2024 MLB Miscellaneous News

[torts]

https://theathletic.com/5481059/2024/05/09/mlb-top-hitting-prospects-majors?source=user-shared-article

 

Really interesting article about some of the potential reasons too prospects are struggling at the plate.  Didn't even know AAA had 6 game series 

[TURBO]

56 minutes ago, torts said:

https://theathletic.com/5481059/2024/05/09/mlb-top-hitting-prospects-majors?source=user-shared-article

 

Really interesting article about some of the potential reasons too prospects are struggling at the plate.  Didn't even know AAA had 6 game series 

Can't read it without being a member...

[Playing Catch]

The article didn't mention anything about robo-umps, which I think is a mistake. Those hitters have such a refined eye with the "perfect" strike zone. Take those pitches in MLB, and they strike out.

[tmwiese55]

Twins on MLB today.  Former Brewer and guy a lot of us wanted back in Carlos Santana so far is at 195/280 with a 611 ops.  I'm confident he'll rebound and be just fine but rough start for him.   Generally speaking Bauers has been slightly better so far while also having more position flex and costing a few million less. But did cost whatever we gave in the trade.  I think Bauers has gotten a bit unlucky on balls (though not sure how the advance stats check out), and having not watched Twins game I can't say on Santana.

[beekay414]

3 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

Twins on MLB today.  Former Brewer and guy a lot of us wanted back in Carlos Santana so far is at 195/280 with a 611 ops.  I'm confident he'll rebound and be just fine but rough start for him.   Generally speaking Bauers has been slightly better so far while also having more position flex and costing a few million less. But did cost whatever we gave in the trade.  I think Bauers has gotten a bit unlucky on balls (though not sure how the advance stats check out), and having not watched Twins game I can't say on Santana.

.324 BABIP on a .203 average says he's getting pretty lucky when he puts the ball in play actually. Most people don't have BABIPs 120 pts higher than their average.

[wiguy94]

7 minutes ago, beekay414 said:

.324 BABIP on a .203 average says he's getting pretty lucky when he puts the ball in play actually. Most people don't have BABIPs 120 pts higher than their average.

That's a very simplistic way to look at things also it's incredibly normal for high strikeout players to carry BABIP's that are much higher than their batting average.

Benson - 41.1% K-rate, .190 AVG, .305 BABIP

Cruz - 34.7% K-rate, .252 AVG, .363 BABIP

Busch - 34.5% K-rate, .256 AVG, .342 BABIP

Stanton - 33.8% K-rate, .228 AVG, .286 BABIP

Julien - 33.8% K-rate, .204 AVG, .262 BABIP

That's the 5 highest K-rates from qualified hitters. The average BABIP-AVG difference between the 5 is 86 points.

Furthermore, of the 341 hitters with 50 PA this season Bauers' .448 xwOBACON is 46th in the MLB. When Bauers makes contact the contact is generally quality contact. His wOBACON is .432 so he's actually slightly underperformed his xwOBACON to this point.

 

[TURBO]

Thought I'd give a nod to Khris Davis who is officially retiring from baseball.  He was a really fun player to watch in his time with the T-Rats!

Khris Davis officially announced his retirement from professional baseball.

 

The 36-year-old slugger hasn’t appeared in a big league game since 2021 and hasn’t seen the field at all since his time with the Kentucky Wild Health Gnomes of the independent Atlantic League in 2022. He finishes his career hitting .242/.314/.491 with 221 homers and 590 RBI over 980 games in nine seasons with the Brewers, Athletics and Rangers. Best of luck to Davis in the next chapter of his life.

 

Source: Bob Nightengale

[sveumrules]

Khrush Davis, Mister .247.

During his four year run from 2015-18 his 160 HR were second in MLB behind only Nelson Cruz.

[kestrel79]

11 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Khrush Davis, Mister .247.

During his four year run from 2015-18 his 160 HR were second in MLB behind only Nelson Cruz.

Did anyone here predict he would become the HR beast that he was during that reign? I think most didn't care because his arm and D were so bad. If we had the DH back then he would be been great to hang onto until he became a FA.

[Outlander]

I think a fair amount of people liked Khris Davis at the time but always had the poor arm and had the older prospect label. Wish Jacob Nottingham turned out better.

Will say he is one guy you can turn to as somebody that was sent back to the minors after making the opening day roster and then Krushing the ball after he came back later that summer. 500 OPS guy when optioned and 1000+ OPS guye when he returned. Maybe history will repeat itself with Chourio.

 

[Matt]

https://theathletic.com/5477905/2024/05/13/mlb-new-bat-speed-numbers/

Really, really good article about the treasure trove of data now available on Statcast's website, and what the numbers tell us. Also poses the question of what the new data means for future swing related injuries. 

