Cal Raleigh is a very good catcher but somewhat ironically, he appears to be having his weakest season defensively while having a breakout year on offense. I don’t pretend to understand all of the advanced stats, so I’m just looking at both bWAR and fWAR. The gap is closer at fangraphs with Judge at 7.1 and Raleigh 5.7.
It was Dodgers fans wearing out their lungs screaming “Cheater” at Jose Altuve while he and his teammates feasted on Dodgers pitching.
Altuve: two home runs, a double and 5 RBIs.
Unless you’re the New York Mets.
Relief pitcher Bobby Jenks, who was one of the heroes of the White Sox’ World Series win in 2005, died yesterday, at age 44, after a battle with stomach cancer.
Jenks was a big guy (officially listed at 6’4", 275 lbs.), and whenever I hear his name, I remember a radio ad for the White Sox which ran here in Chicago, in which he was referred to as “the Meat with the Heat.”
They keep on limiting pitchers’ innings more and more, and they keep on getting injured.
I remember when Judge came up, a number of pitchers and announcers commented, “Look at the size of that strike zone!”
As he got experience, he covers it pretty well. You’ll always get the strikeouts, that’s the nature of todays game.
They keep pushing pitchers to throw at 100% more and more, and they keep on getting injured.
And Schmidt wasn’t a flamethrower, just threw a ton of cutters.
I have to wonder what role the pitch clock plays in this. Less time in between each pitch has to lead to increased arm strain and injuries, right?
Baseball has also become obsessed with spin rate in recent years. Altering mechanics to achieve more spin is probably contributing to arm injuries.
MLB commissioned a study in 2023 on pitcher injuries. Here’s a summary article, written after the 2024 season. An interesting finding is that more injuries have been occurring before Opening Day than in the past.
Pitch clock was introduced in 2023. According to the above article, injuries have been on a steep uptrend for at least a decade. IMO, the pitch clock is only a slight factor, if any.
Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff started today’s game against the Marlins, almost two years after his last major-league appearance, and after a lengthy rehab from surgery on his pitching shoulder.
Woodruff went six innings, only giving up two hits (one a home run), and walking none, while striking out eight, and getting the win. Welcome back!
Nats making changes.
The Pittsburgh Pirates just made history. They are the first team in MLB to win 3 straight shutout games then immediately lose 3 straight shutout games.
Toronto won today to sweep the Angels. They’ve now won 8 in a row and maintained their 3-game lead over the Yanks and Rays.
Incidentally, their 52-38 record is the worst of the six division leaders, one game behind both the Cubs and Phillies.
About freakin’ time.
That’s really tapered off since they implemented between-inning checks for foreign substances. The spin rate craze was driven by MLB turning a blind eye to amazingly advanced technology in sticky stuff that pitchers were using. They got away with it because there was a legitimate argument that some amount of tack was helpful in pitchers gaining control of increasingly fast pitches, thus reducing injuries. But it then spiraled into leveraging the sticky stuff to absurd degrees, and MLB called them on it. The substance checks have pretty much taken care of both the substances and the spin obsession.
I still don’t think they can maintain this. On the weekend they beat a mediocre team three times but by the skin of their teeth. This is a team with significant weaknesses and without the prospect bait to acquire the best available talent at the deadline.
Having said that, wins are wins. If from this point on they just play .500 ball, they’d finish 88-74, which would drift them out of the division lead but likely still make the playoffs.
It’ll be interesting to see what they when Anthony Santander is back. I suspect Davis Schneider is the odd man out, to the extent that he might be one of the guys traded away to get more pitching. That said, I am not sure Santander’s return would make the team better. He was fucking terrible before getting hurt, he offers the team way less positional flexibility, and he has never really been a GREAT player. The Jays have been much better without him.
True, but during the week, they swept the Yankees in 4 games, right after taking 2 of 3 from both Boston and Cleveland. (Of course, they lost 2 of 3 to the White Sox prior to the Cleveland series…)
I’d say enjoy their success while it lasts. I can root for any team that is ahead of the Yanks.
My favorite baseball team? Funny you should ask.
Whoever is playing the Yankees today.
I’d agree with you but the Yankees play against the Astros sometimes.