Mining the News (6/6/23)

One issue during the season is that the news cycle, even for projection-altering details, moves at such a fast clip. Or it’s a repeat of the box score. Or player movement news. Or a preview of the next game. I just don’t find many details during the season but here are a few times that some might find useful. Instead, I plan on putting out smaller and more timely news blurbs.

American League

Astros

• The Astros aren’t looking to replace José Abreu while they are still winning.

Baker receives Abreu-related questions routinely. His answers do not change. One of his responses in Milwaukee did, perhaps, illustrate the manager’s outlook on Abreu’s anemia.

“We’re still winning,” he said.

Until they aren’t, changes may be few. Abreu did inspire more confidence during a 1-for-4 showing on Monday, mashing two balls with 109 mph exit velocities or harder. He turned on Twins closer Jhoan Duran’s 103.6 mph fastball for a ninth-inning single, too. Games like this will only extend his runway further.

Brandon Bielak is focusing on throwing his elite changeup more.

Baker said veteran catcher Martín Maldonado, who caught three of Bielak’s first four starts this year, also helped change the right-hander’s pitch usage. Thus, the changeup has been an emerging weapon. Bielak threw it only 12 times in 87 pitches (14 percent) in his first start of the season May 7, but threw it 32 percent of the time in his third start May 19 and 25 percent of his pitches in his previous start May 24.

“That combo, sinker-changeup, even to lefties, throwing sinker-changeups, makes that pitch much better and the command he has with it,” Salazar said. “He has very good feel, he can throw it for strikes, he can throw it expanding the zone.”

Here is how he’s increased the usage from game to game.

Brandon Bielak’s Changeup Rates
Date CH%
5/1 8%
5/7 14%
5/13 18%
5/19 32%
5/24 23%
5/30 41%

The changeup is a plus pitch and here are its comps.

Guardians

Will Brennan is trying to be more patient.

Brennan said he made some tweaks to his plan of attack, exhibiting more patience and resisting the urge to “swing at everything that’s being thrown at you” in order to emerge from his funk.

Over past two weeks, the 25-year-old is hitting .361/.395/.583 with a 3% BB% and 13% K%.

Cal Quantrill’s shoulder has been bothering him for a while.

According to Guardians manager Terry Francona, Quantrill’s right shoulder hasn’t felt right for a little while. After he gave up eight runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings on Tuesday in Baltimore, Quantrill talked to his coaching staff about the trouble he was having.

“He’s not been bouncing back very good,” Francona said. “He’s able to kind of reach back and get his velocity, but as you can see, he’s not commanding. He was worried.”

Comparing his fastball velocity and control (Zone% and BB%) over time, he was down before going on the IL but he has posted worse values without going on the IL.

Rangers

Leody Taveras is using a more “crouched” stance.

Hyers explained that Taveras never had a lot of swing-and-miss in his game, but he wasn’t always making the highest quality of contact. By cleaning up his lower half — making it less “squirrely,” according to Bochy — he’s able to make good contact when he swings at pitches in the zone.

His stance from both sides of the plate is a little more crouched, which Taveras noted is more like he did throughout the early levels of the Minor Leagues. He changed to standing straight up because he felt like he was rotating his upper body too much.

Now, he is able to crouch slightly in his stance, while keeping his shoulders square and getting everything from his legs.

The 24-year-old’s strikeout rate has dropped significantly for the second straight season (32% to 26% to 22%).

Royals

• From all reports, Aroldis Chapman will get traded.

A Chapman-Barlow combination, then, almost certainly would be more feasible for the Royals to move, but with the deadline still nearly two months away, even that type of deal remains a longshot. The two relievers probably would bring a greater overall return if the Royals separated them at the deadline.

Only one thing seems certain: Chapman will be on the move. The questions are when, and how.

So are the odds are good that Chapman will be traded. Looking at the teams with 20% or better chances of making the playoffs, Chapman might be an obvious upgrade for Texas and Arizona. A close call for the Mets and Marlins (Puk’s results when back will be a huge factor). With the possibility of other closer caliber relievers on the move, the chances will be small of him landing a closer’s role. Maybe the best option would be to target the potential new closer in Kansas City.

Twins

Jorge López is trying to find his release point.

Baldelli said that López was experimenting with a different warm-up and a slightly more athletic delivery to try and find his release point on Saturday — and even if it costs them a few runs in the present, getting López to figure out these issues is far more important for this club’s hopes in the long run, because this roster, as presently constructed, simply needs López to occupy that role.

