This week in baseball blogs…
- theScore talks with Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi.
- Armchair All Americans asks how the Pirates can fix Chris Archer.
- PhilliesNation (links: 1, 2) interviews franchise icon Jimmy Rollins.
- Know Hitter writes about five potential August trade candidates.
- Chin Music Baseball identifies five hitters who have been successful this year in spite of their free-swinging ways.
- Rising Apple doesn’t want the Mets to wait until the offseason to hire a general manager.
- Notes from the Sally ranks the 10 best hitters from South Atlantic and Appalachian Leagues.
- The Sports Tank gives credit to the Athletics for acquiring Mike Fiers.
- Rox Pile notes that the Rockies’ issues go beyond their bullpen.
- Motor City Bengals lists the best September call-ups in Tigers history.
- Everything Bluebirds is optimistic about the 2019 Blue Jays.
- Bucs Dugout (links: 1, 2) offers interviews with Pirates outfield prospect Travis Swaggerty and announcer Joe Block.
- Call to the Pen (links: 1, 2) names three teams that should be aggressive with waiver claims this month and runs down starters the Phillies could use in lieu of Nick Pivetta.
- Friars On Base wonders who will close for the Padres in 2019.
- A’s Farm takes a look at the team’s late-season minor league leaders.
- Jays Journal (links: 1, 2) interviews Blue Jays prospect Maverik Buffo.
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The Pinch Runner lists starters the A’s should target during the upcoming offseason.
- Reviewing The Brew believes it’s time the Brewers make Jeremy Jeffress their full-time closer in place of the struggling Corey Knebel.
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RaysColoredGlasses proposes an all-rookie lineup for Tampa Bay.
- MetsMerizedOnline.com runs through the team’s top shortstop prospects.
- Pinstriped Prospects has a scouting report on Yankees pitching prospect Roansy Contreras.
- The K Zone revisits a past interview with righty Jacob Nix, who had an excellent major league debut with the Padres on Friday.
- The Point of Pittsburgh looks at Francisco Cervelli’s growing injury history and what the future may hold for him.
- MLB & Fantasy Baseball Analyzed argues that it’s time to retire wins and losses for pitchers.
- Foul Territory shares a funny story involving Barry Bonds and a heckler.
- Mets Daddy criticizes Harold Reynolds of MLB Network for his NL Cy Young analysis.
- The Runner Sports details Alex Bregman’s off-the-field generosity.
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Fixing archer after 2 starts? That’s a little quick to be worrying about him. But it looks like the rays have helped Glasnow out tremendously. If meadows comes up and hits this could be a big time one sided deal.
At a quick glance the picture for this article looked like Josh Beckett
a wee bit
The article about the A’s from the pinch runner was…not good as it had some incorrect facts about the A’s…
Archer needs a third pitch. MLB hitters can just sit on the pitch they want, no matter how good that pitch may be, if they only have to look for two options.
Given that it’s their specialty, the Pirates are likely going to try to add a two seam fastball to his mix.
Also, I haven’t seen any info regarding Archer’s tunneling, but with only two pitches, it’s even more important that they come from the same slot.
He used to have a Sinker he threw 20-40% of the time. It was the only plus FB he had as his 4seam is poor. He stopped throwing it completely in 2015.
Pirates are trying to get him to throw it again. So far think he’s tossed it 17% of the time in his to Pitt starts. Hitters had no difficulty with it though.
Watch that pitch. If he regains it he might keep his BAbip in check. If he can’t, then what you see is what he will continue to be
As I watched the Tigers retire Jack Morris’ number today, in Detroit, I find it funny that any sight with true knowledge of MLB would consider eliminating Wins and losses. Removing it as a category for Fantasy play is a choice. Unfortunately, that only encourages the argument in reality. There is no reason for pitchers today to be any less determined than Jack Morris was. Every manager would gladly take a Morris type, who would expect to provide no less than 7 solid innings every time out, demand to stay in, and ultimately, outpitch the other guy. Detroit has been blessed to see Morris followed by Verlander, another bulldog and winner. As teams continue to run out 7-8 man bullpens, that last arm has become weaker. Failing to expect W’s from starters is the flaw of managers.
and Mickey Lolich before him
They should change the qualifications for a Win and eliminate the Save while they’re at it. A pitcher can come into a mop up situation with his team several runs ahead, allow the opposing team enough runs to create a save situation or lose the lead entirely (Todd Jones), then get lucky and get a save or a win.
I’m all for changing the qualifications for a win!
Specifically, if your team scores more than 5 runs you really shouldn’t be eligible for one.
That is largely why the stat is considered such meaningless garbage – a guy can start, pitch extremely poorly, watch his team score 10, and get a “Win” as if he really did anything special at all.
5 runs is probably the perfect number, as starters should be expected to give up less than that over 5 or more IP (and B-R already separates those starts out for a reason)
Of course if there were a “5 runs or fewer of support” qualification, more than half of Morris’ Wins would be gone too (137 of his 254 Wins were from his team scoring 6 or more runs for him)
I can’t speak for everyone, but the reason I ignore the W-L record is because they generally offer a poor representation of the pitcher’s actual performance.
Over a large enough sample size you can likely conclude, in most cases, who is good and who is bad based on record, but other than that broad separation I don’t see the point. There are just better methods to evaluate a pitcher.
Jacob deGrom leads the MLB with a 1.77 ERA. He’s also on pace to be the first pitcher in the modern era to throw 200 IP with an ERA under 2.0 and not win at least 10 games
Or how about this fun fact; from 2006-2010 the 29th most Wins in the MLB was Jason Marquis with 67. He had a 4.76 ERA over that time.
The guys on either side of him at 28th and 30th? Chris Carpenter (69 Wins, 2.88 ERA) and Adam Wainwright (66 Wins, 2.97 ERA)
Wins are absolutely useless for evaluating a pitchers talent
@stymeedone I, too, think we should revert back to horse drawn carriages and abacuses.