Mariners
• Dominic Canzone will be part of the right field rotation.
Prior to the game, manager Dan Wilson noted that Canzone would be “in the mix” for at-bats as part of a right field rotation moving forward.
Astros
• Jacob Melton will not play every game, and when he does, it’ll be against righties.
“We’re taking it a little slow with the groin. We were playing [Jacob Melton] four days a week in the minor leagues and it kind of fits here,” Brown told the team’s pregame radio show.
“He’s probably going to come up here and face right-handers, gives us that left-hand bat we’ve been looking for. We don’t have to play him here every day, but we’re gradually going to break him in and see what he can do.”
Astros
• Jake Meyers spent the offseason reworking his swing. Read the rest of this entry »
Athletics
• The team hopes to improve their pitchers’ setup by cleaning and adding AC to the dugout bathroom.
Severino came away with the idea after a conversation with pitching coach Scott Emerson, who believes the change will help him feel more comfortable with the field, which from the mound offers a view unlike any other ballpark in MLB.
“There’s a definite weird look from the rubber to home plate with where the walkway is behind the dish,” Emerson said. “The press box is off-center, and that can kind of give you an optical illusion of maybe the plate being in a different spot, per se. I think if we can get his [bullpen] sessions off the game mound and get him more comfortable seeing the visual there, that’ll help.”
Severino also has referenced the lack of a connected clubhouse to the dugout — the A’s new two-story clubhouse at Sutter Health Park is situated behind left field — as something he has had to adjust to. His usual in-game routine on days he starts consists of heading inside the clubhouse during the half-innings he is not on the mound to either watch film or move around to keep his body warm.
…
“When you don’t have a clubhouse to go to, it can be frustrating at times,” Emerson said. “We’ve just got to find a way to be better. Whether it’s going into the clubhouse from the mound every now and then to kind of relax and decompress and sit down in a comfortable chair where you control the air conditioning or heat each and every game.
“But that’s going to be tough, too, because it’s going to take two minutes to get off the field and two minutes to get back on the field. Maybe we can find a comfortable spot in the dugout or the [dugout] bathroom. Clean it up a little bit to where he feels comfortable with.”
Angels
• The team is not running wild this season.
As a team, the Angels have swiped just 17 bags this season, which ranks 27th in baseball. In a terrible 2024, stealing bags was part of their identity, when they ranked 12th in the sport with 133.
Part of the problem is not having enough people on base. But the Angels have been notably less aggressive. Luis Rengifo, who stole 24 bases in 78 games last season, has just one in 32 games this year. Jo Adell stole 15 last year, but has just one so far this year.
Mariners
• Logan Evans was fine in his MLB debut with 2 HR, 3 K, 3 BB, and 1 HR in 5 IP. Diving into his pitch mix makes him out to be a junk ball pitcher.
| Pitch Model | FF | SI | FC | SL/ST | CH | CU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OverallBot (50 avg) | 33 | 26 | 62 | 62 | 53 | 49 |
| Pitching+ (100 avg) | 71 | 76 | 92 | 129 | 106 | 78 |
| pERA comps | 5.22 | 5.06 | 1.97 | 3.21 | 2.57 | 2.81 |
| AAA Usage | 3.2% | 28.3% | 7.5% | 54.4% | 3.0% | 3.5% |
| MLB Usage | 9.0% | 20.5% | 24.4% | 20.5% | 16.7% | 9.0% |
No system likes his fastballs (four-seamer or sinker). As for his secondaries, their grades range from average to great. I’m interested to see how he performs over his next few starts. He might be a bench-and-monitor with the starting pitcher pool thinned out. Read the rest of this entry »
• Lance Brozdowski covered some lowly rostered arms, Ryan Gusto, Sean Newcomb, Emerson Hancock, and Tomoyuki Sugano. Here is a bit on Gusto.
Aesthetically, he has an odd “look” on the mound, stepping crossfire with average extension into his release, paired with an average release height. He moved toward the 3B side of the rubber late last season and has stuck with positioning this season. This makes me wonder whether the Astros were trying to optimize something horizontally in terms of his approach, or if his stride direction is connected somehow to his fastball vert increase. I had no idea who Gusto was before today’s outing, and I’m now intrigued. It’s a deep mix, 2 strikeable pitches per handedness, put-away pitches versus righties. The Astros remain good at developing pitchers.
This is just a reminder to follow Lance’s Substack, where he writes about pitcher changes on nearly a daily basis. Read the rest of this entry »
• Three teams (Rays, Tigers, and Cardinals) mentioned they will insert starters into their rotation to give guys extra rest. Instead of spending hours trying to find each team’s plan, it can be seen on this Baseball Reference page (promoted the G[ames] column). Here the top and bottom teams in games started.
| Team | Games Started with 4 Days of Rest |
|---|---|
| MIL | 9 |
| KCR | 8 |
| COL | 8 |
| CIN | 7 |
| BOS | 6 |
| DET | 1 |
| CHW | 1 |
| NYM | 1 |
| TBR | 1 |
| LAA | 1 |
| CLE | 1 |
Even this early into the season, it’s obvious which teams want to rest their pitchers more and those who don’t. Read the rest of this entry »
Note: I read a ton of articles and there was little useful information. During the season, little non-game information becomes public. I’m going to focus on the format I used last week where I examine playing time situations, new starters, and still dive into some useful news. I’ll see how it goes for a few weeks.
Note: I needed to write an article and dig through early season information. Here are some notes by team … sort of.
With several sources discussing exit velocity gainers, it’s time to look at what matters. A few years ago in The Athletic, Rob Arthur found the following:
That precision makes it useful. It turns out that the hardest-hit batted ball a player strikes is enough on its own to predict whether a player will outperform their PECOTA projection.
For every mile per hour above 108, a hitter is projected to gain about 6 points of OPS relative to their predicted number.
Using the batters MaxEV from the past three seasons, here are the guys who have set a new high over 108 mph. Read the rest of this entry »