Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to the April 1 edition of my chat. This April fool is still recovering from having accidentally sent my mom’s birthday gift to my Brooklyn apartment instead of her Salt Lake City residence.
Jay Jaffe: But… that’s about to change. I’ll cover the Pollock/Kimbrel trade for Monday — had to see it about 18 times before I was willing to concede it was real and not an April 1 conspiracy on the part of the industry’s newsbreakers.
Author’s note: Jacob deGrom was scratched from his scheduled start today after feeling tightness in his throwing shoulder. He will undergo an MRI. While that potential injury makes his availability for the start of the season murky, this article is about his spring start on March 27.
When you watch Jacob deGrom, he’ll make you question what you know about the fine art of pitching. Develop a mix of killer pitches to keep batters off balance? He has five excellent pitches, but he basically only uses two of them. Change speeds? He throws his fastball in a consistent band, his slider in a consistent band, and when he does deign to drop in a changeup, it matches his slider.
None of that is the most obviously extreme thing about deGrom, though. If you’ve paid attention through a few of his starts, you know what I’m talking about: he barely uses any of the plate. Home plate is 17 inches wide, and baseballs have a radius of roughly 1.5 inches. That means that pitchers have 18.5 inches of horizontal space to play with, from catching the edge on one side of the plate to catching it on the other. Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier today, Jay Jaffe rounded out the outfield with his look at right fielders. Now we conclude our rankings of the game’s position players with a deep dive on designated hitters.
As Meg Rowley did when she introduced this year’s positional power rankings, I’ll begin with a quick refresher: All 30 teams are ranked here based on the projected WAR from our Depth Charts, which is arrived at using a 50/50 blend of the ZiPS and Steamer projections and our manually maintained playing time estimates. In other words, the teams and players populating the bottom of this list aren’t there based on any one person’s opinion. You’re free to disagree, or even to yell, but doing so in this author’s direction would be misguided.
That said, this particular list is twice as long as it used to be. The National League — to the whole-hearted appreciation of some, and the consternation of others — has finally adopted the designated hitter. Five decades (minus one year) after the junior circuit introduced the rule, pitchers will no longer hit. Of course, Shohei Ohtani still will, but only because he can do something few pitchers in history have been capable of doing: swing the bat like a DH. Now, on to the rankings! Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday Jason Martinez and Jon Tayler previewed left and center field. Now we round out the outfield positions in right.
Last year was a banner one for right fielders. For starters, Bryce Harper and Juan Soto finished first and second in National League MVP voting, that after ranking first and third in the majors in wRC+, and finishing in a virtual tie for third in WAR. Aaron Judge and Kyle Tucker both ranked among the majors’ top seven hitters by wRC+ as well, with the former cracking the top 10 in WAR, too. Seven of the top 30 qualified hitters by wRC+ were right fielders, even with Mookie Betts grinding through a comparatively subpar season where he was beset by a bone spur in his hip and Ronald Acuña Jr. falling short of qualifying due to a torn ACL that ended his season in July, perhaps costing him the NL MVP award. Meanwhile, Nick Castellanos, who ranked 13th in the majors in wRC+, was one of seven position players to net a $100 million free agent contract this winter, though he’s bound for more DH and left field duty with the Phillies. Read the rest of this entry »
Dan wrote about the league’s catchers, so the duo discuss Will Smith’s sneaky stardom, Yasmani Grandal’s wild 2021 stat line, and how the importance of framing makes Salvador Perez a controversial backstop. Meanwhile, Ben covered second and third base, so we also hear about where Luis Arraez fits in for the Twins (and their curious situation at third), the career arc of Gleyber Torres, and whether Ben thinks he would give Jose Altuve a Hall of Fame vote when the time comes. Finally, Ben shares his favorite video game of the year so far, and it probably isn’t the one you think.
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Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @dhhiggins on Twitter.
Dan Szymborski: Welcome to SzymChat! Now, we should have had baseball this week, but at least we’ll have it next Thursday instead of , say, nothing until 2023!
12:04
Fish: What’s for lunch?
12:04
Dan Szymborski: Probalby some leftover pizza.
12:04
Biscuit Barn: Daaaan !!! How worried are you about Bellinger not being able to hit ?
12:04
Dan Szymborski: Quite. There were already reasons to be worried
12:05
Dan Szymborski: And while spring training doesn’t mean a LOT, Rosenheck showed some years ago that it means a LITTLE of something
Earlier today, Jason Martinez examined the state of left field. Now we turn our attention to those who roam center.
Center field is jam-packed with interesting depth charts. Magisterial superstars? We’ve got those — Mike Trout and Ronald Acuña Jr. feature prominently. Marvelous defenders? Byron Buxton is more than just that, but he certainly fits the bill, and Harrison Bader might be his equal with the glove. Exciting rookies? Julio Rodríguez and Riley Greene are both projected to play. Bounce-back candidates, 2021 breakouts who will be trying to prove it again, sketchy defenders who play the position anyway for want of better options — the center field landscape is truly diverse. Sure, Trout tops the list, and sure, the Rockies and Royals bring up the rear, but don’t judge a book by its front and back cover: this might be the most interesting collection of projections in this entire exercise. Read the rest of this entry »
The MLB Statcast fielding metric Outs Above Average (OAA) is now available on player pages in the “Advanced Fielding” section and on the leaderboards. We’ve also included the accompanying Fielding Runs Prevented metric (RAA), which is OAA converted to runs above average. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday, we wrapped up our analysis of the league’s infielders with third base and shortstop. Today, we shift our attention to the outfield, starting in left.
This year’s group of left fielders is projected to combine for less WAR (65.7) than any other positional group, although the “Mike Trout to left” move that was discussed this spring but didn’t come to fruition — maybe next year — would have pushed them ahead of the first basemen. This shouldn’t be a shocking revelation. In last year’s write-up, Kevin Goldstein described left field as “something of an island of misfit toys” and “a bit of a dumping ground on big-league rosters.” Read the rest of this entry »
Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to the April 1 edition of my chat. This April fool is still recovering from having accidentally sent my mom’s birthday gift to my Brooklyn apartment instead of her Salt Lake City residence.
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Dan Szymborski
