Ben and Sam do a quick bonus Saturday episode on Mets starter Noah Syndergaard’s first pitch of World Series Game 3.
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Each week, we publish north of 100 posts on our various blogs. With this post, we hope to highlight 10 to 15 of them. You can read more on it here. The links below are color coded — green for FanGraphs, brown for RotoGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times, orange for TechGraphs and blue for Community Research.
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The first pitch Noah Syndergaard threw Friday night sent Alcides Escobar to the ground. Syndergaard didn’t give Escobar an opportunity to swing because the instinctive priority was for him to get his head out of the way, and Syndergaard didn’t bother trying to disguise his intent after the game. He owned up to it — he wanted to give the Royals a little fright. The Royals, in turn, were furious, as they’re allowed to be, but the rest of the game spun the narrative wheel, and it ultimately settled on “Syndergaard delivered a message.” In the end he pitched pretty well and the Mets emerged victorious, so Syndergaard gets the favorable press.
But for whatever it’s worth, if Syndergaard did succeed in intimidating his opponent, it didn’t look that way early on, when the brushback was most fresh. After Escobar got knocked down, the Royals scored a run in the first. They scored another two in the second. The immediate aftermath, for Syndergaard, was troublesome, and the national broadcast speculated that he’d only succeeded in waking the Royals up. It was only after Syndergaard turned his game around that the conversation grew more sunny. And as a part of that process, Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud made a change on the fly.
It’s almost as though every angle and storyline has been covered already. There are 377 assigned seats in the Citi Field press box (including auxiliary seating), and plenty more media members offering perspectives from afar. The World Series doesn’t lack ink, electronic or otherwise.
But this is baseball. There’s always something more to write, because you never know what you’re going to see.
What happened on the first pitch of tonight’s game was presaged yesterday. Asked about how he might combat Alcides Escobar’s recent – and scarily good – first-pitch success, the Mets starter said he “had a few tricks up his sleeve that was going to pull out.”
On Halloween Eve, Escobar stepped into the box and was immediately treated to a 98-mph fastball that sent him sprawling. A few pitches later, the Royals lead-off hitter went down swinging.
At which point things started to go downhill for Thor. Ben Zobrist doubled over Yoenis Cespedes‘ head in center field and he eventually came around to score when the Mets couldn’t turn a 3-6-3 double play. Syndergaard getting tangled up with Lucas Duda near the bag didn’t cost the out – Wilmer Flores‘ throw was off line – but the play had snafu written all over it.
An inning later, Syndergaard gave up four hits and a pair of runs, one of them scoring on a pitch that skipped to the backstop. Were it not for an overturned safe call at third base – the baserunning boo-boo belonged to Alex Gordon — the damage could have been worse.
Yordano Ventura started off even shakier. Curtis Granderson led off the bottom of the first with a single and David Wright followed with a blast over the left-center field fence. It was the first for the Mets captain this postseason, and the 16th for the team. Home run #17 came in the third inning when The Grandy Man went yard after a Syndergaard single. With his base knock, the righty with the long, blonde locks became the eighth pitcher in Mets history to get a hit in the World Series.
In the top of the fifth, Kansas City’s Raul Mondesi became the first player in history to make his major league debut in the World Series. Pinch hitting for Ventura, he went down meekly against Syndergaard’s heat.
On Thursday, Zobrist told reporters that certain teams will “do some stuff” to get into the emotional Ventura’s head. In the bottom of the fifth, they did stuff to chase him from the game. Duda started the frame with a shift-beating grounder. Travis d’Arnaud then rang a two-bagger. Michael Conforto, mired in an 0-for-20 slump – “very good at bats and nothing to show for it,” according to Terry Collins – then plated New York’s fifth run with a something-to-show-for-it infield hit. Ventura, who failed to cover first on the right-side chopper, was bound for the showers.
Unlike his flame-throwing counterpart, Syndergaard refused to turn into a pumpkin. Instead, he turned into a middle-innings beast. Beginning with the last out of the second, he set down 12 straight, six by way of the K.
