Sunday Notes: An Ever-Diligent Daylen Lile Details His Cage Drills

Daylen Lile was one of the top rookie performers in the senior circuit this season. The 22-year-old outfielder debuted with Washington Nationals in late May and went on to slash .299/.347/.498 with a 132 wRC+ over 351 plate appearances. Displaying a combination of speed and power, Lile legged out 11 triples and left the yard eight times. A ninth home run on his ledger was an inside-the-parker.

When I talked to him in September, I learned that Lile and Nationals teammate James Wood were doing a lot of drill work together in the batting cage. Left on the cutting room floor from our conversation— the ensuing feature can be found here — was what he told me about the work itself. Like most good hitters, Lile is diligent about his routine.

“Your preparation matters, because what happens there translates to the game,” he said. “Mechanically, I still have the same swing I had [when entering pro ball in 2021], although I have changed a few things. I started getting my foot down early to see pitches longer, and now I’m doing a toe-tap for more rhythm, getting synced with the pitcher.”

And then there is the routine itself. Lile has been doing his “movement-prep stuff,” since coming back from UCL surgery, which cost him the 2022 season. Getting his body loose and keeping it that way throughout a long season is an integral part of his process. As you might expect, the work he does in the batting cage is every bit as important.

“I do a lot of tee work,” Lile told me “James Wood and I have been doing some of the same drills. One is top-hand, where we’re working through the ball on the tee. Then there is a drill where I fire off my backside and hold it — I’m on one leg — so that I can keep my direction going towards center field, and can have true backspin on the ball. My last drill, I put a little slide board on my back foot so I can stop my front side like it’s a kickstand on the bike. If I recognize a breaking ball, I have like a little scissor kick, making sure not to over-rotate.”

Lile also hits off of a machine, “doing these dimple balls, these foam balls, to see better spin on fastballs and breaking balls.” A three-plate progression drill is part of that work, which is done on a Hack Attack. Lile will move both closer and farther away from the machine, varying the difficulty. To his mind, easier isn’t better.

“I want to be challenged,” explained Lile. “Hitting is hard, so you need to train like hitting is hard.”

———

RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Thurman Munson went 8 for 19 against David Clyde.

Enos Slaughter went 8 for 14 against Clyde King.

Clyde Vollmer went 9 for 17 against Dick Fowler.

Clyde Milan went 11 for 18 against Slim Harriss.

Clyde Kluttz went 12 for 22 against Johnny Schmitz.

———

Jonny Farmelo is one of the higher-profile prospects playing in the Arizona Fall League this year. No. 70 on The Board and ranked sixth in a strong Seattle Mariners farm system, the 21-year-old outfielder has been described by Eric Longenhagen as having “a rare combination of power and speed.” Drafted 29th overall in 2023 out of Chantilly, Virginia’s Westfield High School, Farmelo has been limited to 75 professional games due to a torn ACL in 2024 and a rib cage stress reaction this past season. He had a 103 wRC+ over 129 plate appearances with High-A Everett.

When I talked to Farmelo on my recent AFL trip, one of the first things I asked him about was something my colleague wrote earlier this year. Longenhagen admitted that while he was relatively low on him prior to the draft, “the Mariners made his swing better pretty quickly after he signed.”

According to the youngster, that is only partially true.

“I wouldn’t say that I really changed my swing or any mechanics,” Farmelo told me. “It’s more the mindset of how to approach hitting, of attacking pitches in my zone, being aggressive in the middle and letting pitchers have the edges. I mean, you might see something different, but it’s really more of me playing around with setups and my swing. Throughout the past two seasons I’ve bounced around with what I’ve liked, and kind of rolled with where I am now.”

Asked to elaborate, Farmelo told me that he used to have a toe tap, and his hands in “a more traditional spot.” Neither is currently the case.

“I don’t do a toe tap at all, and I have my barrel real flat, almost vertical, straight on my back,” he explained. “Then, when I load, it kind of tips up. That’s the big adjustment I’ve made, working with my tips so that I’m in the spot where I want to be.

