Yesterday, on the brink of an upset, Gerrit Cole put the Yankees and their shaky bullpen on his back. The righty went seven strong, sparing the Yankees the Dodgers’ and Braves’ fate for at least another day. Despite showing slightly diminished fastball velocity (he was down 0.8 mph for the second start in a row) and despite a recent reliance on offspeed pitches, Cole’s heater was crucial to his success. While his one major blemish, a solo shot off the bat of Josh Naylor, came on the pitch, its plate discipline statistics were on par with those of his breaking balls:

For his part, Cal Quantrill kept the Guardians in the game after giving up three runs through the first two frames. He settled down, at one point retiring nine straight Yankees. But the Guardians could only muster two runs on six hits, failing to bail Quantrill out against Cole for the second time this week. Read the rest of this entry »

Gerrit Cole is your prototypical right-handed power pitcher. With an upper 90s fastball and upper 80s slider, he is consistently among a few at the top of the strikeout leaderboard; unsurprisingly, he led all of baseball in strikeouts this season with 257. Given his stature and that season mark, you’d expect he would also be somewhere near the top of the WAR leaderboard. Well, not quite, largely in part because Cole also led all of baseball in home runs allowed with 33, the most in his career.

As a primary fastball pitcher who lives in the middle to upper part of the zone, Cole is bound to give up home runs. His approach is and, as long as he still has velocity, will be: here’s my fastball, try to hit it. In early August, I wrote about how his mechanics can sometimes fluctuate from inning to inning through the course of a game, and how in turn the shape and locations of his pitches can get distorted. I didn’t get too in the weeds of how his fastball shape declined this year, but Michael Ajeto of Baseball Prospectus dove deep into Cole’s fastball shape just a few weeks ago. In his piece, he explained the various contributing factors: a higher release point due to a slight change in his lead leg block/plant; decreased spin despite career-high velocity; and a near-career-low vertical approach angle (VAA) of -4.6 degrees. Ajeto also pointed out that it might be a good idea for Cole to up the usage of his slider, the pitch with the highest RV/100 in his arsenal.

Cole, however, went in a slightly different direction at the end of the year:

Focus on the last two points on that graph, when Cole’s curveball usage shot up to its highest usage rate of the 2022 season. Similarly, in his ALDS Game 1 start against the Guardians, he threw the pitch 26% of the time, yielding eight whiffs on 11 swings; that whiff rate (73%) is his highest in a single game this year for either of his breaking balls when throwing the pitch at least 10% of the time. It’s something Guardians hitters did not plan for, either, as it hasn’t been in Cole’s bag for the last couple of years.

In ALDS Game 1 especially, the key for Cole was command and consistency in placing the ball at the bottom or under the zone. Add that to the two regular-season starts when he upped the curve usage, and you can see how impressive his control has been:

Aside from two hits, including a home run on a pitch right down the middle, Cole has buried the pitch under the zone time and time again — pink, pink, and more pink! The success has come as a semi-surprise; as Ajeto noted, Cole could have simply just thrown his slider more. But the curveball has brought a level of surprise to at-bats that Cole hasn’t had given his aggressive approach. Read the rest of this entry »

Home runs trump singles and doubles, and for that reason it looked like the New York Yankees were going to beat the Cleveland Guardians in ALDS Game 3. Buoyed by a pair of two-run blasts, with a solo shot thrown in for good measure, the team that led baseball in long balls (254) in the regular season was poised to push the contact-oriented club that finished with exactly half as many to the brink of elimination.

It didn’t happen. Instead, yet another chapter in late-inning heroics was written by a team looking for its first World Series title since 1948, as Cleveland rallied for three runs in the ninth inning to walk off New York, 6–5 and take a 2–1 series lead in the best-of-five ALDS. The Guardians can clinch their first pennant series trip since 2016 in Game 4 on Sunday.

