2:00

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, good people, and welcome to another edition of my weekly chat. You have no shortage of me on FanGraphs today:  • I wrote about Carlos Rodón, Craig Kimbrel, and hidden perfect games https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/carlos-rodon-and-craig-kimbrel-attaine… • I had the honor of serving as the guest host on this week’s Chin Music podcast with Kevin Goldstein https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/chin-music-episode-9-counting-with-jay… • I had the honor of chatting with Jason Martinez about Fernando Valenzuela for this week’s FanGraphs Audio https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/fangraphs-audio-ross-atkins-feels-fort… • And speaking of Fernandomania, I’m quoted a couple of times in Jesses Sanchez’s great MLB feature — a discussion that inspired my own piece last week https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/remembering-fernandomania-40-years-l…

2:01	Jay Jaffe: (here’s my piece on the latter: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/remembering-fernandomania-40-years-later/)

2:03

Jay Jaffe: and while I’m hyping things up, for those of you with kids and grandparent-grandchild relationships in the picture who might be looking for an appropriate Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) gift, here’s my mother-in-law Paula Span’s collection of New York Times articles on grandparenting, drawn from her own reporting and personal experience with my daughter, aka “Bartola” https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Bubbe-Diaries-Audiobook/B091J7M7FL

2:04	Jay Jaffe: New contributor Carmen Ciardiello  debuted with a piece on Vlad Jr. I’ll be keeping my eye upon him for a future article as well, but let’s see him get a larger sample size under his feet first https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-obvious-vladimir-guerrero-jr-tweak/

2:05	Jay Jaffe: This, though Toronto Blue Jays @BlueJays KC barbecue is good. This SMOKED meatball is better #PLAKATA 16 Apr 2021

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As baseball re-adjusts to the typical rigors of a 162-game marathon, the enormity of the season looms large. The rush of new beginnings has already subsided after cresting atop pomp, circumstance, and red, white, and blue bunting. Seven months of this stuff can take a toll on the mind, because even though the gatekeepers of fun want the players to act more robotic, they’re still hopelessly human.

To break up the monotony – to prevent the edges from blurring together – life needs texture. The smoothness of everyday things, people, and feelings must be offset by secondary and tertiary characters, those who remind us what it’s like to experience things in technicolor rather than dull gray. For most of us, it’s the fun extended family member who you only see every so often, or the friend of a friend who’s always good for a chuckle.

For Ronald Acuña Jr., it’s games against the Miami Marlins. Read the rest of this entry »

When Carlos Rodón hit Roberto Pérez in the left foot with one out in the ninth inning of Wednesday night’s game, just about everybody watching who wasn’t pulling for Cleveland let out a collective groan. With one errant pitch, the 28-year-old lefty had lost his shot at completing just the 24th perfect game in major league history, and the first since the Mariners’ Felix Hernandez in 2012. He recovered in time to get the final two outs to complete a no-hitter, the second of the young season — not only a pretty cool accomplishment unto itself but an especially impressive one given the injuries and other ups and downs the former number three draft pick has endured in recent years.

Before Rodón even hit Pérez, he’d already done something cool, though, thanks to the tremendous lunge made by José Abreu to tag first base before Josh Naylor reached safely to start the ninth inning.

That out was the 27th in a row collected by Rodón, giving him a “hidden perfect game” across multiple appearances dating back to his April 5 start against the Mariners. In the fifth inning of that game, he bounced back from hitting Ty France on the right foot with a pitch to retire Kyle Seager and Evan White on balls hit to left field, completing five scoreless frames and starting his streak. Read the rest of this entry »

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I would imagine that one of the most jarring pitches for a major league batter to face is an extremely slow breaking pitch. Conventional wisdom might suggest the opposite — something like triple-digit heat. But at least a batter knows to expect high-end velocity when he steps to the plate against a given pitcher. A pitch under 70 mph, on the other hand, is rare enough that it can freeze you. Not familiar with the types of pitches I am talking about? Here are a select few.

Since 2015 (i.e., the Statcast era), just 0.3% of all pitches thrown in MLB have been under 70 mph; pitchers today generally live in velocity bands from 10 to 30 mph higher. Being able to slow the ball down to such an extreme degree without tipping off the batter to what is coming is not trivial, and being able to drop these pitches in for strikes takes practice. Taking time in a throwing session to lob lollipops into the strike zone probably seems foolish to many pitchers, especially if they can just throw 95 mph instead.

