Archive for Pirates

Direct links to applications (please see job details below):

Software Engineer
Product Manager – Research and Development
Analyst – Coaching and Player Development

Software Engineer

The Pirates Why
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a storied franchise in Major League Baseball who are reinventing themselves on every level. Boldly and relentlessly pursuing excellence by:

• purposefully developing a player and people-centered culture;
• deeply connecting with our fans, partners, and colleagues;
• passionately creating lifetime memories for generations of families and friends; and
• meaningfully impacting our communities and the game of baseball.

At the Pirates, we believe in the power of a diverse workforce and strive to create an inclusive culture centered in Passion, Innovation, Respect, Accountability, Teamwork, Empathy, and Service.

Job Summary
We are seeking a talented and motivated Software Engineer to join our Baseball Systems team. In this role, you will design, build, and maintain the software systems that support baseball operations and team initiatives. You will deliver full-stack features, including APIs, backend services, and frontend components, while continuing to deepen your technical expertise, system knowledge, and ownership.

You will collaborate with engineers and cross-functional stakeholders to translate requirements into effective technical solutions. Your work will help provide reliable, maintainable, and accessible tools that support analysts, coaches, front office staff, and other users across the organization. These tools directly impact decisions related to a wide variety of baseball operations like draft picks, trades, game play decisions, and player development.

Responsibilities:

1. Design, implement, and maintain full-stack features, including APIs, backend services, and frontend components.
2. Propose technical approaches and create planning documents for feature requests.
3. Collaborate with product managers, analysts, researchers, and other stakeholders to understand requirements and help translate them into effective technical solutions.
4. Write and maintain tests, documentation, and supporting materials to ensure code quality and reliability.
5. Participate actively in code reviews by incorporating feedback and offering thoughtful suggestions that improve implementation quality.
6. Troubleshoot and resolve bugs, while working to identify and address potential issues before they affect users or systems.
7. Share knowledge and pair with teammates to strengthen team practices and collective system understanding.

Qualifications:
Candidates need not meet every qualification listed to be considered; we welcome applications from people of diverse backgrounds who are excited about this opportunity.

1. Authorized to work lawfully in the United States.
2. Experience with Typescript/Javascript, SQL, React, NodeJS, and/or Python
3. Experience designing or consuming APIs and implementing user-facing application features.
4. Experience in testing practices, version control, code review, and maintainable software design.
5. Demonstrated problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and clear communication.
6. Ability to collaborate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
7. Authorized to work lawfully in the United States.
8. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
9. Experience with cloud platforms, containerization, CI/CD, or related DevOps practices.
10. Experience developing internal tools, data-rich applications, and dynamic, complex data visualizations using libraries like Plotly and D3
11. Knowledge of baseball statistics and how technology, data, and analytics inform strategy and performance

Equal Opportunity Employer
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

Product Manager – Research and Development

The Pirates Why
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a storied franchise in Major League Baseball who are reinventing themselves on every level. Boldly and relentlessly pursuing excellence by:

• purposefully developing a player and people-centered culture;
• deeply connecting with our fans, partners, and colleagues;
• passionately creating lifetime memories for generations of families and friends; and
• meaningfully impacting our communities and the game of baseball.

At the Pirates, we believe in the power of a diverse workforce and strive to create an inclusive culture centered in Passion, Innovation, Respect, Accountability, Teamwork, Empathy, and Service.

Job Summary
The Pittsburgh Pirates are looking for a Product Manager to join Baseball R&D and help our teams identify and solve the most important problems for baseball decision-makers.

You will work on a cross-functional team with engineers, data scientists, analysts, biomechanists, and baseball experts. Many of our products are data- and model-driven, combining statistical or machine-learning models with software and workflows to improve decisions across areas such as player development, coaching, and Major League strategy.

You will have broad ownership and substantial autonomy to understand users, shape priorities, challenge assumptions, and help the team discover effective solutions.

