The 53-year-old who might pitch forever

Dae-Sung Koo.

The name, particularly if you’re a Mets fan, might be rolling over again and again in your head.

Dae-Sung Koo, that sounds familiar. Dae-Sung Koo ... he pitched, right? Dae-Sung Koo.

Oh yes, of course. Dae-Sung Koo….

But after that 2005 season, his lone in the big leagues, Koo seemingly disappeared from the game. At least in America. After a 3.91 ERA and one wild baserunning ride, the Mets sold his contract back to the KBO. (It didn’t help that his shoulder was injured on that day he slid into home.)

Then, just a few weeks ago—nearly 18 years after that day in 2005—a video from the Australian Baseball League started picking up steam on Twitter. There he was again. Dae-Sung Koo. Pitching a perfect inning. At 53 years old. ...Read More...

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 07, 2023 at 12:27 AM | 5 comment(s)
  Beats: dae-sung koo

The Boomers Were Right: Batting Average is REALLY Important

Every incremental point of batting average (i.e. going from .270 to .271) is worth 0.224 more runs per 600 plate appearances, followed by 0.2 runs per point of ISO and 0.156 runs per 600 PA for every additional point of BB%. By this analysis, the best way to improve your run scoring is to boost your batting average. It is important to note, that all 3 components had extremely low P-values, indicating they were all very statistically significant in predicting runs, as one would expect.

Looking at this another way, if you are trading batting average for ISO (a typical trade-off) you want to make sure you gain at least 10% more ISO points than AVG points. Hitting .300 + .150 ISO is slightly better than a .250 average and a .200 ISO, despite ...

The A’s Teardown Is Not Going Well

In total, since their teardown began, the A’s have traded eight veterans, worth $190.4M in surplus value according to our model, and received $113.1M in value, for a net loss of $77.3M. On a percentage basis, that’s a 46.1% hit.

Making matters worse, they came out on the losing end of all eight trades. The Olson package was the closest in value, and, interestingly, the Murphy trade would have been very close in value ($51.3M to $47.7M) if they had kept William Contreras, an all-star catcher, instead of flipping him for Esteury Ruiz, a mid-tier (at best) prospect. That portion of the three-way trade accounts for a big chunk of the losses here.

For a low-revenue, rebuilding team, that’s inexcusable. This is exactly the opposite of ...

Stat of the Week: Zack Greinke’s Defense

Greinke generally plays the position mistake-free. He hasn’t been charged with an error since getting in Charlie Blackmon’s way and getting called for interference as Blackmon was rounding first base and trying to go to second base in a game in July 2019.

Our Video Scouts have credited him with only one Defensive Misplay the last three seasons, picking up and then rushing a throw on a Shohei Ohtani roller that appeared to be heading foul in April 2021.

By our accounting, the last instance we have of Greinke not cleanly fielding a ball that cost his team a potential out was in August 2019 on a play where bat and ball came at him at the same time, thus preventing a possible double play (they still got one out).

There are no active ...

Negro Leagues legends to be featured in MLB The Show 23

Negro League legends are coming to MLB The Show.

MLB The Show 23 will feature eight of the greatest Negro League players—Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Buck O’Neil, Rube Foster, Hilton Smith, Hank Thompson, John Donaldson and Martín Dihigo—in a new game mode called “Storylines.”

Sony, which partnered with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and NLBM president Bob Kendrick to bring Negro League stars to MLB The Show, announced the new feature for the game on Monday. MLB The Show 23 will be released on March 28.

It’s our honor to bring the Negro Leagues to MLB The Show 23! In partnership with the @NLBMuseumKC and president @nlbmprez we invite you on a journey to celebrate the Negro Leagues and their stories of triumph over adversity in ...

This was the wildest game in MLB history

It was June 30, 1996. The Rockies beat the Dodgers, 16-15, capping a four-game series in which 85 runs were scored between the two teams. That doesn’t begin to describe it.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Dodgers third baseman Mike Blowers to the Los Angeles Times.