The Guardians took an early lead against Luis Severino. Steven Kwan led off the bottom of the first inning with a double, and with one out and runners on the corners, Josh Naylor hit a ball that shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa couldn’t handle. Ruled a single, it plated Kwan and set Cleveland up for what might have been a big inning. It wasn’t to be: The Guardians ended up stranding two runners in scoring position when the slumping Andrés Giménez — just seven hits in his last 42 at-bats with 16 strikeouts going into the game — fanned on a full-count pitch.

Another chance for a crooked number came in Cleveland’s next turn, when Kwan singled home Gabriel Arias, who had doubled to open the bottom of the second, with one out, but Severino induced back-to-back flyouts to leave a pair of runners stranded once again. Through two innings, the Guardians had six hits, but their lead was only 2–0. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK — When the season began, 24-year-old Oscar Gonzalez was at Triple-A Columbus, waiting for a shot at the majors. Six months later, he’s Cleveland’s Mr. Clutch, the man who has collected game-winning hits in extra innings in two of the Guardians’ three postseason wins. Last Saturday, his walk-off home run in the 15th inning against the Rays ended a four-hour, 57-minute epic and clinched the Wild Card Series for the Guardians. On Friday afternoon, he continued his postseason heroics by driving in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning against the Yankees via a bloop single, helping the Guardians to a 4–2 victory in Game 2 that evened the Division Series at one apiece.

The Dominican-born Gonzalez, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound slugger with huge power and arm strength, hit 31 homers last year between Double-A and Triple-A but was notably absent from Eric Longenhagen’s Top 48 Guardians Prospects list due to an approach that he described to me as “literally the most aggressive swinger in the minors.” Not only was he additionally unranked by Baseball America and MLB Pipeline, but the Guardians didn’t even protect him on their 40-ma roster ahead of the Rule 5 draft last winter, and he went unselected. He debuted with the Guardians on May 26 and hit a robust .296/.327/.461 (122 wRC+) with 11 homers in 382 plate appearances, but his 3.9% walk rate and 48.4% chase rate — the latter mark the majors’ third-highest among players with at least 300 PA — jibed with Eric’s reservations.

“He has the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, like he did the other day. But he also has the awareness to shorten up enough,” said manager Terry Francona afterward, referring first to Gonzalez’s series-winning drive and then to the 1–2 count in which he found himself against Jameson Taillon. “Getting the bat on the ball gives you a chance. And he’s young and he’s still learning.”

Gonzalez’s hit was just 58.9 mph off the bat and launched at a 39-degree angle into short right field, where the converging Anthony Rizzo and Aaron Judge had no chance. “[Taillon] threw the ball right by Gonzie his first two pitches and then he hit it. Didn’t hit it hard but he hit it. He got rewarded for it,” Francona said. Read the rest of this entry »

Data Quality Engineer

Location: Bronx, NY
Department: Baseball Operations
Reports To: Director, Baseball Systems

Description:
Built upon our storied legacy, the New York Yankees look to attract the best possible talent not just on the field but in the front office as well. It is our shared responsibility to maintain the first-class reputation associated with the franchise in all aspects of our business.

The New York Yankees organization is accepting applications for a Data Quality Engineer as part of their Baseball Systems department. Applicant should have experience working in QA/Testing roles, experience in writing SQL database queries, and a strong knowledge of baseball with knowledge of baseball-related datasets and metrics.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Investigate and resolve data-related support tickets
• Work with various data providers to resolve issues with their feeds
• Monitor daily data ETL operations
• Identify data build problems and work to resolve
• Review and create automated data quality checks as needed
• Work with Database Engineers to resolve complex SQL and database issues
• Manage tickets and open data issues, update staff as issues are resolved

Qualifications and Experience:

• Strong SQL skills, understanding of how to write complex queries and how database structures work; 3+ years of experience developing in SQL (preferably T-SQL)
• An understanding of typical baseball data structures, basic and advanced baseball metrics, and knowledge of current baseball research areas
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills – must be able to breakdown a complex task and put together an execution strategy with little guidance

This description is intended to describe the type of work being performed by a person assigned to this position. It is not an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities required of the employee. The New York Yankees are an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Company is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment.

The New York Yankees require a Covid-19 vaccination and booster as a condition of employment, subject to exception under applicable law.