Responsibilities:

1. Create clarity around what matters most. Work with R&D leadership and your team to define meaningful outcomes, establish priorities, and ensure the team understands what it should focus on and why.
2. Develop a deep understanding of our users and their problems. Learn how baseball decisions are made, understand the workflows and constraints surrounding them, and work with stakeholders to get to the root of the problem.
3. Help the team discover effective solutions. Partner with engineers, data scientists, analysts, baseball experts, and users to explore ideas, test assumptions, reduce uncertainty, and adapt as you learn. Solutions may involve software, analytical models, new data, changes to workflows, or some combination of these.
4. Keep important work moving. Protect the team’s focus on the highest-leverage problems and partner closely with Domain Leads, who bring technical and domain expertise, to make tradeoffs explicit, sequence work realistically, and intervene when high-priority work stalls or ownership is unclear.
5. Measure impact and learn from what we build. Use qualitative and quantitative evidence to understand whether our products are improving decisions and workflows, and use those insights to shape future priorities and direction.
6. Build alignment on process and philosophy. Work with other product managers in R&D to align on best practices for process and product management.

Qualifications:
We don’t expect any candidate to have done all of these things. We’re interested in people who can demonstrate several of these experiences or capabilities and who have the curiosity and ability to grow into the others:

1. Authorized to work lawfully in the United States.
2. Owned meaningful product problems end to end , from understanding the user need through discovery, prioritization, launch, and iteration.
3. Made difficult prioritization decisions when multiple valuable opportunities competed for limited time or resources.
4. Used discovery and evidence to change direction , drawing on user research, experiments, usage data, or other signals rather than simply executing an initial plan.
5. Worked closely with engineers, data scientists, or other technical experts on products where data, analytics, or models were a meaningful part of the solution. You do not need to build the models yourself, but you should be comfortable understanding their capabilities and limitations and helping turn them into useful products.
6. Operated with high agency and a hands-on approach , identifying important problems and finding practical ways to reduce uncertainty and move them forward.
7. Demonstrated a genuine interest in baseball and an ability to learn complex domains deeply. You do not need previous professional baseball experience, but you should be excited to learn how baseball decisions are made and have evidence that you can become fluent enough in an unfamiliar domain to make good product decisions within it.

Desired:

1. Building data, analytics, AI/ML, or decision-support products.
2. Working with expert users or in technically complex domains.
3. Working on a startup or small product team with broad ownership.
4. A demonstrated passion for sports technology and/or sports analytics.
5. Experience with rapid prototyping, software development, SQL, and/or cloud technologies.
6. Working in agile development environments.

Equal Opportunity Employer
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

Analyst – Coaching and Player Development

The Pirates Why
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a storied franchise in Major League Baseball who are reinventing themselves on every level. Boldly and relentlessly pursuing excellence by:

• purposefully developing a player and people-centered culture;
• deeply connecting with our fans, partners, and colleagues;
• passionately creating lifetime memories for generations of families and friends; and
• meaningfully impacting our communities and the game of baseball.

At the Pirates, we believe in the power of a diverse workforce and strive to create an inclusive culture centered in Passion, Innovation, Respect, Accountability, Teamwork, Empathy, and Service.

Job Summary
Support Coaching and Player Development (CPD) by turning performance data, research, and video into clear player evaluations and actionable development insights. This role will help coaches and CPD leadership identify player priorities, monitor progress, and make informed development decisions. The successful candidate will combine strong analytical skills, baseball knowledge, and the ability to communicate clearly with coaches. Working within Player Analysis and closely with Research and Development (R&D), this analyst will produce reliable analysis, maintain useful reporting, and help staff apply organizational research and tools in their daily work.

Responsibilities:

1. Analyze player performance using tracking data, statistical models, video, and other available information to identify strengths, limitations, and development opportunities.
2. Evaluate hitter/pitcher tendencies and other assigned areas of player performance, accounting for pitch characteristics, game context, competition level, and sample size.
3. Translate research and analytical findings into practical recommendations that support player evaluations, development plans, and CPD decisions.
4. Support the player plan process by helping coaches identify objective focus metrics, establish baselines, document priorities, and update measures of progress.
5. Monitor performance trends and communicate meaningful changes to the appropriate staff in a timely manner, distinguishing likely skill changes from short-term variation.
6. Build and maintain reports, dashboards, and visualizations that answer coaching questions clearly and are accessible through organizational systems, including Bridge as appropriate.
7. Use current R&D research and models in CPD reporting; work with R&D to understand assumptions, resolve questions, and provide feedback on tools and analysis.
8. Partner with product and technical teams on durable reporting solutions; automate recurring work and validate data quality before sharing results.
9. Maintain reproducible code, version-controlled analysis, and clear workflow documentation in organizational systems such as DevOps or GitHub.
10. Help coaches interpret reports and use analytical tools independently; seek feedback on whether the information is understandable and useful in practice.
11. Complete timely analysis for player meetings, offseason planning, Spring Training, and other CPD projects as assigned; communicate priorities and handle player information with discretion.

