Brady Singer Is the Last Man Standing in Kansas City
by Jake Mailhot
September 30, 2022
Very few things have gone according to plan in Kansas City this season. Yes, Bobby Witt Jr. made his major league debut alongside a number of other promising young position players, but the team is still on track to lose 97 games, their sixth consecutive losing season. After investing in a number of free agents prior to the 2021 season and taking a few small steps forward, the franchise has taken one giant leap backwards this year.
Their inability to break out of a rebuilding cycle that began after their 2015 World Series victory led to the dismissal of president of baseball operations Dayton Moore earlier this month. After guiding the franchise for 16 years, the Royals decided new leadership was required to push the team back into relevance. While Moore was sometimes ridiculed for his adherence to old school methods of roster construction and strategy, his track record should speak for itself. After taking the helm in 2006, he slowly rebuilt the entire organization, culminating in their championship season. Unfortunately, that success was short lived and the team slipped into another rebuilding cycle soon afterwards. Read the rest of this entry »
Max Muncy Proves the Salvific Nature of the Walk
Max Muncy is having a slightly better-than-league average offensive season. That’s not at all unusual, as Muncy has been an offensive force ever since he joined the Dodgers in 2018. But remember, way back in the olden days of early spring, when he looked disturbingly lost? An elbow injury suffered last year had knocked his mechanics all out of whack, and pitches he’d usually line off the wall were getting popped up or beaten into the ground. Nothing worked. It’s not just that he hit .164 in the first half of the season; he hit under .200 in each of the first four months of the season individually.
It’s kind of remarkable that the Dodgers let him play through this funk; he wasn’t in the lineup every day, but he played 73 games and batted 297 times in the first half. That’s a lot of rope. Usually, in order to get that much playing time with a sub-.200 average, a player needs to be either a premium defender at an up-the-middle position or a Pittsburgh Pirate. But the Dodgers have been tolerant of struggling stars in recent years. Cody Bellinger, for instance, is still a regular despite having been stricken blind sometime in 2020. Read the rest of this entry »
Does This Mean I Can Go Home Now?
While it is bittersweet to see anyone tie my father’s single-season American League home run record, it’s an honor to know that he shares it with a player as talented and as gracious as Aaron Judge. Aaron plays with passion, puts the team first, and wears Yankee pinstripes. In all of these ways, he is a true successor to Roger Maris. On behalf of the entire Maris family, I would like to offer my sincere and heartfelt congratulations to Aaron Judge.
I would also like to take this opportunity to ask a question: Does this mean I can go home now?
I can go now, right? Please let me go home. It has been so long. I have a cat. I am worried about him. It has been eight days and I need to check on Professor Whiskers. Read the rest of this entry »
Gunnar Henderson Is One of Baseball’s Most Promising Young Hitters
On September 1, one day after baseball’s no. 5 overall prospect made his major league debut, Dan Szymborski wrote that the Baltimore Orioles “showed mercy to minor league pitchers … officially calling up infielder Gunnar Henderson.” As my colleague pointed out, the 21-year-old left-handed hitter had slashed .297/.416/.531 with 19 home runs over 112 games between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk. His wRC+ was a healthy 154.
Henderson has continued to impress at the big-league level. In 110 plate appearances with the O’s, the young slugger has punished pitchers to the tune of a 139 wRC+, with 12 of his 27 hits going for extra bases. He’s left the yard four times, with the latest of those blasts leaving his bat at 111.1 mph and traveling 428 feet into Fenway Park’s center field bleachers.
Henderson sat down to talk hitting on Tuesday, one day before he was named Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year.
———
David Laurila: Let’s start with your evolution as a hitter. What do you know now that you didn’t when you were drafted by the Orioles [42nd overall in 2019 out of Selma, Alabama’s John T. Morgan Academy]?
Gunnar Henderson: “I would say that it’s the number of good pitches you get to hit. In high school, you’ll get multiple pitches to hit within an at-bat, and then as you progress, at each and every level, it’s less and less. Especially here in the big leagues. You really have to take your walks and not give in to what the pitcher wants you to do. You’ve got to hunt for that one pitch, because you might only get one, maybe two, a game.”
Laurila: How do you go about doing that? Read the rest of this entry »
Baseball’s Top Relievers Are Really Good
by Ben Clemens
September 30, 2022
Tuesday night, I watched Ryan Helsley face the middle of the Brewers order in the bottom of the eighth inning. It went roughly how you’d expect – strikeout, groundout, strikeout. He came back out for the ninth, and after an inning-opening walk, closed out the frame with another two strikeouts and a groundout. It didn’t feel surprising; that’s just what great relievers do at the end of games.
That wasn’t always the case. The game has changed over the years. Relievers are pitching fewer innings per appearance, and doing so in better-defined roles. Strikeouts are up everywhere. Velocity is up everywhere. Individual reliever workloads are down, which means higher effort in a given appearance despite bullpens covering more aggregate innings. I’m not trying to say that the current crop of relievers doesn’t have structural tailwinds helping them excel. But seriously – top relievers now are so good.