**Full-time remote available under the right circumstances.

Job Questions:

1. Describe your experience writing in T-SQL
2. Have you ever worked with baseball data sets before? If so, please describe which ones and how you used them

3. Describe some techniques you’ve used for performing data loading operations

4. Why do you think you are uniquely qualified for this position?

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

Associate, Baseball Operations

Location: Bronx, NY
Department: Baseball Operations
Reports To: Assistant Director, Baseball Operations
FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

Description:
Built upon our storied legacy, the New York Yankees look to attract the best possible talent not just on the field but in the front office as well. It is our shared responsibility to maintain the first-class reputation associated with the franchise in all aspects of our business.

The Associate, Baseball Operations position is a rigorous 12-month program geared to prepare entry level candidates for a career in baseball.

Expected Program Dates: January 2023 – January 2024 (will also consider candidates available after completion of spring semester)

Primary Responsibilities:

• Evaluate players, including identifying and providing assessments of trade and free agent acquisition targets
• Coordinate and prepare advance scouting materials for the major league team
• Assist the Baseball Operations, Pro Scouting, and Quantitative Analysis staffs with daily tasks and ad hoc projects
• Analyze video and tag data for collection in internal systems
• Research comparable contracts to help determine market value of various players

Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Experience and proficiency with Microsoft Office
• General understanding of baseball
• Flexible work schedule (including some nights and weekends)

This description is intended to describe the type of work being performed by a person assigned to this position. It is not an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities required of the employee. The New York Yankees are an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Company is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment.

The New York Yankees require a Covid-19 vaccination and booster as a condition of employment, subject to exception under applicable law.

Job Questions:

1. What is the earliest date that you are available to start the Associate program?
2. Are you available to work 40+ hours per week, including during some nights and weekends?
3. What are your favorite statistics for evaluating baseball players?
4. What are your favorite baseball-related websites, books, or podcasts?
5. Who do you think are the five best starting pitchers in MLB right now? (Ignore contract status, age, etc.)
6. Would you prefer to have Hitter A or Hitter B on your team next year?
   Hitter A: .310 AVG / .330 OBP / .420 SLG
   Hitter B: .265 AVG / .385 OBP / .410 SLG

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

Associate, Quantitative Analysis

Location: Bronx, NY
Department: Quantitative Analysis
Reports To: Director, Quantitative Analysis
FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

Description:
Built upon our storied legacy, the New York Yankees look to attract the best possible talent not just on the field but in the front office as well. It is our shared responsibility to maintain the first-class reputation associated with the franchise in all aspects of our business.

This position is a rigorous program lasting 12 months in duration, geared to prepare entry level candidates for a career within the Baseball Operations industry.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Assist in research and analysis of various baseball topics
• Design, test and implement predictive models using advanced statistical techniques
• Prepare, manage, and visualize large-scale data sets
• Develop processes for monitoring and ensuring data quality across multiple data sources
• Responsibilities may also include data collection and entry, running database queries and administrative tasks

Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science or related field required
• Experience building predictive models, preferably in R or Python
• Understanding of fundamental concepts in statistics and probability
• Computer programming experience
• Experience using SQL
• Familiarity with current baseball research

This description is intended to describe the type of work being performed by a person assigned to this position. It is not an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities required of the employee. The New York Yankees are an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Company is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment.

The New York Yankees require a Covid-19 vaccination and booster as a condition of employment, subject to exception under applicable law.

Please note that a Cover Letter is not required when applying for this position.

Job Questions:

1. When are you available to start?
2. What classes have you completed in math, statistics, probability, and/or computer science?
3. Briefly describe any previous experience building statistical models.
4. Which programming languages are you proficient in and what is your preferred language? If applicable to the language, please describe any libraries/packages you use.
5. Briefly describe any previous experience using SQL, if any.
6. While previous baseball/softball experience is not a requirement, please list any previous baseball/softball experience. This can include playing experience, research experience, coaching experience, writing experience, and more.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

Summer Associate, Quantitative Analysis

Location: Bronx, NY
Department: Quantitative Analysis
Reports To: Director, Quantitative Analysis
FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

Description:
Built upon our storied legacy, the New York Yankees look to attract the best possible talent not just on the field but in the front office as well. It is our shared responsibility to maintain the first-class reputation associated with the franchise in all aspects of our business.