Qualifications

Required:

1. Bachelor’s degree in statistics, mathematics, computer science, data science, sports analytics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
2. Demonstrated ability to complete analytical projects from a defined question through data preparation, analysis, and clear communication of findings.
3. Proficiency in Python or R and working knowledge of SQL for accessing, cleaning, joining, and analyzing data.
4. Understanding of statistical reasoning, sample size, uncertainty, and the limitations of observational data.
5. Working knowledge of baseball performance analysis and a strong interest in player development.
6. Ability to explain technical information in practical language and collaborate effectively with coaches, analysts, and other staff.
7. Strong attention to detail, organization, and follow-through; ability to manage recurring work alongside time-sensitive requests.
8. Availability to support the baseball schedule, including nights, weekends, holidays, and travel as required by the role.

Desired:

1. Experience working with baseball tracking data, player development reports, or performance analysis in a team or comparable setting.
2. Experience building dashboards, interactive visualizations, or automated reporting workflows for end users.
3. Familiarity with Git-based version control, documented analytical workflows, and collaboration with software or product teams.
4. Experience applying statistical models to player evaluation, monitoring performance over time, or assessing development outcomes.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are integral to who we are as an organization. We believe that our workforce should reflect the vast diversity of the communities we serve and that diverse voices should be elevated and intentionally integrated into our work. Even if you feel as if you do not meet 100% of the qualifications, we still strongly encourage you to apply.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Direct links to applications (please see job details below):

Applied Biomechanist – Coaching and Player Development
Applied Biomechanist – Major League

Applied Biomechanist – Coaching and Player Development

The Pirates Why
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a storied franchise in Major League Baseball who are reinventing themselves on every level. Boldly and relentlessly pursuing excellence by:

• purposefully developing a player and people-centered culture;
• deeply connecting with our fans, partners, and colleagues;
• passionately creating lifetime memories for generations of families and friends; and
• meaningfully impacting our communities and the game of baseball.

At the Pirates, we believe in the power of a diverse workforce and strive to create an inclusive culture centered in Passion, Innovation, Respect, Accountability, Teamwork, Empathy, and Service.

Job Summary
Operate the biomechanics lab and support player analysis within Coaching and Player Development (CPD) and Player Analysis Departments. This role will ensure reliable data collection, process and organize movement and performance data, and provide analysis that helps staff understand and develop players. Hitting will be the primary focus, with opportunities to support pitching and other player analysis needs. The successful candidate will bring hands-on experience with lab technology, strong attention to detail, and the ability to turn data into useful information. Working with coaches, Research and Development (R&D), and performance staff, this analyst will support daily lab operations, player assessments, and applied research.

Responsibilities:

1. Operate and maintain the biomechanics lab, including markerless motion capture systems, force plates, and supporting video equipment for hitting and pitching assessments.
2. Prepare and run lab sessions, including equipment setup, calibration, synchronization, and troubleshooting; follow consistent protocols to collect high-quality data.
3. Coordinate assessments with coaches, players, and performance staff; maintain clear schedules, session records, and equipment readiness.
4. Process, organize, and quality-check lab data; identify collection or processing issues, document limitations, and maintain reliable datasets for analysis.
5. Support player analysis using lab data, in-game tracking data, and video, with hitting as the primary area of focus. Examine player tendencies and performance trends to help identify development opportunities.
6. Contribute to research projects using lab and in-game data to better understand player movement and performance, with a primary emphasis on hitting.
7. Prepare clear reports and visualizations for coaches, Player Analysis, and CPD leadership; communicate findings in practical language and account for data quality, sample size, and context.
8. Work with coaches, R&D, and performance staff to track player progress, answer development questions, and identify useful follow-up assessments or analysis.
9. Maintain documented workflows and reproducible code in organizational systems; help improve the efficiency of recurring lab and reporting processes and handle player information with discretion.
10. Support Spring Training, camps, offseason assessments, and broader Player Analysis projects as assigned, adapting to organizational priorities while maintaining a primary focus on hitting.

