Here are the latest significant changes in projected playing time for pitchers since last Friday, led by Gunnar Hoglund (yes, that’s a photo of him in college way back in 2019!) making his MLB debut on Friday, hoping to help stabilize the back of an A’s rotation that’s struggled for production out of the fifth starter spot.
Here are the latest playing time projection changes for position players since April 22nd. Chandler Simpson’s excellent first week should help solidify him as the starting center fielder for the rest of the season and beyond.
Below are the latest pitcher playing time projection changes since last Friday. As always, a lot of reliever shuffling!
Here are the latest playing time projection changes for position players since April 15th. Get ready for Nick Kurtz’s debut on Wednesday!
Below are the latest pitcher playing time projection changes since last Friday, headlined by Justin Steele’s season-ending elbow surgery:
Here are the latest playing time projection changes for position players since April 8th, highlighted by a couple of interesting prospects forcing their way to — or closer to — the majors.
Here are the latest pitcher playing time changes since last Friday, when I first took a look at playing time changes for the regular season.
| Pitcher | Team | Old % of Team’s Remaining Starts | New % of Team’s Remaining Starts | PT Change | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Gibson | BAL | 12% | 15% | +3% | Already pitching in minors, should be up soon |
| Osvaldo Bido | ATH | 10% | 13% | +3% | Strong start, stronger hold on SP spot |
| J.T. Ginn | ATH | 8% | 11% | +3% | Likely Estes replacement |
| Justin Steele | CHC | 18% | 15% | -3% | IL’d with elbow tendonitis |
| Nestor Cortes | MIL | 13% | 10% | -3% | IL’d with flexor strain |
| Spencer Arrighetti | HOU | 16% | 12% | -4% | IL’d with fractured thumb |
| Blake Snell | LAD | 18% | 14% | -4% | IL’d with shoulder inflammation |
| Joey Estes | ATH | 12% | 7% | -5% | Got hit around, demoted |
| Reynaldo López | ATL | 11% | 3% | -8% | Shoulder cleanup, August return seems like best-case scenario |
Here are the latest developments in position player playing time projections for the rest of the season. Now that the season is in full swing, we’re unfortunately seeing the injuries roll in, as well as a big PED suspension for Jurickson Profar.
Welcome to the first Pitcher Playing Time Changes rundown of the regular season! As with position players, the methodology is a little different in the regular season.
For starting pitchers, instead of displaying raw games started projections like I did during Spring Training, I’m switching to percentage of a team’s remaining starts. When looking at this on a weekly basis, pitchers who are closer to coming back from injury will have their percentage go up, since they’re projected to miss less of the remaining season. Pitchers who were injured since the last update will, of course, have their percentage go down.
Relievers are going to be more streamlined, in that I’m not going to actually show projected innings pitched, because the way we project them internally always show as full-season innings, even if there’s only 50% of the season left. For example, a relief pitcher who started with 70 projected innings pitched and had his projections unchanged will still show as 70 innings pitched after 81 games. So, instead, I’ll just be showing percent change for notable relievers and we won’t be focusing on the actual innings they’re projected for when we’re only talking about a week of difference. That allows me to zero in on pitchers who’ve gotten injured or demoted.
Away we go:
Welcome to the regular season, and welcome to the first in-season edition of Position Player Playing Time Changes! This will be very similar to the Spring Training editions, but with a change to go over.
During Spring Training, the changes had been shown in plate appearances, since every team had a full season to play, but it’ll now be displayed in percentage of remaining plate appearances. T are 700 plate appearances available to each player at the start of the season, but there are only 350 available when the player’s team has played 81 games, for example. So you and I both won’t have to constantly re-contextualize what remaining plate appearance means relative to games played, we’ll stick with percentages now.
To start the year, I’ll be using a cutoff of a 10% plate appearance swing in either direction, but that cutoff will go down as the season goes on (since 10% of 158 games is the same as 5% of 78). Occasionally, I’ll include players a little bit under the cutoff if they’re notable enough. Without further ado, let’s get to it: