Category Archives: The Rest: Everything Baseball
From Cuba to Japan, Opening Day to the World Series and the WBC
Chicago White Sox Top Prospects
The state of the Chicago White Sox minor league system has likely never been brighter. With a huge influx of talent like Michael Kopech, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dane Dunning the White Sox have the top prospects to truly build one of the elite pitching staffs in baseball. They also brought in young raw bats such as Luis Alexander Basabe and Yoan Moncada to potentially create franchise caliber talent in the field.
The White Sox also have done a good job of cultivating and developing talent through the draft and foreign signing classes. Alec Hansen looks to offer more promise than people him credit for while the ceiling for Zack Collins has many looking at this organization in awe. There is also an increasing amount of talent in the back end of the farm that offers some of the better upside seen in the league outside of the team’s top ten prospects.
Chicago White Sox Top Prospects
Can These 11 MLB Hitters Continue Making the Most of Their Fly Balls in 2017?
You’d be hard-pressed to find a baseball fan who doesn’t dig watching home runs. If you indeed dig them, the 2016 season was one of the best years to track the long ball in recent memory.
There were 111 different players who reached the 20-homer plateau, which is a new record and a substantial increase to 2015, where only 64 players slugged that many baseballs over the fence. The most beautiful part of it all? Not all 20-plus homer hitters are created equally, which we’ve touched upon a couple of times this winter.
While they can also happen on line drives, the home runs usually result from fly balls. Obviously, for someone to accumulate a lot of round-trippers in any given season, a healthy fly-ball rate (FB%) is necessary.
So, it makes sense as to why 100 of the above players produced a fly-ball rate in 2016 north of 30% (including 53 with a fly-ball rate of at least 40%). That also leaves us with an interesting group who didn’t put the ball in the air as frequently, and they probably wouldn’t mind it happening again in 2017.
Here are the 11 hitters who managed to enter the 20-homer club last year without a fly-ball rate above 30%.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 13, 2017
Getty Images
The Astros need to go all in. And that means taking Zack Greinke off of the Diamondbacks’ hands. Meanwhile I have all sorts of tech issues.
Testing Testing 1…2…3 on this episode of Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Will Justin Verlander Be A Hall of Famer?
Earlier in the week I updated what had become an annual blog entry for me around the greatness of Miguel Cabrera, who is undoubtedly already a Hall of Fame lock. It got me thinking around looking in to Justin Verlander’s career and if there is potential to be elected to the Hall of Fame one day. Now, if you would have asked me two years ago, I wouldn’t have written anything, but the way JV reinvented himself this past season, it revitalized hopes that he could be in the Hall someday. Please bare with me as this is a little long, but a case will be made…
Before diving in to statistics and whatnot, there has always been one key milestone for pitchers that essentially ensures that they are Hall of Fame locks, and that’s 300 wins. We must acknowledge that 300 wins is really no longer feasible with today’s 5-man rotations, pitch counts, and bullpen specialist. We must also acknowledge that today’s game has changed where a slightly higher ERA is acceptable compared to the day an age where voters were looking for career ERA’s in the mid-2’s. Hitters are stronger these days; ballparks tend to be smaller, etc.
Here’s the other thing that JV and other pitchers have going against them and it all plays in to what I just wrote, only 6 pitchers have been elected to the Hall in the last seven years (Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Bert Blyleven). Take it back further to 2005 and add just Bruce Sutter and Rich Gossage to that list, making it 8 in the past 12 years. What I think we are seeing is pitchers being scrutinized more highly than hitters.
With this laid out, let’s look at Justin Verlander so far…
A Look Back On HIs Career With John Halama
Some paths to the major leagues are longer and more winding than others. Just being drafted is far from a guarantee that any success will ensue. Hard work and an ability to take and adapt to instruction are just as important as having raw skill. Left-handed pitcher John Halama knows only too well what it takes to work his way up from a mid-round draft prospect to a successful major league career.