“I would refer to it as having rhythm in the box,” added Farmelo. “If I were to not have any motion at all, I wouldn’t be smooth in the box. I need some sort of motion to be ready to hit. The important thing is to get to the right spot almost every time.”

He referred to his bat path as being “pretty flat.” Farmelo feels that if he gets too vertical he tends to top-spin the baseball and not drive it the way he’d like. But while he acknowledges his ability to clear fences, that isn’t how he identifies as a hitter.

“I’m not trying to hit for power,” he told me. ”A line drive into the left-center-field gap is what I’m looking for. I would say my game is speed first, power second.”

Longenhagen’s scouting grades have Farmelo as a 70 runner and his raw power at 50 present/60 projected.

———

A quiz:

Al Kaline (399) has the most home runs in Detroit Tigers franchise history. Which two former Tigers are tied for second-most in that category? (A hint: one was a RHH, the other a LHH.)

———

NEWS NOTES

Boston’s Low-A affiliate, which has been known as the Salem Red Sox since 2009 — they were the Salem Avalanche from 1995-2008 while affiliated with two other organizations — has been rebranded as the Salem RidgeYaks. (The relationship between Yaks and Virginia is a mystery, but the logo is pretty cool.)

Craig Eaton, a right-hander who appeared in five games for the Kansas City Royals in 1979, died last month at age 71. The Cincinnati native allowed three runs over 10 innings of work in his brief time as a major league pitcher.

Steve Hargan, a right-hander who pitched for four teams from 1965-1977, died on October 30 at age 83. The Ball State University product had his best years with the Cleveland Indians, logging a 2.48 ERA over 192 innings in 1966, and a 2.62 ERA over 223 innings in 1967. He made the All-Star team in the latter of those seasons.

Not news, per se, but if you want to keep track of MLB coaching staffs, including the many vacancies that currently exist, Roster Resource has you covered. Colleagues Jason Martinez and Jon Becker do a fantastic job of keeping up with the hires.

———

The answer to the quiz is Norm Cash and Miguel Cabrera, each of whom homered 373 times as a Tiger.

———

In the summer following Munetaka Murakami’s monster 2022 season — one in which the Tokyo Yakult Swallows slugger slammed 56 home runs and put up a 225 wRC+ — I posed a question to several MLB executives:

Assuming they were both made available, which of Murakami or Roki Sasaki would you rather have?

Then 21 years old, Sasaki was viewed by many as the world’s most-promising pitcher. Even so, the acronym TINSTAAP exists for a reason. Arms can be volatile. As for the 23-year-old Murakami, while he was coming off of a historic season, the track record of hitters coming over from NPB has been more of a mixed bag. Could he be expected to produce against MLB pitchers?

Fast forward to today, and Sasaki is a World Series champion, albeit one who dealt with shoulder issues and threw just 36-and-a-third big-league innings to the tune of a 4.46 ERA and a startlingly-low 17.4% strikeout rate. Meanwhile, Murakami is now being posted after putting up a 210 wRC+ with 22 home runs over 224 plate appearances with the Swallows upon returning from an early-season oblique injury.

Two years ago, the executives I spoke to were predictably tight-lipped in terms of preference. How might they answer now, given a dose of truth serum? I’m inclined to think they’d take Sasaki, but that doesn’t mean it would be the right choice. A correct answer likely won’t be known for at least a few seasons.

———

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The Australian Baseball League season gets underway today. The 2025-2026 ABL circuit comprises just four teams — the Adelaide Giants, Brisbane Bandits, Perth Heat, and Sydney Blue Sox — as the Canberra Cavalry and Melbourne Aces will longer be competing in the circuit. The Cavalry beat the Heat in last year’s championship series.

The 2025-2026 Dominican Winter League season is underway with numerous MLB players and prospects participating. Aguilas Cibaenas, which has won 10 of 13 games, has a roster that includes Adael Amador, Ezequiel Durán, Angel Genao, Carter Jensen, Triston McKenzie, and Emmanuel Rodriguez.