Look at the top of this year’s WAR leaderboard for relievers – either RA9-WAR or FIP-based WAR will do – and you’ll see a veritable wall of strikeouts. Edwin Díaz, Devin Williams, A.J. Minter, Helsley, and Andrés Muñoz are all in the top 10 and all run preposterous strikeout rates. They’re good in an in-your-face way. Since I’ve watched baseball, dominant late-inning relievers have succeeded by striking batters out, but that trend has accelerated in the past decade or so. Here, take a look at the strikeout rate of the 10 top relievers in baseball, as determined by fWAR, every year since integration:
Job Posting: Texas Rangers Data Apprentice, Player Development
Position: Player Development, Data Apprentice
The Texas Rangers are seeking multiple apprentices in Player Development. Each Apprentice will work with one of the Rangers’ minor league affiliates and report to the Minor League Video Coordinator. Apprentices will operate as an extension of the coaching staff and be a resource for both players and coaches. They are expected to manage the collection and application of data and technology at their respective affiliate and will gain experience across multiple areas of Baseball Operations.
Job Responsibilities:
Video & Technology Operation:
- Operate bat/ball tracking technology and baseball technology
- Capture game video and manage upload process for all games
- Gather high frame rate video of hitters and pitchers
- Manage data and collection process and assist with interpretation with coaches and players
Advance Scouting:
- Collaborate with coaching staff and player development staff to monitor player goals and player progress
- Conduct research and analysis, both at the request of staff and independently
- Use internal system tools to assist
- Communicate research in simple and concise manner to Minor League coaches, players, and Player Development staff
Systems Support:
- Support field staff with on-field responsibilities
- On field skills such as throwing BP is a plus
- Support field staff and players with coach education and various administration tasks
- Support Strength and Conditioning and Athletic Training staff to provide assistance and application to their fields of your finding
Education and Experience Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree
- Demonstrated passion and understanding for biomechanics, pitching or hitting analysis or sports science.
- Spanish speaking a plus
Job Requirements:
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Availability to start working in January 2023
- Ability to work seamlessly in teams
- Working knowledge of advanced baseball statistics and publicly available research
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office
To apply
Send an email with your interest to texasrangersda@gmail.com.
The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Texas Rangers.
FanGraphs Audio: Emma Baccellieri Talks Writing Process, Unionizing the Minors
Episode 994
This week on the show, Eric Longenhagen welcomes Sports Illustrated staff writer Emma Baccellieri for an extended conversation about what she’s been working on and what she’s been watching lately.
We hear about Emma’s upcoming piece on Austin Riley and get insight into her interview and transcription process, as well as the nitty gritty when it comes to sitting down to write. The duo then discuss Emma’s recent article on the unionization of the minor leagues, and what led to that effort coming together much more quickly than most expected. We also hear about how fun it is to talk to Ron Washington, being glued to Aaron Judge’s plate appearances, some playoff predictions, and who they are excited to see next season. Finally, Eric introduces the concept of “showmakase” and asks Emma to share a curated list of episodes from one of her favorite television shows, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
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Audio after the jump. (Approximate 63 minute play time.)
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Effectively Wild Episode 1910: Broken Record
September 30, 2022
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the fight for the third wild card in the National League and the way in which the expanded playoff format shifts attention toward middling teams, appreciating postseason success and regular-season success, the regular-season dominance of the Dodgers, home-run-record derangement syndrome (17:52) and a middle ground between the warring absolutists worked up one way or another about Aaron Judge (or pitchers not pitching to him), a better name for the combined cycle, a suspicious Carlos Correa quote, a counterintuitive observation about Yadier Molina’s basestealing suppression, Tony La Russa reportedly not returning to the White Sox next season, Rich Hill planning to pitch again, pedantic questions (1:13:01) about non-baseball ballparks, payoff pitches, and long balls vs. big balls, plus a new name for the Grand Junction Rockies, a new use for a descending mound, and a Past Blast (1:26:09) from 1910.
Audio intro: Vampire Weekend, “Obvious Bicycle”
Audio outro: AC/DC, “Big Balls”
Link to study on chance in the playoffs
Link to Ginny Searle on the Dodgers
Link to Maris Jr. quote
Link to Ben on the PED era
Link to Rob Arthur on PED HR outliers
Link to Lamont video
Link to Connecticut baseball divide
Link to Correa video
Link to Correa quote text
Link to Russell on Molina
Link to Edwards on Molina
Link to TLR report
Link to Hill report
Link to EW emails database
Link to “last strike” EW wiki page
Link to GJ Rockies renaming report
Link to GJ Chubs EW wiki page
Link to pit clock EW wiki page
Link to 1910 story source
Link to cork ball source
Link to Jacob Pomrenke’s website
Link to Jacob Pomrenke on Twitter
Link to Ohtani game story
Link to Sheehan on middling teams
Link to Lasagna story
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