I understand the roadblocks to throwing slow looping curveballs. But whenever I see a pitcher throw them, they often seem to disarm the batter, who usually doesn’t swing. In that scenario, the worst-case result is often a ball, and if the pitcher can locate the pitch, he can nab a strike with little resistance. And as fastball velocity continues to increase across the league both this year and in seasons past, pitchers are increasingly leaning on breaking balls and offspeed pitches to fool hitters who are geared up for heat. With that in mind, a super-slow curveball could be a useful weapon. Read the rest of this entry »

Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Miami Marlins. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. As there was no minor league season in 2020, there are some instances where no new information was gleaned about a player. Players whose write-ups have not been meaningfully altered begin by telling you so. Each blurb ends with an indication of where the player played in 2020, which in turn likely informed the changes to their report if there were any. As always, I’ve leaned more heavily on sources from outside of a given org than those within for reasons of objectivity. Because outside scouts were not allowed at the alternate sites, I’ve primarily focused on data from there, and the context of that data, in my opinion, reduces how meaningful it is. Lastly, in an effort to more clearly indicate relievers’ anticipated roles, you’ll see two reliever designations, both on my lists and on The Board: MIRP, or multi-inning relief pitcher, and SIRP, or single-inning relief pitcher.

For more information on the 20-80 scouting scale by which all of our prospect content is governed, you can click here. For further explanation of Future Value’s merits and drawbacks, read Future Value.

All of the numbered prospects here also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It can be found here.

Nick Yorke was among the more intriguing — some might say confounding — picks in the 2020 amateur draft. Selected 17th overall by Boston out of a San Jose high school, the right-handed-hitting infielder wasn’t expected to go in the first round. Moreover, MLB Pipeline didn’t even rank him as a Top-100 draft prospect. Eyebrows were raised throughout the industry when Yorke’s name was announced on Day One.

Red Sox scouts obviously liked what they saw from the sweet-swinging California prepster. They’re convinced that he’s going to hit, and what they saw this spring only enhanced that belief. Yorke not only impressed during simulated games, he stroked a single off of Atlanta Braves southpaw A.J. Minter in his Grapefruit League debut. As Red Sox right-hander Garrett Richards said after watching him in action, “It made me stop in my tracks a little bit, because I had no idea that this kid was that young.”

Yorke, who celebrated his 19th birthday earlier this month, talked hitting — including his offseason sessions with Seattle Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger — midway through spring training.

———

David Laurila: How would you describe yourself as a hitter?

Nick Yorke: “I see myself as a grinder in the batter’s box. I take every at-bat very seriously. I hate striking out. I hate being beat. And I love hitting. There’s just something about it. You’re having a bad day, so it’s ‘OK, let’s hop in the cage and have some fun.’ I find hitting fun. To think you could change the game with one swing of the bat is exciting to me.”

Laurila: Something I’ve asked a lot of guys over the years is whether they look at hitting as more of an art, or as more of a science. How do you see it?

Yorke: “Ooh, that’s a good question. I see it as more of an art. I think everyone works on their craft, everyone has different feel in the batter’s box, they’re trying to accomplish different things. I mean, I’m not going to go up there and have the same approach as a 6-foot-5, power-hitting lefty first baseman. Everyone has their own thoughts when they’re in the box, so yeah, I would say it’s an art.”

Laurila: A number of hitters have told me “art,” then gone on to talk scientifically about how they approach things… Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s do it again, folks. This week, the co-host chair lands back in Brooklyn as Jay Jaffe makes time to yammer with me for two-plus hours. We start by figuring out how many games the Dodgers will win before discussing how today’s game creates a good environment for no-hitters and watching Jay count to 20. Then we are joined by special guest J.J. Cooper, the executive editor of Baseball America, who gives his reasons for being open-minded about baseball’s experimental rule changes in the minor and independent leagues. From there, it’s the final segment, where we dream about a few injury-free careers and consider an offer to become multi-millionaires before finishing off with British dramas and Fellini films. As always, we hope you enjoy, and thank you for listening. Read the rest of this entry »

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Episode 918

This week on FanGraphs Audio, we speak to an award-winning broadcaster and an major league GM while also looking back fondly on Fernandomania.

• To begin the program, David Laurila is joined by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, broadcaster for the Lansing Lugnuts and author of The Baseball Thesaurus. Jesse talks about his experiences calling live games that he was unable to see with his own eyes, what it was like to grow up a Tigers fan, meeting Ernie Harwell, and some of his favorite prospects to play for the Lugnuts. Finally, David and Jesse share some of their favorite baseballisms [3:32].
• Following that, Jason Martinez and Jay Jaffe get together to recall the legacy of Fernando Valenzuela. Jay recently wrote about Fernandomania, and the pair discuss what it was like to be young baseball fans at such an exciting time in the sport. Valenzuela was incredibly successful while not exactly looking like most other major leaguers, and Jason and Jay discuss the impact that had on the sport and their own fandom. [30:30]
• Finally, David returns to welcome Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins to the show. The pair talk about the last time they spoke, Atkins’ recent extension, what it’s like to work with Charlie Montoyo, and what the day-to-day life of a GM is like. Atkins also discusses some current Blue Jays players, including Julian Merryweather, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alejandro Kirk, and Nate Pearson, before David asks him about his college thesis on baseball. [56:30]

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