Mining the News (9/7/21)

American League

Guardians (maybe)

• Bradley Zimmer has been working on his swing.

Van Burkleo noted that Zimmer’s hand placement has been instrumental during his recent surge, as well as getting “his lower half engaged and started on time.” It all works in concert, Zimmer said, to improve his contact point so he can make solid, timely contact.

“I have long arms,” Zimmer said, “so it’s a blessing and a curse. The theme, motto of the year for me is just ‘short to the ball.’ You work on that stuff in the cage and it translates eventually.”

I went through video of his at-bats and found the transition happened in the second half of June. It wasn’t an immediate and direct change but he went from his hands in:

To this stance where he kept his hands back:

Until July 1st, he was hitting .243/.378/.284 and since then it’s .242/.330/.385. The biggest change is ISO jumping from .041 to .143. I’m not 100% he’s any better, but his approach and results are different.

Rangers

• The Rangers are going with the most complex rotation possible.

Making matters more complicated, the plan is for Otto and Alexy to each pitch once per week, leaving the rest of the rotation in a somewhat perpetual state of upheaval. For Dunning and Howard, innings limits are likely to mean a “tandem” or “piggyback” situation, but once everyone is healthy, that still doesn’t leave room for all of those guys.
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If Lyles, Hearn and Allard are going to take up three positions, Howard/Dunning collectively take a fourth, and Otto/Alexy are dropped in once a week, that leaves roughly half a spot for Arihara and Foltynewicz.

My only takeaway is to not expect anyone to throw more than once a week.

Royals

• Carlos Hernández took a step forward when he ditched his windup.

The Royals optioned him. Triple-A pitching coach Dane Johnson eliminated his windup, allowing him to be more consistent with four pitches he was throwing with confidence: an upper-90s heater, changeup, curveball and slider.

While he has a 3.32 ERA as a starter his 6.9 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 are underwhelming.

Tigers

• Robbie Grossman’s power uptick started last season in Oakland with a new approach at the plate.

With the help of Oakland hitting coach Darren Bush and A’s teammate Jed Lowrie, Grossman came to accept the new-school methodology. He added some bend in his knees and developed a slight leg kick. He upped his launch angle, learned to trust his legs, started pulling the ball and hitting for power.

Last year in Oakland, Grossman posted a career-best 126 OPS+.

Twins

• Byron Buxton is still dealing with some hand soreness that’s limiting how hard he plays.

Byron Buxton’s left hand is still a little sore, but he’ll happily manage that soreness if it means he can finally put on a Twins uniform again.
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Buxton is excited, but not overly zealous to the point where he’ll immediately be going all-out. He understands that his recovery from the broken hand likely means that he’ll be dealing with that residual soreness all year, and he knows that some things, like aggressive swings and misses and getting hit again, could aggravate his condition.

Since coming off the IL, Buxton is hitting .150/.190/.275 with no stolen bases.

White Sox

• Luis Robert’s hip is still not 100%.

As if Luis Robert’s performance wasn’t impressive enough, the center fielder said postgame Saturday he’s still performing at less than 100 percent because of the after-effects of his right hip flexor tear.

“Just a little bit,” said Robert through interpreter Billy Russo. “[Saturday] I felt very good, but there are days that I don’t feel that good, or I don’t feel that sure. During those days, I just prefer to slow down a little bit, just in case.”

The bad hip might be why he’s only attempted one stolen base since coming back.

Yankees

• Anthony Rizzo doesn’t believe his recent drop in production is related to his rough bout with COVID-19.

Rizzo missed 10 team games after being diagnosed with COVID-19, and manager Aaron Boone said that the illness hit Rizzo hard for about a week. Rizzo said that he does not believe his recent dip in performance can be attributed to the stint on the IL.

“I don’t think so,” Rizzo said. “I think that I’m as good as I’m going to be. I’m just staying in the routines and staying with the process.

Before the IL stint, he was hitting .251/.351/.456 with a 10% BB% and 15% K%. Since then, he’s down to .241/.308/.362 with an 8% and 20% K%. Now, he missed 10 days and it sounds like he spent most of the time getting well. He came right back to the team with no minor league time and he struggled for the first 10 days (.148/.226/.185). He’s taken off (.323/.382/.516) since he’s gotten his timing back.

It’s a sample size of one, but it’ll be interesting to see how the numbers work out for everyone who went on the COVID-IL this year.

National League

Braves

• Austin Riley came into the season with a new plate approach.

But in April, Riley made one of the biggest adjustments I’ve ever seen a hitter make to his approach, teaching himself to lay off the very pitches opposing teams were using to get him out so easily.

There is no money quote on all the changes. He implemented a few and they’ve stuck.

Brewers

• Kolten Wong had to ditch several Cardinal ideas and go with the approach that works for him.

Wong’s plan worked. He scrapped the idea of becoming the kind of hitter he said the Cardinals wanted him to be. In his first year with the Brewers, he essentially rewired his approach at the plate and bet on himself. The result is the best offensive season of Wong’s career.
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Wong said the Cardinals wanted him to see pitches, work counts and find ways to get on base. Last year, Wong saw 4.08 pitches per plate appearance, a career-high. The result was his worst offensive season.

