They just got lucky,” in reference to the Royals’ 4-2 win over the Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS on Monday night, some teams might have pinned that quote to their figurative bulletin boards and set out to earn a decisive win in front of their home crowd in Game 3. In its full context, Chisholm Jr.’s quote focused more on the Yankees’ missing opportunities to positively impact the game than actually discrediting the play of the Royals, but along with their elite athlete genes, pro ballplayers carry a special gene that allows them to get 27 varieties of riled up over even the smallest perceived slight.

Aaron Boone, former player and current manager of the Yankees, knows this as well as anyone and tried to throw water on his third baseman’s incendiary comments during his own session with the media, saying: “I don’t think they got lucky. I think they did a lot of really good things, and came in here and beat us.” Boone went on to reframe the issue as the Yankees’ getting unlucky on some hard-hit batted balls, which sounds better in theory but still attributes some randomness to the Royals’ win.

Wednesday night opened in Kansas City with a sea of fans adorned in royal blue booing their lungs out as Chisholm Jr. was introduced to the crowd at Kauffman Stadium. He soaked in the moment with a wide smile and seemed to mouth, “I love it” multiple times as the vengeful cries rained down around him. However, by evening’s end the masses fell silent. The Yankees emerged victorious with a 3-2 win over the Royals to carry a 2-1 series lead into Game 4 on Thursday. Read the rest of this entry »