Qualifications

Required:

1. Bachelor’s degree in biomechanics, kinesiology, engineering, sports science, a quantitative field, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
2. Demonstrated experience operating a motion capture lab or comparable human performance testing environment, including equipment setup, data collection, and troubleshooting.
3. Working knowledge of biomechanics, measurement reliability, and data quality practices for movement assessments.
4. Working proficiency in Python or R for data processing, analysis, and visualization, with the ability to build repeatable workflows.
5. Understanding of basic statistical analysis, sample size, variability, and uncertainty when interpreting performance data.
6. Ability to explain technical findings clearly and work effectively with coaches, analysts, and other performance staff.
7. Strong organization, attention to detail, and follow-through; an interest in baseball and a willingness to learn and apply analytical skills to player development.
8. Availability to support the baseball schedule, including nights, weekends, holidays, and travel as required by the role.

Desired:

1. Experience with markerless motion capture, force plates, or biomechanical analysis software such as Visual3D.
2. Experience analyzing baseball performance data, particularly hitting, or a demonstrated interest in developing expertise in this area.
3. Familiarity with SQL, Git-based version control, automated reporting, or combining data from multiple sources.
4. Experience supporting athlete assessments or applied research in collaboration with coaches or sports performance staff.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are integral to who we are as an organization. We believe that our workforce should reflect the vast diversity of the communities we serve and that diverse voices should be elevated and intentionally integrated into our work. Even if you feel as if you do not meet 100% of the qualifications, we still strongly encourage you to apply.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

Applied Biomechanist – Major League

The Pirates Why
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a storied franchise in Major League Baseball who are reinventing themselves on every level. Boldly and relentlessly pursuing excellence by:

• purposefully developing a player and people-centered culture;
• deeply connecting with our fans, partners, and colleagues;
• passionately creating lifetime memories for generations of families and friends; and
• meaningfully impacting our communities and the game of baseball.

At the Pirates, we believe in the power of a diverse workforce and strive to create an inclusive culture centered in Passion, Innovation, Respect, Accountability, Teamwork, Empathy, and Service.

Job Summary
The Pittsburgh Pirates are seeking an Applied Biomechanist to work directly with our Major League team and advance how biomechanics informs player development and performance. This person will own and operate biomechanics data collection, partner with coaches and performance staff to turn data into actionable insights, and work with R&D to identify new ways biomechanics can help answer important baseball questions.

The ideal candidate combines a strong foundation in human movement and biomechanics with the ability to operate effectively in an applied baseball environment. They should be comfortable moving between technical biomechanics concepts and practical conversations with coaches and players, understanding that the value of the data comes from helping people make better decisions, not simply producing more information.

Responsibilities

1. Operate, calibrate, troubleshoot, and maintain motion capture and biomechanics technologies.
2. Manage biomechanics data collection and ensure consistent, high-quality outputs.
3. Partner with Major League coaches, players, performance, and medical staff to identify and answer applied biomechanics questions, incorporating other performance data where applicable.
4. Translate complex biomechanics information into clear, actionable insights.
5. Proactively identify opportunities to generate new insights and expand how biomechanics is used to improve player performance.
6. Collaborate with research-oriented biomechanists and others in R&D to identify high-value research questions and improve models, metrics, reports, and tools.

Qualifications

Required:

1. Authorized to work lawfully in the United States.
2. Advanced degree in biomechanics, kinesiology, engineering, exercise science, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
3. Demonstrated experience applying biomechanics analyses to help improve baseball performance.
4. Experience collecting and analyzing motion capture or other biomechanical data.
5. Demonstrated ability to analyze and visualize data with SQL, Python, R, or similar tools.
6. Demonstrated ability to explain technical concepts to coaches, players, or non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred:
We don’t expect any candidate to have done all of these things. We’re interested in people who can demonstrate several of these experiences or capabilities and who have the curiosity and ability to grow into the others:

1. Work experience in professional or collegiate sports, with a preference for baseball and softball.
2. Demonstrated experience conducting statistical or data science research; biomechanics applications are a plus.
3. Demonstrated ability to generate novel research ideas.
4. Experience coaching or working directly with athletes; baseball or softball experience is a plus.
5. Experience building a motion-capture lab from the ground up.