“As much as I’d like to hit here,” said Dodger first baseman Eric Karros, who’d just popped two home runs, “I don’t know I’d want to play 81 games here. I’d probably have a nervous breakdown. I’d have an ulcer. I couldn’t take it.”

He wasn’t the only one with health concerns.

“Hopefully,” wrote the Associated Press, “Tommy Lasorda’s doctors didn’t let him watch this one.”

Just a week earlier, the long-time Dodger skipper ...

Carlos Beltran leaving YES Network for job in Mets’ front office

Former Mets great Carlos Beltran is getting another chance with the club.

Sources tell The Post the Mets are hiring their former star center fielder to join their front office, where he will work under GM Billy Eppler. It isn’t clear what Beltran’s duties will be yet, but he is a well-regarded baseball mind as well as a former superstar player.

Beltran’s hiring comes three years after he was hired as Mets manager then fired after he was linked to the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. Mets manager Buck Showalter considered Beltran for his coaching staff a year ago as assistant hitting coach but wasn’t able to do it at the time.

Beltran recently informed YES Network that he was leaving his broadcast job with them. Andrew Marchand ...

Park life: Three days with GOAT coach Tom House and his ‘misfits’

In early August 1992, the Rangers were in Seattle. The Mariners had a struggling giant on their staff: the lanky, 6-foot-10, 28-year-old Randy Johnson. Nolan Ryan was Johnson’s idol, and like House, Johnson was a USC product.

Hours before a game in the series, they met Johnson at the Kingdome. The two uniformed Rangers personnel visited with Johnson in the Mariners bullpen, in foul territory on the playing field down the first-base line.

Johnson made a few throws. House made a suggestion. Instead of landing on the heel of his right foot in his delivery, he ought to land on the ball of his foot.

In 125 1/3 innings that season, Johnson posted a 4.52 ERA and walked 97.

After the bullpen session, Johnson posted a 2.65 ERA over 85 innings ...

Dodgers to retire Valenzuela’s No. 34

The Dodgers announced on Saturday that the organization will retire Fernando Valenzuela’s No. 34 jersey this summer during a three-day “Fernandomania” celebration.

The weekend will start on Friday, Aug. 11, which is when Valenzuela’s No. 34 will be unveiled at Dodger Stadium. There will be a collector’s edition bobblehead giveaway on Saturday, Aug. 12, and a replica Valenzuela 1981 World Series ring will be handed out on Sunday, Aug. 13.

“To be a part of the group that includes so many legends is a great honor,” Valenzuela said. “But also for the fans—the support they’ve given me as a player and working for the Dodgers, this is also for them. I’m happy for all the fans and all the people who have followed my career. ...

Red Sox manager Alex Cora on his time with 2017 Astros, per new book: ‘We stole that ... World Serie

According to Evan Drellich’s new book, “Winning Fixes Everything,” Cora would boast about the Astros’ sign-stealing exploits to members of the Red Sox once he changed jobs. Notably, he’d reportedly get a little loose with the lips once he started drinking.

From the Boston Herald:

When Cora arrived in Boston to manage the Red Sox in 2018, he would “occasionally talk about the Astros’ sign-stealing from 2017, even brag, sometimes in a late-night setting,” Drellich wrote.

“Especially when they started drinking,” a member of the Red Sox reportedly said.

“We stole that (expletive) World Series,” Cora allegedly said.

While many teams were accused of illegally stealing signs during those years, Cora’s acts were seen as particularly ...

MLB forms economic group as regional TV in peril

Concerned about a possible bankruptcy for the company that owns local broadcasting rights to 14 of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, the league has formed a new economic study committee that will gather next week at the owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Florida.

The existence of the committee was disclosed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the planning who spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.

The committee also will examine revenue disparity among MLB clubs.

