Bryce Harper told the Nationals he is not hurt, and they seem to believe him - The Washington Post

“Bryce said it didn’t come from him. Nobody really knows where it comes from because it’s not on the injury report,” Baker said. “The trainer said no.”

According to multiple people familiar with the situation, Rizzo commandeered Baker’s office for an informal deposition after the report came out Tuesday. He brought in Harper and trainer Paul Lessard, hoping to learn whether there was some issue Harper had not told them about. If not, they hoped to identify the source of the ...

6 MLB managers who are on the hot seat as the season ends | FOX Sports

Ouch.

Walt Weiss, Rockies
The Rockies, showing significant progress, need only two more victories for 75, which would be their highest total since their last winning season in 2010.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-22-2016

Pittsburgh Press, September 22, 1916:

The complaint of the Brooklyn Ball club against the Flatbush Hygeia Ice Co. for permitting cinders to pour out into the air and get into the eyes of the Dodgers, was dismissed by Magistrate Voorhees yesterday. The case was called while the baseball men were outside the court taking the air. The club’s appeal to reopen the case was denied.

I’ve gotten cinders in my eyes before. It’s no fun. On the other hand, if the cinders were getting into the Dodgers’ ...

Trout’s HR carries Angels over Rangers

What is Mike Scioscia thinking batting Andrelton Simmons fourth in the order? He has no power. His on base skills aren’t great. It makes me scratch my head.

OMNICHATTER 9-22-16

The “Oh My God Vin Scully Is Actually Going To Be Retiring” OMNICHATTER

Game Ender! Walk-off dazzler denies Mets

Off the bat, the Mets were convinced it was a home run—convinced that finally, for one night, they had managed to vanquish a Braves team bent on disrupting their Wild Card chase.

Ender Inciarte had other ideas. Racing over from his perch in center field, Inciarte leaped, thrust his glove over the fence and brought Yoenis Cespedes’ drive back into play. Rather than a walk-off homer, it became a game-ending out, allowing the Braves to cap a three-game sweep of the Mets with a 4-3 victory on ...

ESPN: Gary Sanchez Is Having Maybe The All-Time Best Start

Maybe?

Sanchez hit two more home runs and drove in five in Wednesday’s 11-5 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. He is the fastest baseball player in history to record 19 homers; it has taken him just 45 games. The Boston Braves’ Wally Berger belted 19 homers in 51 games back in 1930. No one had hit them at a quicker rate until Sanchez arrived for good on Aug. 3.

“I never thought it was going to be like this,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez has hit homers in four consecutive games. Wednesday was his third ...

Baseball’s Savviest (And Crappiest!) Bullpen Managers

We’re calling the resulting metric weighted reliever management plus (wRM+), and in the style of other “plus” statistics, it’s been rescaled for ease of interpretability: 100 is average, with numbers above 100 corresponding to the percentage factor by which a manager is better than average (or worse than average, for scores below 100). For example, Joe Torre grades out as the best manager since 2000 with a score of 113, meaning his bullpen management was 13 percent better than average. ...Read More...

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: September 21, 2016 at 04:29 PM | 8 comment(s)
  Beats: bullpens, fivethirtyeight, managers

The Secret Society That Terrorized Detroit During The City’s Greatest Sports Era

In 1935, the integration of Major League Baseball was still over a decade away. But among the most popular Detroit Tigers were Hank Greenberg, who was Jewish, and Charlie Gehringer, a devout Catholic. The Black Legion gave them a pass.

“These Black Legion members were sports fans, many of them, anyways,” Stanton says. “And Detroit was a city going crazy for the sports teams, because they had suffered through the Great Depression — were still suffering through it — and Tigers, Lions, Red ...

The man and the voice: An oral history of Vin Scully’s career

Vin Scully has been broadcasting Dodgers games for 67 seasons. As he signs off this year, Jon Miller, Bud Selig, Bob Costas and 20 other colleagues and friends reflect on why a career like Scully’s won’t happen again.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-21-2016

Bemidji Daily Pioneer, September 21, 1916:

Baseball’s champion foolish play was made in a game between Washington and the White Sox in 1907. In that battle Larry Schlafly was captain of the Washingtons and also played second base.

At the end of an early inning Schlafly went out to telephone or buy a goat or something and was delayed so long that the Senators had three men put out before his return…the game went on that way till Fielder Jones hit one straight across second. Then, and not till ...

Yasiel Puig sends Madison Bumgarner “Don’t Look At Me” t-shirt

Funny.

“That don’t make a difference to me, really,” Bumgarner told reporters after hearing about the shirt but before receiving it. “If it were turned around, I’m sure we’d do the same.”

Bumgarner had left the clubhouse immediately after Tuesday’s game, but his gift from Puig still was hanging in his locker.

Joe Kelly might be unlocking his potential as a reliever - Sports - providencejournal.com - Providence, RI

Joe Kelly needs command, whether he’s starting or relieving. To this point, all he’s been is a tease.

MLB Now Mention

Be nice to Brian, he’s one of us! Pat Rapper’s Delight doesn’t speak for all of us! Funny stuff and thanks for visiting Robothal!

(Please excuse the quality of the video.)

Texas Rangers: MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred thinks new stadium will help Rangers overcome ‘competitive disadvantage’ | SportsDay

Give me a break.

3-team tie atop NL Wild Card | MLB.com

We could have a wild finish.

Tuesday’s Major League action saw the National League Wild Card race evened into a three-way tie between the Giants, Mets and Cardinals.

The trio has been trading places in the NL standings all month, with each club logging time in possession of a spot in the NL’s one-game playoff. But when the dust settled after Tuesday’s results, all three ended the day with an 80-71 record.