Equal Opportunity Employer
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

There’s still a bit more baseball to be played this year — the most important baseball, in fact. But after the Dodgers got eliminated Thursday night, swept out of the NLCS by the Brewers, there are now 27 teams looking primarily at the offseason. When they get there, they’ll find a rather thin free agent market, especially if they are not the one to sign Tarik Skubal to the largest contract for a pitcher not named Brita. But even in a weak free agent market, there are plenty of lower-key free agents who would be nice fits for some teams, and being that I find myself employed as a baseball writer, I thought it might be fun to talk about some of them.

For this exercise, we’re limiting our suitors to the nine teams that missed making the playoffs by eight or fewer games this season, meaning they went into October empty-handed but were close enough to a playoff spot that they could stand to gain a lot from the right offseason signing. In matching these clubs with a player, I’m looking at free agents who fill a real need for each team, rather than just giving them the most talented player available. I’ve also included a preliminary ZiPS projection for each player. (There’s still a lot more work to do before Real Officially Licensed 2027 ZiPS Projections© are in.)

Pittsburgh Pirates: Seiya Suzuki, OF/DH

The Pirates’ offense had nearly a 50-point OPS platoon split disadvantage against lefties in 2026. Pirates DHs combined for an 83 wRC+ this year. Bringing in Seiya Suzuki would help immensely for both problems. Whether they play Suzuki at DH or shift another outfielder there, the Pirates were so close to the playoffs that it makes no sense to stick to their normal DH plan of Let’s Find a Dude Who Fans Will Remember Being Really Good 10 Years Ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Demetrio Crisantes is off to a hot start in the Arizona Fall League. The 22-year-old second baseman has gone 8-for-20 with a triple and a pair of doubles for the Salt River Rafters. That hardly comes as a surprise. As our own Brendan Gawlowski wrote prior to the regular season, “Crisantes has a case as the best pure hitter in the D-backs system.”

The Tucson native’s track record largely backs up that opinion. Since being drafted in the seventh round by his home-state team in 2023 out of Nogales High School, Crisantes has slashed .312/.399/.473 with a 125 wRC+. Moreover, this past season he batted .296 with 10 home runs over 335 plate appearances between three levels, topping out at Triple-A. Notably, Arizona’s No. 3 prospect played all but the final two weeks as a 21-year-old.

Staying on the field has been an issue. Crisantes has undergone a pair of Tommy John surgeries — the first at age 15, the second two years later — and he has subsequently dealt with hamstring and shoulder injuries. That makes his stint in the desert especially meaningful. Eric Longenhagen put it this way in his Fall League preview:

“He has really hit when he’s been healthy, and how he looks in the AFL might help inform whether the D-backs feel comfortable trading Ketel Marte this offseason. He’s arguably the most important eval in the entire league.”

Asked for a self-assessment of his strengths as a hitter, Crisantes cited the plus contact skills described in Gawlowski’s scouting report. Read the rest of this entry »

Direct link to application (please see job details below):

Analyst – Baseball Strategy

Analyst – Baseball Strategy

Location: Pittsburgh

The Pirates Why

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a storied franchise in Major League Baseball who are reinventing themselves on every level. Boldly and relentlessly pursuing excellence by:

• purposefully developing a player and people-centered culture;
• deeply connecting with our fans, partners, and colleagues;
• passionately creating lifetime memories for generations of families and friends; and
• meaningfully impacting our communities and the game of baseball.

At the Pirates, we believe in the power of a diverse workforce and strive to create an inclusive culture centered in Passion, Innovation, Respect, Accountability, Teamwork, Empathy, and Service.

Job Summary

The Strategy team with the Pittsburgh Pirates exists to give the Major League coaching staff the information and tools they need to make elite in-game decisions. The group’s analysts translate information into clear, actionable plans that support both daily competition and long-term player growth.

The Baseball Strategy team will be considering applicants at both the Analyst and Senior Analyst level. In this role, you’ll work alongside Major League coaches and staff, helping turn information into on-field impact. Your work will include elements of game preparation, in-game strategy support, post-game review, skill development, and ongoing tool or process improvement.