Koufax, Kershaw and the Power of Orthodoxy
Part of the Koufax orthodoxy, of course, is his legend: Retired at 30, at the height of his game, the height of his fame. And then, gone. He never hawked a book, lent his name, or became an autograph factory.Never a hint of scandal, a suggestion of bad behavior. He’d make his Spring Training visits to the Mets or the Dodgers, to see old friends and talk to the kids, and the press covered these casual afternoons like matters of state. Then he’d disappear again, go back to his life. Fifty years of repose; fifty years of grace; fifty years of dignity. Five decades, essentially, of silence. Baseball’s Garbo. All the while, his legend grew, until it overshadowed even his magnificent accomplishments on the mound. He’s not just the best pitcher in Dodgers’ history; he was—is—often mentioned among the greatest handful of pitchers of all time, more monument than man to generations of fans.
The thing is, it’s pretty clear that Clayton Kershaw, not Sandy Koufax, is the best pitcher in the history of the Dodgers’ franchise. READ MORE
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 11, 2017
Jorge Lemus/Getty Images North America
Mike Ilitch has passed away. He was everything a fan could want in an owner and helped make the Tigers a point of pride in a difficult time for Detroit.
Now that he is gone, what will the fortunes of the Tigers be moving forward.
It is a Motor City episode of Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Milwaukee Brewers Research Interview: Pat McBride and Rick Napholz
When I first started thinking I’d like to write a book about the Milwaukee Brewers franchise moving from Seattle in 1970, I kept coming back to a simple question: Who were the original players, coaches, executives, and stadium workers? Not just their names, but who were they personally and what did they experience when the Brewers were in their infancy.
I started by looking at names and faces on the 1970 team photo card and decided to pursue interviewing as many of these guys as possible. I was fortunate last year to interview one of the original team bat boys and one of the ball boys. Both had interesting perspectives and memories of not just the players, but also County Stadium, and what it was like to work at Green Bay Packers games as well.
Christian Yelich Is an Under-the-Radar NL MVP Candidate in 2017
Making a name for yourself in the Miami Marlins outfield in recent years hasn’t been all that easy, but Christian Yelich has found a way to carve out some attention for himself in South Beach. Probably not enough yet, though.
It’s tough when Giancarlo Stanton grabs headlines every time he punishes a baseball, or when Marcell Ozuna‘s name is either swirling in trade rumors or being called out at the All-Star game.
Yelich quietly goes about his business on a daily basis, and while he may not generate the most headlines, he’s probably the most valuable outfielder on the Marlins’ roster.
After posting a 4.5-fWAR season in 2014, he didn’t progress like Miami hoped in 2015, producing just 2.4 fWAR. He flipped the script back in a positive direction last year, though.
He didn’t earn an All-Star selection, but posted a 4.4 fWAR, won his first Silver Slugger award and placed 19th in National League MVP voting. Climbing up the ranks in this award category won’t necessarily be a walk in the park — after all, that Kris Bryant guy is still pretty good, as is his teammate in Anthony Rizzo, along with other studs like Corey Seager and Freddie Freeman, just to name a few.
Although he’s fresh off a career year, Yelich is exactly the kind of player that can come out of nowhere to be a legitimate candidate for the award in 2017 because there’s still a ton of room for improvement in his game.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 10, 2017
Rob Foldy/Getty Images North America
Will Jeffrey Loria sell the Marlins? It looks like he might! And if it happens, maybe the Marlins will finally have a chance to grow a fan base.
I take my talents to South Beach on this episode of Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Projected Win Totals In 2017 By Other Sites: Good Job Fangraphs – Bad Job Baseball Prospectus
The O’s have averaged 89 wins per year since 2012, but the folks at Baseball Prospectus are throwing down a projection of 73 wins in 2017 for Baltimore?? That wasn’t even the biggest disparity from our picks..
The MLB Reports is not composed of several writers or analysts. We have about a half a dozen participants who account for 90% of the content featured on our website.
From the time I joined the website in late 2013, we have had a nice track record of projections. That is not to say we are perfect.
If all of us could predict the future – we would be sipping alcohol on rooftops of the hotels in Las Vegas counting our cabbage.
One thing we are going to do is have an opinion when and where we see fit.
