Shoot first, OMNICHATTER later, for Monday, April 9, 2018

With expected start, Zack Wheeler aligns Mets’ long-awaited rotation

The New York Mets have waited years for this rotation.

Shohei Ohtani was nearly perfect in his home pitching debut | LA Times

The Angels sold out. They sold 44,742 tickets, more than for opening day, more than for any regular-season day game since they downsized their stadium 20 years ago.

What could be more dramatic than Ohtani hitting a home run in his first at-bat at Angel Stadium? How about pitching a perfect game in his first start at Angel Stadium?

Ohtani very nearly did, nearly enough to get the crowd cheering in anticipation of third strikes in the fifth and sixth innings. With one out in the seventh, when ...

Opening Day Rosters Analysis

Baseball America does a rundown of where every team’s top prospects will begin the season.

Weekend OMNICHATTER for April 7-8, 2018

Fangraphs: 2018 UZR and UZR Update!

The methodology has changed a little that allows UZR to account for some of the noise associated with imperfect data. The net result of this change is that extreme UZR’s, which were likely caused by, to some extent at least, noise in the data, rather than extreme performance, will be slightly ‘dampened.’ We think that these new values, while very close to the old ones in most cases, more accurately reflect the actual performance of the players in question.

I’ve always had a problem with ...

Billy Bean and Torey Lovullo’s Friendship

Nice story about the friendship between Billy Bean (not Beane), the gay former player and current MLB front office exec, and Torey Lovullo, the DBacks manager.

Indians Activate Michael Brantley | MLBTR

His injury troubles notwithstanding, Brantley saw his $12MM club option exercised by the Indians last November. Given the offseason surgery and the manner in which corner outfielders were further devalued in free agency this winter, the Cleveland front office may prefer a mulligan on that decision, though Brantley was worth more than $12MM in just 90 games last season when he hit .290/.357/.444 with 20 doubles, nine homers and 11 steals.

The 2018 season will be a crucial one for Brantley, ...

The One Baseball’s Been Waiting For | ESPN Mag

Ohtani’s new teammates keep their observations light, their words like stones skipping across a flat lake. The team has erected a fortress of positivity around Ohtani, and when he warms up in Oakland before his first start, the metaphor becomes literal: A total of eight teammates and coaches stand behind the bullpen mound.

Another long think piece on Shohei Ohtani. Interesting reading, but after another 4500 words, I still know little more about Ohtani than I did before. The guy’s a total ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-6-2018

Topeka State Journal, April 6, 1918:

The Bronx may get a baseball club in the New International league, but Harry N. Hempstead and Col. Jacob Ruppert, presidents of Manhattan’s two major league clubs, will first have to give their consent, according to word given Billy Gibson by the new International, now in the process of organization [in New York]. Gibson has made a bid for a franchise in the new league.

Baseball? In the Bronx? It’ll never happen.

Miguel Cabrera exits with hip injury | MLB.com

The body is breaking down.

MLB keeps finding new ways to alienate fans

Don’t miss Musnick’s next column on the insanity of the indoor plumbing craze.

Defensive shifts and alignments a gamble Phillies willing to take — no matter the optics

“Sometimes if you’re looking at it in a small sample in a very specific time, you can go, ‘That’s not going to work, that’s not going to work, that’s not going to work,’” Kapler said after Wednesday’s game. “We have to be patient and trust that we’re trying to look at a very large sample size to evaluate if our strategies are working effectively. I can’t express enough confidence that our strategies will pay dividends, but I understand in the short term they haven’t and ...

Brewers lose closer Corey Knebel to hamstring injury during blowout loss | CBS Sports

Corey Knebel, Milwaukee’s All-Star closer, suffered a potentially serious looking hamstring injury while getting some work in during the blowout loss. He collapsed after throwing a pitch and had to be carried off the field.

The road to hell is paved with OMNICHATTER, for April 6, 2018

Passan: What Charlie Blackmon’s deal says about the present and future of baseball

Passan takes a look at the Blackmon contract in the context of the slow winter market.

The question, of course, becomes less about Blackmon in that case and more about where the dollars that in the past might have gone to him go. Because over the last few offseasons, teams have made it abundantly clear the answer is not older players.

