Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 7-18-2017

Bridgeport Evening Farmer, July 18, 1917:

J. Franklin Baker of the Yankees was yesterday exonerated of blame for the alleged tampering with a player to influence him in jumping his contract with the St. Louis Browns. The exoneration followed the receipt of a letter from Baker in which he denied that he had approached Allen Sothoron, pitcher, to induce him to leave the Browns and join the Upland club of the Delaware County league in Pennsylvania.

Well, that answers the question I posed yesterday ...

Fangraphs: 2017 Trade Value: #1 to #10

Yeah, it finally happened. For the first time since 2011, Mike Trout is not atop this list… by the slimmest of margins, Carlos Correa is our new most valuable player in baseball when contracts are included in the discussion.

Would you trade Trout straight up for Correa?

Tomase: Steroids kept Red Sox great Dwight Evans out of Hall of Fame—advanced stats could’ve put him in

Evans is a prime example of a player whose career would be viewed very differently if he played today. He led the league in on base percentage once, OPS twice, and walks three times. As one of the game’s more unconventional leadoff hitters in 1985—he never stole more than eight bases in a season—he walked 114 times and scored 110 runs. Drop him to fifth or sixth, as the Red Sox did during the rabbit-ball year of 1987, and he responded with the best power numbers of his career, hitting .305 with ...

Dodgers asking $12 million a year for naming rights to field

Now, America’s third-oldest MLB venue is looking to defy MLB’s legacy as the most traditional sport even more aggressively by selling naming rights to the field in Chavez Ravine, home to the Los Angeles Dodgers since 1962. Numerous industry sources tell us that Dodger Stadium’s field — thus, it would be X Corp. Field at Dodger Stadium — has been on the market since early spring with an asking price of $12 million per season.

Sources tell us Entitle, the joint-venture naming-rights ...

Despite largest first half ratings drop, Royals still lead MLB in average local rating

But according to John Ourand and David Broughton of the Sports Business Journal, the sport’s local ratings have not been great this season. Per SBD, 18 of the 29 U.S.-based MLB teams have seen ratings fall, with the defending champion Chicago Cubs the most surprising of the laggards.

With a drop of 37%, the Royals have the largest negative ratings change of any team in baseball this season, though they still possess the highest local rating at 7.69. The White Sox, Marlins, Giants, and ...

This baseball-themed baby gender reveal didn’t quite go as planned | MLB.com

I knew the gender before the ball exploded. Throwing like a girl was a dead giveaway.

Cornering (and) the international market. | Texas Rangers Blog | The Newberg Report

Playing with the international bonus pool.

Mets should let a Jacob deGrom trade offer blow them away

Now, say you have Jacob deGrom. If you are the Mets, you love deGrom. He is a keeper, the one you planned to stick with throughout his prime.

But you are Sandy Alderson, and you notice the supply for top starters is thin and the demand great. Do you stick with the original strategy and ignore the market place? Or do you see what he is worth?

Because you have an idea of the value, but say a desperate team is willing to double that value, better positioning your team for years to come. And, lo ...

Monday, Monday, so good to OMNICHATTER, for July 17, 2017

How Aaron Judge Built Baseball’s Mightiest Swing - The New York Times

Approach or mechanics?

The Oakland right-hander Jesse Hahn, who struck Judge out twice and walked him once, said that Judge’s newfound ability to lay off pitches out of the strike zone is “a very superstar-like quality; very few guys can do that at that young of an age.”

As he patrolled center field last weekend at Yankee Stadium, the Brewers’ Broxton had a clear view of just how together Judge looked at the plate. Broxton said that when he faced Judge in the minors last year, he was ...

One year removed from his first start, Dylan Bundy still building identity in starting rotation - Baltimore Sun

Aces don’t usually throw 92 MPH.

In 32 starts since joining the rotation this time last year, Bundy is 16-13 with a 4.41 ERA and a 1.269 WHIP while striking out 7.8 batters per nine innings. This year, 12 of his 18 starts qualify as quality ones, and his 4.33 ERA leads the team. His peripheral stats indicate the 4.41 ERA could be flattering — his fielding-independent pitching (FIP), which calculates ERA based on factors in a pitcher’s control, is 5.02 as a starter.
...
When he worked as a ...

How the Colorado Rockies learned to (somewhat) tame Coors Field | SI.com

On the riddle that is Coors Field.

Are Red Sox bidding against themselves for Todd Frazier? | WEEI

I don’t see the Red Sox giving up a really good prospect for him. Their prospect depth isn’t fantastic right now.

Too early to tell If Aaron Judge has been hit by Derby jinx

People here often defend Davidoff apparently because he references stats that they like.  But this column definitively shows he is just another hack.  The notion that Judge was tired on Friday through Sunday afternoon, but ‘fresher’ Sunday night is particularly piquant.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 7-17-2017

Pittsburgh Press, July 17, 1917:

If agents of a mysterious independent club in the east have been dickering with George Sisler by mail, telegraph or phone, trying to get Sis to quit the Browns, their efforts have not beein received by Sisler.
...
Not only Sisler but Allan Sothoron, Tom Rogers and Earl Hamilton—these four members of the eighth-placers have received attractive offers to quit the Browns and join this mysterious independent organization in the east.
...
[Sisler:] “No one has come to ...

