Rays catchers will be well-armed with more info, data this season

It’s all in the cards.

Reports: Twins agree to one-year deal with Lance Lynn

Saturday brought the news that they had reached agreement with veteran right-hander Lance Lynn on a one-year contract, according to a person with direct knowledge. Remarkably, it was for $12 million with another $2 million in potential performance bonuses. .

Lynn, 30, had turned down a recent two-year, $20 million offer from the Twins, according to a person with direct knowledge, but the two sides kept talking amid a historically slow-moving market.

With Checkups and Chickpea Pasta, the Mets Get Healthier. But Better? - The New York Times

How many teams are already doing this?

SABR Analytics: Wins Above Replacement or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love deGrom

My talk on how we formulate WAR on baseball-reference.com.

A’s, Jonathan Lucroy agree to one-year deal

No details.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-9-2018

Bridgeport Times, March 9, 1918:

BASEBALL BAT IS 59 YEARS OLD TODAY

On March 9, 1859, at a meeting of the fathers of baseball held in New York, it was declared that the bat should be made of wood, and have a diameter not to exceed two inches and a half and a length not greater than 42 inches.
...
The early rule that the bat should be made “of wood” wasn’t binding enough in the early days of professionalism for some of the players sneaked in bats into which holes had been made and filled with ...

Source: Rox, CarGo nearing one-year deal | MLB.com

Another shocker.

Mike Moustakas returning to Royals

Boras lost this one.

- Mike Moustakas has agreed to a one-year deal with a mutual second-year option with the Kansas City Royals, according to sources. The deal, which was first reported by Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan, guarantees him $6.5 million and can max out at $22.7 million.

Astros renew Correa and Bregman

Minor news but they did play nice by giving Correa $1 M and Bregman gets a tiny boost up to $599.

Are Yoenis Cespedes’ camp antics a Mets problem? | New York Post

Spring training 1992. Back field at Fort Lauderdale Stadium. New Yankees manager Buck Showalter and I are standing side by side staring out at an outfield drill that Mel Hall is purposely tarnishing.

Showalter never moves his eyes from the drill, never looks at me, but says: “Joel, you can have an ass(bleep) on your team. But that ass(bleep) better be Barry Bonds.”

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-8-2018

Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, March 8, 1918:

It generally is admitted that the International League awaits only the dead line, March 25, to formally disappear from the baseball scenery. The scene already is set for the obsequies and the remains will be quietly interred.

Persistent word is heard, however, of an effort, said to be backed principally by Jack Dunn, of Baltimore, and McCaffery, of Toronto, the only club owners voting to continue, to patch up a new circuit and in a way keep the ...

Arizona Diamondbacks hope for an edge with hitting strategist Robert Van Scoyoc

After years of gaining word-of-mouth notoriety around baseball as a vanguard of the swing-change revolution, Robert Van Scoyoc was hired by the Diamondbacks in the offseason to fill a newly created role. He will be their hitting strategist.

A lot of good stuff in this article.

Zack Wheeler winning, Rafael Montero losing in Mets’ rotation battle

Zack Wheeler further bolstered his case to start in the rotation Wednesday, when he blanked the Yankees for three innings in the Mets’ 11-4 Grapefruit League loss at First Data Field. His fastball had good life and velocity and he was able to get Yankee hitters to roll over his off-speed stuff for ground balls. His curveball got swings and misses.

As of now, the rotation is looking like deGrom, Thor, Vargas, Harvey, and Wheeler.

SSAC18: Next Frontier in Baseball Analytics

Some interesting stuff.

Kaplan: How a ‘really big fantasy baseball nerd’ became Jeff Luhnow’s right-hand man – The Athletic

An interesting piece on one of the many smart people working in the Astros front office, Brandon Taubman.

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani faces Clayton Kershaw

Sorry, this isn’t smack talk.

“I could care less now,” Kershaw said when asked if he was excited to face Ohtani. “He didn’t pick us. Good luck to him.”

Old school? Or innovative? Rays eyeing four-man rotation for full season

Starters are pitching less innings than ever. This makes a lot of sense to me.

The Rays are planning more than just an early-season experiment with a four-man rotation.

Manager Kevin Cash said today they are looking to stick with that plan for the full season – using four starters on a regular basis and filling in on the fifth day with the multi-inning relievers they will have in their bullpen.

The four starters to begin the season are set to be Chris Archer, Blake Snell, Nathan Eovaldi and ...

Latest on Arrieta, Moustakas, Holland

It will be interesting to see if he can pull a rabbit out of his butt on these guys.

