Mining the News (7/16/20)

General Information

• These may be the two most impactful sentences for season planning.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Dalbec said that his first positive test was on June 8 while in Arizona. Fortunately, he was asymptomatic the entire time.

Bobby Dalbec returned was cleared to play on July 11. He was asymptomatic but it took him over a month to get a negative result to play again. For the players who are currently on the ‘vague’ IL, they could be their a while.

American League

Angels

Shohei Ohtani will not hit before he pitches on Sundays.

Ohtani homered while serving as designated hitter on Sunday, but Maddon said that he doesn’t see Ohtani hitting the day before he pitches. Ohtani remains slated to start once a week — most likely on Sundays — and serve as DH roughly three to five times a week.


Astros

• The Astros are looking to fill out their rotation with Josh James and Framber Valdez.

Even though hard-throwing right-hander Josh James arrived at camp on Monday because he was home for the birth of his daughter, Strom expects him to be in the rotation to start the season. He’s been throwing in Florida and left spring camp in March leading the hunt for the fifth rotation spot.

The fifth spot in the rotation could now be lefty Framber Valdez’s to lose. He appeared in 26 games (eight starts) for the Astros last year and posted a 5.86 ERA while struggling with his control. Strom said he’s looked exceptional so far in camp and is buying into his stock.

• Josh James is only built up to four innings of work.

Strom said Josh James, who reported to camp on Monday, will start the team’s exhibition game Tuesday against the Royals in Kansas City. James is built up to pitch about four innings, Strom said, and is expected to claim one of the final two spots in the rotation.

Alex Bregman is still working on his swing.

With Opening Day quickly approaching, All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman admitted that his swing is not where he needs to be. That’s despite Bregman homering to left field in his final at-bat during Monday’s intrasquad scrimmage at Minute Maid Park.

“No, I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Bregman said. “I’ve got to clean up a lot of things mechanically and just see more pitching. Today was a step in the right direction. I got four at-bats and am getting back into the groove of things. I’m going to continue to work hard and continue [to work on] those mechanical issues we have going on right now.”

Blue Jays

Rafael Dolis, Anthony Bass, and Jordan Romano are each in contention for high leverage innings.

If it’s [Rafael] Dolis competing with Anthony Bass for high-leverage innings on the back end, then Canadian right-hander Jordan Romano might be the dark horse.

Matt Shoemaker is at 93 pitches.

Matt Shoemaker allowed four runs on six hits over 4 2/3 innings, striking out six, but the key number was his 93 pitches. He’ll be ready in time for his first start of the season after spending the past month-plus building up to this point.

Indians

Aaron Civale is throwing near 100 pitches.

In his first intrasquad outing on Sunday night, Civale tossed six innings, allowing two runs on eight hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. The right-hander threw just under 100 pitches in the longest outing by a Tribe starter since their scrimmages began on Thursday.

Jordan Luplow is a little banged up.

You can expect to see Oscar Mercado, Franmil Reyes, Domingo Santana and Tyler Naquin on the Opening Day roster. Assuming Jordan Luplow’s sore back doesn’t cause him to miss the start of the season, he’ll be a lock, too, but he’s not expected to get back into the intrasquad lineup until the end of this week, at the absolute earliest.

Luplow crushes lefties and should be on the short side of a platoon with left-handed-hitting Tyler Naquin. The platoon crushes both of their values.

Mariners

Justus Sheffield added a two-seamer.

Justus Sheffield threw two shutout innings in an intrasquad game Friday and looked comfortable using the two-seam fastball he implemented in the spring in Arizona.

Orioles

Tommy Milone and Kohl Stewart are battling for the 5th rotation spot.

Optioning Hector Velázquez to the alternate training site Tuesday seems to inadvertently clear a path to the Opening Day roster for veteran left-hander Tommy Milone, who is battling Kohl Stewart for the fifth-starter job but also was seen as a potential swingman, like Velazquez.

Rangers

Isiah Kiner-Falefa (catcher qualified) may be playing every day.