This is a summer position geared to introduce current students to Quantitative Analysis within Baseball Operations.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Assist in research and analysis of various baseball topics
• Design, test and implement predictive models using advanced statistical techniques
• Responsibilities may also include data collection and entry, running database queries and administrative tasks

Qualifications and Experience:

• Pursuing a Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science or related field
• Computer programming experience, preferably with experience in a statistical computing language such as R, Matlab, or Python
• Experience using SQL a plus
• Familiarity with current baseball research

This description is intended to describe the type of work being performed by a person assigned to this position. It is not an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities required of the employee. The New York Yankees are an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Company is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment.

The New York Yankees require a Covid-19 vaccination and booster as a condition of employment, subject to exception under applicable law.

Please note that a Cover Letter is not required when applying for this position.

Job Questions:

1. When are you available to start?
2. What classes have you completed in math, statistics, probability, and/or computer science?
3. Briefly describe any previous experience building statistical models.
4. Which programming languages are you proficient in and what is your preferred language? If applicable to the language, please describe any libraries/packages you use.
5. Briefly describe any previous experience using SQL, if any.
6. While previous baseball/softball experience is not a requirement, please list any previous baseball/softball experience. This can include playing experience, research experience, coaching experience, writing experience, and more.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the New York Yankees.

NEW YORK — When Gerrit Cole signed his nine-year, $324 million deal with the Yankees in December 2019, he no doubt envisioned starting big playoff games in the Bronx in front of a packed house full of screaming fans. But while he’d taken the hill four times for the Yankees in the previous two Octobers, until Tuesday night’s Division Series opener against the Guardians, he’d never gotten to do so while wearing the home pinstripes. In his long-awaited postseason debut at Yankee Stadium, Cole shook off a recent rough stretch, dodged trouble early, found a groove, and turned in an impressive performance, allowing one run over 6.1 innings in a 4-1 victory.

Facing a contact-centric Cleveland team that posted the majors’ lowest swinging strike rate (9.1%) and strikeout rate (18.2%), Cole collected 19 swings and misses from among his 101 pitches (18.8%) and punched out eight hitters (29.6%). He allowed just four hits, including a solo homer by Steven Kwan, walked one and hit one batter. If it wasn’t an overpowering performance, it was nonetheless a rewarding one.

“It was very special for me,” said Cole of leaving the mound to an ovation from the 47,807 fans in the seventh inning, by which point the Yankees had come from behind to secure the lead. “The game’s not over, I left with traffic [on the bases], so it’s not the most comfortable time to acknowledge the crowd, but I certainly felt it and appreciated it… What a wonderful experience to have them behind us.” Read the rest of this entry »

Decision-making in the playoffs is a micro-focused as you can imagine. The level of preparation which goes into these games will never be fully known in the public sphere, but if a team wants even the slightest competitive edge, you better believe the details are as granular as the fine sands of Puerto Rico’s Playa Negrita.

Every opposing hitter has a zone and/or pitch that is a weak spot. You must know who on your pitching staff is best suited to throw to those weaknesses, and what hitters are most adaptable to use pitch sequences that will play to those same weaknesses. The following matchups are a few areas that could sway any given game in either direction. They are certainly not the only of high importance, but the statistical or situational holes make them worth mentioning. I’ll go through series by series and pick one that deserves attention, starting with the Yankees against the Guardians.

Guardians’ offense vs. Yankees’ sinkerballers

The Yankees’ bullpen is loaded with turbo sinkers and groundball pitchers. Lou Trivino, Jonathan Loáisiga, and Clay Holmes, to name a few, all feature a sinker as their primary fastball. Each of them will be used in high-leverage scenarios against any layer of the Guardians’ lineup, which has been the very worst in the American League against the sinker, posting the second-lowest wOBA (.317) and the lowest xwOBA (.319).

