Official word is in: Chase Utley has been given a two-game suspension for this.

Many league suspensions get appealed, though, and Utley’s case is no different, with Utley’s argument being that there isn’t much of a precedent for this at all. He wouldn’t have known he could get suspended for an aggressive takeout slide at second. A week and a half ago, this happened in Texas, and there wasn’t any discipline:

Unlike Utley’s slide, that one took place over the base, but it was also horribly late, with the runner coming down on the infielder’s shin. As the slide completed, the runner was several feet beyond the bag. But there wasn’t a major injury, and later on Rougned Odor apologized to Johnny Giavotella. It was one of those “just playing the game” things, and this isn’t meant to single out Odor. It seems like slides like this happen on a daily basis.

So, for Utley, it’s about the lack of precedent. He did something a lot of players would do, and he’s facing discipline in large part because the other guy happened to get injured. From the league’s standpoint, though, you have to start somewhere, if you want to eliminate this play. Someone has to be the first to get penalized, unless you want to wait to do anything until the playoffs are over. And I imagine they didn’t want to risk another injury. They wanted to make a statement, and this was an opportunity.

So! A poll, for you.

The Rangers won on Friday in no small part because of Rougned Odor’s baserunning after he got to first. But no less impressive was Delino DeShields‘ baserunning on his way to first. In the 14th inning, this happened, immediately following the single that made the difference in the game. So while it turned out this RBI was unnecessary, it might’ve also been the single most incredible display of raw skill in the contest:

For some context, here’s a table, copied from this website. Rating times from home to first base:

Alternatively or additionally, from an old article by Jon Heyman:

Consider that on a swing a 4.0 time for a right-handed hitter and 3.9 for a left-handed hitter is considered an “8” on the 2-8 scout’s scale, or all-time great.

From contact, going frame by frame, I have the baseball arriving at first base in about 3.8 seconds. Fast enough to retire practically anyone and end the inning. But instead, DeShields seems rather easily safe. Because I have him getting from home to first — starting at contact — in about 3.7 seconds. Which would be three-tenths of a second faster than an 80-grade runner. It’s the same as the difference between an elite runner and an average one.

In some ways, footspeed is the most overrated skill in baseball. But sometimes, it really is enough to create something out of what ought to be nothing. Delino DeShields isn’t impossible to throw out, but you couldn’t blame Troy Tulowitzki if he’s feeling that way. Normal athletes don’t move that fast. Conventionally elite ones don’t either.

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Our business is growing fast. By the start of next season we will have a network of radars installed in more than 100 stadiums on three continents, and dozens of remote systems traveling the US.

We are looking for a TrackMan Data & Operations Intern to be our hands and eyes on the ground in Jupiter, Fla. By this we mean the D&O Intern will be out in the field focused primarily on operating the TrackMan system and ensuring data quality measures are effectively in place at the point of capture. As part of the unique partnership between Perfect Game and TrackMan, you will be an integral piece of ensuring the added TrackMan value to players, coaches, college teams, and Major League teams. The specific focus for this position is the WWBA World Championship that runs from Oct. 22-26.

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It isn’t important that the author of this post found the relevant video footage only because he’d just performed an internet search for his own name. Nor is it necessary for anyone to know that the same author needed more than 20 minutes to render that very brief footage into the two even brief clips one finds here. What’s essential is that the footage itself depicts giant Cubs batter Kyle Schwarber performing Midwestern Justice on a golf ball in a manner not unlike the sort he performed on a Gerrit Cole pitch last night in the Wild Card game. Further research suggests that, like that home run, the field of play was unable to contain Schwarber’s considerable power.

The video description in full:

Published on Oct 7, 2015
Cubs Kyle Schwarber hits a drive Tin Cup Style over the green at Shaker Run Golf Course in Cincinnati. 370yds

One might wonder: does Schwarber’ success on the course prompt him to flip clubs like he does bats?

As the video below confirms, it does.

Few teams have had the opportunity to evaluate Jake DeVries, but industry folks who are familiar with the Air Force junior left-hander tell me why Four Corners scouts will want to put eyes on him next spring in advance of the 2016 draft.

Indeed, when you pitch for a small-conference school that produces few pro players and competes for regional attention with the Pac-12, you don’t always have the luxury of waiting for the scouts to come to you. And when that small-conference school is the United States Air Force Academy, you have obligations that supersede baseball and make exposure to professional teams more difficult to come by.

Such are the circumstances for DeVries, who thusly took it upon himself this summer to go where the scouts would be. So he packed his bags after his sophomore season ended and headed for the Cape Cod League to join the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. He made three appearances in June, but was then shipped to the Middle East for a multi-week training assignment. Though the audition was brief, it was long enough to showcase the pitching tools that make him a high follow and a possible top-three rounds target.

Read the rest of this entry »

I Tweeted the following from Wrigley Field on August 9:

Fantastic game at Wrigley. Cubs up 2-0 in ninth, Giants load bases, then three consecutive K's, last on 3-2 pitch. Crowd explodes. Baseball.