Escobar told me yesterday that he “really wants to win a Gold Glove.” In the sixth inning, Flores showed that he’s pretty good too. With the bases drunk, the slick-fielding shortstop ranged up the middle to throw out Alex Rios, just nipping him at first. The under-the-radar play essentially quash Kansas City’s chances.
A four-run bottom of the sixth sealed the deal. It was meltdown city for the visitors, epitomized by a Franklin Morales brain cramp. The lefty fielded a fist-and-third comebacker, whirled, whirled again… and held the ball. He might well have spun himself into the ground, because by inning’s end, the score stood 9-3.
It ended that way. Any hopes the Royals had of putting the Mets in a 3-0 hole were long gone. Tomorrow night is Steven Matz versus Chris Young – it’s also Halloween – and New York is very much alive.
Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. As in other recent offseasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating this offseason a contract-crowdsourcing project, the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowds to the end of better understanding the giant and large 2015-16 free-agent market.
Below are links to ballots for six of this year’s free agents, representing the second half of the reliever group — and the final collection of players available for balloting, providing the author hasn’t omitted an important player like usual.
Other Players: Brett Anderson / Nori Aoki / Alex Avila / Antonio Bastardo / Joe Blanton / Jonathan Broxton / Mark Buehrle / Marlon Byrd / Asdrubal Cabrera / Trevor Cahill / Yoenis Cespedes / Wei-Yin Chen / Bartolo Colon / Johnny Cueto / Chris Davis / Rajai Davis / Alejandro De Aza / Ian Desmond / R.A. Dickey / Stephen Drew / Marco Estrada / Doug Fister / Dexter Fowler / David Freese / Yovani Gallardo / Jaime Garcia / Alex Gordon / Zack Greinke / Jeremy Guthrie / J.A. Happ / Jason Heyward / Rich Hill / J.P. Howell / Tommy Hunter / Torii Hunter / Chris Iannetta / Hisashi Iwakuma / Austin Jackson / John Jaso / Kelly Johnson / Matt Joyce / Scott Kazmir / Howie Kendrick / Kyle Kendrick / Ian Kennedy / John Lackey / Mat Latos / Mike Leake / Tim Lincecum / Kyle Lohse / Justin Masterson / Justin Morneau / Brandon Morrow / Daniel Murphy / David Murphy / Mike Napoli / Dioner Navarro / Bud Norris / Gerardo Parra / Steve Pearce / Mike Pelfrey / David Price / Alexei Ramirez / Colby Rasmus / Alex Rios / Jimmy Rollins / Jeff Samardzija / Alfredo Simon / Geovany Soto / Denard Span / Justin Upton / Juan Uribe / Chase Utley / Will Venable / Shane Victorino / Matt Wieters / Chris Young the Outfielder / Chris Young the Pitcher / Jordan Zimmermann / Ben Zobrist.
Shawn Kelley (Profile)
Some relevant information regarding Kelley:
*That is, a roughly average number of innings for a starting pitcher.
**Prorated version of 2016 Steamer projections available here.
| 7:53 |
: OK, let’s do this. The Royals and the Mets are both wearing traditional uniforms, thank heavens. I’m going to get a beer and then we’ll get started. Hope you’ll join us all night!
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| 7:57 |
Let’s go Mets! FAN… do do do |
| 7:59 |
: Looking at the poll results, it seems that people think that Syndergaard is going to pitch well and that the Mets are going to win. And that they have to win.
|
Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. As in other recent offseasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating this offseason a contract-crowdsourcing project, the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowds to the end of better understanding the giant and large 2015-16 free-agent market.
Below are links to ballots for six of this year’s free agents, the first half of the reliever we’ll consider here.
