Cal Quantrill epitomizes the term “pitcher.” Twenty-seven years old and in his fourth big-league season, the Cleveland Guardians right-hander not only attacks hitters with a multi-pitch arsenal, he does so with a combination of aggressiveness and guile. Mixing and matching with aplomb, he’s won 23 of 32 decisions and logged a 3.16 ERA in 336 innings over the past two seasons. As my colleague Michael Baumann pointed out just last month, Quantrill isn’t overpowering, but he gets the job done.
Drafted eighth overall in 2016 by the San Diego Padres out of Stanford University, Quantrill was acquired by Cleveland at the 2020 trade deadline as part of the nine-player Mike Clevinger deal. He’s expected to start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday if their Wild Card Series requires a deciding Game 3.
Quantrill discussed his evolution as a pitcher and his it’s-all-about-getting-outs approach this past weekend.
———
David Laurila: We discussed your repertoire in spring training of 2018 when you were in the Padres system. How have you changed as a pitcher since that time?
Cal Quantrill: “If we’re looking at it from a literal standpoint, I flattened out the slider and turned it into a cutter. I went to more of a 50/50 mix with the two-seam and four-seam. I’ve kind of kept a little curveball wrinkle to keep them off the hard stuff. Read the rest of this entry »
Who was the Nationals’ best player in 2022? Before you try to answer, I should acknowledge that this is not a fair question to ask. For starters, it’s a trick question. More importantly, you haven’t been watching the Nationals. You’ve been doing the best you can to avoid even thinking about the Nationals. That’s called self-care, and I commend you for it. Even the Nationals’ general manager called it “a daily grind to come here and lose baseball games.” He also called trading Juan Soto a “courageous move by ownership,” so maybe don’t listen to him.
Regardless, go ahead and give it a shot! Keibert Ruiz would be a reasonable guess. The promising young catcher posted 1.7 WAR this season. You could also be forgiven for going with Joey Meneses, who put up 1.5 WAR in just 228 plate appearances since his promotion in August. Read the rest of this entry »
Department: Baseball Operations Location: St. Louis, MO, USA Reports To: SRVPGM – Senior VP/General Manager
Summary of Responsibilities:
The St. Louis Cardinals are currently seeking candidates for a Baseball Operations Fellow position for 2023. This Fellowship is a one-year opportunity. At the end of the Fellowship, the Cardinals and the Fellow will jointly determine if there is an appropriate opportunity for full-time employment with the Cardinals. Fellows will not return in the same position in 2024. The Fellow will report directly to the Manager of Video Operations and will work on projects at the direction of senior leadership from the Baseball Development, Domestic & International scouting, Player Development, and Performance departments. Additional training may be provided in topics from scouting to analytics depending on the needs of the team and the Fellow’s interest.
The ideal candidate will have demonstrated a strong work ethic, the ability to learn and adapt to new processes, and a passion for baseball. The Fellowship will provide such a candidate with a broad range of experiences across Baseball Operations and the possibility of permanent employment.
The Baseball Operations Fellow position is a full-time position including salary, health insurance, and benefits
This position is from early 2023 through the end of the calendar year
This position is in St. Louis, MO and will require relocation<
The St. Louis Cardinals are committed to building an inclusive organization where we have a diverse workforce as well as a culture where employees feel they belong and contribute their unique abilities to the team. This Fellowship is dedicated to continuously building a diverse staff, and we strongly encourage candidates who are members of historically marginalized groups, which may include, but are not limited to persons of color, LGBTQIA+, gender, veterans, and persons with disabilities, to apply. If you meet any of the qualifications listed below we welcome you to apply, or to reach out to us at hrinfo@cardinals.com for more information.