Los Angeles Dodgers chairman Mark Walter and Detroit Tigers chairman Chris Ilitch are among the committee members, the person said.

Baseball executives have said in recent weeks that the sport needs to prepare in the event that ...

These MLB legends were trailblazers in Japan

In 1962, Newcombe was no longer pitching but, rather, running a liquor store and cocktail lounge in Newark, N.J. One day, the three visitors cited above visited to gauge his interest in playing in Japan … primarily as a first baseman, not a pitcher.

The 1956 NL champion Dodgers team that included Newcombe had visited Japan after the World Series. So he was familiar with the country. And though the Dragons unsuccessfully tried to recruit the likes of Robin Roberts and Billy Martin, Newcombe accepted their offer.

“When I agreed to go,” Newcombe once told Doby biographer Joseph Thomas Moore, “and when the publicity came out about it, I got a call from Pierre Salinger.”

As in, the future U.S. Senator and ABC News correspondent and ...

How to Watch the Caribbean Series

Caribbean Series starts today at 9:30 AM on ESPN Deportes and ESPN+! Cuba returns after three years and Curacao make their debut!

John Adams, Who Banged His Drum in the Cleveland Bleachers, Has Died

Mr. Adams’s drumming was heard at more than 3,700 home games, first at Cleveland Municipal Stadium and then, starting in 1994, at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field). Stationed deep in the bleachers, he steadily urged the team on by rhythmically banging his drum with two mallets.

“Football has its bands and its cheerleaders, and all of them help get into the spirit of the game,” Mr. Adams told The Akron Beacon Journal in 1983, explaining his long-running stadium gig. “Baseball has nothing, so I thought of the war drum thing for the Indians.”

His status as a superfan was acknowledged when the team gave away bobblehead figures of him with a drum and movable arms at a home game in 2006. Six years later, Great Lakes Brewing ...

Orioles to decline 5-year Camden Yards lease extension, seek to secure long-term agreement

The Orioles will decline an option to extend their Camden Yards lease by five more years, planning instead to secure a longer-term, more comprehensive stadium agreement, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

The lease expires at the end of 2023, and the baseball team expects to reach a new agreement by then with the Maryland Stadium Authority, the sources told The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday. They are familiar with the thinking of negotiators, but requested anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.

Orioles spokeswoman Jennifer Grondahl declined to comment.

The bigger deal is expected to commit the team to Baltimore for many more years, as well as outline plans for upgrades to the state-owned ballpark. ...

Ex-girlfriend alleges Mets outfielder assaulted her in Syracuse; warrant, lawsuit target player

A woman is alleging that a New York Mets outfielder physically and verbally abused her in Syracuse last year.

Khalil Lee, 24, is named in a warrant issued by Syracuse police for criminal obstruction of breath, a charge often associated with domestic incidents.

Lee is also named in a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday alleging he abused his former girlfriend while playing for the Syracuse Mets.

In the lawsuit, Lee’s former girlfriend, Keriwyn Hill, of Brooklyn, alleges that on May 7, 2022, Lee assaulted her by pulling her hair and choking her during an argument. Hill says the assault left multiple bruises and marks on her body.

Hill, now 26, went to the Syracuse police the next day and reported the assault.

MLB Network Exits YouTube TV Ahead of Spring Training After Contract Dispute

The MLB Network is being dropped by YouTube TV after the two parties failed to reach a contract renewal agreement, according to an email sent to YouTube TV subscribers on Tuesday.

Though subscribers to YouTube TV’s base plan will still be able to watch select national Major League Baseball Games on Fox, ESPN and TBS, any saved recordings of content from the MLB Network will be lost as the result of the failed negotiations.(Before Tuesday, the MLB Network was available as part of YouTube’s $64.99 monthly base plan.)

“We apologize for the news and will continue conversations with the MLB to advocate on your behalf, in the hope of restoring their content on YouTube TV,” the email to subscribers said. A representative for the MLB ...