NPB should do more to spice up All-Star experience

If NPB officials need any ideas, there’s already a blueprint in South Korea, where the Korea Baseball Organization has done something similar for several years.

This year, in addition to one home run derby held across two days, the KBO held a Perfect Pitcher competition, a timed event where hurlers tried to knock down bats, and a Perfect Hitter event, where batters aimed for targets while hitting off a tee. The league also held its minor league All-Star Game as part of the All-Star weekend. ...Read More...

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: July 17, 2017 at 09:39 AM | 1 comment(s)
  Beats: all-star game, japanese baseball, korean baseball

OTP 17 July 2017: Love is baseball, family. Keep the politics out

This is baseball, and it’s our cocoon, our special time together, protected from the harder realities of life. Here, the sun is always shining, even if it rains.

If you don’t understand that, you’ve probably never lifted a child up over your head to watch adults scramble after a ball or circle the bases after crushing a home run. Or maybe you’ve never slid head first into a mud puddle without a care of how you would get past your mom and into the laundry room. Maybe you’ve never sat ...

Bob Wolff, Sports Broadcaster for Nearly 80 Years, Dies at 96

In the 1950s, when the original Senators were continuing to finish far from first place, Mr. Wolff knew that their long-suffering fans needed diversions from the team’s habitual losing.

On Memorial Day 1957, the Senators were playing a doubleheader against the Yankees at Griffith Stadium when he picked out an ostensibly typical fan in the stands to interview on the radio between games.

In a memoir, “It’s Not Who Won or Lost the Game — It’s How You Sold the Beer” (1996), Mr. Wolff ...

Billy Beane insists A’s committed to major rebuild

“Really, what’s been missing the last 20 years is keeping these players,” Beane said. “The frustration isn’t that we’ve had success, the frustration is that after success, we haven’t kept them, and we need to change that narrative by creating a good team and ultimately committing to keeping them around, so that when people buy a ticket, they’ll know that the team is going to be there for a few years.”....

“First of all, we have to take a look at where we are - we’re in ...

Angels Designate Danny Espinosa For Assignment | MLB Trade Rumors

Espinosa was acquired from the Nationals last offseason as a possible answer to their long-standing hole at second base, though 2017 has been a disastrous year for the 30-year-old.  Espinosa has hit just .162/.237/.276 over 254 plate appearances for Los Angeles, owning both the lowest wRC+ (40) and the sixth-highest strikeout rate (35.8%) of any player with at least 250 PA this season.

Nationals acquire Ryan Madson, Sean Doolittle from A’s to bolster bullpen

The Washington Nationals moved aggressively Sunday to patch the glaring hole in their otherwise dominant ball club, acquiring relievers Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson from the Oakland Athletics for their opening-day closer, Blake Treinen, and two high selections from their 2016 draft class.

It’s a significant jolt for the beleaguered Nationals bullpen and it comes a full two weeks before baseball’s non-waivers July 31 trade deadline. It certainly came plenty late for both Nationals manager ...

Todd Frazier a good trade fit for Red Sox | MLB.com

What would he cost? That’s the question.

Inside Baseball NL Notes | Nationls Call On Orioles Britton

Missed this the other day. Here’s the AL Notes.

Why these Dodgers might be the closest thing to a great team

Boston Globe Sunday Baseball Notes.

Reds’ Zack Cozart meets donkey before game | MLB.com

When Cozart met Amos, it was love at first sight.

“I’m way more excited after seeing ol’ Amos over there,” Cozart said. “He’ll live to be 25-30 years old. This is a lifetime companion here.”

Bellinger is 1st Dodgers rookie to hit for cycle

Yeah, I realize that cycles are kind of silly. If he was at Dodger Stadium, the double would have been a home run, making it a better game while not being a cycle, but it’s kind of cool. Dodgers are now 28-4 in their last 32 games.

Lugo’s arm, bat help Mets handle Rockies again

NEW YORK—The Mets understand the depth of the hole they dug themselves into with a first half fractured by injuries and poor play, so much so that general manager Sandy Alderson all but guaranteed the team would be sellers by month’s end, barring the improbable.

That’s funny, he never has two cups of WEEKEND CHATTER at home…. for July 15-16, 2017

Report: Red Sox-White Sox intensify trade talks for Todd Frazier

MLB Has a Long But Little-Known History of Rebels, Reformers, and Radicals

From his legal training, Ward recognized baseball contracts’ unfairness. In 1885, he organized the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players, the first labor union in American sports. Two years later, he published “Is the Base-Ball Player a Chattel?” accusing team owners of “wage slavery.”

Baseball magnates colluded with each other, primarily through the reserve clause, which bound players to their teams but allowed owners to release them without pay. Even after profits tripled in ...