Looks like Lopez is trying to get his vertical release point up like it was in early 2022. He is just not there yet.

We should expect some struggles until he gets there.

Yankees

Luis Severino lost over 2 mph in his last start and no one on the team seems to care.

Severino told reporters he was unaware of his average fastball velocity being down 2.3 mph. Usually, when pitchers’ fastball velocities are that appreciably worse, it tends to be the result of an underlying problem.

Neither Boone nor Severino thought the Yankees’ starter’s seven-run outing was due to the lack of velocity on his fastball. Instead, Severino said the location on his fastball was simply “bad.” Because of the way the Dodgers were teeing off on his fastball in the first inning, there was some thought that Severino could have been tipping his pitches. Severino didn’t know if he was tipping his pitches but said it’s not an excuse for his first-inning performance.

Here in the drop that is similar to the drop last season before he got hurt.

What in the hell. No one on the team asked him why his velocity might be down during the start? This action, if true, is straight-up careless. If the Yankees have issues with injuries, this is why.

National League

Braves

Michael Harris II was restricted by a knee brace.

Michael Harris II is going to hit 20-plus homers this year. Crazy? Well, he hit 19 homers after debuting on May 28 last year. He already has two, and after being either sidelined or restricted by a knee brace throughout a significant portion of this season’s first two months, he’s about to go on a tear.

On May 19th, his brace came off.

Part of the problem is multiple ailments have prevented Harris from finding a groove. He played just seven games before spending three weeks on the injured list with a sore lower back. Five games after being activated from the IL, he tweaked his right knee. Harris rested for two days, then spent two weeks wearing a bulky knee brace that restricted him until he removed it on May 19, exactly one week before this breakout game.

With the brace, he was hitting .194/.284/.292 with 1 HR and 4 SB. Since then, he has been worse by hitting .128/.208/.191 with 1 HR and 1 SB. What a mess.

Cubs

• The team expects to bring back Justin Steele after a couple of bullpen sessions.

The Cubs can’t really afford an extended absence for Steele.

“If everything goes smoothly,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said, “I’m imagining we’re going to have probably two bullpens leading up to getting him back as a starter. It’s important to make sure we give him the rest he needs on the front end.”

Dodgers

• The team is going to decide on the future rotation in a few days…

Then there’s Noah Syndergaard, whose one-year deal has been a disappointment thus far.

“I think that conversation is gonna happen,” Roberts said pregame, when asked about making decisions about the rotation in the near future. “We know Michael is taking the start today and we’ll see what happens in his next start. Outside of that, it’s gonna be Tony on Tuesday, then Noah and Clayton on Thursday. So once we get to that point, we’ll have to make some decisions.”

…with a keen eye on Noah Syndergaard’s next start.

Roberts said this week that Noah Syndergaard will make at least one more start for the club after posting a garish 6.54 ERA through his first 11 starts. His leash isn’t long, and shouldn’t be even as the Dodgers figure out what to do with their final two rotation spots.

Padres

Xander Bogaerts has been playing through a wrist issue.

Bogaerts has played through recurring wrist discomfort for several years, with a hit-by-pitch possibly being the original source of the injury. He re-injured his wrist last May in a collision with then-Red Sox teammate Alex Verdugo and later received a cortisone shot for the residual pain. He got another injection in spring training this year before putting together a stellar first month on both offense and defense.

Bogaerts’ wrist began to bother him again in early May. And over his past 30 games, he is hitting .198 with a .284 slugging percentage as pitchers have increasingly attacked the inside of the zone against him.

Joe Musgrove has reworked his delivery with good results.

In two starts since making those mechanical fixes, Musgrove has posted a 0.73 ERA, winning both.

“The better you throw, obviously you start to build a little bit more confidence,” Musgrove said. “But delivery-wise, I feel like I’m finally starting to sync things up, and I’m getting a little more consistency. It’s mentally freeing me up to be able to go out there and focus on execution and competing.”

The specifics of Musgrove’s mechanical fix are intricate. But it boiled down to his back leg and Musgrove ensuring that he was set in a strong position over the rubber before his burst toward the plate. The team had designed a number of drills and exercises to ensure that fix. Musgrove felt it all working.

Phillies

Aaron Nola dumped his cutter in order to focus on fastball command.

This was a focus between starts. Nola pocketed his cutter — he did not throw a single one in Monday’s seven-inning start — and stressed fastball command in his bullpen session. He spotted fastballs down and, when he needed to, he pitched at the top of the zone. He avoided throwing the meatballs.

