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 ...

Jon Lester using new approach on throws to 1B | MLB.com

The Cubs’ Jon Lester is trying a new Chicago Bulls-themed approach to deal with his struggles to throw to first base.

“In the words of [coach Brian Butterfield], we’re going to use the Jordan-to-Pippen bounce,” Lester said Sunday, referring to Bulls legends Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. “I don’t care what it looks like, I don’t care if it bounces 72 times over there, an out’s an out.”

OTP 3 March 2018: Texas Wesleyan baseball coach fired after rejecting Colorado prospect over politics

A college baseball coach in Texas was fired Thursday partly because of an email he sent to a high school prospect in Colorado. Texas Wesleyan University’s coach told the senior that Colorado players have failed drug tests in the past and the university doesn’t take a chance on students from the state.

At a Thursday morning press conference, University President Fred Slabach announced coach Mike Jeffcoat was fired because of the remarks and for violating National Association of Intercollegiate ...

Steven Matz: Roughed up Sunday

In a post-game interview, Matz asserted that his struggles were not health related, but simply a matter of him missing his spots high. Even though it’s just a spring game, this is a bit concerning for prospective fantasy owners given the young left-hander’s struggles last year.

Bad new about Rusty Staub

The beloved Mets icon and New York philanthropist, who survived a midflight heart attack from Ireland to JFK Airport in October 2015, is again gravely ill in a West Palm Beach, Fla., hospital where he has been suffering from a staph infection that has led to kidney failure for nearly a month now.

Jose Canseco turned teammates onto steroids

This is literally an economics research paper by actual scientists.

This paper examines the issue of whether workers learn productive skills from their co-workers, even if those skills are unethical. Specifically, we estimate whether Jose Canseco, a star baseball player in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, affected the performance of his teammates by introducing them to steroids. Using panel data, we show that a player’s performance increases significantly after they played with Jose Canseco. After ...

We X-Rayed Some MLB Baseballs. Here’s What We Found.

On top of the fact that the balls became bouncier as the core itself changed, previous research at FiveThirtyEight showed that they also became less air resistant. The decrease in drag is probably a result of a smaller, slicker baseball with lower seams. The change in air resistance could add an additional 5 feet to the travel distance of a fly ball. Combine all these factors together — a lighter, more compact baseball with tighter seams and more bounce — and the ball could fly as much as ...

What Is the Essential Baseball Film?

The Kid From Left Field?

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-2-2018

Bridgeport Times, March 2, 1918:

Mr. George Perritt of Shreveport, La., right-handed pitcher for the New York Giants, says he’s through. No more baseball for him. He will not play for John J. McGraw in 1918, and never, never, never will bend another outshoot over the old pan at the Polo Grounds. So he says.
...
[Perritt:] “It won’t do any good for McGraw to come here to sign me to anything—unless he wants to buy an automobile…I’m through with baseball—through forever. I’m selling automobiles ...

Royals fans remember Lucas Duda from 2015 World Series, now he’s replacing Eric Hosmer

Ironically, Duda likely will replace Hosmer as the Royals’ first baseman. According to FanGraphs, Duda has 7.4 Wins Above Replacement since the start of the 2014 season, while Hosmer has a 7.5 WAR.

After the Royals won the Series-clinching Game 5, Royals first base coach Rusty Kuntz said, “Bless his heart, Duda. He’s a good bat.”

Does Madison Bumgarner Deserve to Be MLB’s Next $30M-Per-Year Pitcher?

Mets360: The sweet irony of Lucas Duda

Something akin to trading Ralph Branca for Bobby Thomson in about 1953 or so…

Inside Baseball Notes | Svelte Schwarber surprising | FanRag Sports

Heyman is a great reporter. Maybe, though, he should skip the analysis.

A conversation with the Angels’ Justin Upton: On hitting, stats, and the end of free-agent courting – The Athletic

Here’s an extremely interesting interview with Justin Upton. I doubt his perspective is unique.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-1-2018

El Paso Herald, March 1, 1918:

Harry Frazee, Jr., 15 years old, is an enterprising school boy. Last spring he wrote to his father, president of the Red Sox, for half a dozen new balls. Frazee, Sr., paid $1.25 each for them and shipped them immediately. Several weeks later he received another urgent request for a second half dozen, which also were sent with a letter asking what had been done with the first batch. Back came a reply which read:

“I sold the first half dozen at a quarter apiece. ...

Goold: After walking away from baseball, Rasmus is back to ride ‘this roller coaster’ | Derrick Goold: Bird Land | stltoday.com

A nice piece on Colby Rasmus and his ambivalence toward the game.

Neil Walker sounds bummed about Yankees’ Drury trade | New York Post

Torres looks like a better fit at 2B. Walker hasn’t played much third. Add in his back issue, his poor defense, and his salary and it’s not difficult to figure out when the Yankees preferred to trade for Drury.

Walker wishes intangibles weighed more in the Yankees’ decision.

“Maybe it’s something that’s being lost in translation with teams — how are we valuing guys?” Walker said. “Are we strictly valuing them on numbers, or are we not able to quantify how they’re making an ...

The most intriguing thing at every Cactus League camp

These guys have track records. Unless one of these guys has made a pretty big adjustment, I’d think he already knows who’ll be the starter. Of course, he won’t want to say it.

Nick Ahmed, Chris Owings and Ketel Marte are competing for the starting shortstop job in Arizona, where manager Torey Lovullo and his staff are focusing on things that don’t appear in a box score.

While MLB goes young, here’s why the Giants are doubling down on players in their 30s
Baseball is a young man’s game these ...

Clayton Kershaw’s Next Contract | FanGraphs Baseball

He’s been great. His back problems the last couple of years could scare the Dodgers enough to keep them from offering him a seven-year deal. Would Kershaw agree to language which protects the Dodgers while choosing to not push them to the very top of the market?

Whether Kershaw and the Dodgers work out an extension before he opts out or he pulls the trigger, hits the open market, and signs a new deal, it’s reasonable to assume that his new pact will be a seven-year one. Not only did he (and ...

Nationals confront their proverbial hump — with actual camels - The Washington Post

OK, then.

Once wondering whether he belonged, Kyle Crick found his spot in the majors | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Crick was closing for Class AAA Sacramento when the Giants promoted him last June. The Giants were the worst team in the National League, but Crick joined a clubhouse with Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Matt Cain, veterans with three World Series rings.

“They were in the weight room early, they were taking care of their bodies, rolling out, doing all sorts of stuff that as a minor leaguer, as a young kid, I had just thought was eyewash stuff until that point,” Crick said. “I ...

Alex Cora to lean on veterans for Red Sox rules, possibly tighter dress code

Are sports coats really needed?

“I think you give them the space,” Cora said in a sit-down with NBC Sports Boston. “Obviously, we’re going to have some rules. Dress codes, and who can be in the clubhouse, all that stuff. … I will get the veterans or the core of the team in my office. Tell ‘em what I want from them, and then they meet and they’ll come back with a set of rules that they feel it’s appropriate for the team, and then we’ll discuss and we go.”

Melky Cabrera is one of the faces of MLB’s free agent crisis | New York Post

IT’S A CRISIS!!

Cabrera has averaged 12 outfield assists each of the past three years and committed just two errors last season.

Hey Kevin Kernan, the 1940’s called asking for their statistical analysis back.