OMNICHATTER 9-21-16

The OMNICHATTER of Vengeance

The Reds’ Pitching Might Be The Worst Of All Time

. Somehow the Reds have been the only staff in MLB history to post a cumulative WAR below the replacement level. Not every Cincinnati hurler has been historically bad — Anthony DeSclafani has done admirable work, leading the team with 1.9 WAR, and Raisel Iglesias has 1.3 WAR with a superb 3.30 FIP. But by the logic of the theory that underpins WAR, the Reds’ sub-replacement tally means they could have stocked their entire pitching staff with nothing but freely available fringe players and ...

Jacob deGrom will undergo elbow surgery

Jacob deGrom will undergo surgery later this week to address the ulnar nerve issue in his pitching elbow. Doctors will move the nerve, which is not considered a major procedure—although any surgery should not be minimized. DeGrom has estimated a three-month recovery time.

Clay Buchholz on Evolving

Laurila drawing insight from Buchholz on pitching.

I think the cutter is the best pitch in baseball, as far as the stats go. Actually, I know that for a fact. [Red Sox director of pitching analysis and development] Brian Bannister and I were talking about that awhile ago — the numbers on guys who throw cutters. It’s the best pitch in baseball, in front of the split. Hard-sinking changeups are the third-best pitch. A four-seam fastball is the worst pitch as far as hard contact and batting ...

This Company Says It Can Predict When A Pitcher Will Get Injured

I can too! After they throw their first pitch!

How? The company claims to have an algorithm that combines the pitching insights of former pitcher and executive Matt Keough and the tech work of digital video pioneer Chuck Colby, who played three years of minor league ball, co-founded the streaming start-up Vosaic, and now owns an environmental company, SOS Mold.

Though DVPAA is curiously void of any background info about its founders and staff, Colby immediately replied to an email seeking ...

Madison Bumgarner, Yasiel Puig and another epic bullpen meltdown

The chain of events:

After Puig grounded out to end the seventh, Bumgarner clearly mouthed, “Don’t look at me,” in Puig’s direction a couple times, with an added expletive in there the third time he said it. The camera panned to Puig saying, “What?” Let’s admit it: A fight makes every sporting event a little more entertaining, not just hockey. While this one didn’t see more than some pushing and shoving, it was entertaining to see all the relievers rushing in from the bullpens:

Everyone loves ...

Reds set new record for home runs allowed in a season

It’s been a real team effort.

With Jason Heyward‘s eighth-inning two-run home run off of Blake Wood on Monday night, the Reds set a new ignominious record, CSN Chicago’s Patrick Mooney reports. The club has now allowed 242 home runs, surpassing the 241 the 1996 Tigers yielded. ....

Brandon Finnegan has allowed the most home runs on the team with 29 followed by Dan Straily at 28. Because the Reds have struggled to keep other pitchers in the rotation, eight other pitchers have given up ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-20-2016

Pittsburgh Press, September 20, 1916:

Zach Wheat, the Puissant Pill Pusher from Polo, was an exasperated young gentleman when he failed to get a safe hit off big Fred Toney in the second game of Saturday’s duplex bill in Flatbush. Prior to facing Toney, Zach had hit safely in 29 consecutive games, which is within 11 games of the major league record, established, of course, by Tyrus Raymond Cobb.
...
Wheat, by the way, has brown eyes. Big league ball players with brown eyes are so much the ...

What to make of Jean Segura - Beyond the Box Score

Jean Segura under the microscope.

Baseball needs to adopt the loan system

Imagine a scenario in which the Orioles are in need of a left fielder, like this season began, but where they could borrow a player much closer to the majors than Joey Rickard. Maybe a veteran being forced out of his starting position (like Desmond Jennings), or a prospect who might have had a few call-ups, but was protected on the 40-man roster when the Rule-5 draft occurred.

For example, Rays outfielder Mikie Mahtook has shown major league competence, but was blocked by Brandon Guyer and ...

The Impact of Injuries on Player Valuation – The Hardball Times

I just skimmed the article but it doesn’t look like he’s factoring in the quality of the player. That’s a pretty big factor. Did I miss something?

As a field, player health in baseball is ripe with research opportunities. This article is historical in nature, but future research could take a predictive angle, projecting which players are most likely to get injured, which injuries are most harmful and how injured players are likely to recover and preform. This sort of analysis would enable teams ...

How will voters rob Mike Trout of the MVP this year?

It’s going to happen. I can feel it’s going to happen. And while I understand why it’s going to happen, we need to stop inventing reasons to elect someone other than Trout, the Angels’ brilliant center fielder. We are making ourselves look dumb.

Trout, 25, has been the best player in baseball for five seasons now, yet he has won only one MVP, finishing second three times. The reason to rob him this year — there’s always a reason, some new narrative — is that the Angels stink. As if that is ...

Who Was George Wright? « Our Game

The Wright brothers had become infatuated with baseball, too. Both had been exposed to the American game and played with verve on fields adjoining the cricket grounds at the Elysian Fields. “There were, of course,” George recalled in 1888, “other base ball dubs in existence in Brooklyn, notably the old Atlantics, Stars, Excelsiors, Enterprise, etc., but the real center of base ball was at Hoboken. Here there were located three grounds, where from six to eight clubs would play practice ...

Texas Rangers: After Jeff Banister is ejected, Rangers steal another late-inning win and, they hope, some Cowboys fans too | SportsDay

Ejection by Joe West put Banister on the sidelines. The Rangers’ magic number is three. Joe West continues to embarrass MLB.

Rangers manager Jeff Banister missed another bit of last-swing heroics from his playoff-bound club Monday night.
With Banister in exile after an ejection in the sixth inning, the Rangers came up with their specialty: a one-run win. Ian Desmond produced the third consecutive hit to start the ninth inning to drive in Elvis Andrus for a 3-2 victory.

The win cut the Rangers’ ...