Yeah, but.  An Alonso is a gamble; if you're going to gamble on many spots on your rosters, many will not pay off.  You need Freeses AND Alonsos.

That seems silly.  I'm not a physicist, but I would suspect it would be a ratio by which the ball would travel less - and the ratio might not be linear.  It wouldn't be the same number of feet regardless of all other factors.  

Craig Edwatds at Fangraphs:

Ahead of the second game of the NLCS, I asked Cardinals manager Mike Shildt about a couple hard hit balls in the first game of the series, whether balls were carrying as far in October, and how it might impact his on-field decisions. He confirmed some of the suspicions about the dead ball.

"I thought Ozuna got his ball, based on the sound, based on the swing. But clearly it didn’t get out. And you kind of realized then we were dealing with an evening where the ball wasn’t going to carry as much. I guess — I don’t guess, our front office analytical group is saying the ball’s not traveling at about a four-and-a-half foot difference." 

Italics mine.

Had a 3.69 ERA and 5.16 FIP in Triple A (13 starts).

We are working on gathering the minor league stats.

Fascinating factoid from Joel Sherman: Astros were the first team in history to post both the lowest strikeout rate and highest walk rate in a season.

Good Stage 4 advice, by the way, from Texpope in June.

Would you have guessed who's No. 2 on this list?

David Freese Retires

After an 11-year career, David Freese announced his retirement from Major League Baseball yesterday. Freese will especially be remembered for his postseason heroics in the St. Louis Cardinals' 2011 run when he earned both the NLCS MVP and the World Series MVP. Fresse played in 69 postseason games during his career and finished with a 2.1 postseason Win Probability Added, which is 9th all-time. Here's a look at the top 10 in that category.

See playoff leaderboards at Baseball-Reference.com

Held lefty hitters to a .197 batting average and one homer in 93 AB this year. Surprising that doesn't get him a spot on the playoff roster.

Zach handing out the encomiums to Masahiro: “It all starts with starting pitching. You can’t bullpen your way to a ring.’’

Giancarlo describing Gleyber: “He took a lot of good pitcher’s pitches tonight and waited for his.’’

Did you see his interview on Fox after Game 1 tonight?  What an impressive young man!    I'm a fan!   Probably the first time I've liked a Yankee since Mantle :-)

$16 freeze.

I had this guy on my Doubt Mixed team and had the impression he had a bad first half and strong second half, and in fact he had a 4.65 ERA in the first and 2.95 in the second.

Other than that there's not a dime's worth of difference in his splits.

Where's Kirby?

The XFL draft was held yesterday in Phoenix between afternoon and night games in the AFL. Here are the prices for closers in this 5x5 mixie in which all 15 teams froze 15 players (including an average of about four farm players per team):

Roberto Osuna 19

Aroldis Chapman 18

Brad Hand 18

Raisel Iglesias 16

Edwin Diaz 15

Kenley Jansen 15

Carlos Marinez 11

Craig Kimbrel 10

Brandon Workman 10

Ian Kennedy 8

Jose Leclerc 8

Sean Doolittle 6

Hector Neris 5

Hansel Robles 4

Emilio Pagan 1

Joe Jimenez 1

When they aren't working on their tans, perhaps Peter, Mike and Tim will provide eye-witness accounts.

In 2013 he walked 6, struck out 12 and allowed no hits in 6 innings against the Red Sox. Last night it was all about surgical precision.

Anibal Sanchez Trivia Corner

Anibal Sanchez is now the first pitcher in MLB postseason history to record multiple games of at least 6 IP and allowing 1 hit or less. In addition to last night's great start, he also pitched 6 innings and allowed no hits in Game 1 of the 2013 ALCS. See the list of at least 6 IP, 1 hit or less games in postseason history at Baseball-Reference.com's Pitching Game Finder.

Will play for Team USA!

There was really only one Game Score yesterday (Im pretty sure Bill didn't expect relievers to be counted when he decreed 50 as the score the pitcher has before he throws a pitch) but I don't quarrel with this list as a way of ranking everyone who did pitch. Another way of saying it: per pitch, Anderson was as nasty as Cole.

Yesterday's Top Performers

Pitchers:

Gerrit Cole* (HOU): 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 10 K, 2 BB, 82 GmSc

Nick Anderson (TBR): 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 2 K, 0 BB, 56 GmSc

Blake Snell (TBR): 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 K, 0 BB, 55 GmSc

* - pictured above

Michael Philps has the key question and I don't think Plouffe adequately answers.

https://twitter.com/trevorplouffe/status/1182437976762044416?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Conclusion of Jeff Wiser's piece on July 15 at Baseball Prospectus:

Back in the stone age of the first half of the 2014 season, there was one home run hit for every 42.9 plate appearances. That number has jumped to one long ball for every 27.9 plate appearances this season. That’s a dramatic increase of about 53 percent. Singles are down about 10 percent, doubles are effectively stable, triples have decreased by 16 percent, and home runs are up big.

Calling the changes to today’s game a “power surge” is technically incorrect. It’s a home run surge, but other types of power output are either down or unchanged. The benefits of juiced baseballs have been extremely lopsided. If teams want to play for the home run, it’s hard to blame them. From an observational perspective, that’s meant fewer singles, fewer triples, and no additional two-baggers. Is that better or worse for watching baseball? That’s open to interpretation, but don’t call it a “power surge.” It’s a home run surge.