Essential Functions of the job:
Assisting in the video capture and processing of domestic amateur, international amateur, and affiliated and unaffiliated professional baseball games
Assisting Baseball Development and other groups within Baseball Operations with data collection and entry for analysis
Communicate effectively with Baseball Operations staff and complete ad-hoc requests as needed
Education and Experience:
Current college senior or postgraduate
Strong interest in and understanding of baseball/softball
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strong organizational skills
Aptitude and comfortability with Microsoft Excel and Google G-Suite (e.g. Docs, Sheets, Slides)
Proficient with computers, iPads, and other electronic devices
Ability to work weekdays, nights, weekends, and holidays
Department: Baseball Operations Location: USA Reports To: SRVPGM – Senior VP/General Manager
Summary of Responsibilities:
St. Louis Cardinals are currently seeking candidates for this position to be located at each of our domestic minor league affiliates and our Dominican Republic Academy. The Minor League Affiliate Fellow will manage all aspects of video and technology at these locations in supporting the minor league coaching staff (manager, hitting coach, and pitching coach). The data collected from video and technology will be utilized to provide feedback to players for development.
Pre-game this position will manage distribution, set up and usage of all baseball & sport science technology; during the game this position will manage technology resources for the minor league coaches from the dugout. Post-game this position will ensure all data and video collected from the day is available for reporting & analysis; create reports for players and coaches as required. This position will work directly with the Video & Technology Team and reports to the relevant minor league manager for day-to-day responsibilities at the affiliate.
The ideal candidate will have demonstrated a strong work ethic and impressive intellect. The position is a seasonal job for the 2023 season only, but may lead to full-time employment in Player Development, Scouting, or elsewhere within Baseball Operations.
The Minor League Affiliate Fellow position is considered a full-time position including salary, health insurance, benefits, housing stipend and meal money during road trips.
Essential Functions of the Job:
Manage baseball & sport science technology and video capture at the affiliate (e.g. Trackman, Blast Motion, Edgertronic Camera, Polar, Whoop, etc.).
During the game, depending on staff needs:
Manage in-game capture of technology and video from the dugout
Quality assurance of the video and data collected for analyses
Communicate any implementation issues to Technology Specialist / Technology Integration Coordinator that are not remediated through initial troubleshooting
Attend Spring Training and travel with assigned minor league team on the road
Education and Experience:
Postgraduate or college senior available to start work during Spring Training
Proven ability to use and troubleshoot baseball or sport science technology (like pairing portable trackman to an Edgertronic camera, syncing wearable technology to a mobile device, etc.)
Familiar with and/or demonstrate the willingness to learn technology such as Blast Motion, Trackman, and video integration
Ability to communicate effectively and efficiently
Proficient with computers, iPads, and other electronics
Ability to work weekdays, nights, weekends and holidays
The life of any top prospect is filled with pressure, but for Jarred Kelenic, that pressure might have been even greater than usual. Being the marquee prospect in a blockbuster trade must put extra weight on a player’s shoulders. For a time, it looked like the Mariners had pulled one over on the New York Mets. Kelenic was ranked fourth overall entering the 2021 season as a 60 FV prospect, and was viewed as one of the first in a wave of young players meant to save the Seattle Mariners from a protracted playoff drought. But the discourse around the trade that sent him to Seattle — in which he, Jay Bruce, Gerson Bautista, Justin Dunn and Anthony Swarzak went to the Mariners while Robinson Canó, Edwin Díaz, and $20 million went to the Mets — has flipped. Kelenic has struggled in his time in the majors, while Díaz has struck out half the batters he’s faced in 2022. Sometimes prospects get the chance to adjust to the big leagues in relative quiet, but Kelenic’s first 400 plate appearances have come with a high level of scrutiny, and his struggles have forced us to reconsider his ceiling as a hitter.
Yet Kelenic has recently made some strides. In 2021, he was bad against breaking balls, posting a .214 wOBA against them. Jumping ahead to 2022, Kelenic’s issues with breaking balls became even more apparent. In the season’s early going, his wOBA fell even further, down to .093. That’s not a passable mark for a quality big league hitter, and Kelenic was sent down in the middle of May. After a few months in the minors, he got another chance in August, but he had barely finished his cup of coffee before being optioned again. Read the rest of this entry »
Shohei Ohtani is one of the best pitchers in baseball and one of the best hitters in baseball. That’s the first thing everyone thinks when his name comes up, and it always will be. He pitches and hits! How could you talk about anything other than that?
