I’m just trying to grind through any nuggets in the end-of-season wrapups. I’ve found that teams out of the playoff picture provided better nuggets since they beat writers filling their article quotas writing about possible postseason lineups and rotations. I’ve got a few more late articles to comb through. I expect little to no usable news until the winter meetings.

American League

Angels

• Dylan Bundy should be ready for a full workload in 2021.

Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway said the way he and his staff approached the summer’s pandemic-induced layoff should help curb this. He estimated that Dylan Bundy has thrown “about 180 innings” this year from all the throwing on his ranch in Oklahoma, the summer training and his 65 2/3 innings in the big leagues this season. That would be about the same amount as what he threw in 2019 (161 2/3 with Baltimore plus spring training). It’s still something to monitor next year, though.

I expect all veteran pitchers to have the same limit since teams were most likely looking ahead to 2021, but it would be nice to have it stated about as many pitchers as possible.

Read the rest of this entry »

• One item missing from this article are hitters who played through an injury. While it needs to be updated, all the information can be located here.

• For Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, it took about two months for mechanical adjustments to take hold.

“In a shorter season, obviously everything gets magnified,” Rangel pointed out. “It’s tougher. In a regular season, we’d have about three or four months more to go, which gives you a little bit more time to kind of settle things down. It’s just hard this year, the way things are.”

Case in point: Lance Lynn.

In 2019, Lynn was 2-2 with a 6.51 ERA after five starts. By the time his recovery started to look legit, he was about to make his 11th start (Gibson, meanwhile, has 11 starts this season). If the season ended after two months and 12 starts, as it will for Gibson in 2020, Lynn’s line would have been good but not great: 7-4, 4.50 ERA, 77 strikeouts and 22 walks in 74 innings. Instead, Lynn took June through September and finished fifth in Cy Young voting.

The findings are just a data point that seems to be in line with other findings. Players need around a month or two to implement a change or get ready for the season. Just keep the idea in mind when a hitter is coming off the IL or missed part of Spring Training.
Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Jared Walsh has simplified his swing.

The Angels focused on those fluid, powerful hands as Walsh remade his swing again this summer. Walsh quiets those hands and allows them to be more efficient and effective in their movements. Walsh used to be hunched over the plate, his hands in constant motion — not just pre-swing but as he loaded his hands behind his body to release the barrel, until the Angels shifted him. He’s more upright now, his hands quicker to the baseball to let them cook. The timing issues he battled in his first taste of the big leagues evaporated.

It also eased the transition for Walsh, giving him the ability to focus on pitch selection rather than simply trying to catch up. His swing has clicked, if only for a couple of weeks.

He’s doing something right by hitting .315/.328/.759 with six homers in just 21 games.
Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Blue Jays

• Ken Giles won’t immediately be Toronto’s closer upon returning.

Giles (right forearm strain) is also close to returning, but Montoyo expects to use him “before the ninth” at first. Once he’s comfortable, he’ll move back into the closer’s role.

Indians

José Ramírez left tonight's game with left thumb discomfort. He's been battling the thumb injury for a few weeks now.

— Mandy Bell (@MandyBell02) September 8, 2020

Something is not adding up. Since September 25th, Ramirez has a .965 OPS. Before then, his OPS was just .762. I wonder if the time frame stated in the Tweet is off since he did struggle in August (.700 OPS). He seems to be feeling better with a .870 OPS in September.
Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Rangers

• Even before Todd Frazier was traded away, the Rangers were looking at getting Ronald Guzmán more playing time.

Guzmán has been trying for three seasons to seize the Rangers’ first-base job and it has been an elusive pursuit. He was back in the lineup on Sunday after a three-hit game, including a home run, on Saturday night. The Rangers appear to be leaning toward taking another look at Guzmán, which could squeeze Frazier’s playing time.