Woodward said Isiah Kiner-Falefa is making a strong case to be in the Opening Day lineup, which would mean Kiner-Falefa playing third base and Todd Frazier switching to first.

Kiner-Falefa is simply outplaying first-base candidates Ronald Guzman and Greg Bird. That appeared to be the case at the end of Spring Training, too, and it has carried over into Summer Camp.

Rays

Simply

Wander Franco probably won’t make his debut until 2021.

Franco, the club’s top prospect, was added to the 60-man player pool, giving him the chance to potentially make his Major League debut this season, but realistically, the Rays likely won’t call him up in 2020 unless it’s absolutely necessary. Willy Adames is going to be Tampa Bay’s everyday shortstop and Brandon Lowe will likely handle most of the second-base duties.

• Tampa’s rotation is not close to being set.

Health permitting, Tampa Bay will enter the season with Snell, Morton and Yarbrough in the rotation, but the other two or three spots are still open. Trevor Richards, Jalen Beeks and Anthony Banda are the likely options to provide bulk innings, but I don’t see any of them being inserted into the rotation without having proven more during their first couple of starts.

Mike Zunino has been working on his swing.

Zunino worked with hitting coach Chad Mottola and assistant hitting coach Ozzie Timmons to reconfigure his swing. The biggest adjustment for Zunino was his body positioning and fixing his base. Over the last three months, he continued to work on the adjustments, and the efforts are starting to pay off.

Red Sox

Jose Peraza has also been reworking his swing.

“What I really focused on, especially during the offseason in Miami, was just my leg kick,” Peraza said. “That’s probably one of the changes that I made was altering that, and that’s something I wasn’t even doing much in 2018 or 2019 when I was with Cincinnati.”

“It’s also something that — I’m just a little more confident. I’m seeing the pitches better as well,” Peraza said. “At first, when we first got back, I was just trying to get my rhythm going, but now I have the confidence where I’m going out there and just feel good about where I stand right now in terms of my hitting.”

“I made a couple of minor adjustments with my swing, especially with my hands, just trying to keep it a little bit more back, like a couple of centimeters,” Peraza said. “Not too much. But I did make a couple of changes that I’ll keep a little bit secret here.”

Royals

Ryan McBroom is going to get a shot at the Royals first base job with Ryan O’Hearn out.

First baseman Ryan McBroom, the likely starter as Ryan O’Hearn remains in isolation, blasted a two-run homer to left-center off right-hander Junis.

White Sox

Nomar Mazara is working on his swing.

Adjustments were made under the guidance of hitting coach Frank Menechino, and Mazara changed the positioning of his hands in his swing and tried to stay behind the ball and up the middle. His biggest goal is stay calm with his hands instead of all the movement, and that work has continued with Menechino during Summer Camp.

Yankees

James Paxton is only throwing 92-94 mph.

Paxton had faced hitters in live batting practice earlier this month, but Wednesday marked his first time performing in a game situation since undergoing back surgery in February. Boone said that Paxton’s fastball was clocked in the 92-94 mph range.

This news lines up with Paxton’s earlier comment about “finding the velocity“. Paxton has never had a 93 mph fastball. The closest was in 2015 when he averaged 94.9 mph (95.9 mph on his career), a 3.8% SwStr% (8.8% on career), and 7.5 K/9 (9.9 K/9 on career).

I ran my tool on how his fastball has historically performed at 93 mph. The sample size was too small but at 94 mph it was a 5% SwStr%. Paxton at 9 K/9 is not exciting and his strikeout rate compares to Kenta Maeda‘s and Tyler Mahle’s projections.

National League

Brewers

• Burnes touching 98 mph is right in line with last season.

Aside from those matters, the story of the “Gold” team’s second straight victory was right-hander Corbin Burnes, who touched 98 mph with his fastball while retiring all seven batters he faced with seven strikeouts, including Christian Yelich on a slider.

Keston Hiura is dealing with arm fatigue.