Aaron Sanchez is 3-0 and has allowed just 11 hits and two runs over 23 innings for the Dominican Winter League’s Toros del Este. The 32-year-old right-hander last pitched in MLB with the Minnesota Twins in 2022. He went 15-2 with a 3.00 ERA for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016.

Yadier Molina is managing the Venezuelan Winter League’s Navegantes de Magallanes. Notable on the team’s roster is four-time MLB Gold Glove winner Andrelton Simmons, who played in the Mexican League earlier this year.

———

The release of the 2026 Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot, which my esteemed colleague Jay Jaffe expertly addressed earlier in the week, includes a lot of interesting names. No less notable are some of the omissions, with Lou Whitaker standing out among them. As many before me have pointed out, “Sweet Lou” not only has better numbers — including WAR and JAWS — than several second basemen who have been elected to the Hall of Fame, he and Alan Trammell played 1,918 games together as the Detroit Tigers double-play duo. No other keystone combo in MLB history can match that.

Trammell is in the Hall of Fame. Whitaker, whose stats are slightly better than those of his longtime teammate, should be enshrined as well. Frankly, they should have gone in together.

———

FARM NOTES

This year’s minor league Gold Glove winner at the shortstop position was Konnor Griffin, whom The Board ranks as baseball’s top prospect. The 19-year-old infielder in the Pittsburgh Pirates system also excelled with the bat. Griffin had 21 home runs and a 165 wRC+ across three levels, topping out in Double-A.

The Arizona Fall League’s Fall Stars Game will be played tonight at 8pm EST and broadcast live on MLB Network and MLB.com. The Home Run Derby took place last night, with 20-year-old Tony Blanco Jr. taking home the crown. The 6-for-7, 243-pound slugger had seven home runs and a 135 wRC+ over 125 plate appearances this past season with High-A Bradenton. Currently the No. 16 prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates system, Blanco is the son of former MLB and NPB infielder/outfielder Tony Blanco who died earlier this year when the roof of a nightclub collapsed in Santo Domingo, resulting in over 200 fatalities.

Raudi Rodriguez is slashing .421/.507/.614 over 68 plate appearances for the AFL’s Salt River Rafters. Currently unranked in the Los Angeles Angels system, the 22-year-old outfielder had a 130 wRC+, 21 doubles, 14 triples, 14 home runs, and 38 stolen bases with Low-A Inland Empire this season.

Caden Connor is slashing .383/.519/.417 over 79 plate appearances for the AFL’s Glendale Desert Dogs. Currently unranked in the Chicago White Sox system, the 25-year-old outfielder/first baseman had seven home runs and 13 steals to go with a 116 wRC+ across three levels, topping out in Triple-A.

———

A random obscure former player snapshot:

Taffy Wright slashed .328/.390/.453 across 2,388 plate appearances in his first five MLB seasons, which included two with the Washington Nationals and three with the Chicago White Sox. Among players who came to the dish at least 2,000 times over that 1938-1942 span, only Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Cecil Travis posted a higher batting average. Wright topped the .300 mark in each of those seasons.

The outfielder from Tabor City, North Carolina then had his career interrupted by World War II. Serving in the Army, Wright missed the 1943-1945 campaigns before returning to the White Sox in 1946 and batting a respectable .275. He then raised his average to .324 in 1947, but that was to be his final productive season. Taft Shedron Wright played two more years, ultimately finishing his big-league tenure with a .311 average and a .799 OPS. He later managed in the minors, serving at the helm for the Ottawa A’s, Amarillo Gold Sox, and Orlando Seratomas.

———

Random obscure former player snapshot — bonus entry:

Bill Bergen was a woeful hitter throughout his career. Playing with the Brooklyn Superbas/Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds across the 1901-1911 seasons, the North Brookfield, Massachusetts native logged a Lilliputian 22 wRC+ over 3,234 plate appearances. Even so, he was an asset in his time. Per a 1908 issue of The Sporting News — as related in Bergen’s SABR BioProject entry — the deadball-era catcher “ranks with the best receivers in modern baseball.” He was certainly among the best throwers. Despite catching just 7,883 innings, Bergen has the ninth-most assists at the position in big-league history. Also per his SABR bio, “On August 23, 1909, Bergen gunned down six St. Louis Cardinals attempting to steal.”