“What I was doing,” Wong said, “was putting myself in a situation to not have success.”

Wong found himself changing his approach with two strikes, trying to make any kind of contact to avoid striking out. He wasn’t trusting his bat-to-ball skills. He sold out his power. Simply put, it wasn’t who he wanted to be.
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On the first day he resumed hitting in the offseason after the Cardinals declined his option, Wong started to again use a leg kick. Wong, who is just 5-foot-7, said he realized that “being compact is my explosion.” A left-handed batter, he wants to be able to hold his back side, allow the ball to travel and focus on hitting to left-center.

• A couple of thoughts on this topic.

1. It’s nuts how many players move on from the Cardinals and improve with the latest being Lane Thomas. The Cardinals are by far the worst evaluators of their own talent in the league. They are even making the Pirates look good.
2. I wonder if the Cardinals are force-feeding Dylan Carlson (.728 OPS career OPS) this leadoff approach and that’s why he’s not living up to expectations.

• Willy Adames is using a taller stance.

In working with the Brewers’ staff, Adames switched to a more athletic, taller stance, which helped him become more steep and direct to the ball, leading to increased line drives and power. In the second half of 2019, Adames had a 12-degree launch angle and 8.8 percent barrel rate. With the Brewers, Adames has a 14-degree launch angle and 10.8 percent barrel rate. He has cut his strikeout rate to a much more acceptable 25 percent. His infield fly-ball rate is just 2.4 percent.

Cardinals

• Alex Reyes may get the closer’s role back at some point this season, but he’ll need to be successful in low-leverage situations first.

But this doesn’t mean that the Cardinals won’t use Reyes in the ninth, either. For now, the majority of his appearances are likely to come in lower-leverage situations as he works to build on pitch consistency and control. In Wednesday’s second game, a 12-2 blowout loss, Reyes struck out the side in the sixth inning.

• Jack Flaherty could be used as a reliever.

As calendar starts to shorten, Jack Flaherty could be used as a reliever. “It’s a possibility,” Shildt said.

Pairing Hudson and Flaherty for starts … stay tuned.#Cardinals #stlcards #MLB

— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) September 3, 2021

Diamondbacks

• Luke Weaver is going with a simpler windup.

It will also provide Weaver with an opportunity to test out his new mechanics on the mound. In an attempt to get more consistency between pitching from the windup vs. out of the stretch, Weaver has gone to a windup that is very similar to his stretch delivery.

“I think a big thing when we get in the windup and the stretch, they can be very different,” Weaver said. “And when you add a big leg kick in, it can really sway you a little bit. So I just tried to minimize the movement as much as possible, and just get into a really good position that I thought I could be really consistent at. And through all the rehab outings, I was able to command the ball really well with all my pitches.”

Giants

• Kevin Gausman has been dealing with hip discomfort for most of the season.

Kevin Gausman has had hip discomfort since an incident way back on April 24, per John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. He tweaked it during a play at first base last night, but managed to stay in the game and work through it. The Giants ace should continue to take his turns in the rotation.

His production didn’t change from before to after the injury.

Mets

• At best, Jacob deGrom will make one or two short appearances to end the season.

As such, Mets officials don’t expect deGrom to give them more than an outing or two at the end of the season, and even then, it’s likely only to be in abbreviated spurts. If the Mets are out of contention by that time, their incentive to push deGrom will diminish.

Phillies

• J.T. Realmuto has played through a sore shoulder for a while.

But there could be another benefit to Realmuto playing first base. He has been playing with a sore right shoulder for some time. Perhaps playing there could reduce some wear and tear.

“It doesn’t feel great every day, but kind of here and there some days it’ll be a little more sore than others,” he said. “Some days it will feel really good. … Everybody on the field is feeling some sort of tired or some sort of pain right now. Mine just happens to be in my shoulder. I feel it a little bit hitting. I feel it sometimes throwing, but I don’t think it’s actually affecting my play at all.”

Pirates

• In AAA, Anthony Alford changed his approach at the plate to be more selective.

“Earlier in the year when he was here, I think the confidence [was] shaken a little bit,” Shelton said. “[Then] he went down and did a really nice job in Indy. He came back and he has really solidified his setup and his approach a little bit. I think we are starting to see that success.”

While at Indianapolis, Alford made adjustments in the batter’s box.

“The main thing was just body position,” Alford said. “[Hitting coach Joe Nunnally] really helped me out a lot in understanding my swing and what pitches … I [can hit] for power.”

He has improved his strikeout from 55% in the first half to just 45% in the second half. Yay.

Reds

• Nick Senzel’s season is likely over.

Since he had his option to Triple-A Louisville reversed on Aug. 19 to remain on the injured list, it’s looked less and less likely that center fielder Nick Senzel will return to the Reds in 2021. Senzel, who has been trying to return from May surgery on his left knee, was sent to Goodyear, Ariz., to continue his rehab process.

“He’s getting acclimated to Arizona, going through the intake testing and all that,” Bell said. “He went and had another opinion on his knee. It seems that it’s going to take a while for him to get back and healthy. I don’t know what that means for the rest of the season, but it didn’t sound like it was going to be any time real soon.”