Baseball Chatter 02/04

Last season, only one qualifying pitcher, Chris Sale, averaged at least 7.0 innings per start. Kershaw waould have also done it had he pitched 162 innings, but he fell short.

The Rays are still interested in signing Matt Wieters or Chris Carter, even after signing Rickie Weeks Jr. and resigning Logan Morrison.

Dodgers are looking for an Effector!! In the process of signing Sergio Romo

Although, Jon Heyman notes that a mystery team recently upped the bid for Romo and nothing’s set in stone at the moment.

Drew Smyly looks forward to a fresh start as the Mariners number four starter. In an interview with Eno Saris  last July, Smyly said

“I need to be more unpredictable and mix my speeds more,” he thought about solving his homeritis. “I’ve had some trouble with my offspeed pitches here and there. I’ve struck out a lot of guys on the curve, like in Seattle, but it’s not as consistent as I’d like it to be.”

Jung Ho Kang has been formally charged with his third DUI, and ordered to pay a fine of about $13,000. He likely faces an in-person trial as well, so do not draft him

There were 18 Free Agents on the market who hit 20 or more homers last season. On Jan. 1, the number was down to ten. Today, there are five still available.

The Mariners plan to platoon rookie LH DanVogelbach and RH Danny Valencia at first base this season but with his ability to play the two corner outfield spots and both corner infield spots, he could see a career-high in plate appearances this season.

Manager DiPoto on Valencia:

“He’s been more of a neutral splits guy the last couple of years,” Dipoto said. “It’s something he’s focused on. Last year, he had 500-plus plate appearances. We envision a similar type of workload.” Valencia’s numbers last season:

  • Vs. LHP 41-for-129, .318 AVG, .934 OPS, 7 2B, 7 HR, 19 RBI  
  • Vs. RHP 94-for-342. .275 AVG, .742 OPS, 15 2B, 1 3B, 10 HR, 32 RBI  

The core of the Nationals defense will look entirely different next season

  • Wilson Ramos replaced by Derek Norris
    • Ramos tied with Buster Posey for the fifth-best percentage of runners caught stealing last season (37.3 percent)
    • Norris finished 17th with a 20.8 percent success rate
  • Trea Turner replaces Danny Espinosa at Shortstop
    • Turner has only played eight major league games at shortstop
    • Espinosa’s eight defensive runs saved tied for fifth among qualified shortstops last season.
  • Adam Eaton replaces Trea Turner in center field
    • Eaton played right field most of 2016

Player to Draft in 2017 : Aaron Nola – King of Command

Rich Hill led all major-league pitchers in curveball usage (49.7%) last season, throwing it more often than his fastball (47.2%). Only four starters in all of baseball threw their curveball at least 30% of the time. Besides Hill, those pitchers were Jose Fernandez, Colin McHugh and Aaron Nola.

Eno Sarris ranked Nola’s curveball as the 19th-best overall pitch among starters in 2016, and the fourth-best curve among starers after Corey Kluber, Jose Fernandez and Jon Lester.

 

Nola seems to get frazzled with runners on base, but experience should help fix that son it’s own, and has already shown to be a very good pitcher at the major league level:

  • 19-point K-BB% rate
  • 55% ground-ball rate.
  • ERA 4.78, FIP 3.08, xFIP 3.08
  • 60.6% strand rate Extremely unlucky or extremely bad defense behind him

 

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