With the All-Star break in the rear-view, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. The second half begins:
All 30 teams are set return to action today as MLB’s second half begins. With just over two weeks left until the trade deadline on August 1, it seems as though the majority of teams in the league are positioned as potential buyers with only a select few clear sellers. Of course, the standing of a number of teams could still change significantly in the run up to the trade deadline.
The Red Sox and Cubs are two such teams that have yet to set a clear course for the trade deadline, providing additional intrigue to today’s start to a three-game set between the clubs at Wrigley Field. Meanwhile, Anaheim welcomes the Astros to Angel Stadium as they look to make up ground and remain competitive in their last season with superstar Shohei Ohtani under team control. Perhaps the most impactful series set to begin today is the one between the Reds and the Brewers, who will play each other six times before August 1 in a pair of three-game sets that could separate one club from the other in a tight NL Central race.
2. A’s promotions expected:
The A’s are in the midst of an abysmal 2023 campaign that’s seen the club go just 25-67 while ownership works to relocate the team to Las Vegas. With so few reasons for fans in Oakland to get excited over the team this season, the club is providing one today as they are poised to call up both top prospect Tyler Soderstrom and infield prospect Zack Gelof before today’s home game against the Twins. While the club has an open spot on the 40-man roster, with neither Soderstrom or Gelof currently on the roster, they’ll need to make a corresponding move to clear out additional space.
Soderstrom is a consensus top-100 prospect who ranked as highly as 35th on Baseball America’s list entering the 2023 campaign. In 78 games at the Triple-A level between this season and 2022, Soderstrom has slashed .259/.304/.521 with 21 home runs in 342 plate appearances. While those numbers certainly appear impressive on the surface, they’re inflated by the heightened offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League to the point that they’re actually below league average. That’s not a concern with Gelof, who has impressed with a .304/.401/.529 slash line in 69 games this season that’s good for a 122 wRC+, though the 23 year old doesn’t have the excellent prospect pedigree of Soderstrom.
3. Marisnick signing to be made official:
The Dodgers reportedly have agreed to a major league deal with outfielder Jake Marisnick, which figures to be made official as soon as today. A 40-man roster move will be required to accommodate Marisnick when the deal becomes official. A career .228/.281/.385 hitter, Marisnick spent most of his early career with the Astros in Houston but has bounced between a variety of teams in recent years. Since the start of the 2020 campaign, Marisnick has suited up for the Mets, Cubs, Padres, Pirates, White Sox, and Tigers, with the Dodgers poised to be his seventh team in four seasons.
While Marisnick doesn’t provide much value at the plate, he sports a solid outfield glove and some power against left-handed hitters as evidenced by his career .181 ISO against southpaws. That should make Marisnick a strong complement to the club’s heavily left-handed outfield mix that currently includes David Peralta, James Outman, and Jason Heyward while Mookie Betts has spent increased time on the infield dirt.
Is this guy Zach related to Jake Gelof? He was drafted by the Dodgers this year in the 2nd round.
Where do you gelof asking these questions?
> Is this guy Zach related to Jake Gelof?
Yes.
His younger brother Jake Gelof plays baseball as a third baseman for the University of Virginia and was drafted in the second round of the 2023 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers; Jake has been Zack’s teammate in both high school and college.
I reread the whole article and couldn’t find that info. Is this from another source, or is my reading comprehension that bad?
When in doubt, search it out.
“Zack Gelof brother”
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zack_Gelof
Look under “Personal life”
they’ll need to make a corresponding move to clear out additional space.
A’s—
I can give you about 30+ names if you can’t pick one.
Tyler Wade stunk up the field at Boston last weekend, so I expect he will be making a trip to DFA land today. Cody Thomas is probably gone as well.
As a Cubs fan this is it, win quick or summers over
For the Cubs to be buyers, imo, they would have to with 12-13 out of their next 15 while picking up at least 3.5 games on the division leader. I just don’t think you can justify being 5 games out of first in August and buy when Bellinger and Stroman are free agents at the end of the year.
