Mitch Moreland got twice as much ($13 million) as Logan Morrison even though he may not play every day. Smart to sign early.
Speaking of Logan Morrison, he improved his launch angle from 12.1 in 2016 to 17.4 in 2017
This is an interesting article on Ronald Acuna’s growth, and how the Braves should take the lesson they learned with Dansby Swanson and apply it to Acuna
Ryan Braun says he still has some concern about his back
The biggest challenge for me is making sure I can take 50-100 ground balls a day and it doesn’t hurt my back. Obviously, my back is something I’m always concerned about and trying to do maintenance work on. It’s just a different challenge physically, bending over and taking an extra 100 ground balls a day versus running in the outfield.Ryan Braun on his back
Did you know Ryan Braun inspired WWE Braun Strowman’s stage name.
Funny story, I wanted to meet Ryan Braun because that’s a big influence of where ‘Braun’ came from,I had pitched a bunch of ideas for names with the company and they turned them all down. It kind of got down to a time crunch, we need to figure out something out now. We were sitting around the [WWE] Performance Center and Sportscenter was on and they were talking about Ryan Braun and I was like ‘Braun, that sounds pretty good.’ I mean look at me, I’m 6’8 and 385 lbs., I mean Braun is pretty fitting.Braun Strowman
Zack Godley finished last season with a 3.37 ERA in 155 innings. He has been increasing his use of his plus curveball pretty drastically over the past two seasons. It’s working. 108 of his 165 strikeouts were off curveball pitches
Nick Castellanos hit .380 in the 21 games he played outfield last season. He also hit five home runs and drove in 20.
Rougned Odor is showing that he has an ability to take a walk this spring. He took back-to-back walks on 3-and-1 counts. Perhaps his batting average won’t make you want to throw-up in 2018
According to Cleveland Indians writer, they only signed Mike Napoli because of how he helped them in 2016 and felt he deserved a shot in a big league camp to sign with another team before the start of the regular season.
Terry Francona said injury was the only way Napoli would have a chance to stick with the Indians. They have Edwin Encarnacion at DH and Yonder Alonso at first base.
Ii guess there won’t be any party at Napoli’s this year in Cleveland. Sad.
@MikeNapoli25 pic.twitter.com/F9MXnXl9nE
— steve miller (@BigLebrewski) September 17, 2016
Cardinals pitchers are fighting the launch angle trend by working on their elevated fastball.
I think it’s all about pitching to your strengths. The high fastball is not new to a lot of us. Back when we didn’t know spin rates and all of it, but we knew that people were effective upstairs and guys that were effective upstairs, they used it. We’re a lot more aware of what hitters are trying to do. We just knew it worked. Now we know why. Cardinals Pitching Coach Mike Maddux
Taijuan Walker posted a 3.49 ERA in 157 innings for the Diamondbacks last season. He allowed no more than three earned runs in 23 of 28 starts. Batters hit .320 off him at Chase Field and .119 off him while on the road. Looks like someone may benefit greatly from the humidor. Lenny wants me to let you know that he drafted Walker in NL LABR because of it.
Overall, Walker’s results on the road (2.92 ERA) were better than at Chase (4.18).
Chris Sale is getting extra rest this spring after leading the major league last year in innings pitched, 214 ⅓ IP. His stats show it caught up to him toward the end. He went 7-4 with a 4.09 ERA over his last 11 starts.
Rasiel Iglesias earned 28 saves in 30 opportunities last season, with a 2.49 ERA. His eight saves of at least two innings last year led all of Major League Baseball
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