Fangraphs has done an exceptional job in their forecasting. I agree with 87 – 90% of their team placements on their team win projections and Division standings.
Overlooked, but not for Long…
From my perspective, the best indicator for future success is past success. We had some tremendous performances in 2016 by guys relegated to teams tanking their way to a high draft pick. I don’t want to just run through a list of all-star players who played on bad teams. Instead, let’s look at guys who meet the following criteria:
- Good performance in 2016
- Played for a bad team…
- …at an underappreciated position.
That third criteria effectively eliminates the star positions: Shortstop, starting pitcher, and closer all have a sense of glamour even if their squad wasn’t that great. For that matter, the star quality of merely playing first base or center field is also too bright for our exercise. So given these restrictions, these are guys whose 2016 performance was overlooked due to things well outside of their control: READ MORE
The Greatness of Miguel Cabrera; 2017 Edition
What is now the third installment of looking at Miguel Cabrera’s greatness (Pre-2015 season & Pre-2016 Season), it’s become fun to look at what Miggy had accomplished in the previous season and what to look forward to now in 2017.
The original reason for the first post was that I wasn’t sure if Miggy was being taken for granted in Detroit and definitely was not getting the exposure he should have been nationally. I believe that’s changed a bit over the last couple of years now, however it is still worth pointing out that when is all said and done, we may be possibly looking at one of the ten greatest right-handed hitters of All-Time.
With that, Cabrera finished up his age 33 season, one of which we saw Miggy play in 158 games, which was great sign after his injury prone 2015 season. Cabrera tallied a .316 batting average, collected 188 hits, score 92 runs, gathered 31 doubles, a triple, and 38 homers, while knocking in 108, and walking 75 times. This was all good for an OPS of .956 and a WAR of 4.9. Mix in an All-Star game, a Silver Slugger Award, and finishing 9th in MVP voting, and I’d call it another successful season. This is the 9th time in 14 seasons, that Cabrera has hit at least .300, hit 30 homers, and knocked in 100 runs.
Colorado Rockies Missed a Golden Opportunity With Mike Napoli
The Colorado Rockies haven’t experienced a winning season since 2010 and haven’t participated in the playoffs since 2009, but that hasn’t stopped them from making some bold moves this winter.
Bringing Bud Black on as manager to replace Walt Weiss was the first domino to fall before they did some free-agent spending. Colorado then signed Ian Desmond to a five-year, $70 million deal to further bolster the offense, along with fortifying the bullpen with Mike Dunn (three years, $19 million) and Greg Holland (one year, $7 million).
Combine this with a young core that includes Jon Gray, Nolan Arenado, DJ LeMahieu, Trevor Story and a few others, and the Rockies are indeed set up to attempt making a run at the postseason in 2017. With Spring Training approaching quickly, the heavy lifting of their offseason is done.
However, given the state of this winter’s free agent market, they missed out on a unique opportunity to acquire a veteran player who’d help them both on the field and in the clubhouse.
No, I’m not talking about catcher Matt Wieters — they could’ve really used first baseman Mike Napoli, who finally just agreed to a one-year deal with the Texas Rangers.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 8, 2017
Justin Edmonds/Getty Images North America
The Cardinals may have missed the post season last year (barely) and have flown under the radar this off season. But sleep on this team at your own peril. They have a combination of veterans, young players, and a bunch of comeback candidates poised to make 2017 fun for the Red Birds.
Two little birds are perched on a bat for this episode of the Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Oakland Athletics Top Prospects
Look out for other talents still yet that could emerge on the list in the future. Tyler Ramirez has a strong hitting pedigree and multiple potentially exciting tools just drafted out of UNC. Sandber Pimentel has the brute strength right now that makes his upside relevant. Skye Bolt has worn out his stay on many scouts minds but still has a lot of pure talent to counter that initiative. All in all the Athletics top prospects are in a questionable state with many question marks moving forward. That doesn’t mean that they will not have a significant impact, as the organization is built to support that notion.