Under fire, baseball union may add legal firepower | NBC Sports Boston

This. The MLBPA has sold out younger players (including amateur, minor leaguers, and 1-3 year players) and made them even cheaper and more valuable. The middle class is now paying the price for their greedy, short-sighted, and simplistic thinking.

So the union surrendered the extra year. And then . . .

“Starting in the 1986 offseason, I started getting calls from all of these mid-level free agents,” said Orza. “[Guys] who aren’t getting offers, who aren’t getting jobs. Who eventually ...

When Winter Never Ends

Great read.

DAY 1: FEB. 4, 2018

“There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord.”
—Musashi Miyamoto (circa 1584-1645), samurai and artist

Ichiro Suzuki steps out of the cold into the small restaurant that serves him dinner most nights. It’s winter in Kobe, Japan, where he once played professional baseball and where he comes during the offseason to train. His wife, Yumiko, is back home in Seattle. He is here alone, free from the ...

Spring Training showings to get excited about

I guess it’s better than the alternative.

1. Matt Harvey, RHP, Mets (2 starts, 5 IP, 1 ER, 3 K)
Some wondered if Harvey would even get this far. After the past couple of years, no one knew what he was still capable of. At this point, the right-hander has given the Mets every reason for optimism. Harvey could be the difference between the Mets making and missing the playoffs. Or he could be dealt at the Trade Deadline.

2. Matt Kemp, OF, Dodgers (.313 BA, 3 HR, 1.228 OPS, 16 AB)
Wait, what? ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-7-2018

Washington Times, March 7, 1918:

Now that Dave Robertson has decided to retire from baseball, it is a certainty that Manager McGraw will use Ross Young [sic] in right field this season.
...
He is a wide, heavy swinger, with a good eye, and is fleet of foot. Ever since Young has been playing professional ball he has never hit under .300, and he has played in several minor leagues.

Ross Youngs hit .145 in 55 at-bats for the 1914 Austin Senators, though he was a 17-year-old playing in the Texas ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-6-2018

Toledo News-Bee, March 6, 1918:

The Cleveland Indians arrived [in New Orleans] on Wednesday without bats, uniforms, or trunks. Their equipment is somewhere in Dixie. The players and baggage traveled on the same train from Cleveland to Cincinnati. Then they parted company. Manager Fohl ordered first practice on Wednesday, and planned to borrow equipment.

I’ve never played professionally, but I imagine it would be more difficult to practice without bats or baseballs.

Yankees need to stop messing with their star reliever | New York Post

So the whole premise of the article is pretty much bologna.

Boone pretty much solidified Green’s bullpen future when he said after the game, “I think probably our preference is to eventually move him back [to the bullpen], but we want to at least be in that position should something come up.”

The move back to the pen would be “pretty soon,” Boone said.

That would be the smart move.

Mallee’s numbers tell story about Phillies’ bats

Better hitting through data.

“Our whole philosophy of selective, aggressive hitting is our guys are going to attack pitches they can drive early in the count and take everything else within the strike zone, even if it’s a strike,” Mallee said. “Wherever their strengths are, they’re going to look in there. If the ball shows up there they’re going to swing, but if it doesn’t that’s how they work counts as opposed to taking pitches. We’re looking for something to slug until the count tells us we ...

Eric Hosmer says lots of ‘red flags’ during grim offseason: ‘Something is wrong with it’

He got paid. Maybe the other guys aren’t really worth their asking prices.

Nats send lefty Romero home from spring camp | MiLB.com News

More trouble for Romero. No details provided.

Cardinals lock in DeJong with 6-year extension worth $26 million

It’s one of the largest ever for a player with less than a full year of service time. The deal also includes two option years and a total possible value of $51.5 million, confirmed a source. The options are both club options and they are worth $12.5 million for 2023 and $15 million for 2024.

Pitcher batting 8th? Mets manager reveals his in-game strategies | New York Post

Starting pitchers are pretty much finished at 100 pitches.

“It’s a case-by-case basis: What has he done his last couple of outings?” Callaway said. “We have to take that into account. Another thing we really have to take into account this season is the amount of innings guys have thrown in the past. To expect them to go out and throw 110 pitches, 110, 110, all of a sudden their workload is going to go way up. One hundred is alarming, and then we will start, ‘We’ve got to get ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-5-2018

Washington Times, March 5, 1918:

The Red Sox are to share Braves Field with George Stallings’ National League club this year. Work will be started on a new clubhouse within a few days. Fenway Park, situated in the Fenway, now a handsome residence section, is today worth twice as much as it was when the American League moved there from Huntington avenue a few years ago.
...
The overhead costs of Braves Field have caused President Haughton and his associates to extend an invitation to the Red Sox ...