One of the saddest stories I’ve ever read was that Sports Illustrated profile of Chris Davis amid his struggles where he talked about just sitting in his car sobbing because he couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong
2016: “Trout or Harper with the 1st pick?”
2017: “Trout or Goldschmidt with the 1st pick?”
2018: “Trout or Altuve with the 1st pick?”
2019: “Trout or Yelich with the 1st pick?”
2020: “Trout or Acuña with the 1st pick?”
What never changes? Mike Trout.
It’s Steven Wright’s birthday, and if you don’t know his work, do yourself a favor and look up some of his stuff—he’s one of the greatest comedians to ever do it
This is too good
James McCann hits a double, so the Orioles dugout puts water in their mouths waiting for him to do the sprinkler, but then it's challenged, so they just keep holding water in their mouths waiting for a call
And then McCann forgets to do the sprinkler lol
Baseball fan attends MLB game with his wife and two kids:
- Pays $80 for four tickets in upper deck
- Pays $15 to park
- Pays $60 for food for everyone
- Has spent ~$155 to attend this baseball game
Also baseball fan(?):
"BASEBALL IS TOO LONG LET'S HURRY THIS UP I WANNA LEAVE"
“I’m a fantasy sports writer”
- sounds fake
- you must be poor
- nerd alert lmao
“I help people with their fantasy”
- mysterious
- sounds sexy
- maybe you wear fancy colognes
Hey everyone! I’m gonna be on SportsCenter tonight!
Just taped a segment talking about my article on the rise in HBPs over the years, and it should air around 6ish ET tonight
So check it out!
Cade Povich has two very legit breaking pitches in his slider and curveball (both below)
So far this year in high-A, he’s sporting a 3.40 FIP and a 31.8% strikeout rate in 16 starts. Looks like a nice grab by the Orioles
Friendly reminder that Ramón Urías, who just hit this 105 MPH dinger, has been hitting .300/.352/.560 over the past two weeks, owns the 20th best hard-hit rate in baseball, and is available in over 95% of ESPN and Yahoo leagues
I know we're all talking about Jake Arrieta right now (as we should), but can we take a moment to appreciate this beautiful curveball German Marquez threw earlier today?
What’s really wild is at no point was this pitch ever a strike. It didn’t start in the zone and dart out or vice versa - it started way inside and finished low. Crazy call to miss
It's only two innings so far but worth noting: Eury Perez is averaging 2,644 RPMs on his fastball so far
That's the same average spin rate Emmanuel Clase has on his fastball, and that leads the league
This is the story of Nathan Patterson, the viral sensation who’s now a baseball prospect. It’s also the story of
@pitchingninja
—a man who has dedicated himself to making sure nobody like Patterson falls through the cracks ever again.
This is probably the biggest research piece I've done in a while, and the results were super interesting.
The conventional wisdom saying you shouldn't throw a breaking ball high or on your first pitch doesn't seem to be true
Check it out on
@PitcherList
More on Fujinami for any O’s fans who aren’t familiar:
He primarily goes with a fastball/splitter combo, working in a cutter and slider sometimes too
Fastball averages 98 MPH, splitter (below) is pretty nasty as well
Pitchers with the biggest gaps between their ERA and FIP so far:
1. Tyler Mahle (6.45 ERA/2.39 FIP)
2. Kyle Freeland (6.16 ERA/4.07 FIP)
3. Marcus Stroman (6.98 ERA/4.93 FIP)
4. Kevin Gausman (2.19 ERA/0.55 FIP)
5. Tarik Skubal (3.05 ERA/1.57 FIP)
When you see that Trevor Richards had a 4.42 ERA, 4.05 FIP, and 1.39 WHIP, it's easy to overlook him, but this dude had a FILTHY changeup last year:
52.3% chase rate
24.2% whiff rate
35.8% strikeout rate
.227 wOBA against
14.7 pVAL
That's an elite pitch
My point: the only people who care about how long baseball games are are the umpires, the broadcasters, the sportswriters, and the stadium staff.
If I'm paying all this money to attend a baseball game, I'd like to get my money's worth
This is one of the best changeups in baseball and it’s so rarely talked about.
So far this year:
- 51.4% chase rate
- 41% zone rate
- 17% SwStr rate
- .277 wOBA against
Over the past two weeks, Christian Walker is slashing .314/.415/.486 and on the season, his Statcast profile looks like this.
And he's widely available in just about every format. So go pick him up
Last year, Trivino's cutter was the second-best in baseball when ranked by pVAL, behind Corey Kluber ()
It was also a money pitch, with a 46.8% chase rate, 45.4% zone rate, and a 21.2% SwStr rate.
It's absolutely filthy
Ever wonder what the most-chased pitch in baseball is?
For the first half of this season, it's been Hyun-Jin Ryu's changeup, with a filthy 57.9% chase rate.
It's also got an equally awesome 18.9% SwStr rate, and its 15.6 pVAL is tied for sixth-highest in baseball