Opponents for the rest of the month are relatively weak. So, it is do or die. They will need the Brewers and Reds to split those six games too.
Just judging from his time in Pittsburgh, Marisnick is a good glove who goes after everything hard. Not a Dodgers fan but a good get and a good defensive replacement. Never showed much with the bat here
I think he’ll be limited to ABs against LHP and late defensive substitutions. He’s been a better hitter against lefties than righties.
Platoon splits barely register as meaningful in 3-4 seasons of PA scattered over 11 year, 8 teams, and innumerable different environments.
I’m sure the Dodgers have broken this down further, but even so about the last thing they can be sure of is that Marisnick has a meaningful platoon differential.
They’re getting a slightly above average fielder at age 32 who can handle CF, who has a terrible OBP but some pop, nonetheless. A nice 5th OFer to have, in sum.
Having Marisnick and Thompson both on the roster is redundant. I hope the corresponding move is to DFA Thompson.
Thompson is on the 60 Day IL and not taking a spot on the 40 Man roster.
Anaheim?
So will the Dodgers fans boo Jake every time he plays or will they forget about him playing for the Astros in 2017? Asking for a friend!
I’d assume Dodgers fans will boo Marnasick, not just because he was on the 2017 Astros, but because he is so putrid offensively, they do not want him taking ABs on the team…
Marisnick coming home.
Pretty good WR at Riverside Poly, too.
The second of three series against the Brewers starts today and the Reds still haven’t addressed the pitching issues although they lost two out of three to the same club before the break. The players should sue management for non support.
The Dodgers will be Marisnick’s 3rd team this season abd 7th team since 2019. He is definitely personifying the title “journeyman”
I’m an old timer. What the hell is ISO and is .181 supposed to be good???
Well this term has been in use for many decades, but here is the defnition:
Isolated Power (ISO)
Definition
ISO measures the raw power of a hitter by taking only extra-base hits — and the type of extra-base hit — into account.
For example, a player who goes 1-for-5 with a double has an ISO of .200. A player who goes 2-for-5 with a single and a double has a higher batting average than the first player, but the same ISO of .200.
The formula
(1x2B + 2x3B + 3xHR) / At-bats OR Slugging percentage – Batting average
Why it’s useful
By focusing strictly on extra-base hits, ISO can help evaluate the raw power a player has.
So a ground ball that hits the first bass bag, and then rolls down into the right field foul territory for a double is considered a power hit? Sounds like some BS to me. Here is another scenario: short pop fly to centerfield. The centerfielder dives for the ball and fails to catch it. The ball rolls past the centerfielder all the way to the warning track and the hitter is credited with a triple. A missed pop fly here. A bad hop ground ball there and you have a batter who goes 2 for 4 with an I SO of 0.500 for the day that he did not deserve and is misleading about his power potential.
Don’t like ISO? Learn about different stats.
Scroll down a bit and look under the Advanced Stats section: mlb.com/glossary
Note: I prefer the Statcast section (further down past Advanced Stats)
Shhh, Luca, you can’t expose the bs that is inherent in the new stats. Now if you use examples of how these events can invalidate batting average, you’re a sabremetrics hero.
@luca brasi Yeah, that’s the way to think about it—find the peculiar rarity and yell ‘hey, yer stat sucks!’
Meanwhile, a weak defensive 3B bungles getting his glove on a modest shot in his direction, and the scorer decides it’s a ‘hit.’
Does that mean batting average is a phony stat? Come on. Shape up.
ISO is a rough estimate as to the “power” a hitter possesses. It doesn’t require a complex formula to calculate it, so there are flaws in it.
For example, speed translates incorrectly into ISO “power”. A faster player will take extra bases versus a slower player.
Also, a triple doesn’t mean that you hit the ball harder/farther than a double, just that the ball may have eluded the fielders for just long enough.