The Milwaukee Bucks selected Jabari Parker with the No. 2 overall pick in 2014 NBA draft, and to celebrate, he got the opportunity to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Milwaukee Brewers game.
On Saturday, Parker threw out the first pitch for the Brewers before their game against the Colorado Rockies. After throwing out the pitch, he made sure to give the ball to a young fan behind home plate.
[MLB.com]
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After being removed from his role as the closer of the Pittsburgh Pirates one week ago, Jason Grilli was settling into his new role as a normal reliever.
But according to Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com, the Pirates reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Angels to swap former closers Grilli and Ernesto Frieri.
Neither Grilli nor Frieri has performed up to potential in 2014, but this may be one of the best trades the Pirates have made in a long time.
Frieri owned an earned run average of 6.39 in 31 innings pitched for the Angels in 2014. However, he is no stranger to success on the mound. The 28-year-old from Colombia was signed by the San Diego Padres in 2003, and he has enjoyed great success pitching in the National League.
In 105 appearances out of the bullpen for the Padres from 2009-2012, Frieri owned an impressive 2.33 ERA while averaging 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings pitched.
Now, he is heading back to the National League, and he should be looking forward to a new beginning with a team that is beginning to turn its season around.
Pittsburgh’s bullpen already featured two stars at the back end: current closer Mark Melancon (2.35 ERA, 14 saves) and Tony Watson, who has been arguably the best reliever in the league this season with a record of 5-0 and an ERA of just 0.98.
Now, it has added another dangerous force in Frieri.
Sure, it seems that Frieri lost some effectiveness over the last two seasons with the Angels, pitching to an ERA of 3.80 in 2013 before his awful season this year. However, he is now heading back to the league where he dominated opposing batters from the moment he stepped on a big league mound.
Adding to the excitement in Pittsburgh, it has been proved that a change of scenery is all it could take for a struggling player to really turn his season or career around.
Ask Ike Davis, and he will tell you all about it.
Davis was traded only 12 games into the 2014 regular season after batting .208 with the New York Mets. Since arriving in Pittsburgh, Davis has batted .246 with four home runs and 19 RBI in 60 games played.
At that pace, Davis is currently on track to own his highest single-season batting average since 2011. More importantly, he has helped the Pirates win games and get back into the race for the postseason.
Then there is Grilli, whose glory days seem to be almost over. Now 37 years old, Grilli probably doesn’t have many years left in his tank. After all, his current contract is set to expire after this season.
On the other hand, Frieri is still in the prime of his career at only 28 years of age. If he had owned a high ERA his whole career, this trade wouldn’t be very exciting for Pirates fans.
However, Frieri has shown the ability to dominate opposing batters in the National League, and it would be no surprise to see him turn his season around in Pittsburgh much like Davis is currently doing.
*Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.
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Oakland Athletics outfielder Yoenis Cespedes is back at it again.
In the bottom of the third inning during Friday night’s game against the Miami Marlins, Giancarlo Stanton began running for home after a base hit. However, Cespedes did what he does best, throwing a laser to home plate to somehow get him out.
Cespedes now has an MLB-leading 10 outfield assists this season, as he continues to show off arguably the strongest arm in the majors. The Athletics ended up getting the 9-5 win to move to 49-30 for the year.
[MLB.com h/t Hardball Talk]
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The White Sox defeat the Blue Jays after a seventh-inning bomb from Dayan Viciedo.
Chicago improves to 38-44 on the season, while the Blue Jays fall to 45-38 and remain just one game ahead of the Orioles for the lead in the AL East.
Without the offense of Jose Bautista, the Blue Jays were left wanting for run support. A Mastroianni two-run homer and RBI single from Kawasaki were all they had.
Thanks for following the game with me! Until next time.
FINAL SCORE: WHITE SOX 4, BLUE JAYS 3
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Seventh in an 11-part series examining the vagaries of awards voting.
You could probably find at least one undeserved Gold Glove awarded every season. The vast majority of Gold Glove recipients are repeat winners, sort of making the award like a concussion—once a player gets one, it becomes progressively easier to get more.
To be sure, most repeat winners are among the very best defenders in the league and deserve the honor, but as we saw with Jim Kaat, precedent eventually plays a big role.
As well, a Gold Glove sometimes becomes a “throw-in” for players who have had strong seasons with the bat (or on the mound). Perhaps it’s unfair to spotlight Thurman Munson for this, but I do so more for who didn’t receive the Gold Glove than who did.
