A perennial All-Star catcher who deserved better from Hall of Fame voters, Bill Freehan spent his entire 15-season career with the Tigers, his hometown team. Durable and skilled on both sides of the ball, he served as the starter on Detroit’s only two postseason teams across a 38-year span, including catching every inning of the 1968 World Series and making two of that seven-game epic’s key defensive plays, most notably the catch of Tim McCarver’s foul ball to dethrone the defending champion Cardinals and seal the Tigers’ only title between 1946 and ’83.

The photo of pitcher Mickey Lolich — whom Freehan had guided to three complete-game victories in the Series — leaping into his catcher’s arms after securing the final out was an iconic one. It was the culmination of an historic pairing, too; that battery started together in 324 regular-season games, a major league record.

Freehan died on Thursday, August 19, at the age of 79. For years, he had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease — which his family suspected was related to the concussions he suffered during his playing career — and had been living under hospice care. His condition prevented him from participating in the Tigers’ 50th anniversary celebration of that championship back in 2018.

Even while spending nearly his entire career playing alongside the man known as “Mr. Tiger,” Hall of Famer Al Kaline, Freehan was considered the team leader. “He was the heart and soul of the ballclub,” said teammate Jim Price, the Tigers’ backup catcher from 1967 to ’72. In 1968, Sport magazine’s Arnold Hano hailed him as “the thinking man’s catcher,” writing that he “leads the way sergeants lead, not second lieutenants. He leads by example.”

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One quick note before you read this piece about Jake Reed: He just went on the IL with forearm tightness. He’s also been on four different teams this year, so it’s not like he’s some surefire All-Star who needs to get healthy. I probably wouldn’t have written this article if I hadn’t already been halfway through it when he hit the IL. But I was halfway through, and I think Reed is interesting. You just might, too, after reading this.

As much as I watch baseball, I haven’t seen every random reliever in the game. I was innocently watching a Mets-Giants clash last week when — well, here, just watch it:

If you’re like me, that delivery made you sit up in your seat as surely as a shot of espresso. It’s just so … sudden. It’s not that he sidearms it; there are plenty of righty sidearmers in baseball these days. It’s not that he short-arms it; there are plenty of those guys in baseball these days. But the combination! It’s like nothing I’ve seen recently, and it focuses you on how quickly batters have to go from waiting to “oh god where is the ball coming from?”
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Nightcrawling

As a night person, I love late-night baseball, and this weekend was ideal for that, with the most compelling series, at least in terms of playoff implications, all on the West Coast. The Giants and Dodgers both took two out of three from the A’s and Mets, respectively, so nothing changed at the top of the NL West standings, but keeping the status quo is at least slightly good news for San Francisco.

Meanwhile, the Padres continued to scuffle, needing a dramatic win on Saturday to avoid getting swept by Philadelphia. Losers of nine out of their last 11, all of the excuses for their poor play have revolved around a pitching staff being held together by glue and string after a crippling series of injuries. The offense deserves an equal brunt of the blame; in those 11 games, they’ve scored a grand total of 37 runs, and three of those contests were at Coors Field. It’s hard to call any series in August pivotal, but for San Diego — now closer to the Rockies than first place in the division and suddenly on the outside looking in for the Wild Card game —this week’s three-game set hosting the Dodgers feels like just that.

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The Learning and Developing a Pitch series returned in June after being on hiatus last year due to the pandemic. Each week, we’ll hear from three pitchers on a notable weapon in their arsenal. Today’s installment features Keegan Akin, Kolby Allard, and Jharel Cotton on their changeups.

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Keegan Akin, Baltimore Orioles

“It was one of the first pitches I ever learned — I was probably 12 years old — and honestly, it wasn’t a very good pitch for me all the way through high school and college. But then I really worked on it in the offseason going into 2019. That was when I told myself, ‘You know, I need to make this into kind of a go-to pitch for whenever I need it.’ So every day, I played catch with that grip. I was throwing it 90 feet, 120 feet, trying to have it coming out feeling like a fastball. A changeup is a feel pitch, so you need to become comfortable with it.

