Today’s column is brought to you by a typical Johnny Cash cover band.
AGENDA
Yesterday, I shared with you the top 15 hitters in the Statcast metric Barrels per Batted Ball Event (Brls/BBE). Today, I’ll tackle the bottom of that list, the laggards. These are the batters who have displayed no punch behind their batted balls. Since this list is far more boring and less interesting than the leaders, I will only pluck the fantasy relevant names, and those that are a bit of a surprise. There’s no need to list guys like Billy Hamilton as we know they will sit at the bottom.
What I assume all of you look like when you read my work:
I am speechless. I am without speech. https://t.co/64g59gDcMa pic.twitter.com/1i3jYiRZ9Y
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) May 9, 2017
Thanks guys! I appreciate it.
• In spite of the Bizarro World the Mets are currently living in, they had a walk-off win today against the Giants. Fernando Salas and Jerry Blevins combined to throw a scoreless seventh leading to Addison Reed in the eighth and Jeurys Familia in the ninth, who received the vulture win for his first victory of the year. We had Jerry Blevins as the third in line on the chart, and for good measure as he’s now pitching toa 0.79/1.32/2.35 ERA/FIP/xFIP pitching line but I feel Hansel Robles would be closer to saves if something were to happen to both Familia and Reed. Thankfully that’s not the case as the back of the Mets bullpen might be the most or only reliable thing on the team right now. Jeurys Familia was a bit shaky immediately upon his return but he’s looking smoother now and this situation is certainly green.
Tout Wars Outfield
I knew coming into the season, my Tout Wars outfield would not be the strongest. Usually, I wait on outfielders until they become great values which happen around the $15 mark. The only outfielder I send more than $15 on was Jose Ramirez and he is now at second base with Logan Forsythe on the DL. I need to start four these five with Bellinger taking the other outfield slot.
| Name | Cost | G | PA | HR | R | RBI | SB | BB% | K% | AVG | OBP | SLG | ISO | BABIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Kiermaier | $12 | 33 | 139 | 1 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 10.1% | 25.2% | 0.205 | 0.297 | 0.270 | 0.066 | 0.279 |
| Kole Calhoun | $8 | 32 | 138 | 4 | 17 | 11 | 0 | 8.0% | 19.6% | 0.248 | 0.319 | 0.384 | 0.136 | 0.287 |
| Carlos Beltran | $1 | 30 | 121 | 2 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2.5% | 24.8% | 0.243 | 0.273 | 0.357 | 0.113 | 0.310 |
| Jayson Werth | R | 27 | 110 | 5 | 18 | 10 | 3 | 11.8% | 27.3% | 0.292 | 0.382 | 0.479 | 0.188 | 0.377 |
| Steven Souza Jr. | R | 31 | 136 | 4 | 14 | 19 | 0 | 13.2% | 27.9% | 0.284 | 0.385 | 0.457 | 0.172 | 0.392 |
Beltran is easily the odd man out. The 40-year-old had a decent 2016 season with 29 home runs and a .295 AVG (.337 OBP). This year his ability to make contact is gone dropping from 83% to a career low 74%. The lack of contact has driven his K% to 25% (first time over 20%) and his BB% down to 2.5%.
This week’s Prospect Stock Watch takes a look at a fast-rising Rockies third base prospect, an Astros catching prospect that’s exceeding expectation every step of the way and yet another promising Dodgers prospect.
Previous Prospect Stock Watch: May 1 Alford, Funkhouser, Soroka
Ryan McMahon, 3B/1B, Rockies: I’ve been one of McMahon’s biggest supporters since he turned pro but he hit a significant speed bump during his first shot at the upper minors in 2016. His OPS dropped below .860 for the first time in his four-year career when he ended the double-A season at .724. This year, upon a return to the same level, he’s up to .998 through the first 25 games.
McMahon, 22, is always going to strike out a lot – his career rate is north of 25% — but he’s made some adjustments to his swing/approach (as noted in this piece by David Laurila) and is down to 17% so far this year. As well, almost half his hits have gone for extra bases – a trend more in line with his numbers from 2013-15. McMahon is a doubles-machine and ‘the Colorado effect’ could help turn some of those into over-the-fence bombs giving his 20-30 home run potential — especially if the inflated home run rates in the majors continue.
Another week, another Grind.
AGENDA
Episode 261 – That Gets My Antenna Up
The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!
In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss the Mets’ mess, Trevor Bauer’s homer problem, Josh Bell’s bad nickname, Jered Weaver’s weird season, Dylan trying to find a Yankee he likes, Dan Straily not being the new Tom Koehler, Marwin Gonzalez’s hot start, trying to find useful White Sox hitters, and an enjoyably weird iTunes review.
Podcast (field-of-streams): Play in new window | Download
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Late last season, the wonderful people at MLBAM graced us with a gift from the heavens — a new stat called Barrels. While there’s specific criterion that must be met to be considered a “barrel”, essentially, it’s a ball that a batter hits the crap out of. The stat is available on the Statcast leaderboard, which also includes the total number of batted ball events recorded for the batter. That allows for the calculation of an easy ratio, dubbed Barrles per Batted Ball Event, or Brls/BBE. I used this metric as the primary component of my Statcast-fueled xHR/FB rate. So now that the fine folks over at MLBAM have updated the numbers for the season, it’s time to dive in. Let’s begin by simply checking in on the leaders.
The Roto Riteup would like to wish our boy Bartolo Colon a happy one-year anniversary.
A year ago today, the impossible happened. pic.twitter.com/7tVCqY2g9a
— MLB (@MLB) May 7, 2017