A cautionary note about spring statistics, and other thoughts - Chicago Tribune

Unfortunately for Happ, this is the first April of his major-league career, so he doesn’t have a full season under his belt to prove it’s an anomaly. After a couple of hits Friday, Happ was asked if having five hits in eight 8 at-bats over three games was encouraging after his rough start, despite the small sample size.

“That’s a small sample size,” he said of his 41 at-bats. “Just wait until the end of the year.”

Manager Joe Maddon is not likely to give up on Happ, at least not ...

Ozzie Albies: A Tale of Two Hitters - Fake Teams

Confirmation of everything our eyes are telling us.

Ohtani Almost Signed With Red Sox (but not when you think)

Traveling the world as international scouts, Jon Deeble and Eddie Romero encountered their share of oddities. But the Red Sox talent evaluators had no idea what awaited them at Hanamaki Higashi High School, a two-hour bullet train ride outside Tokyo, in 2012.

They had come to interview schoolboy phenom Shohei Ohtani, and all of Japan evidently knew it.

“The media sitting out in front of the school at the front entrance was unbelievable,” Deeble recalled. “When we went in to interview him, ...

About the only problem the Red Sox have is what to do with Blake Swihart

Having talent is not a problem. Because of his injuries Swihart’s stock is down. The Red Sox need to get him into the mix behind the plate to either showcase him for deals or to turn him into a partner for Vazquez. They can keep Sandy Leon around if they want him for insurance to remain as a future backup to Vazquez. He should not be an impediment.

Rick Porcello has now settled in nicely with Leon catching him. Pitchers love Leon behind the plate. Any notion of trying to deal Leon to make room ...

And the wind cries OMNICHATTER, for April 16, 2018

Clayton Kershaw strikes out 12 in Dodgers’ 7-2 victory over Diamondbacks | LA Times

That the Dodgers reported for work in last place in the National League West for the first time in three years did not particularly worry the men in uniform. It was April, after all. They would win one of these days, and Clayton Kershaw would be their pitcher on this day.

“If there’s anyone you want to take the mound in a game like this, it’s Clayton,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

A game like this? Three consecutive losses overall, five consecutive losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks, ...

Rays Kiermaier to have surgery, miss 8-12 weeks | TB Times

Kiermaier will have surgery for a torn ligament in his right thumb and is expected to miss 8-12 weeks, the Tampa Bay Times has learned. An announcement from the team is expected later today.

The Rays have been in this position before, each of the last two years actually, waiting for test results but expecting bad news regarding an injury to centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier.

This time it’s a right thumb injury, sustained sliding headfirst into second Sunday while taking an extra base, with the ...

10 Degrees: MLB’s enormous attendance drop due to bad weather or something far worse for baseball?

Even if some are obviously weather-related, the numbers are nevertheless staggering. The average crowd of 27,532 over the 221 MLB games played this season is about 2,700 fans per game lower than last year through the same point. Over the course of a full season, that would amount to a drop of more than 6.5 million fans.

The Bonkers Game That Probably Shouldn’t Have Been

In the end, we saw the Braves jump out to a 10-2 lead and feature a 99.4% chance of winning the game as late as the seventh inning. Despite adding a few runs, the Cubs’ win probability was still just 2.0% in the eighth after Efren Navarro whiffed to record the inning’s second out. Nine two-out runs later, Chicago’s probability of losing was just 2.6%.

Bartolo Colón Almost Did the Impossible

There was Colón, slicing and dicing the Astros through seven perfect innings, just six outs separating him from what would’ve arguably been the greatest pitching feat in MLB history. Facing one of the most juggernaut offenses the game has ever seen, Colón set his first 21 batters down in order using that diesel-powered fastball and virtually nothing else, until a walk by Correa to open the eighth ended his chase of history and a double by Josh Reddick right after closed the book on the ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-16-2018

New York Sun, April 16, 1918:

LOCAL BASEBALL LID COMES OFF TO-DAY

After the balmy weather of yesterday the magic words “play ball,” which will be uttered on the Polo Grounds this afternoon by Umpire Cy Rigler, will be appropriate and seasonable. On such a day as yesterday each gentle zephyr seemed to sing “play ball.”

Even the fact that each hour brings fresh developments of the world’s greatest battle, and that Uncle Sam is plunged in his greatest Liberty Loan drive cannot drown out the music ...

OTP 2018 Apr 16: Beto strikes out but is a hit at baseball fundraiser

“I guarantee you he didn’t just get three pitches and three strikes like his old man,” said O’Rourke.

He can afford a laugh, since he has dusted Cruz in fundraising by taking in an eye-popping $6.7 million in the first three months of this year. That’s more than twice the $3.2 million gathered by Cruz, whose tally counted money from multiple campaign entities including a political action committee.

O’Rourke won’t take PAC money, a stand that’s expected to put him at a ...