— David Laurila (@DavidLaurilaQA) August 9, 2015

Yesterday, Joe Maddon called the four-game set that culminated with that out a “seminal moment.” According to the Cubs skipper, his team “played that series in a playoff manner.”

Tonight, they played like a young, hungry team that’s hell-bent on reaching the World Series. Behind bombs and pitching brilliance, they dismantled the Pirates 4-0 at PNC Park.

The expected pitchers’ duel between Jake Arrieta and Gerrit Cole never materialized. Refusing to follow the narrative, the Cubs scored before Cole could record an out. Dexter Fowler singled and stole second, and Kyle Schwarber drove him in with a hit to the opposite field. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, we looked at some data for Eric Cooper and suggested that the AL Wild Card game would likely see a taller-than-average strike zone. That’s pretty much what Cooper ended up calling, so today, let’s go ahead and give Jeff Nelson — who will be behind the plate for tonight’s Cubs/Pirates game — the same treatment.

With a left-handed batter up.

With a right-handed batter up.

Nelson has pretty different zones here, so it’s worth keeping in mind that the zone is likely going to change batter to batter tonight. With a lefty at the plate, Nelson is very generous on the inside corner, and has one of the widest zones inside to LH batters of any umpire in baseball. With a right-handed batter at the plate, he’s pretty much league average in and out, but a little more generous than average up in the zone, especially up-and-away.

Overall, though, it’s the inside strike to lefties that stands out as his most notable trait. Given that the Cubs are likely to start five left-handed hitters tonight, they’re the ones who will have to be more likely to make some adjustments; especially because the Pirates pitch inside more than almost any other team in MLB. Nelson’s generous inside corner is likely a potential benefit for Gerrit Cole in going after guys like Dexter Fowler and Chris Coghlan, who tend to take a lot of borderline pitches, and might need to be more aggressive on the inner-half tonight.

Like last night, expect the zone to favor pitchers a bit tonight, as Nelson is a bit pitcher-friendly with the size of his strike zone. But unlike with Cooper, who calls high and low strikes against everyone, Nelson’s tendencies likely hurt LH batters a bit more, and that might be a small advantage for a Pirates team that leans more to the right side of the plate.

Win-or-go-home games are old hat for the Pirates. Pittsburgh has hosted the NL Wild Card in each of the past two seasons. In 2013, they ousted Cincinnati as chants of “Cue-to, Cue-to” echoed down from the boisterous black-clad crowd. Last October, Madison Bumgarner quieted PNC Park by blanking the Bucs.

Tonight represents new territory for the Cubs. Joe Maddon’s squad is as young and talented as any in the game, but given the pressure cooker they’re about to encounter, could “young” prove to be the operative word in that description? Especially if Clint Hurdle’s team jumps out to an early lead and PNC becomes a cacophony. Will Chicago’s kiddie-corp be able to handle it?

Needless to say, jumping out against Jake Arrieta is a momentous task. The right-hander has been on a Bumgarner-like run, and if it continues into October, Pittsburgh is probably toast. Of course, Arrieta has never pitched in the postseason. There’s no reason to believe he won’t perform on the big stage, but just like his younger teammates, he hasn’t had a chance to prove that he can. Read the rest of this entry »

As a rule, life is characterized predominantly both by crippling doubt and also other kinds of doubt. Less susceptible to that sort of doubt is Houston outfielder Carlos Gomez, depicted here recording a home run against Masahiro Tanaka — with regard to which home run Gomez exhibits something much closer to unambiguous certainty.

The Astros and Yankees are set to meet tonight in the first postseason game of 2015, with the winner advancing to play the Royals in the division series. While both teams are likely to do everything they can to win tonight’s game, there is one potentially significant variable they won’t be able to control; the called strike zone. So that’s preview what we might look for from the home plate umpire tonight.

17 year veteran Eric Cooper is going to be behind the plate for the Wild Card game. Per Baseball Heat Maps, here’s Cooper’s called strike zone compared to the league average (warmer colors indicate more calls in that area).

RH hitters

LH hitters.

The first thing that stands out is that Cooper has a very tall strike zone, calling far more pitches than the average umpire at both the top and bottom of the rulebook zone. He’s especially generous at the very top sliver of the zone with a right-handed batter at the plate, which is also a very tough area for hitters to make contact on. He offsets the height of his zone to some degree by having a fairly narrow strike zone compared to the average umpire, calling fewer pitches away against both lefties and righties, but the effect isn’t as large as his large vertical zone.

As you can see at the charts available over at Baseball Savant, Cooper calls an above average pitches out of the zone as strikes, and has one of the lowest rates of calling pitches in the zone balls. Overall, he’s a pitcher friendly umpire, and hitters are going to need to protect the plate more often than they normally would, especially on high and low pitches.

Interestingly, neither Keuchel nor Tanaka attack the top of the strike zone that regularly, as both are primarily trying to keep the ball down, so there’s not a clear advantage to either side based on the umpire tendency with regards to the starting pitcher. But both teams are likely to use an army of relievers, and Cooper’s zone could work out pretty well for a pitcher like Houston’s Josh Fields, who likes to pitch up with his fastball.