Other Players: Brett Anderson / Nori Aoki / Alex Avila / Mark Buehrle / Marlon Byrd / Asdrubal Cabrera / Yoenis Cespedes / Wei-Yin Chen / Bartolo Colon / Johnny Cueto / Chris Davis / Rajai Davis / Alejandro De Aza / Ian Desmond / R.A. Dickey / Stephen Drew / Marco Estrada / Doug Fister / Dexter Fowler / David Freese / Yovani Gallardo / Jaime Garcia / Alex Gordon / Zack Greinke / Jeremy Guthrie / J.A. Happ / Jason Heyward / Rich Hill / Torii Hunter / Chris Iannetta / Hisashi Iwakuma / Austin Jackson / John Jaso / Kelly Johnson / Matt Joyce / Scott Kazmir / Howie Kendrick / Kyle Kendrick / Ian Kennedy / John Lackey / Mat Latos / Mike Leake / Tim Lincecum / Kyle Lohse / Justin Masterson / Justin Morneau / Brandon Morrow / Daniel Murphy / David Murphy / Mike Napoli / Dioner Navarro / Bud Norris / Gerardo Parra / Steve Pearce / Mike Pelfrey / David Price / Alexei Ramirez / Colby Rasmus / Alex Rios / Jimmy Rollins / Jeff Samardzija / Alfredo Simon / Geovany Soto / Denard Span / Justin Upton / Juan Uribe / Chase Utley / Will Venable / Shane Victorino / Matt Wieters / Chris Young the Outfielder / Chris Young the Pitcher / Jordan Zimmermann / Ben Zobrist.
Antonio Bastardo (Profile)
Some relevant information regarding Bastardo:
*That is, a roughly average number of innings for a starting pitcher.
**Prorated version of 2016 Steamer projections available here.
ESPN announced today that they are suspending operations — in other words, closing down — Grantland, the site that was originally built around Bill Simmons but grew into a place with some of the best sportswriting on the planet. Their baseball coverage was phenomenal, as Jonah Keri (hired away from FanGraphs when they decided to bring in a full-time baseball writer) and Ben Lindbergh regularly put out the kind of in-depth, intelligent-but-still-approachable writing about the sport that made me jealous of their abilities.
So, as a celebration of their work, here are some of the best baseball pieces I read at Grantland over the last few years. This is just off the top of my head (and a few of FG authors who kicked in suggestions while I was writing this), so I’m certainly going to be missing a good number of great pieces, but feel free to add your own favorites in the comments below.
The Art of Pitch Framing — Lindbergh’s seminal piece on the topic.
Grand Theft Baseball — Keri’s terrific piece on stealing bases with Coco Crisp.
Rocked — An oral history of the 1989 World Series earthquake.
The Tragedy of Derek Jeter’s Defense — Lindbergh on The Captain’s glovework.
Ty Cobb as Detroit — Anna Clark on the Tigers legend.
The Website MLB Couldn’t Buy — The story of Twins.com.
Before Beane — Lindbergh on the early days of analytics in baseball.
The Year of Living Less Dangerously — Lindbergh on MLB’s changing home plate collision rule.
The Curious Case of Mark Buehrle — Rany Jazayerli on the guy who gets outs throwing 83.
Eephus Influence — Keri on the most fun pitch in baseball.
Just so much great work was published over there, because Grantland hired really talented people and gave them the ability to do creative interesting stories. I’ll miss Grantland as a one-stop place for this kind of writing, but with writers this good, I’m sure we’ll keep seeing great work from them at other places in the not too distant future.
Ben and Sam banter about the Market Diner, then discuss World Series strategy and answer listener emails.
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One year ago, at just 23 years old, Yordano Ventura became one of the youngest pitchers to start a World Series game in the last 30 years. The presence of a young starter in the World Series is not a completely rare phenomenon, naturally. Ventura, for his part, was the 64th pitcher in Series history to make a start before turning 24 years old, per Baseball Reference Play Index. Noah Syndergaard is set to be the 65th when the two face off this evening. Widening the criteria a little, one finds that 105 pitchers have made World Series starters before turning 25 years old. Ventura, now one year older, is set to be one of just 19 pitchers to make a start in two different World Series’ before turning 25, a list including Babe Ruth and, over the last 30 years including, only Madison Bumgarner and Steve Avery. Tonight’s encounter between Syndergaard and Ventura represents one of the better young pitching matchups in World Series history.