Deven Marrero HR changed to single upon review

Well, that’s not good.

Why Matt Harvey’s spot in Mets’ rotation isn’t completely safe

Both Mickey Callaway and his pitching coach, Dave Eiland, insist they have not yet contemplated what they will do if all the members of their rotation are available to them. Around the Mets you learn quickly — even in Year 1 in charge — not to plan too quickly on having too many starting pitchers.

But we also have learned this rather fast about the new leadership. They were not brought in to rebuild. That fervor to go for it now only has been heightened by the exquisite opening to this ...

With Preston Tucker producing, Braves can wait to call up Ronald Acuna

Just bought tickets to see Acuna play next Sunday. Now I have to wait and see whether he’ll actually still be on the team.

Weekend OMNICHATTER for April 14-15, 2018

MLB suspends Nolan Arenado, Luis Perdomo as part of brawl punishments

NEW YORK—Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado has been suspended five games for charging the mound after Luis Perdomo threw a pitch behind his back, inciting a benches-clearing brawl during Wednesday’s game against the San Diego Padres.

Major League Baseball announced Friday that Perdomo was also suspended five games for intentionally throwing at the All-Star third baseman.

Gerardo Parra gets four games, Buddy Bauman gets a game. A.J. Ellis, Freddy Galvis, and German Marquez get fines. ...Read More...

Kevin Plawecki breaks left hand

Tomas Nido be enough?

DRays Bay: Montreal Expos ownership group positioned for MLB relocation

The recent exhibition games played in Montreal have significantly re-ignited the talk of baseball in that City and Province, to the point where prospective owners have been forced to respond to endless questions about when and how - not if - the Expos will return to Montreal.

. . .

But the latest few questions answered by Mitch Garner, who has a stake in Cirque du Soleil and is set to make an ownership bid along with fellow Billionaire Stephen Bronfman, is what has raised eyebrows and ...

I’m serious, and don’t call me OMNICHATTER, for Friday the 13th, 2018

Minor-league baseball team wins on walk-off steal of home

Booker, an outfielder for the Class A team in the Carolina League*, made a bold move during the Dash’s game Thursday night against the Carolina Mudcats.

The Dash, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, had the bases loaded with two outs in the 10th inning when Booker decided he’d try to win the game on a straight steal of home.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-13-2018

El Paso Herald, April 13, 1918:

Manager McGraw is evidently going to rely this season, as he always has, on his players slugging the ball, instead of having them follow the sacrifice bunt system.
...
He may be right in following this plan, but it seems that by doing the unexpected once in a while and adopting the sacrifice, the Giants would win many more close games.

John McGraw might have been a jerk, but he was no dummy.

Miami Marlins outdrawn by Double-A affiliate in Jacksonville

Yeah Jeets!

The Marlins drew 6,150 fans. The Jacksonville team brought in 6,960 for its home opener Wednesday night.

For the three-game series against New York, the Marlins—who lost Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna as part of a rebuilding plan by the team’s new ownership—drew a total of 19,669 fans.

Depressing. The Mets fans in South Florida didn’t want to come out to see their red-hot team?

Inside Baseball MLB Notes | Break up the Mets! | FanRag Sports

Heyman’s latest.

Jared Banner and the making of a front-office prospect

Here’s something you don’t see every day, an in-depth look at a mid-level baseball exec.

Elvis Andrus headed to DL for first time in career with fractured elbow

Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus left Wednesday’s game versus the Los Angeles Angels after being hit on the right elbow by a Keynan Middleton pitch in the ninth inning. Initial x-rays and examination by Rangers Team Physician Keith Meister done at Globe Life Park in Arlington indicate the probability of a fracture in the elbow.

Reminiscent of Ivan Rodriguez breaking his hand (while catching) in 2000 – both players at the peak of their careers. Of course Rodriguez was an MVP on his way to the ...

The White Sox ballpark in Chicago that never was and could have changed history

Dayn Perry with a tremendous article on Philip Bess and his attempts to design a ballpark that combined the best of the Wrigley-Fenway-Comiskey era parks along with modern amenities.  He came up with Armour Field and the piece has illustrations of what might have been for the White Sox instead of Guaranteed Rate Field.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-12-2018

Toledo News-Bee, April 12, 1918:

Mel Wolfgang, who suffered last year from the effects of poison ivy, contracted at Paso Robles, Cal., has fully recovered and says he’s ready to pitch big league baseball. Mel was carried, not for what he was doing, but for what Pants Rowland knew he could do.

Must have been a hell of a poison ivy outbreak if it was newsworthy that Wolfgang had recovered in the offseason. I know he was a redhead and I know their skin can be particularly susceptible to stuff like ...

OMNICHATTER will have what she’s having, for April 12, 2018

Kaplan: How Max Stassi delved deep into the data and turned his career around – The Athletic

A get look at how players can use data to improve their games.