[Team Canada]

ESPN has one up too: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40120458/mlb-statcast-bat-tracking-data-giancarlo-stanton-luis-arraez

[Jopal78]

17 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Khrush Davis, Mister .247.

During his four year run from 2015-18 his 160 HR were second in MLB behind only Nelson Cruz.

Kind of incredible to believe the Brewers had both Nelson Cruz and Khris Davis in their system, plus traded them both in separate deals for an underwhelming collection of players: Kevin Mench (441 PAs with Mil.), Laynce Nix (61 PAs), Jacob Nottingham (99 PAs), Bubba Derby (never made majors).

They did get Coco Cordero who was an All Star in his single full season with Milwaukee, but maybe could’ve gotten him straight up for Carlos Lee. Fascinating stuff .
 

 

[owbc]

Will the bat speed data be one of the rare analytics that helps hitters more than pitchers? Or will pitchers just use this information to further exploit hitters who have slow and/or long swings? 

[homer]

1 hour ago, owbc said:

Will the bat speed data be one of the rare analytics that helps hitters more than pitchers? Or will pitchers just use this information to further exploit hitters who have slow and/or long swings? 

related to that:

 

 

[Playing Catch]

Makes me wonder if there's any connection with Yelich's chronic back issues, being that he's acknowledged taking tons and tons of swings.

[TURBO]

Uh oh!  More cheating shenanigans from the Astros organization...

 

Ronel Blanco was ejected from Tuesday’s start against the Athletics following a foreign substance check.

 

Blanco is facing an automatic 10-game suspension after umpires confiscated his glove following a foreign substance check to open the fourth inning. The 30-year-old righty, who has thrown the only no-hitter in the majors this season, had tossed three scoreless innings against the Athletics to open the contest.

 

Source: Chandler Rome

[TURBO]

Here's a guy I didn't want to trade, we could sure use him now...

Reese Olson threw eight shutout innings in a no-decision against the Marlins, allowing three hits and striking out six.

 

Olson didn’t walk a batter or allow an extra-base hit all night. His slider was sharp on the night, helping him to a 29 percent whiff rate and 29 percent CSW overall. The 24-year-old now has a 2.09 ERA on the season with 41 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 47 1/3 innings. He somehow has no wins to show for it, but that should change soon. 

[wiguy94]

31 minutes ago, TURBO said:

Here's a guy I didn't want to trade, we could sure use him now...

Reese Olson threw eight shutout innings in a no-decision against the Marlins, allowing three hits and striking out six.

 

Olson didn’t walk a batter or allow an extra-base hit all night. His slider was sharp on the night, helping him to a 29 percent whiff rate and 29 percent CSW overall. The 24-year-old now has a 2.09 ERA on the season with 41 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 47 1/3 innings. He somehow has no wins to show for it, but that should change soon. 

That's going to be a black stain on Stearns trade record with the Brewers. Pretty much nobody liked that trade at the time especially those who had seen Olson pitch for the Timber Rattlers. Olson would look amazing in our rotation and is pretty much exactly what the rotation is missing.

[sveumrules]

12 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

That's going to be a black stain on Stearns trade record with the Brewers. Pretty much nobody liked that trade at the time especially those who had seen Olson pitch for the Timber Rattlers. Olson would look amazing in our rotation and is pretty much exactly what the rotation is missing.

Yeah, that trade was so lopsided I thought Stearns might be working for the Tigers instead of the Mets.

[Playing Catch]

It was a bad trade at the time, and my only hope was that Olson would end up washing out. Obviously, that hasn't been the case.

[Underachiever]

With Ronel Blanco’s suspension looming, I wonder: Does anyone in the Astros organization have any shame or decency?

[jay87shot]

49 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

With Ronel Blanco’s suspension looming, I wonder: Does anyone in the Astros organization have any shame or decency?

It still bugs me that Mike Fiers got a bad rap for that. The only man in an entire organization with the morals to say this is wrong.

I still remember Big Papi calling out Fiers on fox and backing Altuve, pisses me off whenever I see Ortiz.

[kestrel79]

10 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Yeah, that trade was so lopsided I thought Stearns might be working for the Tigers instead of the Mets.

Was this the Daniel Norris trade? Or Chafin? I think Norris. Yikes most of those deadline bullpen deals backfired the last couple years. Reese would look pretty good in our rotation right now...

[Playing Catch]

13 minutes ago, kestrel79 said:

Was this the Daniel Norris trade? Or Chafin? I think Norris. Yikes most of those deadline bullpen deals backfired the last couple years. Reese would look pretty good in our rotation right now...

Yes, Norris... ugh. Can we please stop bringing it up, it makes me nauseous.