Oakland Athletics Top Prospects 2017
Danny Goodwin: The Most Can’t Miss Prospect of All-Time
Only one player in the history of major league baseball was good enough to be selected first in the draft… twice. He was chosen ahead of some of the best players in baseball history. And his story shows that extraordinary talent doesn’t guarantee extraordinary success at the Major League level.
Detroit Tigers Land Two Prospects On ESPN Top 100 List
Keith Law, a senior baseball writer for ESPN, former writer for Baseball Prospectus, and former front office member of the Toronto Blue Jays, along with one of the most respected prospect scouts around, has released his Top 100 prospects list for 2017. This list is full of names the common fan has not heard of and isn’t related necessarily to impact a player may make in the Majors this season, but their total impact once they reach the Major’s.
The Tigers who rank 24th (out of 30) as far as farm systems go, have landed two players on the list. The first is…
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 5, 2017
For this week’s Sunday Request, I am going to answer multiple Tweets.
@sullybaseball ive been listening to ur October shows and noticed that ur stance re Chapman ended up having u spend more time talking 1/2
— TheStartingBloc (@thestartingbloc) January 11, 2017
@sullybaseball about him more than any other player who did have a positive influence on the game. 2/2
— TheStartingBloc (@thestartingbloc) January 11, 2017
@sullybaseball that way you can spend more time focusing on players that positively impact the game
— TheStartingBloc (@thestartingbloc) January 11, 2017
Yes, I could have just focused on the positive. But sometimes you need to shine the light on the negative.
And seeing the cavalier and dismissive attitude we see towards domestic violence, especially by the coverage of Aroldis Chapman, the shrugs by Hal Steinbrenner and the covering up by the NFL shows that too many people are on the wrong side of history.
That and a few Super Bowl Sunday thoughts and admiring those practicing softball in February on this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 4, 2017
John G. Zimmerman
One of the most intriguing “What Ifs” in baseball history is the question “What if the Reds did NOT trade Frank Robinson to Cincinnati?”
Truth be told, while it was a HORRIBLE trade for the Reds, it is hard to see them having a BETTER decade in the 1970’s with him as they had without him.
Oiling the Big Red Machine on this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
New York Yankees Entire 2017 MLB Schedule On One Page Post.
ALL TIMES DISPLAYED IN EASTERN TIME ZONE
WEEK 1 (Includes Season Opener Sunday Apr 2, 2017)
INTERLEAGUE GAMES IN MAROON
APR 2017
Sunday, Apr 2 MLB OPENING DAY
Yankees @ Rays 1:10 Tropicana Field Home Opener, St. Petersburg, FL (Tampa Bay Rays)
Monday Apr 3
Off Day
Tuesday Apr 4
Yankees @ Rays 7:10 Read the rest of this entry
New York Yankees Top Prospects
Players headline the farm that they acquired through the Chapman and Miller trades. The likes of Clint Frazier, Gleyber Torres, and other top tier prospects have the Yankees looking set for the near future. The prospects at the top of the farm are superb, but the farm is not thin. The Yankees have some depth in multiple positions. The outfield is not a concern for them anytime soon players like Mason Williams, and Ben Gamel who are never going to make a huge impact in the majors are good players to fill in for an injury here and there.
Boston Red Sox Need Consistency From Xander Bogaerts in 2017
The Boston Red Sox had one of MLB’s most potent offenses during the 2016 season, which was made possible because of a relentless lineup.
Anchored by the insane final year of David Ortiz’s career, manager John Farrell also had the joy of having Dustin Pedroia, a resurgent Hanley Ramirez, out-of-nowhere production from Sandy Leon, a full-year breakout from Jackie Bradley Jr. and an MVP-caliber season from Mookie Betts on his lineup card each night.
He also watched a stellar season from his young shortstop in Xander Bogaerts.
After hitting just 7 home runs to go along with 35 doubles in 2015, he tapped into some of that power potential by slugging a career-high 21 over the fence this past year, while his doubles output basically remained the same (34). This was also accompanied by a decent uptick in OPS (.776 to .802).