The Brewers scratched second baseman Keston Hiura from Wednesday’s intrasquad lineup because of right arm fatigue …

Hiura has a history of elbow issues dating to his college days at UC Irvine. The Brewers knew of a right elbow injury before they drafted him ninth overall in 2017, but he was able to avoid surgery by undergoing treatment instead, and he had not experienced any major arm trouble since.

Asked his level of concern about Hiura, Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said, “I’d term it precautionary at this point.”

Dodgers

Cody Bellinger is working on a new stance.

Bellinger’s new stance – as noted by SportsNet LA broadcasters Orel Hershiser and Nomar Garciaparra — appears a bit pigeon-toed, which usually is meant to keep the front hip and shoulder closed. He begins with the bat on his shoulder, then rocks it on more of a horizontal than vertical plane. Such changes are mostly implemented to improve rhythm, timing and correct launch position.

Walker Buehler will only throw three to four innings in his first start.

The Dodgers really have nobody to take Buehler’s spot, so they will settle for three or four innings, as Roberts indicated. In addition to Price’s unexpected absence, offseason departures of veterans Ryu, Kenta Maeda and Rich Hill have depleted rotation depth. Management was hopeful that free-agent swingman Jimmy Nelson might be in the mix, but he had season-ending back surgery last week.

Giants

• The Giants have no idea who they are going to use in their rotation.

Kapler has said that the Giants probably won’t have a traditional five-man starting rotation at the beginning of the season, as there simply isn’t enough time to build up pitchers to where they’d normally be after a six-week Spring Training. San Francisco could experiment with piggybacking starters in games, as evidenced by its decision to have Kevin Gausman, Drew Smyly and Jeff Samardzija each pitch multiple innings in Sunday’s scrimmage at Oracle Park.

Nationals

Austin Voth has added two pitches.

As he enters his third Major League season, Voth is looking to enhance his arsenal with his cutter-slider and a splitter. Last season, he relied on his four-seamer for 60.5 percent of his total pitches (.196 batting average against), his curveball for 20.2 percent (.182 BA), his slider for 11.3 percent (.286 BA) and changeup for 8.1 percent (.333 BA). Voth is also honing in on his delivery on the mound.

“Maybe tinkering a little bit here and there with keeping my back foot planted,” Voth said. “It tends to come off the rubber at times when I try to rush to the plate.”

Pirates

Trevor Williams is up to 97 pitches.

Unofficially, starter Trevor Williams threw 97 pitches over six innings in Wednesday night’s intrasquad game. Williams, Joe Musgrove and Derek Holland should head into the season built up to throw at least 100 pitches the first time through the rotation, which was not necessarily a guarantee as pitchers left Spring Training and went into quarantine.

Rockies

• There was quite a bit on Daniel Murphy reworking his swing. First from one MLB.com article.

Now, hitting coach Dave Magadan believes Murphy is ready to make the charts and numbers look much prettier. The fix sure sounds simple, but it was a winter’s worth of trial and error.

“It was more entry of the swing and bat path,” Magadan said. “He worked on it all offseason off the tee. He looked much better in Spring Training, and has continued to look better in Spring Training 2.0.”

And now from another one.

“Daniel and I spoke at length at the end of the season last year, and he felt like he wasn’t covering the inside pitch like he had been over the previous three or four years,” Rockies hitting coach Dave Magadan said. “That was the big adjustment he made as a hitter. He took his game from being a pretty good Major League player to be one of the best hitters in the game.


Magadan said Murphy “would never blame” the finger injury.





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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biomanekcsmember
3 years ago

I always look to mine the nuggets from your posts. Thank you for doing them. I feel stupid to ask this Jeff, but I am not easily finding an answer online to my question. Is major league baseball going to allow player trades during the 60 game season? (It doesn’t seem like a good idea to me, but I can’t find the answer.)

Cliff B
3 years ago
Reply to  biomanekcs

Trading is allowed, and the deadline is August 31.

biomanekcsmember
3 years ago
Reply to  Cliff B

Thank you Cliff.