Responsibilities:

1. Partner with Major League coaches to build strong working relationships, understand the decisions they face, and identify where analysis can create a competitive advantage.

2. Connect research to real baseball questions by turning observations from coaches, players, and data into testable ideas and pursuing the questions most likely to inform decisions or improve performance.

3. Support the daily competitive process by contributing to game preparation, in-game strategy support, post-game review, and player development while balancing immediate needs with longer-term projects.

4. Improve tools and processes by building and refining analytical resources that fit staff workflows and make useful information easier to access and apply.

5. Collaborate across baseball operations by working with analysts, researchers, coaches, and performance staff to combine different perspectives, surface disagreements constructively, and move shared work forward.

Qualifications

Required:

1. Authorized to work lawfully in the United States.
2. Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex information into actionable recommendations.
3. Proven ability to manage multiple projects and meet tight deadlines in a fast-paced setting.
4. Excellent communication and relationship-building skills.
5. Strong knowledge of modern baseball research and technologies.
6. Programming language proficiencies:
   • General purpose programming (Python or R)
   • Relational databases (SQL)
   • Familiarity with industry-relevant AI and automation tools to streamline daily workflows and tasks.

Desired:

1. Experience working with coaches, analysts, or player development staff in a high-performance environment.
2. Demonstrated baseball or other sports analytics research work product.
3. Practical and/or research experience with pitch design and modern pitching development techniques.
4. Proficiency with version control systems (e.g., Git) and collaborative development platforms like GitHub or GitLab.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Pittsburgh Pirates are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In last week’s mailbag, I ran through the list of teams that posted losing seasons and finished with positive run differentials. The question was inspired by this year’s Tigers, who were 64-75 (.460) when I wrote my response the previous afternoon, despite outscoring their opponents by 0.34 runs per game. I wrapped up my answer by mentioning that the Tigers could become the first team ever to lose 90 or more games during a season in which they scored more runs than they allowed. So before we get to this week’s mailbag, I’d like to provide an update on Detroit’s chance at history.

As of Friday afternoon, the Tigers had gone 3-4 in their past seven games, bringing their overall record to 67-79 (.459) with a per-game run differential of 0.377. Fittingly, all four of their losses in that span were decided by one run, while their margin of victory in their three wins was +12. They are the worst team in the majors this season in one-run games, with a record of 14-27 (.341). Their .459 winning percentage on the season puts them on pace for between 87 and 88 losses this year.

This week, I’ll answer the inverse of that question and discuss teams that finished above .500 with negative run differentials. We’ll also see how different baseball would be if teams could use a DH for every position, find the teams that score the most runs on bases-loaded walks and hit-by-pitches, and look at how teams should deploy their relievers in the ninth and 10th innings of tie games. But first, I’d like to remind you that this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Angels unexpectedly announced that longtime owner Arte Moreno had agreed to sell the organization to Stan Kroenke, the icositetra-billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of MLS, the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League, and Arsenal Football Club, both the men’s team of the English Premier League and the women’s team of the Super League. The deal is reportedly for $4 billion, a record price for the sale of a controlling stake in an MLB franchise, surpassing the $3.9 billion sale of the San Diego Padres to Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano earlier this summer.

Forbes estimates Kroenke’s net worth to be $24.3 billion, making him the new wealthiest MLB owner, ahead of Steve Cohen, who’s worth about $23 billion. Ben Clemens wrote about the sale on Wednesday, and I’d encourage you to check it out for everything that you need to know about the Angels under Moreno and the ever-increasing values of MLB franchises. That second part is what I want to stress, especially as it pertains to the seemingly inevitable lockout coming this offseason. Rob Manfred and the 30 team owners are going to push for a salary cap, and to support their case, many of them will both cite the need for competitive balance and claim that baseball is a bad business. When they do, think back on the two record-setting sales from this year and understand the real reason why management has shut down the sport. But let’s not get too caught up in the doom and gloom right now, because the upshot of the sale is the Angels’ future looks a whole lot more promising under Kroenke than it did under Moreno.