Despite 2016 serving as a breakout of sorts for Bogaerts, it didn’t come without the frustration of a prolonged slump that began in the middle of June and carried through to the end of the regular season.
So, what happened?
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 3, 2017
Lucasfilm Ltd
For some reason, my kids love the Star Wars prequels. But my being incredulous to liking The Phantom Menace et al made me realize I was doing what I hate when I hear it from baseball fans:
I was discounting what they loved based on MY Nostalgia.
The Force is with my in the Episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 2, 2017
Tom Brunansky made a great catch to clinch the 1990 AL East Division for the Red Sox. I remembered looking for a place in New York to watch the game. And comedian Mike Donovan recorded the catch on video. Today those two actions would be taken for granted. In 1990, they took determination to do.
It is a modern technology episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Here is the clip of Mike Donovan’s video.
Marvels of Engineering, Monuments to Kitsch: Ballpark Wonders, Oddities and Attractions
The Bat. The B&O warehouse at Camden yards. ‘The Big A’ at Angel Stadium. Those special flourishes, details, or attractions that make each ball park unique and serve as local touchstone (the guitar-shaped scoreboard at First Tennessee Park, home of the Nashville Sounds) or national icon (the ivy at Wrigley). Some are wonders of engineering (Safeco Field’s retractable roof); others are monuments to kitsch (the bobble head museum at Marlins Park). Some are awe-inspiring (the desert vistas at Camel Back Ranch-Glendale), while others are annoying (the drummer at Progressive Field). They are an indelible and indispensable part of the ball park experience… READ MORE AT PLATECOVERAGE.COM
Brewers On Deck Event Recap
This past Sunday I attended the Milwaukee Brewers Annual Winter Fan Fest, more commonly known as Brewers On Deck. Here’s a recap of the event and a bit of my personal perspective, with a few photos to boot.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast Archives Jan 1, 2017 – Jan 31, 2017 (Episodes 1531 – 1561)
Paul Francis Sullivan (please call him Sully) does a podcast 365 days a year – unless it is a leap year – then he will do another 1. He has done a show everyday since Oct.24/2012. This to date represents a streak of 1530 days consecutively heading into Jan of 2017!
Past the CLICK TO READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY are episodes 1531 – 1561 of the Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
We will also archive all of his podcasts to date (in coming weeks) so they are easily accessible for all his fans. Check out all his Archived info here.
Our website followers have grown larger each year for his podcast.
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Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – February 1, 2017
Lance Iversen, The Chronicle
The A’s in Oakland have a history of innovation on and off the field. Their new stadium should reflect that. And Las Vegas should rig a few games to make sure the Raiders move out to give the A’s room to build their park.
Place your bets on this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Rougned Odor’s 2016 Performance Was Awfully Unique
The 2016 season was a fascinating one for Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor, and contrary to popular belief, it has nothing to do with punching Jose Bautista. What actually made it fascinating was the connection between his power production and plate discipline (or lack thereof).
Through 632 plate appearances last season, Odor hit 33 home runs while drawing just 19 walks, giving him a HR/BB ratio (1.74) that has an interesting spot in history.
While that in itself is impressive, it’s only the beginning. When looking through his FanGraphs page, a few things caught my eye:
— His 47.3% pull rate was one of the highest among qualified hitters in 2016.
— His 35.4% hard-hit rate was also among some of the best in the league.
— His minuscule 3.0% walk rate was the lowest among all qualified hitters last season.
Considering how he arrived at his numbers (.271/.296/.502 with 33 homers, 88 RBI and a 106 wRC+), I was curious as to whether or not the above profile was a common one in recent years. Using FanGraphs’ splits leaderboard, I set out to find all the hitters who had at least 400 plate appearances with a walk rate less than 5.0%, a hard-hit rate greater than 35%, pull rate of at least 45% and 20-plus homers in a single season.
As it turns out, these results have been produced just three times since 2002: Khalil Greene in 2007, John Buck in 2010 and Odor in 2016. That’s it.
How do these performances compare to one another? And, more importantly, how did Odor arrive in this exclusive club after his third big-league campaign?
MLB Reports 
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