Blue Jays adding Chad Green on 2-year deal (source)

Chad Green is heading to the Blue Jays on a two-year deal, a source tells MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reports the deal is for $8.5 million, with options for 2025 and ‘26.

Toronto has not confirmed the deal—although Green’s agency posted a tweet about it—which is notably structured to accommodate Green’s timeline for a return from Tommy John surgery, which he had in early June of last season.

The right-hander, who turns 32 in May, was having another solid campaign before he departed the Yankees’ May 19 loss to the Orioles with forearm discomfort. The unfortunate surgery prognosis was made public a few days later. He finished the year with a 3.00 ERA in 15 innings pitched.

The Luckiest Pitching Staff in History

Mathewson’s inclusion on this staff shows that “great” and “lucky” aren’t mutually exclusive.

LAT:  Ralph Avila, who helped Dodgers develop a pipeline in Latin America, dies at 92

Ralph Avila, an influential former Dodgers executive and scout who led the organization’s efforts to develop players in Latin America, particularly in the Dominican Republic, during his tenure from 1970 to 1999, died Monday at 92.

...

One of Avila’s biggest contributions was helping to create the Dodgers’ Campo Las Palmas academy in the Dominican Republic. The academy, which opened in 1987, was the first in the Dominican to be operated by a major league team — a productive template for player development that other clubs soon followed, turning the country into the biggest hot spot for big league talent outside of the United States.

Avila also helped sign dozens of majors leaguers during his time with the Dodgers, which ended ...

Cubs’ World Series champ Dexter Fowler retires

“It’s here. I’m hanging up my cleats,” Fowler wrote. “From an 18-year-old draft pick in Colorado to a “vet” in Anaheim—there are a few things I will never forget ... Getting THAT call to the big leagues in September 2008. Wow. My world was spinning. My first ‘you’ve been traded to Houston’ heart pounding call.

“The feeling of bliss while hearing the words ‘All-Star’. Never knew what it felt like t be that guy! Forever grateful. Soaking wet and freezing on the field with tears in my eyes after winning the World Series in Chicago. The comfort of calling St Louis home and being a Red Bird. Today is one of those moments metaphorically step down from your throne with a standing ovation, tip of the cap, and the world stops spinning. I’m mostly ...

MLB expansion: Nashville group led by Dave Stewart makes a pitch for Music City [$]

Sub required.

Music City Baseball considers the music industry a vital cog in the franchise’s success. Loar envisioned the ballpark as only a portion of the appeal for the complex, a multi-purpose space complete with shops and restaurants. There would also be concert spaces which could host artist residencies akin to those found in Las Vegas, where successful acts can play for weeks at a time. “You can’t really just build it around baseball,” Loar said. “It has to be something more than that.”

Loar’s son, Connor, who manages strategic partnerships for the group, pointed to The Battery in Atlanta, Busch Stadium’s Ballpark Village and the revamped Wrigleyville as models. “It’s essentially doing that, but making it ...

Reports: Royals, RHP Zack Greinke agree on deal for 2023

The Royals and Zack Greinke have agreed to a contract for the coming season, according to multiple reports, making it nine seasons over two stints in Kansas City for the six-time All-Star pitcher.

The financial terms of the deal, which was first reported by Kansas City sports radio host Bob Fescoe, were not immediately available. Greinke was paid $13 million last season by the Royals, where he spent his first seven seasons before returning last year and going 3-9 with a 3.68 ERA and striking out 73 over 137 innings for the rebuilding club.

Greinke did spend two stints on the injured list but allowed two runs or fewer in 17 of his 26 starts last season.

Zack Greinke has a one-year deal with the Royals, per source. It’s expected to be ...

Plan outlined for new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark, redevelopment

A new ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays will be built near the current one under plans unveiled Monday as part of a massive redevelopment project that also includes affordable housing, office space and retail in what was once a thriving Black neighborhood.

