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[Rock And Roll]

It's a mystery. Analytics suggest that they have the fifth highest hard hit balls with 2 outs and RISP, but by far the lowest launch angles with 2 outs and RISP. That tells me that other teams analytics have figured out how to pitch to them. The problem with focusing too much on analytics is that the other teams have MIT nerds too.

The deadened ball this year could be another reason. They were hitting home runs left and right in 2018 and 2019 (broke HR records in both years) with juiced up balls, and now all of their hitters have seen their slugging numbers go down.


Despite his bad start, I gotta say that series with the Yankees proved to me that he is a total stud. A superstar. A big game player. Charming, good looking, incredible power (he hit an 80 mph curveball 117 mph into the stands in the first game of that series. Which is apparently a record difference in ball speeds) and the fact that he can pitch is insane. I kept trying to tell my 6 year old why this is so amazing because even I feel I am taking this for granted. No one has done what hes doing since Babe Ruth a 100 years ago.

No idea wtf hes doing in Anaheim. They wasted Mike Trout. I feel like no one knows who he is outside of Baseball. And now they will do the same to Otahni.

He's in Anaheim because they were the only team that would let him pitch and hit. It's easy to forget after what he's done with the bat but scouts originally thought he'd only be able to pitch and wouldn't be able to hit major league pitching. Teams based their decisions around this, they didn't want their ace pitcher possibly getting injured in AB's or playing the field (which Ohtani wants to do and probably still lobbies for given they've used him in the OF a few times).

Here's an old article talking to scouts in 2017, only one of them believed he could be a two way player

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/05/scouting-shohei-otani.html

I can't find the other articles but yeah, no other team offered him the opportunity to do what he's doing right now. Pretty funny in hindsight

 

[SlimySnake]

CBS Morning show posted a great video on the Offense problems facing baseball today. They looked at the fact that everyone is throwing 100mph nowadays. Apparently, there are academies that can teach pitchers how to throw faster by doing certain exercises. I had no idea.



It's crazy to me that MLB saw this 10x increase in velicity and 100mph pitches thrown every year and thought to themselves that they needed to deaden the ball this year. I have seen so many fly balls just die on the warning track that looked like sure fire home runs. This commissioner is absolutely clueless. People wanted to see more offense, not less. Who deadens the ball?

And now they are going to overreact and push the mound back or something. Just limit the number of relief pitchers a team can carry and have them pitch at least one inning. We wont see many pitchers throw 100 mph if they have to throw every day.

 

[bigsnack]

I agree with this assessment. There are many instances of this occurring, where rules are put in place that alter behavior of coaches and players. When that new behavior is deemed detrimental to the game, they don't undo the first round of rules, they impose new / different rules to counter the side effect.

I think if you make pitchers have to pitch longer, their pitch speed will edge downward.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

i was talking about their calls

If anyone wants to see arguably the worst call ever check this out. 40 second mark.

It was originally called a fly out and had to go to video replay to confirm the ball the hit the ground.

Amazing.

 

[Ribi]

Ohtani is overrated and shouldn't be in the asg as a pitcher. That is all

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Ohtani is overrated and shouldn't be in the asg as a pitcher. That is all

Agreed. He's a much better hitter than pitcher. is pitching stats are decent, but not all star calibur.

 

[Alex Anderson]

Great article.

MLB’s crackdown on sticky stuff has decimated Yankees star’s effectiveness

Data: FanGraphs; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/AxiosGerrit Cole signed a nine-year, $324 million contract with the Yankees in 2019 — the largest ever by average annual value.Why it matters: If the first month of MLB's sticky-stuff crackdown is any indication, Cole and the Yanks may be in for a bumpy...

www.yahoo.com

By the numbers: On June 3, the day of Cole's 12th start of the season, word got out that MLB would soon begin enforcing its rule against foreign substances. Since then, he's been a completely different pitcher.

• His ERA and WHIP through his first 11 starts were a sterling 1.78 and 0.83, respectively. In six starts since, they're 5.24 and 1.22.
• He's striking out 20% fewer batters per nine innings and walking more than twice as many, while his WAR (wins above replacement player) has actually gone down.
• Wild stat: Cole has allowed as many home runs in his last three starts (five) as he did in his first 11.

And now 1 run allowed over his last 15 innings. Small sample sizes hooray (not really)