There’s plenty to suggest the Yankees’ bullpen will give the Guardians issues. Because of those turbo sinkers, New York’s bullpen led all of baseball in GB% (49.1%) and Run Value (-20.3 runs). The next best in both categories was Baltimore, which trailed in each by a decent margin (1.5 percentage points and 1.9 runs). In today’s game, being better than every team at throwing sinkers provides a significant competitive advantage, as it keeps batted balls out of the air and on the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

Since the dog days of summer, the Yankees’ bullpen has been dogged by injuries and ineffectiveness. It began with the losses of Michael King and Chad Green for the season. But those that shored up the ‘pen in their wake have since gone down as well.

Clay Holmes‘ shoulder issue and recent struggles have called into question just how much the team can rely on him come the playoffs. Surprisingly stellar rookie Ron Marinaccio exited his last regular-season game early due to a lingering shin injury and has been ruled out until at least the ALCS. This came on the heels of Zack Britton’s 60-day IL placement, as his late-season comeback attempt fell short. Stalwarts Wandy Peralta, Miguel Castro, and Albert Abreu are also either still injured or shaking off the rust. Not to mention the unceremonious end to the Aroldis Chapman saga: he was left off of the ALDS roster for missing a mandatory team workout on Sunday.

Thankfully for the Yankees, despite a disastrous trade deadline in which they ended up sacrificing 1.8 WAR, they did manage to acquire some bullpen reinforcements. Relievers tend to accumulate less WAR due to their lower volume of innings, downplaying the surface-level effectiveness and importance of lower-profile acquisitions Scott Effross and Lou Trivino. Their significance is only set to increase with the Yankees’ bullpen situation becoming increasingly dire. (Update: Unfortunately, shortly after this piece was published, Jack Curry of YES Network reported that Effross, who was absent from the Yankees’ ALDS roster when it was released on Tuesday, will need Tommy John surgery.) Read the rest of this entry »

The National League’s adoption of the designated hitter this season eliminated the most noticeable difference between it and the American League. Now, the National League is what makes grown men in scarves weep on public transit, and the American League comes with a slice of melted cheese on top. (No, I have not updated my pop culture references since 2009, and I have no plans to do so.)

The only remaining difference is that the AL gets an extra off day during the Division Series. MLB announced in August that contrary to prior practice, the Division Series would no longer have a travel day between Games 4 and 5. But while the NL would play two games, get a day off, and then play three in a row, the American League gets an extra day off without travel between Games 1 and 2.

When the league announced this new scheme, an obvious question occurred to my colleague Dan Szymborski: How would this affect pitcher usage? Previously, a Division Series contestant could run four pitchers on full rest, and have both its Game 1 and Game 2 starter on full rest for the decisive match, if necessary. Or it could bring back its Game 1 starter on short rest for Game 4, and have everyone else start in order on regular rest. Moving or eliminating the off day throws that practice into chaos. Read the rest of this entry »

Will the real 2022 Yankees please stand up? Projected to win 91 games, they spent the first half of the season looking a whole lot stronger than that, winning 61 of their first 84 (a .726 winning percentage and a 118-win pace) and building a 15.5-game lead in the American League East. Injuries and a disappearing offense — besides Aaron Judge — led to an epic slump as the team went 18-31 (.367) from July 9 to September 3 while that lead dwindled to four games. They righted the ship by going 20-9 the rest of the way, finishing 99-63 with their first division title since 2019 (and just their second of the past decade). While Judge set a franchise and American League record with 62 homers and several injured players returned, major questions linger as they attempt to win their first World Series since 2009.

Meanwhile, before issuing a two-game sweep to the Rays in a Wild Card Series capped by Oscar Gonzalez’s 15th-inning walk-off home run, the Guardians — the majors’ youngest team, with a weighted average of 26 years — surged down the stretch as well, going a major league-best 23-6 from September 5 onward. At 92-70, they ran away with the AL Central and were the division’s only team to finish above .500. Of course, as I’ve noted before, there’s very little correlation between a team’s September performance and their October success:

Read the rest of this entry »