That’s the last we’ll talk about the business of baseball today. Instead, in this week’s mailbag, we’ll answer your questions about teams that finished the season below .500 with a positive run differential, the single-game feat most correlated with career success, the pitchers who had the longest careers while pitching their first and last games on the same field, and the ideal hot dog per game ratio. But first, I’d like to remind you that this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pirates are one game under .500 at the start of play Monday. The Pirates are three-and-a-half games out of the final Wild Card spot, behind both the Padres and the Marlins. The Pirates have lost five of their last six and eight of their last 11. The Pirates have a 21.1% chance of making the playoffs, down from 47.6% just six days ago. The Pirates are going for it.

Specifically, the Pirates are going for it by completely overhauling their bullpen. On Saturday, they traded catcher Omar Alfonzo and outfielder Luis Cruz to the Yankees in exchange for flamethrowing reliever Camilo Doval. Today, they added three more relievers. First, they traded shortstop Sammy Stafura to the Mets for better-but-not-quite-as-flamethrowing reliever Luke Weaver. And then, just before the deadline, they traded three prospects — Brandan Bidois, Hyun Seung Lee, and Brian Sanchez — to the Marlins for Lake Bachar, and sent Kyle Robinson to the Angels for Kirby Yates. Any time you can land a Luke and a Lake, it’s a banner day. As of this writing, Pittsburgh’s bullpen ranks between 17th and 22nd in WAR, ERA, xERA, FIP, xFIP. It’s also tied for sixth with 19 blown saves. But this is a whole new bullpen now, and it appears the Pirates will get Evan Sisk back from the IL soon enough, too. Read the rest of this entry »

Not counting RotoGraphs posts, Jake Mangum has been a featured player in three articles on this site since the start of last season. In two of those — one each by myself and David Laurila — the phrase “Old School” appears in the headline.

I wouldn’t put too much stock in headlines, especially my own, but in this case it tells you everything you need to know.

Mangum, a legend at Mississippi State, has a style of play that firmly rebukes generations of baseball wisdom. That’s why I wrote about him last April; if you hate hitters who strike out too much and look to hit doubles and home runs instead of dinking drop shots behind the infield, Mangum is your man. Read the rest of this entry »

Controversy surrounding José Caballero’s pre-pitch routine struck twice in the Bronx this week, with the first time prompting the benches to clear and the second causing unnecessary confusion. In the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 8-5 win over the Pirates on Monday night, Caballero did what he usually does — he dug into the batter’s box and didn’t look up at the pitcher until there were eight seconds left on the pitch timer. The idea is to disrupt the pitcher’s rhythm. Pittsburgh reliever Dennis Santana took exception to Caballero’s tactic — which, again, he has done many, many times for the last four seasons — and yelled at him after getting him to ground into a double play. The benches emptied, and the Pirates complained to MLB about it.

Turns out, the griping worked. After the game, the league told the umpires to more strictly enforce the rules requiring batters to engage with the pitcher with no fewer than eight seconds left on the clock. Instead of warning the batter, and then calling an automatic strike for a repeat violation, the umpires were directed to assess a strike to Caballero for attempting to deceive the pitcher, no matter how much time was left on the pitch timer. Both Caballero and the Yankees claim the league did not notify them about the change. As crew chief Adrian Johnson told a pool reporter after, “He’s been warned all season. We were instructed not to warn him. We were instructed to violate him. That’s what it is. It’s a violation.” Along with Johnson’s poor phrasing, the sudden change in enforcement is quite jarring and, in my opinion, inappropriate. If what the Yankees said is true — that the league didn’t tell them about the change — then I think this is an overstep by MLB to single out a player. Caballero accused the umpires and the league of “picking on” him. But even if MLB did give the Yankees and Caballero the heads up, I think the escalated enforcement is an incorrect interpretation of the rule. I love that Caballero uses the pitch clock to his advantage; pitchers can hold the ball and run down the clock to zero, so why shouldn’t batters be allowed to wait their full allotted time before engaging with the pitcher? Moreover, I also don’t know how Caballero is deceiving the pitcher by doing something he does so frequently. He’s certainly trying to annoy the opposing pitcher, but that’s not deception — that’s good gamesmanship.

Anyway, that’s the last you’ll read about Caballero in this week’s mailbag. Instead, we’ll be answering your questions about Esmerlyn Valdez’s heater, Gunnar Henderson’s woes against fastballs, how to fix the Angels, and whether anyone will break Jesse Orosco’s record for games pitched. But first, I’d like to remind you that this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com. Read the rest of this entry »