Bergen’s Baseball-Reference bio includes these nuggets:

“Total Baseball ranks him the fifth-best defensive catcher of all-time [and] by the measure of win shares, Bergen was the second-best catcher of his time, trailing only Ossee Schrecongost.”

———

LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

Gaslamp Ball’s Cheri Bell wrote about the San Diego Padres’ decision to hire Craig Stammen as their new manager.

The Detroit Tigers have made some notable coaching changes. Emma Lingan told us about them at Motor City Bengals.

Andscape’s Clinton Yates wrote about how Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Justin Dean took a role player route to the World Series.

How did Mike Trout, the best player of his generation, fade away? Brittany Ghiroli addressed that question at The Athletic.

Rick Reuschel is one of the more underrated pitchers in recent generations. Tim Castelli profiled the 1972-1991 right-hander for SABR’s BioProject.

———

RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Javier Sanoja, who won a Gold Glove this season in the utility-player category, played in 10 or more games at five different positions. The Miami Marlins jack-of-all-trades also made eight pitching appearances, allowing 17 runs over nine-and-a-third innings.

Fernando Valenzuela pitched in 453 games and went 173-153 with a 104 ERA+. Ken Holtzman pitched in 451 games and went 174-150 with a 105 ERA+.

Willie Stargell had a .282 batting average, 475 home runs, and 1,540 RBIs.
Carlos Delgado had a .280 batting average, 473 home runs, and 1,512 RBIs.

Luis Arraez has played in 595 games and has 164 extra-base hits and 143 walks over the past four seasons. Nico Hoerner has played in 592 games and has 160 extra-base hits and 160 walks over the past four seasons.

Rusty Greer batted .305 with a 120 wRC+ over 4,420 plate appearances with the Texas Rangers from 1994-2002. The left-handed-hitting outfielder was born Thurman Clyde Greer, in Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Dave Pope batted .265 while suiting up for the Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles across the 1952-1956 seasons (he played in Game One of the 1954 World Series, which featured Willie Mays’s famous over-the-shoulder catch at the Polo Grounds). An outfielder with the Negro National League’s Homestead Grays prior to reaching MLB at age 31, the Talladega, Alabama native notched a .325 average against the Kansas City Athletics over 95 plate appearances. Pope fared far worse against the Chicago White Sox, batting just .189 over 82 plate appearances..

Ozzie Guillen was named the American League’s Manager of the Year on today’s date in 2005. At the helm of the team he’d played for from 1984-1997, Guillen led the Chicago White Sox to 99 regular-season wins and a World Series title.

The Atlanta Braves signed Rafael Furcal as an amateur free agent on today’s date in 1996. The switch-hitting shortstop from Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic went on to win National League Rookie of the Year honors in 2000 and make an All-Star team with each of the Braves, Dodgers, and Cardinals. He won a World Series ring with St. Louis in 2011.

Players born on today’s date include Connie Grob, a right-hander from Cross Plains, Wisconsin who appeared in 37 games for the Washington Nationals in 1956 (the franchise formally became the Senators the following year, although they had been commonly referred to by that name for decades). Grob went 4-5 with a 7.83 over 79-and-third innings in his lone big-league season. He’s broken into pro ball as a teenager in 1952, going 24-5 with a 2.65 ERA with the Wisconsin State League’s Sheboygan Indians.

Also born on today’s date was Don Loun, a left-hander from Frederick, Maryland who appeared in a pair of games for the Washington Senators in 1964. The second of his two big-league outings was nothing to write home about — he allowed four runs in four innings — but his initial outing was another story. Pitching against the Boston Red Sox in front of a sparse crowd at D.C. Stadium (the official attendance was 1,491), Loun tossed a five-hit shutout in a 1-0 Senators win.