While that’s true, it’s leaving out something important. Ohtani is fascinating not just because he’s a two-way player, but because he’s completely overhauled his pitching approach in the middle of his best season yet. When Ohtani threw eight two-hit innings in his latest start, he hardly resembled the pitcher he was in 2021 – or even early in 2022.
When Ohtani pitched and hit his way to the American League MVP award last year (my colleague Jay Jaffe recently covered his quest to defend that title), he did so with a garden-variety pitch mix. He relied most on his four-seam fastball and complemented it with two plus secondaries, a slider and a splitter. He mixed in the occasional cutter and curveball, but mostly stuck with his best three offerings. It’s a classic pairing: fastball, breaking ball, offspeed pitch. It worked because all three pitches are excellent; if you had a 100 mph fastball, a fall-off-the-table splitter, and a biting slider, you’d probably do the same.
Over the offseason, though, Ohtani overhauled his slider. He came out this season throwing it harder and more frequently. In his third start of the year, he flirted with perfection against a loaded Astros lineup, and from that point on, he was a slider-first pitcher. Look at his slider usage by month this year and marvel:
For a moment, it seemed like Aaron Judge might not reach 62 home runs. After hitting his 61st in Toronto last Wednesday, he fell into what counts as a slump for him these days: four games, two hits, and a handful of walks. After feeling inevitable for most of September, 62 suddenly felt tenuous.
What a foolish sentiment. Judge, as we’ve seen all year, is a home run machine. He’s an offensive machine, in fact, blowing away the rest of the league with the kind of performance not seen since Barry Bonds in his prime. Unlike most single-season home run chases, Judge’s season isn’t defined by a single round number. His offensive greatness is so robust, so all-encompassing, that treating this accomplishment as the crowning achievement of his season is unfair.
The single-season home run record in major league baseball is 73. It was set in 2001, by Barry Bonds. Sixty-one has a ring to it, of course, because it was the record for so long. It was also the American League and Yankee record, two marks that feel weighty even if they aren’t quite as impressive as “best of all time.” Plenty of the fanfare around Judge comes from the sheer rarity of seeing so many homers, but plenty also comes from the fact that some fans would prefer to ignore everything that happened from 1998 to 2001 and make the record 61 again.
I’m giving you permission to tune all of that out. Sixty-two home runs is cool regardless of what the all-time record is. Only six players have ever accomplished the feat of hitting 60 home runs, and you know all of their names: Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, and now Judge. That alone is mind-blowing; baseball has been around an impossibly long time, through periods of high and low scoring, and yet only six players have ever cracked 60 home runs in a year throughout it all.
Does that mean hitting 62 is anti-climactic? I’ll leave that interpretation up to you. But more so than any one increment – would it be special at 63? 65? – I’m impressed by how handily Judge has lapped the league today. Is it cool to pass Maris? Undoubtedly. If nothing else, now Judge’s future offspring can traipse around the country and opine about someone else’s homers hit in the far-off future. More pressingly, though, Judge has left the rest of baseball behind in a way not seen for many years.
Home runs aren’t hit in a vacuum. The majors go through home run droughts and booms for myriad reasons, including pitcher talent, park dimensions, pitching style, and baseball composition. It’s hard to say whether 2022 Judge or 1961 Maris hit under easier conditions, but one way to look at it is to consider how many home runs separate the major league leader from their closest challenger at the end of each season. By that standard, Judge is in impressive company. Here are the top 11 seasons (including a 10th place tie) by home run gap since the dawn of the 20th century:
First, yeah, that Babe Ruth guy was pretty good. Since the 1920s and ’30s, though, no one has done what Judge is doing. The only player to come close was Willie Mays, not exactly shabby company. Last year, Shohei Ohtani won an MVP by playing the way people think Babe Ruth did – pitching and hitting. This year, Judge is likely going to win an MVP by playing like Ruth actually did: with a ludicrous string of home runs that makes everyone else playing look like a weakling by comparison.
