Jose Fernandez’s death is especially heartbreaking for Cubans and Cuban Americans - LA Times

I generally don’t get impacted by the deaths of people I don’t personally know. I could feel Jose Fernandez’s joy for life, though. People with such joy are a treasure. He’ll be missed. The world is a worse place today.

After 67 years of greatness, Vin Scully just wants to be remembered as a good man.

In one week, on the first Sunday of October, Scully will take a short ride along the streets of San Francisco from his hotel to AT&T Park. He will call his final game, between the team for which he rooted as a schoolboy and the team he served with unparalleled distinction.

Neither Los Angeles nor San Francisco had a team when Scully started his remarkable career, describing the feats of Jackie Robinson. When the Dodgers and Giants moved to California, so did Scully.

He courted L.A., on behalf ...

Jose Fernandez Dies In Boating Accident - MLB Trade Rumors

This is horrific news.

Sunday Notes: Dickerson, Anti-Velo Bias, Melancon in DC, more | FanGraphs Baseball

David Laurila’s latest.

Yankees’ half-measure failure forces grand plan into focus | New York Post

The balance of that mission now migrates up to Yankees ownership and the front office. They stockpiled their farm system with their trade-deadline maneuvers while promising they still would contend. They contended for a while. The revamp, however, has to pay off with multiple successful contentions in order for all of their wheeling and dealing to make sense.

New York Mets’ hidden MVP: Their pitch framing - Mets Blog- ESPN

But what’s distinct about the Mets is this: The Giants and Dodgers each have one great pitch-framer (Buster Posey and Yasmani Grandal) and the Cubs have two (Miguel Montero and David Ross). The Mets have three.

What’s the tangible impact?

On a game-by-game basis, take Friday night’s win as an example. Rivera and d’Arnaud had a great game. They got 5.5 more strikes than would have been expected from the pitches that Phillies’ hitters took. It was their sixth-best game of the season in that ...

When Scully is telling a story, it’s only fair that the baseballs head foul - LA Times

I have a friend who doesn’t enjoy listening to Vin Scully. He’s in very, very small company.

Fire Joe Morgan and the Moneyball revolution.

The scouts vs. statheads war is, and was, overblown.

Theo Epstein has Cubs looking like a winner

Of course, Ben Cherington showed patience, which got him booted.

Despite the success, Epstein admits he made mistakes near the end of his Red Sox tenure.

“I got in too much of a rush to build an uber-team and got too aggressive in free agency rather than relying on the things we did well as an organization — scouting, player development, and trying to find undervalued players.’’

Nick Cafardo: Yes, John Farrell belongs in Manager of the Year conversation

I would vote for Francona.

OMNICHATTER 9-25-16

The “Final Stretch begins” OMNICHATTER

WHAT A PLAY! UTLEY GETS ‘PRETTY LUCKY’ WITH NO-LOOK THROW

I know Chase Utley is hated by 98% of Primates, but the man can play a little ball.  This is how you recover from a ####up.

Baseball Prospectus | Pebble Hunting: That’s The Way I Like It And I’ll Never Get Bored

Sam Miller did a great job at BP. Congratulations on his new gig at ESPN. I hope he and Dan Szymborski get on the same sack race team at the company picnics.

Congrats to Aaron Gleeman on his new position at BP. With all the great new Statcast stuff on the horizon, I look forward to seeing BP’s use of the new metrics.

How Have The Mets Stayed In Contention

For all the legitimate criticism for his strategic gaffes, one thing that cannot be denied about manager Terry Collins is that the players have continued to play hard for him and they did not give up on the season when the injuries finally appeared to be taking their toll when the club fell under .500 in late-August.

Texas Rangers: Three takeaways from Rangers’ AL West clinching win  | SportsDay

The Rangers clinch the West!

OMNICHATTER 9/24/16

The Designated OMNICHATTER

Respect mutual between Vin Scully and umpires | dodgers.com

Froemming retired from field duty at the end of 2007 and will retire from his position with MLB as a special umpiring assistant at the end of this season. Just so happens he’s scheduled to be at the Dodgers’ regular-season finale in San Francisco that doubles as Scully’s final series, so the umpire will have one last chance to say hello—and goodbye—to his old friend.

Asked what message he would deliver to Scully, Froemming made a perfect call.

“You were down the middle, and you were fair,” he ...

New Statcast metric barrels has best-hit balls | MLB.com

How well does this correlate to HR/PA?

