Comments
The last twenty comments in true blog fasion, with the links to their authors and the player commented upon.
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Just in time, he gets a comment!
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Ronald Torreyes (SS) PHI - Dec. 04
https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=761901
Torreyes signed a minor-league contract with the Phillies on Friday, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports.
ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: The 28-year-old spent the 2020 campaign with Philadelphia and had a four-game stint on the active roster in September, but he was quickly DFA'd and sent back to the alternate training site. Torreyes could have a similar role in 2021, though a full-length season would obviously provide potential for more opportunities.
Gio Urshela (3B) NY-A - Dec. 04
https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=761902
Urshela underwent surgery Friday to remove a bone chip from his right elbow.
ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Urshela wasn't initially expected to require surgery during the offseason, but he elected to undergo a procedure Friday that went smoothly. He's expected to need three months to recover from surgery, so he could be ready to participate in the majority of spring training if he doesn't encounter any setbacks.
Non-tendered. Braves didn't want to pay $4 million a year.
Top 10 average exit velocities
Fernando Tatis Jr. 95.9
Miguel Sano 95.2
Christian Yelich 94.0
Mike Trout 93.7
Matt Chapman 93.6
Travis d'Arnaud 93.4
Teoscar Hernandez 93.3
Corey Seager 93.2
Miguel Cabrera 93.2
Marcell Ozuna 93.0
Surprising to see Miggy on this list. But isn't it even a bigger surprise to see Yelich?
sorry, i couldn't resist.
398 seems a little high, no? :)
The busy off-season for posting continues with Haruki Nishikawa's posting being made official this morning. I wish him well in his quest to find a home in MLB!
So Billie Beane.
Jen McCaffrey at The Athletic:
When Cameron introduced himself to Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM relayed that he’d given his director of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi a special nickname — “Far-graphs” — because “all he does is talk about FanGraphs every day.”
Signed happily.
Scott Heineman (OF) TEX - Dec. 03
https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=761894
Heineman signed a one-year, $595,000 contract with the Rangers on Thursday.
ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Heineman was non-tendered by Texas on Wednesday, but he'll come to an agreement on a major-league deal with his former team just one day later. Despite his new contract, he isn't guaranteed to see significant playing time after hitting .189 during 49 games across the past two seasons.
He only blew two saves. It seemed like more.
Because I owned him.
Taylor Rogers (P) MIN - Dec. 03
https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=761889
Rogers agreed to a one-year, $6 million deal with the Twins on Wednesday, avoiding arbitration, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports.
ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: The Twins missed the deadline to announce the move, but apparently the two sides did agree to terms. As things stand, Rogers would enter the year as the Twins' closer, with Tyler Duffey set to serve as setup man. However, the contending Twins will likely bring in some reinforcements in free agency that could shake up the pecking order.
The values for pitchers continue to wait for Colin's attention, which is directed toward a big project right now.
How did John Gant pitch 17 such excellent games (look at the Rating) without getting a save? Or a win.
John Gant (P) STL - Dec. 03
https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=761896
Gant signed a one-year, $2.1 million contract with the Cardinals on Thursday, avoiding arbitration, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports.
ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Rather than going to arbitration, Gant and the Cardinals were able to reach an agreement on a one-year deal for 2021. The right-hander dealt with right groin tightness late in the season, but he should be fully healthy in time for spring training. Gant made 17 relief appearances during the abbreviated 2020 season and posted a career-best 2.40 ERA and 1.07 WHIP over 15 innings.
Always fun when a player makes his debut here.
MLB has his 2019 stats.
Joe Gatto (P) TEX - Dec. 03
https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=761893
Gatto signed a one-year, $570,500 contract with the Rangers on Thursday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.
ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Gatto was selected by the Angels in the second round of the 2014 first-year player draft, but he hasn't yet pitched above the Double-A level. However, he could be on track to make his debut in the big leagues after signing a major-league contract. The right-hander spent the last two seasons at Double-A, and he transitioned into a bullpen role in 2019. He recorded three saves while posting a 4.80 ERA and 57:28 K:BB over 54.1 innings across 32 appearances in 2019.
Wander Franco (SS) TB - Dec. 03
https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=761888
Franco was officially diagnosed with biceps inflammation and shoulder soreness, Juan Toribio of MLB.com reports.
ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: He was examined in St. Petersburg and there was no structural damage or long-term concern. Franco won't play winter ball again this season, but he should be ready to go for spring training. This is still mildly concerning, as inflammation could reoccur or get worse when he resumes baseball activities. Assuming he is healthy, Franco should spend the bulk of spring training in big-league camp and could debut this summer.
It's now official. Tomoyuki Sugano will be posted and by early January we'll know where he'll be plying his trade next season. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2020/12/04/baseball/japanese-baseball/giants-tomoyuki-sugano-mlb-2/
So you're saying Ramirez didn't face tougher pitchers than Luke Voit did?
I sense a flaw. ERA measures pitcher effectiveness (plus defense) but is also affected by the quality of opposition. This is the essence of the game, the yin/yang pull. Yes, the bases are still 90 feet away, but because hitters hit the ball harder fielders can play farther back and still complete the ground out at first.
So if we have six pods with one leakage unit each, how do we balance who benefits from weak hitting and who is helped by strong pitching, to identify just one of the dynamics.
Couple this problem with a rather small sample size and I think we're best off seriously discounting the extreme statistical results from 2020, unless there is an obvious effect.
Here's what I was talking about in the Jose Ramirez thread. The six divisions in ascending order of ERA:
AL Central
W 155
L 143
ERA 4.10
NL Central
W 143
L 155
ERA 4.14
NL West
W 160
L 140
ERA 4.39
AL East
W 154
L 146
ERA 4.53
AL West
W 140
L 160
ERA 4.65
NL East
W 146
L 154
ERA 4.92
Were the pitchers in the NL Central that much better than the pitchers in the NL East?
Were they any better?
Maybe the hitters in the NL East were that much better than the hitters in the NL Central?
One thing we know for sure: no hitter in the NL East faced a pitcher in the NL Central.
No hitter in the NL Central faced a pitcher in the NL East.
Were there two different leagues this year? Or six? Or three?
There was as much interleague play in 60 games as there used to be in 162.
Final score: AL 149 - NL 149.
Quite amazing, really. It helps me a lot. I can use the same wins denominator for each league. I do in a normal year, because the wins totals just aren't that different, but this year I mean it.
In fact, when you add up all the stats of AL teams and all the stats of NL teams, what do you get?
AL ERA: 4.42
NL ERA: 4.47
Very, very close!
And so, of course, the hitters were close.
AL slash stats: .243/.319/.414
NL slash stats: .246/.325/.421
Given how much interleague play there was, it's not surprising, really.
I could use the same formulas for each league this year and it wouldn't make a hoot of difference.
But if I really want to go masochist-crazy this winter, I could work out separate pricing formulas for all six divisions. Just spin everything off the average hitter and average pitcher in each division.
If I did that, Jose Ramirez would be worth even more.
Such a frustrating player. Glad to get him far away so I won't have the temptation of buying him again.
Signs on with the Yakult Swallows for 2021. With the number of players looking for work, signing early makes a lot of sense. There is only so much room in Korea and Japan for import players.
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Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the pitchers facing the Yankees and Rays and Braves and Phillies were tougher but faced better hitters.
I know that the last few years taking AL Central pitchers faced much worse hitting than pitchers in the other divisions did.
Plus Ramirez didn't have to face the Indians pitchers, who were the best of the lot.