Mayor Ken Welch of St. Petersburg, Florida, chose a partnership between the Rays and the Houston-based Hines development company from among four proposals to transform an 86-acre (34-hectare) downtown site where Tropicana Field now sits. Welch said the plan should keep the Rays in St. Petersburg for the long term….

“We think Tampa is a major league market and we want to find a solution that makes the club economically viable in that market,” Manfred said then.

Details remain to be ...

The Continued Demise of the Left-Handed Reliever

In 2022, left-handed relievers performed worse relative to their right-handed compatriots in nearly every significant category. They didn’t experience a dramatic dip in strikeout rate or strikeout-minus-walk rate, but their ERA and FIP were at a ten-year high. Even when you isolate their performance when holding the platoon advantage, left-handed relievers performed worse last year than they had since before the three-batter rule was implemented; their league-adjusted ERA against left-handed batters rose 11 points from 2021 to ‘22, and their FIP- and wOBA- both saw smaller rises as well.

Without the ability to guarantee a run of left-handed batters, teams have had to reconsider the value of rostering a lefty in their bullpen when a ...

Matt Barnes traded to Marlins from Boston (source)

The Marlins added an experienced late-inning option to their bullpen on Monday afternoon by acquiring Matt Barnes and cash considerations from the Red Sox for left-hander Richard Bleier, a source told MLB.com on Monday.

The club did not confirm the news.

The longest-tenured Red Sox player until they designated him for assignment on Tuesday, Barnes had become one of the club’s most trusted relievers by 2016. During the ‘18 World Series championship run, he dominated across 10 playoff appearances.

Barnes became the full-time closer in 2021, recording a 124 ERA+, a 1.12 WHIP and 24 saves in 60 outings. But he struggled down the stretch, and it carried over into ‘22 with a 4.31 ERA, 3.87 FIP and 1.44 WHIP in 44 games. After returning from ...

Longtime righty reliever Darren O’Day retires after 15 seasons

O’Day, 40, featured an unconventional sidearm delivery. He was 42-21 with a 2.59 ERA in 644 games, all in relief. He made his major league debut in 2008 with the Angels and pitched seven seasons, from 2012 to ‘18, for the Baltimore Orioles.

He posted a 4.43 ERA in 30 postseason games, including the 2010 World Series with the Texas Rangers.

O’Day also pitched for the New York Mets and New York Yankees. He pitched for the Braves in 2019-20 before returning for his second stint with the team last season. He became a free agent following the season,

Yankees have bigger issues than Aaron Hicks, Josh Donaldson

Is their depth-chart status about the Yankees being determined to get something for their money? I asked Cashman if everyone on his roster were making the $720,000 minimum this year, would Donaldson still be the starting third baseman and would Hicks still be the frontrunner in left?

“We’re not applying that [status based on salary] standard,” Cashman said. “The hypothetical you played out, it’s not a realistic one. Donaldson has been a hell of a player for quite some time, including defensively last year for us, and offensively last year was really the first year that he went south. So there’s no reason to believe that that’s something that is permanent.

“He transitioned to a new team, and then we’ll just wait and see ...

Rockies’ Monfort calls out Padres spending, roster construction | theScore.com

People in glass houses, and all that.

“What the Padres are doing, I don’t 100% agree with, though I know that our fans probably agree with it. We’ll see how it works out,” Monfort said Saturday, according to the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders.

The Padres are projected to have the third-highest payroll in the league in 2023 at a whopping $251 million. Monfort believes the lucrative contracts handed out by teams this offseason increases the pressure on Colorado to spend.

“That puts a lot of pressure (on us),” Monfort said. “But it’s not just the Padres, it’s the Mets, it’s the Phillies. This has been an interesting year.”

The Unluckiest Pitching Staff in History

Some guys have all the luck.

Not these guys, mind You.

These guys? They never met a black cat they couldn’t cross, a mirror they couldn’t crack.