Even without that gap between Judge and Kyle Schwarber, though, this season would be an all-timer. The great arrow of baseball time points inexorably towards more uniformity and more talent. It’s a professional game; even the up-and-down bullpen arms and utility infielders of today work year-round at their craft, honing their bodies and minds in pursuit of fame and riches. In a sport where we measure success relative to a league baseline, that means it’s harder than ever to stand out.
This arc of progress isn’t some new phenomenon. Stephen Jay Gould, the late and celebrated biologist, wrote about it in 1986, though he framed it in terms of the extinction of .400 hitters. Standing out from the field simply gets harder with every generation because even the lesser lights of baseball now search for every possible edge.
To wit: wRC+, our marquee offensive statistic here at FanGraphs, considers a player’s production relative to his peers. A 150 wRC+ has no fixed statistical translation. It merely means that a player’s overall batting line is 50% better than the league as a whole. Judge’s mark – 208 heading into today’s action – means that he’s 108% better than the overall league.
In Ruth’s day, when dinosaurs walked the earth and many of baseball’s best players weren’t allowed to play in the same league as him, a 200 wRC+ wasn’t particularly uncommon. But as competition increased, players lapped the rest of the field less often. Ruth and Ted Williams each had career wRC+ marks that approached 200. Since 1972, though, there have only been nine individual seasons that eclipsed 200:
Jeff Bagwell, Frank Thomas, and Juan Soto all accomplished their feats in shortened seasons. Bonds – well, he’s Barry Bonds. That just leaves Judge and McGwire out of the last half-century. Heck, order every season by wRC+ and exclude Bonds, and that gives Judge the best single season relative to his peers since Williams (223) and Mickey Mantle (217) posted similarly absurd seasons in 1957.
If I had my druthers, that’s how Judge’s season would be remembered. Sixty-two home runs is neat, and I’m glad he got there. A 16-homer lead on the field is spectacular, the stuff that only long-forgotten icons of the game have ever even dreamed of. But putting together an offensive season that blows away the rest of the league to this degree, at a time when his peers are as good as they are? Goodness gracious. We probably won’t see another season like Aaron Judge’s 2022 in our lifetimes. Let’s appreciate it.
All eyes were on Aaron Judge as he took the pursuit of his 62nd home run to Globe Life Field Monday night (the slugger went homerless), but it was Luis Severino who stole the show. In his third start back following a 10-week absence due to a strained latissimus dorsi, Severino threw seven no-hit innings before his pitch count forced him from the game. The Rangers did collect two hits in the eighth inning, but Severino’s outing offered the Yankees some reassurance regarding the oft-injured 28-year-old righty as the postseason approaches.
Facing the Rangers — a team that had already lost 92 games and that entered Monday ranked 10th in the American League both in batting average (.239) and wRC+ (98, tied with the Guardians) — Severino allowed just one baserunner. He retired the first seven batters he faced before walking Josh Smith, who was immediately erased via a 101-mph double play groundball off the bat of Bubba Thompson. Only once after the third inning did Severino even yield a hard-hit ball, a 99-mph fourth-inning drive by Corey Seager that had a .480 expected batting average based on its exit velocity and 25-degree launch angle (but not its direction). None of the 12 other batted balls he allowed had an xBA higher than .340. Read the rest of this entry »
Bo Naylor made his MLB debut with the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday, and if all goes according to plan, he’ll be a mainstay in their lineup as soon as next year. His tool box and present performance are equally eye-catching. The 22-year-old Mississauga, Ontario native logged a 140 wRC+ between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus, and a pair of counting stats were even more notable. Displaying unique athleticism for a backstop, Naylor swatted 21 home runs and swiped 20 bases in 24 attempts.
His emergence as Cleveland’s catcher of the future came on the heels of a confounding 2021 campaign. Returning to action following a minor-league season lost to COVID, the 2018 first-round pick struggled to the tune of a .612 OPS in Akron last year. A flaw in his left-handed stroke was the primary reason for concern. As Eric Longenhagen wrote last spring, Naylor’s swing “can really only cut through the heart of the zone.”