Munson had already won a Gold Glove the previous year and had come into his own as one of the best backstops in the American League. In truth, no AL catcher enjoyed a truly standout season behind the plate in 1973 (unless you count Detroit’s Bill Freehan, who played only 98 games), but Munson, with a league-high 80 assists and a 48 percent caught-stealing rate, was a good choice.
Smashing a career-best 20 home runs and batting .301 didn’t hurt his cause, either, and though it shouldn’t have had any bearing on the Gold Glove vote, Thurman’s lively bat likely helped him beat out Oakland’s light-hitting Ray Fosse, who enjoyed an equally strong season with the mitt.
However, the defending AL Gold Glove winner did not follow up his 1973 campaign so well. In fact, despite making the All-Star team, Munson suffered a setback in 1974. His offense dropped across the board, finishing with a lackluster .697 OPS. Yet thanks to the virtual absence of an injury-plagued Carlton Fisk, Munson had no real competition at the plate, making his off-season with the bat look good enough at season’s end.
Even so, Munson’s “default” slugging and defending Gold Glove earned him an encore in 1974—an honor that should have gone to Ellie Rodriguez, the unsung journeyman backstopping his first season for the California Angels. (Ironically, Rodriguez had begun his Major League career with the Yankees in 1968 after toiling in their farm system for four years. But New York’s selection of Munson in the first round of the 1968 amateur draft made Rodriguez expendable; left unprotected in the 1969 expansion draft, he was snatched up by the Kansas City Royals.)
Of course, when evaluating catchers’ performances, chances and putouts—being almost exclusively the result of receiving strikeouts—are poor statistics to utilize, especially when one’s battery mates include strikeout machines Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana (ergo, Rodriguez led the league in both categories in 1974). More tellingly, Rodriguez tied Munson for the AL lead in assists with 75.
However, Munson committed, by far, a league-worst 22 errors, including a horrendous 11-game stretch in early August during which he booted seven plays (ignominiously crowned by a three-error meltdown on August 13). Yet in essentially the same amount of innings, Rodriguez miscued only seven times, giving him a glittering .992 fielding average to Munson’s subpar .974 (league average: .983).
Eighteen of Munson’s errors came on throws—that’s a lot of extra bases gifted to existing baserunners. In fact, 11 of those throwing errors led directly to unearned runs, either on the throws themselves or allowing baserunners to get into scoring position, after which they were driven home. More amazingly, five of those runs scored on errant pickoff attempts to third base—this does not scream Gold Glove.
Advanced sabermetrics were unknown in 1974, of course—and I don’t believe in getting too far into them both because many of the highly specialized sabermetrics border on the arcane and because it’s unfair to criticize in hindsight using evaluations that were unavailable at the time. However, for the sake of argument, Rodriguez’s total zone runs dwarfs Munson’s in every category, according to Baseball-Reference. Furthermore, Rodriguez’s range factor per nine innings not only far surpassed Munson’s but also outdid every other full-time catcher in the AL.
Apart from the huge disparity in errors, though, what should have tipped the scale heavily in favor of Rodriguez was his effectiveness at stopping baserunners. Ellie’s powerful arm nailed would-be thieves at a 48 percent clip—resulting in an AL-topping 56 caught-stealings, far and away the best performance in the American League. Munson’s 35 percent caught-stealing rate was next-to-last among regulars in the Junior Circuit. (Of course, the pitcher shares fault in a stolen base, but that’s still a big deficit.)
True, Rodriguez allowed 20 passed balls to Munson’s eight, which partially washes out the difference in errors—passed balls being the only key statistic that favored Thurman—but Rodriguez should be cut a little slack for backstopping the most inaccurate staff in the AL. California issued the most walks in the league—and more than 100 more than Munson’s Yankees.
With Angels hurlers missing the strike zone so often, some pitches that could have been scored wild might well have instead been rung up as passed balls. (Incidentally, Rodriguez’s 20 passed balls were a fluke; he never before or again yielded more than eight in a season.)
Despite Rodriguez’s defensive superiority in 1974, being a light-hitting catcher on a last-place team surely camouflaged him come awards time. Again, not that hitting is supposed to play a role in Gold Glove voting—even though it clearly does—but Rodriguez’s home run and RBI totals pale even to Munson’s off-year. There was no way that seven home runs, 36 RBI and a .253 batting average on only 100 hits were going to accrue votes for Rodriguez.