“The grip has been the same since the offseason of 2018. I tinkered with it and tried different things here and there, found one that worked for me, and I’ve rolled with it ever since. It’s kind of a circle change, I guess is the best way to put it. I learned it as a typical circle, with all five fingers on the ball. I have bigger hands, so I used to cut it a lot — it would turn into a cut changeup — and I didn’t want that, so I started moving it out further and further toward the end of my hand. It’s more based off my ring finger, my pinky finger and my middle finger, and I’m trying to throw as hard as I can. I’m throwing it like a fastball and letting the grip do the work. Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday afternoon against the Blue Jays, Miguel Cabrera became the newest member of an elite baseball club by hitting his 500th regular-season home run, making him just the 28th player to reach that mark in MLB history; he joins Albert Pujols as the only active players on the list. (He’s also the first-ever Tiger and first ever Venezuelan-born player to get there). Cabrera is also chasing entry into the equally exclusive 3,000 hits club, but he would need roughly a hit per game for the rest of the season to do that, making 2022 more likely, so let’s focus on 500 and his road there.

The 28th player in MLB history to hit 500 home runs.

Congrats, @MiguelCabrera! pic.twitter.com/ajmOAbVeZg

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 22, 2021

It’s yet another milestone achievement in the 38-year-old’s Hall of Fame-worthy career. Signed in 1999 as an amateur free agent out of Venezuela, Cabrera reached Double-A in 2003 and made his major league debut that same year at age 20 in June. It didn’t take him long to hit his first home run, and he did so by announcing his presence to Marlins fans and the entire sport, walloping a walk-off to dead center in his first game and becoming only the third major leaguer ever to do that.

Over 87 games that season, Cabrera hit 12 home runs but also struck out a fair bit, with a 24.3% rate. He was showing signs of the player he would become in terms of power, but he didn’t quite have the discipline at the plate yet. Still, he had a meteoric rise with the Marlins, helping them win the World Series in his rookie year and making four straight All-Star appearances from 2004 to ’07.

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Ben’s post-concert encounter with a podcast listener, Miguel Cabrera’s 500th home run and the future of the 500-homer club, the latest sighting of Tom’s enigmatic message to Caitlyn at Great American Ball Park, the Rockies possibly promoting a GM from within (again), and a few pennant race updates, then meet major leaguers Packy Naughton and Griffin Jax and share Stat Blasts about whether managers are more likely to make the outgoing pitcher or the incoming pitcher issue an intentional walk, and Yam Yaryan and the players who hit a walk-off for their only career home run.

Audio intro: The Coral, "In the Rain"
Audio outro: Paul Weller, "Moon on Your Pyjamas"

Link to rainy concert video
Link to pajama jeans commercial
Link to video of Cabrera’s 500th homer
Link to fun facts about Cabrera’s 500th
Link to video of Cabrera’s first homer
Link to latest Tom/Caitlyn message
Link to video of Wade homer
Link to video of Cronenworth homer
Link to report about Bill Schmidt
Link to Mike Petriello on the Yankees
Link to Joel Sherman on the Yankees
Link to article about Naughton
Link to article from February about Jax
Link to article about Jax’s call-up
Link to Jax tongue video
Link to Stat Blast data on all IBB
Link to Stat Blast data on pitching-change IBB
Link to PosCast episode about earned runs
Link to article about Yaryan’s nickname
Link to tweet about “the grink”
Link to article on yams vs. sweet potatoes
Link to Criscione’s SABR bio
Link to catcher using mask to touch ball
Link to Stat Blast data about walk-offs

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Shane McClanahan is one of the best young pitchers in the game, and a weapon that wasn’t in his arsenal prior to this season is one of the reasons why. The 24-year-old Tampa Bay Rays southpaw has added a slider, and he’s been featuring it prominently while putting up a 3.63 ERA, a 3.31 FIP, and 113 strikeouts in 94-and-a-third innings. Delivered at an average velocity of 89.5 MPH — fourth highest among hurlers with 60-plus frames — McClanahan is throwing his new pitch a healthy 35.4% of the time.