This past Sunday, I asked the younger brother of Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor if he felt that our lead prospect analyst’s assessment was valid. Read the rest of this entry »
Baseball is unique among major American sports for its lengthy schedule. For six months a year, there’s a game nearly every day. Every. Dang. Day. Working for the weekend? There’s no such thing; Saturdays and Sundays are for games. Want to have a lazy one and “work from home” with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and an eye on your emails? Yeah, uh, that’s not going to work, though you can at least wear pajamas in the dugout.
We marvel at the physical prowess of players all the time, but I’m interested in their mental fortitude. It’s hard to keep grinding day in and day out for half a year. It’s harder still when there’s no postseason carrot dangled in front of you. I’ve never personally been in a pennant race, but I imagine a chance at a hunk of metal is a great motivator. Without that powerful incentive, spending a few months with no mental breaks is beyond my ken.
Earlier this year, I observed that down-and-out teams perform worse than expected late in the season. That seems entirely reasonable. I’ve always wondered where that effect comes from, though. Every time I try to look for hitting or pitching performance relative to expectations late in the season, I find a whole lot of nothing. Read the rest of this entry »
Primary Purpose
The Cleveland Guardians Baseball Research & Development (R&D) group is seeking data scientists at a variety of experience levels, including senior, entry-level, and interns/fellows. Prior experience with sports is not necessary if you have some curiosity or interest in learning about data science applications in baseball.
If you enjoy tackling challenging problems, using interesting real data, collaborating with smart people, and having a direct impact on what happens on the baseball field and in our business, this may be the opportunity for you!
People in this role will use statistical and machine learning techniques to better understand and quantify the game of baseball. You will analyze video, player tracking, and biomechanics data as well as traditional baseball data sources like box scores to help us acquire and develop baseball players into a championship-caliber team. You will work alongside the rest of the R&D, data engineering, and IT groups, and interact with coaches, scouts, and executives from across the organization.
The Cleveland Guardians prefer our employees (or teammates) reside in Cleveland, Ohio, but we will consider and discuss the possibility of remote work.
If you meet some of the qualifications below, we encourage you to apply or reach out for more information. We know that historically marginalized groups – including people of color, women, people from working class backgrounds, and people who identify as LGBTQ – are less likely to apply unless and until they meet every requirement for a job. We encourage you to reach out if you have questions about the role or your qualifications. We are happy to help you feel ready to apply!
Responsibilities
Design, build, test, and deploy statistical and/or machine learning models to support all facets of baseball operations, including scouting, player development, and the major league team.
Explain methods, results and corresponding actionable insights to key stakeholders across the organization.
Basic Requirements
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, Machine Learning, or Operations Research.
Demonstrated understanding of statistics and associated quantitative methods, including the tradeoffs between different techniques.
Demonstrated experience completing statistics and/or machine learning projects from beginning to end.
Demonstrated experience working with large data sets in a programming language such as R or Python.
Desire to learn about data science applications in baseball. Prior experience with baseball data is a plus but not necessary.
Preferred Experience
Advanced degree or equivalent experience in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, Machine Learning, or Operations Research.
Demonstrated research experience in a sports context (baseball is a plus).
Demonstrated experience with a database language such as SQL.
Demonstrated experience with deep learning frameworks such as Tensorflow or PyTorch.
Demonstrated experience with computer vision.
Demonstrated experience working with high-dimensional spatiotemporal data.
Demonstrated experience with Bayesian statistics.
Standard Requirements
Represent the Cleveland Guardians in a positive fashion to all business partners and the general public.
Ability to develop and maintain successful working relationships with members of the Front Office.
Ability to act according to organizational values and service excellence at all times.
Ability to work with multicultural populations and have a commitment to fairness and equality.
Ability to work in a diverse and changing environment.
About Us
Our teammates are at the core of what we believe in: People, Collaboration, Learning, and Excellence (PeopleCLE). We look to hire individuals who are committed to our purpose of uniting and inspiring our city with the power of team. Our mission is to win the World Series while creating a compelling fan experience.
