Category Archives: The Rest: Everything Baseball
From Cuba to Japan, Opening Day to the World Series and the WBC
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – March 4, 2017
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THE TEAMS THAT SHOULD HAVE WON: The 1993 Braves had the momentum, the pennant chase, the build up and the perfect combination of beloved players. They should have been the team to win it all, not the 1995 team.
A what could have been episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Wil Myers Can’t Keep Disappearing on the Road in 2017
The 2016 season was one Wil Myers and the San Diego Padres had been waiting for.
After failing to play in more than 88 games during each of his first three MLB seasons, the outfielder turned first baseman suited up for a career-high 157 ballgames and earned his first-ever All-Star selection last year. It seems as though this kind of performance took forever, but that happens with top prospects — we hear about them for so long that we forget how young they actually are.
Myers is a perfect example — he’ll be just 27 years old on Opening Day with the sky being his limit as he prepares to embark into the physical prime of his career. San Diego is very much in the midst of a rebuild after selling off most of their MLB talent, but the front office wants to build around their first baseman.
At least, that’s what it seems like after the two sides agreed on a six-year, $83 million extension this past winter instead of going through the arbitration process.
But while his overall stats from 2016 make it appear as if he’s arrived, it wouldn’t be telling the whole story.
Ranking the Worst MLB Teams From Each Season Since 2002
By the time each MLB season comes to its conclusion, there are only certain things we remember. Our thoughts are mostly dominated by who just won the World Series or how our favorite team performed. Unless it directly impacts us, we rarely remember who exactly was the worst team in baseball for any given year.
Win-loss record and winning percentage are what’s mostly used to determine who takes home this dubious honor — along with the top overall pick in the following summer’s draft — but it should go a little deeper than that.
So, while taking this particular trip down memory lane, we felt it was more appropriate to use run differential as the determining factor, which is the number of runs a team allows subtracted by the number of runs they score. After all, the whole point of baseball is to score more runs than you allow each night.
More often than not (11 out of 15, actually), the worst record in baseball was accompanied by the worst run differential, but there were a handful of times when a team didn’t accomplish both.
Below are the worst teams in terms of run differential from each season since 2002, ranked from least to most soul crushing.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – March 2, 2017
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Baseball is meant to be a diversion or a distraction from every day life. But often the players, the key distractors, have real life interfere with their production on the field. Jake Peavy, dealing with a prolonged divorce is the latest example of reality colliding with fantasy.
Finding the truth half way in this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – March 1, 2017
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The NL East will be won by the team that doesn’t break down. Meanwhile new Washington reliever Joe Blanton has turned his nice career around and could become a closer option.
Reinventing one’s self in this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Enjoy Joe Blanton’s home run in the 2008 World Series.
The 60 Players I look Forward To Watching Spring Training
Yes, we’re finally here with spring training games starting!! Spring training can be such a fun experience from guys running poles during games, trying out new pitchers, or a new stance, to youngsters trying to grab attention, to guys duking it out for a few roster spots on their club.
With that, every spring I like to put a list of out of players that I look forward to watching during spring games. There’s no rhyme or reason to be honest, as it could be a prospect getting a few innings on a big league roster, a guy coming back from injury, a key acquisition, or that teams top player. Regardless, I love watching and listening to spring training games and am always surfing the web or tv to check these players out.
Here’s my list:
Atlanta Braves
Dansby Swanson: #1 draft pick in 2015, major steal in the trade for Shelby Miller, makes his debut a year after being drafted and hits .302 in 38 Major League games.
Ozzie Albies: I don’t think the 20-year old will have a ton of time in Major League camp, but from everything I know, I can look forward to a youngster with very good lead off potential and an outstanding glove
Arizona Diamondbacks
Taijuan Walker: Walker was part of the trade that sent Segura to Seattle, has show flashes of big potential in the past, but has had a hard time putting it together. At 24, Taijuan has had 2 full seasons of Major League starts, along with 2 other partial seasons. This could be the year he takes a big step forward…if he can keep the ball in the yard (1.8 HR per 9 in 2016)
Archie Bradley: Bradley had been a high profile prospect for some time before his debut in 2015 and looked to be ready to back it up as he was 2-0 in his first three career starts with a 1.48 ERA and 12 K’s. Then Bradley got smoked in the face by a 115 MPH Carlos Gonzalez line drive on April 28th, 2015 and seems like he hasn’t been the same since. I’m hoping that we see the guy this spring that was on all the top prospect reports and what we saw early in the 2015 campaign
Continue reading @ Sons of ’84 – You will be dropped off on my AL/NL West List and can link to the Central and East from there
Boston Red Sox
Coming into the 2016 season, the Boston Red Sox were positioned as well as any team in baseball to be a consistent force in the coming years. With a great team filled with young stars like Mookie Betts, and veterans who would be in the clubhouse to help guide the up-and-comers, like Dustin Pedroia, things were looking up. Bolstering this argument was a farm system that was a consensus top-10 in league with top-to-bottom talent, including the number one prospect in baseball, Yoan Moncada. It’s amazing what Dealin’ Dave Dombrowski can do to a farm system over the course of 12 months. The Sox are still a force to be reckoned with in the MLB, but their farm system has been changed dramatically, after trading away Moncada, and Michael Kopech to land Chris Sale. Boston still has a decent, albeit top-heavy farm system, headlined by budding star Andrew Benintendi and slugging third base Rafael Devers.