Over the last three decades, the only pitchers younger than the 2014 edition of Ventura to record a start in a World Series game were Avery, Bumgarner, Dwight Gooden, Livan Hernandez, Bret Saberhagen, Michael Wacha, and Jaret Wright. Noah Syndergaard, a few months younger than Ventura was last year, is set to join that list. The giant Mets right-hander has struck out 20 batters in 13 postseason innings thus far and looks to do what his counterparts could not as the Kansas City Royals have proven difficult to strike out.
While 105 pitchers under the age of 25 have made starts in the World Series, it’s quite rare to find two young hurlers pitted against each other. In the last 15 years, it has happened only twice: Madison Bumgarner against Tommy Hunter in 2010 and Cole Hamels against Scott Kazmir in 2008. In all of World Series history, there have only been 24 such matchups and only 19 if you remove repeat matchups in the same series. The chart below shows every World Series matchup sorted by average age.
| Year | Player | Age | Player | Age | Average Age |
| 10/23/1981 | Dave Righetti | 22.329 | Fernando Valenzuela | 20.356 | 21.343 |
| 10/22/1991 | Scott Erickson | 23.262 | Steve Avery | 21.191 | 22.227 |
| 10/26/1991 | Scott Erickson | 23.266 | Steve Avery | 21.195 | 22.231 |
| 10/22/1997 | Tony Saunders | 23.176 | Jaret Wright | 21.297 | 22.237 |
| 10/31/2010 | Tommy Hunter | 24.120 | Madison Bumgarner | 21.091 | 22.606 |
| 10/19/1986 | Roger Clemens | 24.076 | Dwight Gooden | 21.337 | 22.707 |
| 10/7/1950 | Bob Miller | 24.113 | Whitey Ford | 21.351 | 22.732 |
| 10/12/1914 | Lefty Tyler | 24.302 | Bullet Joe Bush | 21.319 | 22.811 |
| 10/8/1934 | Schoolboy Rowe | 24.270 | Paul Dean | 22.055 | 23.163 |
| 10/14/1969 | Jim Palmer | 23.364 | Gary Gentry | 23.008 | 23.186 |
| 10/11/1964 | Ray Sadecki | 23.290 | Al Downing | 23.105 | 23.198 |
| 10/30/2015 | Yordano Ventura | 24.149 | Noah Syndergaard | 22.256 | 23.203 |
| 9/29/1932 | Lefty Gomez | 23.308 | Lon Warneke | 23.185 | 23.247 |
| 10/10/1970 | Jim Palmer | 24.360 | Gary Nolan | 22.136 | 23.248 |
| 10/14/1970 | Jim Palmer | 24.364 | Gary Nolan | 22.140 | 23.252 |
| 10/8/1912 | Jeff Tesreau | 24.217 | Smoky Joe Wood | 22.349 | 23.283 |
| 10/11/1912 | Jeff Tesreau | 24.220 | Smoky Joe Wood | 22.352 | 23.286 |
| 10/15/1912 | Jeff Tesreau | 24.224 | Smoky Joe Wood | 22.356 | 23.290 |
| 10/11/1909 | Ed Summers | 24.310 | Nick Maddox | 22.336 | 23.323 |
| 10/21/1972 | Gary Nolan | 24.147 | Vida Blue | 23.085 | 23.616 |
| 10/3/1953 | Whitey Ford | 24.347 | Billy Loes | 23.294 | 23.821 |
| 10/9/1934 | Dizzy Dean | 24.266 | Elden Auker | 24.018 | 24.142 |
| 10/22/2008 | Cole Hamels | 24.300 | Scott Kazmir | 24.272 | 24.286 |
| 10/27/2008 | Cole Hamels | 24.305 | Scott Kazmir | 24.277 | 24.291 |
The encounter between Dave Righetti and Fernando Valenzuela back in 1981, when the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees, represents the youngest such matchup of all tim . Only two of the young-pitcher games have occurred in a Game Two: Jeff Tesrau’s Giants team defeated Boston’s Smokey Joe Wood in 1912 and Dizzy Dean’s St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Tigers’ Elden Auker in 1934. If the Mets and Royals get to a Game Seven and the rotation stays as is, Noah Syndergaard against Yordano Ventura would become just the third such matchup of all-time and the first in more than 80 years.