The seeds of the offering date back to early-January.

“I was throwing a pre-spring-training bullpen at the Trop,” explained McClanahan, whom the Rays drafted 31st overall out of the University of South Florida in 2018. “I told [pitching coach Kyle] Snyder, ‘Hey, I want to try this pitch and see if it does anything.’ He said, ‘OK,’ so I did. Then he was like, ‘Throw it again.’ From there, I just kept throwing it and working on it.”

Snyder echoed that recollection when asked about McClanahan’s new asset, adding that the organization was all-in with the idea of adding a firmer breaking pitch. That was the sole intent. According to McClanahan, the idea was never as specific as “learn a cutter” or “learn a slider,” but rather to introduce a pitch that differentiated both from his curveball and the slurve he threw last October when debuting in the postseason.

I asked Snyder about the addition from a pitching coach’s perspective. Read the rest of this entry »

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley follow up on a conversation about protective headgear for pitchers by discussing softball face masks, then banter about whether MLB necessarily needs a legalized sticky substance or a pre-tacked ball, and attempt to unpack a distressing message from “Tom” to “Caitlyn” on the video board at a Reds game. Then (37:47) they talk to ESPN reporter Dan Hajducky about a shocking week for the booming sports card industry, highlighted by Fanatics securing exclusive card licenses with MLB, the MLBPA, and other major leagues and unions, baseball institution Topps losing its strangehold on MLB cards and scuttling its plans to go public, and a record-breaking sale of a Honus Wagner T206 card.

Audio intro: Sweet, "Tom Tom Turnaround"
Audio interstitial: Lunchbox, "Tom, What’s Wrong?"
Audio outro: Boat, "Topps"

Link to FAQ about softball face masks
Link to list of softball face masks
Link to Columbia Missourian on face masks
Link to the OU Daily on face masks
Link to Columbia Daily Tribune on face masks
Link to The Oklahoman on face masks
Link to Kelly Barnhill tweet about face masks
Link to history of first batting helmets
Link to history of modern batting helmets
Link to video of Lynn ejection
Link to Rob Arthur on sticky stuff effects
Link to the L.A. Times on Olympic baseballs
Link to Reuters on Olympic baseballs
Link to first Caitlyn/Tom message
Link to second Caitlyn/Tom message
Link to Craig Goldstein on Caitlyn/Tom
Link to Ben on the Castellanos meme
Link to Dan’s Topps/Fanatics report
Link to WSJ Topps/Fanatics report
Link to Sportico on the Topps merger
Link to Dan on the T206 sale
Link to Emma Baccellieri on the card boom
Link to earlier EW card-boom interview
Link to Dan’s website

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At the end of every season, MLB writers rehash the same awards debates. Should a pitcher be the MVP if they only play every fifth day? What exactly does MVP mean, anyway? Does it have to be a player on a contending team, or is it enough to be the best player on a team that has no chance of playing in October? Can a reliever win the Cy Young award if they are just so much better than the starting pitchers that their lower volume of work is exceeded by their sheer dominance?

There is one award that is a bit simpler in its execution: Rookie of the Year honors can go to any player as long as they were the most outstanding rookie in the American or National League. Aside from some debates about what qualifies as a rookie — fewer than 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched or fewer than 45 days on the active roster (excluding time on the Injured List and/or roster expansion in September) — that is about as straightforward as it gets for MLB, which brings us to 2021 and an early look at the rookie leaderboards. Those qualifications can result in some familiar names appearing atop these lists, and that’s particularly true this year, since some who played in the shortened 2020 season (or even 2019) have yet to clear those at-bat or innings thresholds. Some names, too, that floated to the top of these conversations shortly after the All Star break have already faded away, and only a handful remain from our preseason staff predictions. Read the rest of this entry »