Red Sox Top Prospects
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 28, 2017
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Mike Trout might never be universally recognized and that MAY just be a product of the current way we consume culture. Meanwhile Mike Scioscia might have outstayed his welcome.
Adapt with the times in this episode of Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
5 MLB Starting Pitchers Who Need to Build off a Strong Second Half
With Grapefruit and Cactus League games officially underway, everyone in baseball gets that coveted clean slate. The 2017 season presents endless opportunities for players and teams, no matter how good or how bad 2016 was to them.
Some are taking the field with the hopes of completely changing the narrative surrounding them, while others simply want to continue showing the progress they displayed just a few months ago is indeed the new normal.
The MLB regular season is a grind — as if 162 games in about 180 days doesn’t say that enough — and quick starts don’t always mean certain performances are sustainable over the long haul. The same also goes for poor starts, too.
The five starting pitchers below each saw their respective 2016 campaigns start on the wrong foot, but that didn’t stop them from having a strong finish in the second half.
Now, they’ll each try to use that momentum to produce from start-to-finish this season.
The Boston Red Sox’s 2017 Payroll Has Lots of Dead Money
The Boston Red Sox are one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball. Their consistent winning ways, playing in a big market and having a broad fan base all translate to them annually having one of the highest payrolls in the sport. As long as the team is winning the particulars of where the money is going never seems to matter as much. However, some of the players Boston will be cutting checks to in 2017, and the amounts, may come as a surprise.
Phillies Top Prospects 2017
The Phillies farm system has some outstanding talent at the top of the list highlighted by top baseball prospect J.P. Crawford and the #1 overall draft pick from last season in Mickey Moniak. The farm is pretty deep as we go down the top 25 and the Phillies have a lot of pitching prospects that are very near Major League ready and have a sort of logjam at Triple-A as far as the rotation goes. The Phillies have invested a lot of money in the international free agents in the last few years, and they are starting to see the results of those investments. The Phillies may not have the best farm system in the Major Leagues, but they have young enough, solid pieces in the farm that will help them become a good team in the Majors again.
Phillies Top Prospects 2017
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 25, 2017
THE TEAMS THAT SHOULD HAVE WON: The first part of a series on the podcast that I will do for the next 31 Saturdays.
I look at the teams that if they had won the World Series, they would have done so under the best circumstances and with the best collection of players. First team I cover are my Red Sox and I look at the 1978 squad.
First of a month of Saturdays with this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Jean Segura Isn’t the Only Hitter Fighting Regression Following a Unique Performance
After being a pleasant surprise at the plate for the Milwaukee Brewers during the 2013 season, Jean Segura‘s production completely went down the drain — until he got a fresh start in 2016 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
He didn’t earn an All-Star selection for his efforts, but it was such a unique performance that the Seattle Mariners acquired him in one of the 1,000 trades they made this winter.
How unique was it, exactly? Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto accurately put the middle infielder’s accomplishments into perspective to Bob Dutton of The News Tribune:
“The year that he had is one of just five seasons in this century where a hitter was able to throw out 200 hits, a .300 batting average, 20 home runs, 40 doubles, 30 stolen bases and 100 runs scored.”
Since he literally doubled his wRC+ (63 in ’15 to 126 in ’16), there’s a lot of attention on Segura with his new team. Is this the type of hitter they can expect to see moving forward? Dipoto said himself that given the rarity of this particular performance, it wouldn’t be realistic to expect it to be sustainable.
While Seattle’s new shortstop is one of just five players this century to produce like he did in the above six categories, he wasn’t the only hitter to do it in 2016 — Jose Altuve also accomplished the same feat.
5 Must Watch Players in Spring Training
Spring Training is finally here! Thank god; I don’t think I, as an individual, nor we, as a nation and a planet, have ever needed baseball more.
But we are not the only ones! Every year, players use Grapefruit and Cactus league games to cement their status as starters, finally earn a trip to the majors, or, in some cases, disrupt the status quo and commute chaos upon fans and front offices.