As an aside, Rodriguez—who claimed to be a better stickball player in his youth than Willie Mays—actually clubbed more doubles than Munson in 122 fewer at-bats. More significantly, his 69 walks yielded a very respectable .373 on-base percentage—far better than Munson’s awful .316.
Similarly, being a light-hitting rookie catcher likely buried Jim Sundberg, even on a Texas Rangers team that had risen from last place in 1973 to second in 1974. Stepping right into a starting role, Sundberg fielded .990 on just eight errors, rang up the third-most assists, led all catchers in double plays and surrendered only nine passed balls. He, too, was more deserving of the Gold Glove than Munson, but even the most precocious freshmen hardly ever receive recognition for their defense.
Thurman Munson claimed a third Gold Glove in 1975. That award, too, is highly debatable considering an AL-topping 23 errors—the most ever by a Gold Glove–winning catcher, breaking his own dubious record of the previous year. Sundberg caught a slightly superior season with the mitt, but I’m certain voters were deterred by his horrid .199 batting average and meager run production. Sundberg’s day would come, though, as he owned the Gold Glove for the following six seasons.
Whereas Munson was ascending to stardom in 1975, Ellie Rodriguez, one of the better defensive catchers of his time, saw his wandering career wind down. He played only 90 games for the Halos that season, albeit well. Traded to the nearby Los Angeles Dodgers just before Opening Day of 1976, Ellie put in 36 games in Dodger Blue before his Major League sojourn ended.
Across a nine-year career that took him to five cities, Ellie Rodriguez always fielded well—even making two All-Star squads—yet never was officially recognized for his defensive prowess. In 737 games, he committed the same amount of errors as did Thurman Munson just in 1974 and 1975 combined.
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Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander took a no-decision in Friday night’s contest vs. the Houston Astros, leaving him without a win for the month of June and winless for the first time in any full calendar month of his MLB career, as reported by The Oakland Press’ Matthew Mowery on Twitter.
Verlander, 6-7 in 2014, went 0-3 in the month of June, losing his first three starts before failing to take a decision in his final two outings of the month. The Tigers went 1-4 in his June starts, and they have dropped seven of their last 10 games started by Verlander.
Verlander’s remarkable streak of earning at least one win in each full regular-season calendar month (April to September) began in April of his rookie season in 2006. His streak of consecutive months earning a win will end at 50, barring an unforeseen relief appearance and win this weekend.
The six-time All-Star has 143 career victories compared to only 84 losses for an impressive .630 winning percentage.
However, the 31-year-old right-hander has struggled this year, allowing more hits than he has innings pitched for the first time since his rookie season of 2006. His 4.72 ERA is the second-worst of his career, besting only the 4.84 mark posted in his 2008 campaign, when he went 11-17.
Verlander’s previous low of one win in a calendar month has occurred nine time, most recently in September 2013.
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Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu slugged two home runs in Friday night’s contest against the Toronto Blue Jays to become the first player in MLB history with 25 homers through the first 67 games of his career, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Abreu led off the fifth inning of Friday’s game with his 24th home run of the season. He hit his 25th of the year and second of the game in his next at-bat in the seventh inning.
Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion also hit home run No. 25 Friday night, creating a three-way tie atop MLB’s home run leaderboard. The third player, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Nelson Cruz, went deep in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays.
With his 25 home runs in only 67 games, Abreu has shattered the previous record of 72 games needed to reach 25 homers, set by Rudy York of the 1937 Detroit Tigers. Mark McGwire was second fastest, needing 77 games to reach the mark during his rookie campaign with the Oakland Athletics in 1987. Wally Berger of the 1930 Boston Braves now drops to fourth on this list, hitting 25 home runs in his first 79 career games.
AL Home Run Derby Captain Jose Bautista should be looking forward to this year’s Derby, as Abreu, Encarnacion and Cruz are all American Leaguers. Florida Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton currently paces the National League with his 21 homers, while Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki sits in second with 18.
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The 2014 All-Star Game is still a few weeks away, but don’t let that distort your vision of the 2014 season. By the start of play on June 30, almost every team in baseball will have reached its midway point. With 81 games in the books, ample time has been provided to determine buyers and sellers in the upcoming trade market.
In theory, at least.
Due to factors such as the second wild card, revenue sharing, cable television dollars and regional sports networks, more teams are in the race than ever before. The days of only five or six teams truly having a chance to win the World Series are long over. With that, market factors shift.
Over the next five weeks, don’t expect more than a handful of true buyers and true sellers to emerge and complete deals. With teams like the Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins teetering on the edge of contention or acceptance of lost seasons, the landscape could shift quickly.