Guzman has started three straight games and has a 1.367 OPS on the season. For those owners with struggling first basemen (e.g. Votto), he’s worth a gamble.
Read the rest of this entry »

Overall

• Here a must-read research article. The author, Harper Wallbanger, examines the usefulness of one month’s worth of xwOBA. He found:

The ultimate takeaway is that it seems like players that underperform their xStats in the first month are good targets to pickup or trade for.

I find this information helpful. StatCast batted ball data just gets thrown in. I swear some analysts have no idea what the information means, they just want to appear all-knowing. This past offseason, I cut down the variables to the few that matter. Now with an x-stat, the usefulness is known, but I’m sure it and other stats will continue to be misused.
Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

The Angels are considering cutting Albert Pujols’s playing time once Andrelton Simmons returns.

It would allow the Angels to play David Fletcher at second base and still have La Stella in the lineup playing first base, as Fletcher will remain an everyday player when Simmons returns but will be a super-utility player.

It would come at the expense of Pujols, but the veteran slugger has struggled at the plate this season.
…
Pujols, 40, wasn’t in the lineup on Saturday and is batting .186/.238/.356 with three homers and eight RBIs in 15 games this season. Maddon remains confident Pujols will get going, but it does appear that his at-bats could be reduced once Simmons returns.

The big winner is Tommy La Stella who should keep much of his playing time.
Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• A simplified swing may have rejuvenated Max Stassi’s career.

“I feel a lot better after my hip surgery I had in the fall,” Stassi said. “My routine is totally different. Mindset, gameplan, everything is a lot better. Obviously, a lot more confidence.”

Stassi had previous experience with assistant hitting coach John Mallee from their time together with the Astros and said he worked hard with fellow hitting coaches Jeremy Reed and Paul Sorrento to simplify his swing.

“The short version would be I’m hunched over a little more over the plate,” Stassi said. “Kind of a posture thing, so I’m able to get into my back hip and keep my posture level, versus getting too uphill. My lead arm is now down, so I can work directly towards the ball. And then, I’m just trying to rotate as much as I can.”

The big improvement so far with Stassi is his contact rate jumping from 68% to 75%. The improvement has helped halve his strikeout rate from 33% to 16% and improve everything else. For his career, he has a .640 OPS but it is up to 1.096 this season.
Read the rest of this entry »

I have sent parts of three days to come up with the following few blurbs. There is just no player-specific information available. I blame it on the lack of player access … and the void is completely understandable. News outlets need their quotes on the game just over and the one coming up. There are no deep dives in the zoom calls.

Much of the “news” being reported is just being pulled from the boxscore or here at FanGraphs. I’m going to focus my efforts on the same sources. Personally, I’ve found more actionable items just looking through lineups than going through article after article. During the offseason, I just collected each bit and then could run them all at once. I don’t have the luxury sandbag the information with everything in flux. The RotoGraphs side is working on a unique solution. Stay tuned.

Read the rest of this entry »

Playing Time Leaders

Mookie Betts leads the league with 21 plate appearances, but here are some available hitters who have been racking up the playing time.

• David Fletcher (18 PA): He leads the league in hits (8) and is hitting (.533/.556/.667), so he’s not moving off the top spot for a while. Also, it helps that he’s qualified at four positions (SS/OF/2B/3B)
• Niko Goodrum (18 PA): He’s leading off, hitting OK (.250/.333/.563), and qualified at three positions (2B/SS/OF). He should at least be a bench bat in all formats.
• Shed Long Jr. (18 PA), Evan White (18 PA), J.P. Crawford (17 PA), and Kyle Lewis (18): The Mariners offense has been turning itself over and all the hitters have benefited. There are some interesting extreme small samples happening with 13 of 18 Kyle Lewis’s plate appearances ending with a strikeout, walk, or home run. Also, Crawford leads the league in walks (5) and triples.
• Freddy Galvis (17 PA): The Reds middle-infield options are drying up. Galvis is being forced into everyday at-bats with a .929 OPS to start the season.

Read the rest of this entry »