Of course, Spring Training games are far from predictive of future performance, just look at Jackie Bradley Jr. a few years ago. He tore it up in March and then struggled to hit well enough in his first season in the MLB to justify keeping his stellar glove in the lineup at all. He was eventually sent to the minors and only last year recaptured his starting spot. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn an awful lot from some of these early showcases. The pre-season can help us get an early feel for players poised to bounce back from a tough season, or not, and those who need to justify their team’s (semi-inexplicable) faith in them.
Let’s take a look at 5 of the guys whose spring performance can be particularly instructive about what their 2017 seasons might hold.
Shelby Miller, starting pitcher, Arizona Diamondbacks
Talk about a bounce-back candidate.
After an All Star season in Atlanta in 2015 (despite leading the league in losses), Miller was shipped to Arizona in exchange for Dansby Swanson, Ender Inciarte, and others. Then things took a turn.
To continue reading about the must watch players this spring training, please click on oveer to Offthebenchbaseball.com
The Bizarre Ending to Pitching’s Longest Winning Streak
In addition to winning twenty-six games in 1912, Marquard was unbeatable throughout the campaign’s first three months. He won an astounding nineteen consecutive games for the Giants from the time he defeated Brooklyn in the opener on April 11 until he beat the Superbas in the first game of a doubleheader on July 3. Rube was finally vanquished on July 8, during a game at West Side Grounds, which was won by the Chicago Cubs, 7-2.
While the main story line from the afternoon should have revolved around the Cubs ending Marquard’s winning streak, a perceived jinx perpetrated by a demented woman seemed to grab the headlines. While a large crowd was in attendance watching New York and Chicago battle, much of the attention was directed at a woman perched in a tree outside the ballpark, overlooking the playing field. READ MORE
MLB’s 10 Best MVP Seasons Since 2000
What makes a player so valuable?
The answer to this question varies depending on the person asked. However, it always becomes a hot-button topic of debate in baseball throughout the latter part of every season when discussing potential National League and American League MVP candidates.
We’re not here to discuss the definition of Most Valuable Player, though. We want to know which players have put together the best overall seasons while earning the award since 2000.
The best way to figure this out is by using Wins Above Replacement (WAR). While the statistics shown below focus on offense, WAR takes a player’s offensive and defensive contributions into consideration before providing an overall value for their performance.
FanGraphs’ version of WAR (referred to here as fWAR) will be the metric used to create our rankings. The definition of “Most Valuable Player” may forever be up for debate, but there’s no debate in figuring out which MVP winners have enjoyed the most success since the turn of the century.
CHICAGO CUBS TOP 25 PROSPECTS
This farm system has been built on the backs of Elite position players and the ability of the minor league staff to help them reach their potential. The Major League lineup is one of the most potent in baseball, and there are still prospects who could add more firepower to the order. The up and coming prospects cover a wide range of ages so that the team can be primed to defend their championship this season while also having insurance policies as arbitration years approach shortly.
The top of the list is again loaded with positional talent as Chicago looks to have options in the infield (Happ, Jeimer Candelario) and the outfield (Jimenez, Mark Zagunis, Eddy Martinez). Though there is limited star power, the Cubs starting lineup has enough to hold over the city. More important for the short-term, players such as Victor Caratini and Wladimir Galindo should see extended time on the 25-man roster.
Chicago Cubs Top Prospects
Detroit Tigers Centerfield Options Heading In To Spring Training
With all other positions pretty stable, there really are only a handful of battles for the Detroit Tigers heading in to spring training. The 5th rotation spot will be interesting, there will be bullpen spots up for grabs, but I believe the main focus will be Centerfield after the trade of Cameron Maybin to clear some salary from the books.
The centerfield job is pretty much up for grabs as spring games commence later in the week with JaCoby Jones, Tyler Collins, Mikie Mahtook, Anthony Gose, David Lough, and Alex Presely all via for the position to name a few. Mahtook in my opinion has a slight edge; however a lot can change over the next month. Let’s take a look at some of the options…
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 21, 2017
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images North America
The Cubs won it all last year. Perhaps you heard. But let’s savor how infrequently a team wins in the year they are SUPPOSED to win!
Perfectly timing titles on this episode of Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Is Matt Kemp’s Late-Season Revival With the Braves Sustainable?
Matt Kemp isn’t the MVP-caliber ballplayer he used to be with the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier in his career. Despite that, the Atlanta Braves have high expectations for the right-handed hitting outfielder in 2017.
Those expectations aren’t coming without them getting a glimpse of what he could do for the offense, though.
After the San Diego Padres shipped him to Atlanta at last summer’s non-waiver trade deadline, Kemp was one of the reasons behind the Braves offense going from being historically awful to finishing as a top-performing unit.
His arrival also spurred a personal boost in production — he hit 23 homers in 431 plate appearances with San Diego, but produced just a 102 wRC+. Once the trade took place, that number jumped to 120 in 241 plate appearances (while hitting 12 more homers).