Facebook Broadcast of Mets Game Runs Into Glitches and Complaints

The Mets-Phillies game was the first of the 25 games set to be aired on Facebook — one per week — and the early feedback was largely negative. Fans quickly voiced their displeasure with the newfangled broadcast and its glitches, and not just because they couldn’t watch their teams as they normally would: the Mets on SportsNet New York and the Phillies on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-5-2018

Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, April 5, 1918:

Fielder Jones, among others, holds that Babe Ruth, the Red Sox pitcher, is the most formidable batsman in baseball. The leader of the Browns takes full cognizance of the well-known prowess of Tyrus Cobb, but he insists that Ruth is a more dangerous and harder hitter and that if his efforts were confined to outfielding and hitting he would prove one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game.

People at the time probably thought Jones had ...

Funny, OMNICHATTER never has a second cup at home, for April 5, 2018

Dodgers have no answer for pitcher Patrick Corbin in 3-0 loss to the Diamondbacks | LAT

The Dodgers have played seven games this season. They have scored one run or fewer in four.

The lineup longs for the return of All-Star third baseman Justin Turner as he recuperates from a fractured wrist. The malaise extends from Chris Taylor (.574 on-base plus slugging percentage) at the top of the lineup to Corey Seager (.414 OPS) and Puig (.476 OPS) in the middle to Logan Forsythe (.291 OPS) at the bottom.

After Kenley Jansen blew a save on Monday, the offense scored only one run during ...

Baseball America - Best Tools In The Minors

Best Defensive Outfielder

Victor Robles, OF, Nationals
Cristian Pache, OF, Braves
Brett Phillips, OF, Brewers
Magneuris Sierra, OF, Marlins
Braden Bishop, OF, Mariners

The greats make everything look easy, and Victor Robles makes the difficult task of playing center field look remarkably sol. With elite speed, a big arm and amazing natural reflexes and reads, Robles takes care of everything in center field in all directions to give the Nationals a future Gold Glove candidate. Christian Pache ...

These east coast nooners are killing OMNICHATTER, for April 4, 2018

Tommy Pham Waited Forever to Make It. Now, He’s Got Plenty to Say About His Journey.

“You can’t ##### about it, because if you ##### about it, you f—- up the team,” Pham says. “But I put up an .824 OPS and a 1.4 WAR in 150 at bats. Times that by four—if anybody did that their rookie year, baseball goes crazy over them.

“They said, ‘We believed you could do it all along.’ That’s the thing that’s so mind-boggling. I said, If that’s the f——-’ case, then why was I f——-’ demoted to Triple A? If that’s the case, why the f—- was I batting in the eight ...

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

Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, April 4, 1918:

The hospital list in the Phils’ camp was increased yesterday afternoon when Mike Prendergast, the flinger from Chicago, sprained his ankle in an effort to jump from the grand stand to the ground. Mike was in good jumping form and had lots of technique, but a slippery step caused by some loose ice cream caused him to make a mess of it.

Not quite as strange as Vince Coleman getting rolled up in the tarp machine or Kevin Mitchell hurting himself ...

Shohei Ohtani belts first major league homer in Angels’ victory | OC Register

Your daily Shohei update.

Just over 48 hours after Ohtani The Pitcher had a breakthrough performance, Ohtani The Hitter delivered a three-run homer as part of three-hit game.

Ohtani pitched six innings to pick up the victory on Sunday, retiring 14 of the last 15 hitters after all three runs came on one bad pitch.

Then on Tuesday, in his first game at Angel Stadium, he belted a homer and then blistered two other singles. He’s now 4 for 9 in two games as the team’s designated hitter.

Baseball Therapy: Bunt, Joey, Bunt! - Baseball Prospectus

A theoretical exercise that doesn’t really tell us anything.

LOC: Branch Rickey Scouting Reports Now Online

The collection includes about 1,750 baseball scouting reports from the 1950s and 1960s, documenting Rickey’s skill in analyzing various aspects of a player’s game and identifying some of the greats. The Rickey Papers are online at loc.gov/collections/branch-rickey-papers/about-this-collection/.

The digitization of the Rickey Papers is part of a larger effort to make historical materials available online. Other newly digitized collections include the papers of U.S. Presidents James ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-3-2018

Washington Times, April 3, 1918:

Dissensions are sprouting in the ranks of Pat Moran’s Phillies. Several players complain that Colonel Baker has not spent any of the money obtained in the Alexander-Killifer deal in strengthening the team, and that they will not long remain with a minor league organization.

Pat Moran is doing the best he can with the material he has, but he refuses to talk of the future.

Moran’s future was better than the Phillies organization’s future. The manager’s contract ...

This 10-Year-Old Cancer Patient Chase Utley Met in 2006 Is Now His Teammate

Must have gotten some dust in my eye.

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OMNICHATTER comes in peace, for April 3, 2018