We believe that we will achieve our goals by making evidence and model-based decisions and creating environments that support our people and empower them to continuously learn. This role might be for you if you are looking to join a team that works together to learn new ways to make model-based decisions that lead to excellent outcomes.
We also pride ourselves on creating an attractive work environment highlighted by a healthy work-life balance, exceptional benefits such as health, vision, and dental coverage, and competitive 401k plan with employer contribution and match.
Our Hiring Process
A short, three question questionnaire to help us get to know you better than we do from just your application. No coding involved.
Two approximately 30-minute phone calls.
A longer take-home questionnaire to help us learn how you think through problems. No coding or project involved.
A final round of interviews with our R&D department as well as teammates across Baseball Operations.
Department: Baseball Systems Employment Type: Full-Time, Exempt
Primary Purpose
The Cleveland Guardians are seeking a Software Engineer to join their Baseball Systems Engineering team. In this position, you will have the opportunity to gain exposure to a variety of tasks – including, but not limited to, software engineering, data warehousing, and UX/UI design & development – that directly impact the organization’s ability to acquire, develop, and deploy players. Depending on your preferences, we will work with you to craft a role that either specializes in one of these areas or allows you to contribute across multiple areas. The software and data products you help build will facilitate operations and enhance decision-making across all areas of the organization, helping to answer questions such as “which trades should we execute,” “who should we select with our next pick in the draft,” and “how can we show players their data from yesterday’s game?” The position offers the opportunity to collaborate and help craft innovative solutions to challenging problems, grow from both an engineering and leadership standpoint, and work with teammates side by side in pursuit of the organization’s ultimate mission – winning the World Series.
As a Software Engineer with the Cleveland Guardians, you will have the opportunity to: From a front-end engineering perspective…
Learn from experienced engineers and work within a modern web stack, using Vue, Node, Nest, D3, etc.
Work closely with your product team to discover competitive advantages in player acquisition and player development, and build interactive software and web pages to realize those advantages
Identify inefficiencies in our users’ processes that can only be solved with user-friendly software
Rapidly prototype new/innovative solutions and demonstrate them to your product team, end-users, and Baseball Operations leadership
Contribute to the holistic design process and help shape how we work in the future
Have regular opportunities to engage with, and learn from, our Baseball Operations leadership group
From a back-end engineering perspective…
Build robust data systems that improve the backbone of our data-first applications
Transform both internal and external data sources into our central data warehouse
Work closely with your product team and other software engineers to determine technical requirements and turn them into accessible and secure data endpoints (e.g., direct SQL, BI tools, REST)
Collaborate with our R&D team to help move statistical/machine learning models into production
Collaborate with our Infrastructure team to troubleshoot/enhance performance and query costs across both cloud and on-premises environments
Be an active participant in identifying, evolving, and evangelizing data engineering best practices, constantly challenging the status quo and improving our data engineering standards
Base Requirements Needed, you should have:
Demonstrated experience or degree in a field such as Computer Science or another STEM program
A proven ability to work within tight timelines and iterate quickly
Effective communication skills and the ability to collaborate within a cross-functional team
A desire to learn and grow not only as a programmer, but also as a person
A passion for baseball/sports, or a willingness to learn more about the game
Standard Requirements
Represents the Cleveland Guardians in a positive fashion to all business partners and the general public
Ability to develop and maintain successful working relationships with members of the Front Office
Ability to act accordingly to organizational values and service excellence at all times
Ability to work with multicultural populations and have a commitment to fairness and equality
Ability to work in a diverse and changing environment
About Us In Baseball Operations and Baseball Systems, our shared goal is to identify and develop diverse players and front office teammates who contribute to our mission. By working together effectively and collaboratively, we create a family atmosphere that supports learning as we strive for excellence in everything we do. We believe that we will achieve our goals by making evidence-based decisions and creating environments that support our people and empower them to learn.
We know that people from historically marginalized groups and those who have not yet had direct experience in the sports industry are less likely to apply for a job unless they meet every requirement. That being said, we encourage anyone who meets some of the qualifications above to apply or reach out for more information.
The Cleveland Guardians are an Equal Opportunity Employer.