Yes, the Braves are technically still rebuilding, but with a new ballpark opening and their flurry offseason moves, they’re aiming to at least be competitive this year, and Kemp’s performance will play a significant role.
The big question with Spring Training now underway is whether or not his two-month stretch of above-average offensive production is sustainable for an entire season. If it’s going to be, he may need to make a few changes.
Chris Sáenz – A History-making Cup of Coffee
Only four pitchers in baseball history have started only one major league game, thrown six scoreless innings or more, and recorded a win in the process. Chris Sáenz (pronounced SYNS) of the Milwaukee Brewers is the most recent, and actually the first hurler since 1899 to accomplish the feat.
As with most cup of coffee players, a perfect chain of events had to play out for Sáenz to make just one appearance and disappear, never to be heard from again. The early 2004 season for the Brewers was ripe with issues – enough in fact, for a Double A pitcher to be called up to face the Central Division rival St. Louis Cardinals in late April.
A Vindictive President Destroys a National Institution
A story of a bombastic, vindictive man who brooked no challenge to his authority, had no tolerance for weakness, and hated whom he saw as “losers.” We’re speaking, of course, of Ban Johnson, founder and president of the American League. READ MORE AT PLATE COVERAGE
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 20, 2017
It is Presidents Day. Will we ever have a baseball player President?
Why not?
Hail to the Chief on this episode of Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Why Pablo Sandoval is in a Position to Succeed With the Boston Red Sox
Once a ballyhooed free agent signing, Pablo Sandoval’s 2016 season with the Boston Red Sox ended after a total of three games and an unacceptable number of trips to the dinner plate. Plagued with shoulder issues and an alarming weight gain, the third baseman barely made it on the field to try and follow up on a miserable 2015 campaign that was his first with the team. Now noticeably slimmer and reportedly healthy, his bid for a comeback is being aided by his team, which has put him in the best possible position to succeed.
Randy Levine proves to be classless
Randy Levine Makes All The Wrong Movements Post Betances Arbitration Hearing
Who’s in Command Here?!?
So if pitchers who strike out a lot of batters while walking few tend to be very good, is the converse always true? Are pitchers with lousy K/BB ratios… lousy?
Well, yes.
And no.
It depends.
Sons of ’84 Top 100 MLB Prospects for 2017
Welcome once again to my favorite blog entry of the year, my Top 100 Major League Baseball Prospect list for 2017. My list consists of the top prospects in baseball right now and doesn’t necessarily focus on player’s impact this season as these players are in various stages of their Minor League and and possibly Major League career.
Team breakouts for players on the list include: 8 – ATL 7 – NYY, 6 – MIL 5 – CWS, LAD, Pit, TB 4 – CHC, Col, Hou, NYM, Oak, Phi, SD 3 – Bos, Cin, Cle, Min, Tor, Was 2 – Sea, Tex 1 – Bal, Det, LAA, MIA, SF
Position breakouts for players on the list look like: C – 5, 1B – 4, 2B – 5, 3B – 4, SS – 12, OF – 25, LHP – 13, RHP – 32
For the list, you’ll find the player’s name, their position/team/and last year’s ranking for this list…
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 16, 2017
Marc Serota/Getty Images North America
A few days ago, I thought the Marlins were about to get a normal owner.
Now the Marlins management is somehow mixed up with the Trump Presidency and the French Embassy.
This is bananas.
Florida is nuts again on this episode of Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Todd Frazier’s Goal for This Season Should Be Pretty Simple
When the Chicago White Sox acquired third baseman Todd Frazier from the Cincinnati Reds last winter, the organization’s goal was to find some lineup protection for first baseman Jose Abreu. Frazier responded with a power surge he hadn’t yet experienced during his young MLB career, but didn’t do much else outside of that, leading to a rather mediocre overall performance at the plate.
Given the lackluster free agent market this winter — especially at third base — one would assume that a player fresh off a 40-homer, 98-RBI season like Frazier would’ve been a hot commodity on the trade market.
That wasn’t the case, though, and the rebuilding White Sox still have him on their roster with the hopes he can improve from the 102 wRC+ and 2.4 fWAR he produced in 2016.
Where exactly can Frazier’s game improve? There’s not always a simple answer to a question like that, but he needs to stop hitting the ball in the air so freakin’ much.
Satchel’s Greatest Trick
To any qualified observer—players, coaches, even the owners who refused to grant him an opportunity to pitch in the majors—Satchel Paige was among the greatest handful of pitchers to ever take a mound. In his youth, Paige dominated with an overpowering fastball and extraordinary control. As the years and miles accumulated, he became the game’s greatest magician, flummoxing hitters with an unending variety of pitches and deliveries. Paige’s wit was a sharp as his control, his personality as big as the break on his curve. He took great pleasure in keeping people guessing, and he took his greatest secret with him to the grave… READ MORE
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