At this moment, only 10 teams are operating with clear goals in mind. With five buyers and five sellers clearly emerging, here are the teams to watch.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs and are accurate entering play on June 27.
The 2014 season has reached its midway point, meaning Derek Jeter‘s farewell tour, age-40 season and goodbye to the game of baseball has reached the same juncture. When assessing Jeter’s play thus far, context is critical.
On the surface—looking only at the raw numbers and production from New York’s shortstop—Jeter is having his worst season in the big leagues. With an OPS+ of just 83, the former MVP candidate is hitting 17 percent below league average.
Defensively, the days of jump throws in the third base hole and instinctive genius across the diamond have disappeared, replaced by a shortstop with poor range and diminishing foot speed. While FanGraphs actually rates Jeter’s defense as a tick above average, the 20-year pro has made some rare mental mistakes in the field.
Yet for all the reasons that Jeter’s current talent level and production can be critiqued, two factors should override the numbers and offer perspective: age and health.
First and most important, Jeter is in the midst of his 40-year-old season. With his milestone birthday coming a few days ago, the future Cooperstown-bound star is in rare company among shortstops in baseball history.
As you can see by the following chart, Jeter’s production thus far in 2014 currently ranks fourth out of the five shortstops to garner at least 250 plate appearances in their respective age-40 seasons. With time to improve or decline further, Jeter could realistically surpass Honus Wagner in OPS+ at the same age or fall to the bottom of the list.
While the numbers can be instructive, think about the small amount of names on that chart. Jeter is just one of five shortstops ever to take the field this much at such an advanced age. That in itself is remarkable, a sentiment echoed by Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes, per Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today Sports.
“Do you know how difficult it is to play shortstop? It’s super hard,” Reyes said. “You have to be in on all the plays. And to be moving so much at 40? Wow, Jeter, many blessings. My respect to you.”
In Reyes’ tribute to Jeter, he referenced “moving so much,” a basic tenant of manning the shortstop position at the big league level. The fact that Jeter, after missing almost the entire 2013 season due to complications from leg injuries and surgery, has stayed healthy enough to play in 67 games is remarkable.
With diminishing skills and production, it’s easy to reference that Jeter’s impending retirement is the right call and that the Yankees will likely find a way to upgrade the position when the all-time great hitter departs, but those ideas cloud the reality of New York’s situation: If Jeter wasn’t playing right now, regardless of the numbers, the team would be in a worse spot.
As presently constituted, the Yankees don’t have a shortstop capable of outplaying Jeter. Sure, Brendan Ryan is a defensive wizard who could add to the team defense, but his career OPS of .619 is inept and too low to play on an everyday basis.
While the team is likely to be aggressive at the trade deadline, shopping for an upgrade at shortstop simply isn’t in the cards considering the needs for an impact starting pitcher and infielder with pop at second or third base.
Home runs, like the one hit in Toronto’s Rogers Centre earlier this week, are few and far between for a hitter currently posting a .327 slugging percentage, but there’s value to what Jeter has brought to the Yankees this year, especially when considering his age and the lack of viable replacements behind him on the depth chart.
John Harper of the New York Daily News recently wrote about Jeter’s importance to this particular Yankees team, highlighting what a breakout could mean for a mediocre offense.
Five years ago, he posted a 6.5 WAR and finished third in the AL MVP vote for the eventual World Series champions in New York, a magical run for the then-35-year-old shortstop. The blast from the past proved to be Jeter’s final special season, but the fact that he’s still going is something to behold.
If you had told general manager Brian Cashman that Jeter would still give the Yankees 100-plus games, around 1.0 WAR and be able to hold down the shortstop position five years later, it’s likely the longtime executive would have signed up for that deal on the spot.
With one half of his final season left to go, Jeter is a far cry from the player he once was, but the fact that he’s taking the field every day, providing some value and further cementing his status as a rare and special shortstop, is the most glaring takeaway from this farewell tour.
Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com, FanGraphs and ESPN unless otherwise noted and valid entering play on June 27.
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This season already has featured promotions for some of baseball’s top prospects, as we’ve seen George Springer, Gregory Polanco, Marcus Stroman and Andrew Heaney receive call-ups to the major leagues, while big names such as Kris Bryant, Mookie Betts and Joey Gallo have moved up to higher minor league levels.
However, while the aforementioned players already have received promotions, there are even more prospects putting up impressive numbers who are long overdue for the challenge of a new level.
Here are five scorching prospects who deserve midseason promotions.