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-23-2016

Chicago Eagle, September 23, 1916:

Monte Cross is responsible for a story of two base runners being put out by a batted ball. While the Athletics were playing the Browns years ago Cross was on second and Clements on third. With two out and three and two on the batter, both base runners started with the windup. The batter hit along the third base line, winging Clements, and the ball carromed off the latter’s shin and struck Cross just as he reached third, both being declared out as the result of ...

A new Yasiel Puig giving Los Angeles Dodgers what they’re looking for - Los Angeles - Dodgers Report- ESPN

Since his promotion, after rosters had expanded in September, Puig has been a changed man. He has not been 2013 rookie Puig—not even close—but he has established himself as a possible solution for the lefty issue, and he now looks like he will be of use on a potential playoff roster when a month ago the odds of that happening seemed Powerball-sized.

“I’m just very thankful for the opportunity to just return to the team,” Puig said, when asked if his goal upon his return was to make the ...

Masahiro Tanaka scratched from next start with elbow strain | New York Post

he Yankees’ dim playoff hopes took another hit Thursday, when Masahiro Tanaka was diagnosed with a strained flexor mass in his right elbow after an MRI exam.

Joe Girardi volunteered the information before the Yankees’ 2-0 loss to the Rays Wednesday night at Tropicana Field.

The manager tried to downplay the severity of the injury, calling it a “slight, slight, slight strain,” but this is Tanaka, who has had more than his fair share of elbow issues since joining the Yankees.

The ...

No manager blends the human and the math quite like Terry Francona | FOX Sports

Cubs fans might disagree.

Adam Jones Wants To Know Where All The Orioles Fans Are

Through these first three games against the Red Sox, a huge series for their playoff hopes and traditionally a big one for fan interest, the crowds at Camden Yards have averaged just 19,903 a night.

“I’d say that it’s just, it’s a little, what’s the right word to say it’s a little, you know, not sad, just like, eerie, a little bit,” said center fielder Adam Jones, the team’s longest-tenured player.
That’s part of a larger trend: the Orioles rank 20th in MLB attendance this ...

Why women have every opportunity to succeed—and fail—in professional baseball

According to coach Siegal, while more than 100,000 girls play youth baseball, only 1,000 of them end up playing at the high school level. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, 1,290 girls played high school baseball in the 2015 to 2016 school year. While some of that could be due to attrition, the blame falls largely on two reasons: the lack of opportunity for girls at the high school level, and softball.

“Too many schools are telling girls that they can’t ...

The fraudulent myth of Big Papi

9F)ans and obsequious sportswriters will continue to lap up every last pre-game ceremony of Ortiz’s farewell tour (the one he swore he’d never take). But while they continue their relentless peddling of the myth of Big Papi, the rest of us should feel confident in this truth: David Ortiz is a jerk.

Ball Four, You’re Out: How A Classic Baseball Book Became A Failed Baseball Sitcom

One of the main obstacles Bouton and his co-creators faced in writing the series was the issue of translating ballplayer dialogue to network television in a realistic and/or believable fashion, since Joe Schultz-style epithets were obviously not going to fly on network TV. “You couldn’t say ‘Horseshit,’” Bouton explains. “You could have ‘Horse!’, or maybe ‘Horse-crock!’ There were all sorts of ways they had to neuterize it.” But swearing wasn’t the only aspect of life in the majors that was ...

Carlos Beltran might struggle to make the Hall of Fame

The players who got in relatively quickly to the Hall of Fame with the writers, for the most part, hit antiquated statistical milestones such as 3,000 hits or 500 home runs, or they had images that suggested more value than they had sabermetrically. That’s not Beltran, who’s built much of his Hall of Fame case around consistency and longevity.
...
Will Beltran be the next Dwight Evans for Hall of Fame candidates? The two are close in WAR, JAWS, and Hall Rating, with Beltran enjoying a ...

Mariners catcher Steve Clevenger tweets protesters should be treated ‘like animals’

Seattle Mariners catcher Steve Clevenger fired off controversial tweets Thursday in response to civil unrest in Charlotte, N.C., calling for protesters to be “locked behind bars like animals.”

Clevenger has a private Twitter account, but reporter Jon Humbert of KOMO-TV in Seattle captured screengrabs of the tweets.

The Mariners issued a statement from general manager Jerry Dipoto.

“The Seattle Mariners are very disappointed at the tweets posted on Steve Clevenger’s account,” the ...

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.