Tied with Mookie Betts for the fifth highest Brls/PA %: 9.9.

His highest exit velocity was 110.8, a shade higher than Mookies (110.6). His average exit velocity was 92.6, a shade higher than Mookie's (92.3). His average homer travelled 406 feet, six feet further than Mookie's.

To say that he hit the ball as well or better than Mookie is a stretch -- after all, it's a much smaller sample size -- but it's fair to say he had an unlucky BABIP.

Top five Brlls/PA %:

Joey Gallo 11.4

Kris Davis 10.7

JD Martinez 10.6

Mookie Betts 9.9

Ryan Zimmerman 9.9

Joey's fly balls and line drives averaged 99.7, his ground balls 85.2.

The highest exit velocity was 117.5, the longest homer 472 feet.

As we see in the scan, he managed to make slightly better contact last year, while taking a base on balls slightly less often. 

Has agreed to a two-year deal with the Mets for $19 million. Becomes official today if he passes his physical.

As Famgraphs sees it, the Mets are buying his bat, not his glove.

Other MLB averages...

Four-seam FB: 93.2

Spin rate: 2,263

Clearly a quality fastball.

But both FIP and SIERA caution that his ERA was -- if not lucky, considerbaly lower than it might have been. 

Raises the bet on Mookie.

Being slightly more than a LOOGY probably put  a fair chunk of his ERA in the hands of other relievers.

April 27 4 ER 1/3 IP 2 scored after he left.

May 19 3 ER 1/3 IP all 3 scored after he left. 

5 of his 12 Earned Runs on the season crossed the plate while he was either in the dugout or the showers. 

Reportedly will be the RedSox leadoff hitter to start 2019. 

One HR away from a 100-25-100-25 in an off year in 2017. The .268 BABIP is all of the convincing I needed that he would be back in 2018. Now that he's had the best and worst BABIP has to offer him I bet it settles in  between .315 and .335 based on the established level from 2014-2016. 

He had a better WHIP, K/27BF, and K/W plus a lower BABIP in Oakland than in Detroit but a higher ERA...…………..all bc of the HR/Fly% jump. 

Figuring this out is why the game is fun and endures.

Alex Patton, Troll.

I indeed paid only $36 for Mookie last year, and traded that Mookie (keeper) to Alex for Bergman/Haniger/and Clevinger. 

That's why I almost won.

But it's easy to forget that Mookie was coming off a weak year. $36 was cheap based on our scouting, but not on his past performance. 

This is the jiu-jitsu we deal with every year.

The Brewers traded for him, and the good question is why. This Fangraphs post is gold, on a small story about a middle/closer reliever in 2017 who reverted to form last year.

Five highest Hard % last year (400+ PA) all with 49:

Matt Carpenter

David Peralta

Eugenio Suarez

Joey Gallo

Tommy Pham

deGrom hit .164 in 67 AB last year. Ten singles and one double. He struck out 25 times. But he did draw four walks and drove in five runs. That seems to be okay, by pitchers' standards, because he actually gets a positive WAR from Fangraphs for his hitting exploits.

For deGrom and a few other pitchers, as a matter of curiosity, I've included the hitting metrics from Fangraphs.  

Trying to decide which of Fangraphs metrics to include here, starting the comment threads for the top 50 pitchers last year in $5x5, I went back and forth between SIERA and xFIP. In the end I went with the metric that seems more "advanced," even I can't begin to tell you how its derived. (SIERA stands for Skills-Interactive ERA.)

In any even, Bauer's xFIP was 3.14. Both SIERA and xFIP resist being impressed by Bauer's extremely low HR/FB.

I think that sinkers and two-seam fastballs are interchangeable, as far as Statcast is concerned.

According to Fangraphs, defense was not a big part of his MVP season.

Eloy Jimenez (OF) CHI-A - Dec. 15

Jimenez is day-to-day with a quad strain in the Dominican Winter League, James Fegan of The Athletic reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Jimenez was expected to be shut down soon for the holidays anyway, so the injury likely won't cost him too much time. It doesn't appear to be serious enough to threaten his availability at the start of spring training. The young outfielder had been on a tear in eight games for Gigantes in the Dominican Winter League, hitting 448/.500/.759.

Did I mistype the number of hits in play last year by Mookie Betts?

Very possibly. Now, when you click on the MLB link for Mookie, you'll find 433 for his HIP.

On a rainy day in November I looked up the Statcast averages for the top 75 hitters in $5x5 and asked Colin to file away the comments until we turned the page, which we do every year on Dec. 15.

I did this because eventually MLB will stop showing last year's Statcast averages. During the season, when MLB is displaying this year's Statcast averages, I thought it would be interesting to have last year's easily available.

To see the top 75 hitters in $5x5 last year, go to the Stats section here and sort all hitters by $5x5. You'll also see the PK, MF and AP bids for last year.

Our bids are found the 2018 archive as well. 

I don't know about your league but $36 is exactly what Mookie cost in the 4x4 American Dreams last year. Rotoman paid that and finished second by half a point.

Interesting that the top 25 pitchers last year in 5x5 all had four-seam fastballs as their primary pitch.

In November I looked at the Statcast averages of the top 75 hitters and top 50 pitchers and asked Colin to postpone the appearance of this information until we turned the page toward next season.

We did the same thing with advanced analytics from Fangraphs.

And yesterday we turned the page, which is why you see such a massive dump of comments from me. The comment preceding this one for Jeffress was written about a month ago, not two hours ago.

And I still can't believe he wasn't taken at all in the XFL.