On Monday, he generated 10 swings-and-misses on the fastball — the second-most he’s ever had in a start. (He had 11 whiffs in a two-hitter against St. Louis on April 18, 2021.) The Tigers entered the day ranked 29th in batting average (.222) and 28th in slugging percentage (.383) against four-seam fastballs. So, they were vulnerable to the pitch. But Nola executed the game plan well. That has not always happened in 2023.

“More quality,” Nola said. “More on the edges than it was over the plate.”

It is an interesting decision with his sinker posting a 1% SwStr% while his cutter had an 18% SwStr%.

Pirates

Andrew McCutchen made some off-season adjustments to get his legs more into his swing.

“That’s the difference these last six years is I didn’t have my legs like did in the past,” McCutchen said. “A lot of people who’ve played for 15-plus years will tell you that the first thing to go was their legs. I felt like my legs weren’t there. I just had to learn how to use them properly.”

Rowe is plenty familiar with McCutchen’s swing. For years, Rowe used McCutchen’s swing as an example of what good mechanics look like when working with other hitters. Rowe studied the ins and outs of McCutchen’s swing for years. When McCutchen tore his ACL, Rowe noticed how McCutchen’s body compensated for the injury, as well as how McCutchen continued those same altered swing patterns once the injury healed.

Last season, McCutchen felt his legs were finally again in a good place, physically. What McCutchen and Rowe focused their attention on, then, was consistency. Now, McCutchen believes his swing is more akin to the earlier versions of himself because of his ability to use the ground and generate force.

Ji Hwan Bae simplified his swing in mid-March.

Over the last month, Ji-Hwan Bae has hit with simplified mechanics, transitioning from a high leg kick to a more controlled stride — a change that is bearing fruit over the last month.

To begin the season, Bae used a very, very, very exaggerated high leg kick, his body coiling and crunching before unloading a swing. He raises his right leg to his midsection and brings his right foot over his left knee.

That high-leg kick generates a ton of kinetic energy (i.e. more power), but the tradeoff is mechanical simplicity; trying to hit a rapidly-moving projectile while doing essentially a one-legged squat isn’t an easy task. So, around mid-April, Bae simplified his mechanics.

Hitting coach Andy Haines made several recommendations to Bae. The first was to move a bit off the plate, giving Bae more space to operate. The second was to stand more straight up instead of crunching his body, giving him more space to turn his body. Bae believes that the alterations aren’t just simpler, but also take less energy.

Until April 16th, he was batting .217/.280/.391 with a 6% BB% and 26% K%. Since then he’s hitting .298/.350/.351 with the same 6% BB% but his K% is down to 24%.

Reds

Graham Ashcraft doesn’t feel good about throwing his slider, cutter, or sinker.

Ashcraft wasn’t able to stop the momentum. Later with the bases loaded and one out, Joey Wiemer walked to force home a run. Next was Perkins, who hit an 0-1 slider located over the middle of the plate for a grand slam to right field and a 9-1 Brewers lead.

After Ashcraft returned for a fourth inning, Contreras added a solo homer to center field on a first-pitch slider to make it a 10-3 game. The slider is a pitch Ashcraft has been trying to develop since the offseason.

“I just didn’t feel really comfortable with it today, but you still have to throw it because if you can establish it for a strike, [it helps] whether it’s swing and miss or whatever.”

Ashcraft’s best pitch has traditionally been his cutter — which averaged a good 96.3 mph velocity on Saturday — but he wasn’t effective at throwing it for strikes. He’s also lacking a sinker that he usually throws inside to righties and outside to lefties because the action has been too similar to his cutter. He threw it just eight times to the Brewers, with the lone offering it received coming on Andrew Monasterios’ 104.7 mph single in the second inning.

Those are the only pitches he has … not good.

Andrew Abbott should throw deep into games and his rotation spot looks secure as long as he continues to perform.

“He showed that [Abbott] was able to get guys out and his stuff looked great,” Bell said. “He was up over 100 pitches, I think the most he’s thrown is 97, 98 this year. But really big out right there. Of course I want his night to end well and we’re trying to win the game, but he was able to get that out and do both.”

“He’s been impressive since he’s been in our organization and now he’s getting an opportunity to pitch here,” Bell said. “We wouldn’t have brought him up if we didn’t think he had a real shot to stay with us and keep getting opportunities and tonight was a great start.”





Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

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Jorge Soler vs Train (UNEXPECTED)member
9 months ago

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