Mining the News (7/23/24)
American League
White Sox
• Drew Thorpe is throwing his changeup at different speeds.
“He learned his changeup plays three times in a row to certain guys,” said White Sox manager Pedro Grifol, commending Thorpe for greater fastball command since Arizona put seven earned runs on him on June 16. “Normally, that doesn’t happen because you don’t throw the same pitch three times in a row.
“People make adjustments. He learned today he can with the changeup if he continues to mix the speeds of the changeup. There are some really good learning moments.”
National League
Diamondbacks
• Slade Cecconi will move to the bullpen for the rest of the season.
Hazen also announced that the D’Backs would be moving Slade Cecconi into a bullpen role for the rest of the season, which is probably less a sign of Arizona’s confidence in its forthcoming rotation depth than it is a reflection of Cecconi’s unimpressive results as a starter. Cecconi has started 13 of his 14 Major League games this season, posting a 6.14 ERA over 66 innings.
Slade struggled with a 5.75 ERA while his 14.6% K%-BB% ranked 61st among starters (min 60 IP) around some decent arms. Nice draft-and-hold target for next season.
Dodgers
• Gavin Lux is now going with his A-swing.
“Right now with Gavin, there’s more intent with his swing,” Roberts said. “I think there was a passivity, a carefulness, for the better part of this year. But I think right now he’s getting loaded and he’s getting his A-swing off more.”
Especially lately. Over the span of one weekend, he bumped his OPS from .562 to .609.
Phillies
• If/when Spencer Turnbull returns, he will be in the bullpen.
Turnbull is in the midst of a throwing program in Clearwater, Fla., and Thomson said the right-hander is scheduled to throw out to 120 feet next week, then hopefully progress to bullpen sessions. Thomson didn’t rule out that Turnbull’s first bullpen could be late next week if he checks all the boxes. The skipper added that he’s open to Turnbull pitching out of the ‘pen when he first returns.
“It’s going to be tough to get him stretched out fully, so it could be,” Thomson said. “We’ll have to see where he’s at [and] at what time, then we’ll just make an adjustment and make a decision.
Reds
• The plan is for Matt McLain to start his rehab assignment on August 12th.
“It feels OK,” McLain said of his swing. “I’ve watched some video, naturally, and there’s some stuff that I’d see that I’ve been compensating for and then you watch video and I’ve been able to make adjustments.”
The next step is taking batting practice on the field next Wednesday before finally advancing to live batting practice. The current plan is to have him start a rehab assignment in the minor leagues on August 12.
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.
It seems McNeil is also going with his “A” swing now, with much better results. He seems to have stopped his Brett Butler-esque choking up on the bat and really driving the ball lately.