Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:
1. Dodgers roster moves incoming?
Dodgers utilityman Tommy Edman exited yesterday’s win over the Rays due to what the team later announced was a right ankle sprain. Edman’s ankle has been bothering him throughout the season, and he spent a few weeks on the injured list due ankle inflammation earlier this year. Given that previous history, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Sonja Chen of MLB.com) that he “just [doesn’t] see how it’s not” an injury that will require Edman to hit the shelf. With Edman seemingly ticketed for the injured list today, Chen notes that infielder Max Muncy will likelyy be activated to replace him on the roster. Muncy has been out for a month due to a bone bruise in his knee that initially came with a six-week timeline for return, but he’s gotten back in action ahead of schedule and now appears to be ready to return to third base.
2. Soroka to make Cubs debut:
The trade deadline passed a few days ago, but a handful of players are still gearing up for their first appearance in a new uniform. That’s true of right-hander Michael Soroka today, who joined the Cubs in a trade that sent outfield prospect Christian Franklin and infield prospect Ronny Cruz to the Nationals. Soroka, 28, has struggled to a 4.87 ERA in 16 starts this year but has some strong peripherals, including a 3.33 xERA and a 3.62 SIERA. Soroka’s first opportunity with the Cubs will come at 7:05pm local time tonight when they take on the Reds and lefty Nick Lodolo (3.09 ERA in 22 starts).
3. Falter to make Royals debut:
Soroka isn’t the only hurler making his debut for a new team in the Midwest. Southpaw Bailey Falter was traded at the deadline for the second time in three years when the Pirates shipped him to Kansas City for lefty Evan Sisk and first base prospect Callan Moss. Falter is now tasked with helping a Royals team that’s currently without Kris Bubic, Cole Ragans, and Michael Lorenzen stay afloat. Falter has a 3.73 ERA in 22 starts for Pittsburgh this year, though his 4.55 xERA and 5.11 SIERA leave something to be desired. If the lefty can sustain the type of run-production he showed in Pittsburgh, he’d be a solid bridge to the eventual returns of Ragans and Lorenzen later this year. His first assignment will be taking down a tough Red Sox lineup when he pitches at Fenway Park later today opposite right-hander Brayan Bello (3.19 ERA in 19 appearances).
Edman is a gamer, but his unavailabilty for a couple games here and there as he keeps re-tweaking the ankle was starting to hurt the team. Fortunately, Freeland looks pretty comfortable and can take some load off Muncy.
This is the perfect opportunity for Dave to move Mookie off of short and over to 2nd. Let Freeland and Rojas man short and hopefully the move sparks Mookie into actually being Mookie. If nothing else, the D at short is strengthened.
I don’t know if I can disagree with this more. Mookie has been solidly above average defensively at SS this season. The only value metric that places him just slightly above average is OAA, which he’s middle of the pack at +1. He’s 6th in DRS and 4th in whatever it is that FanGraphs uses.
With the eye test, he’s only made 6 errors, which is less than average, makes most of the routine plays, and the occasional great play. In other words, his defense at SS has been very dependable, but not spectacular.
As for it affecting him in the batter’s box, it doesn’t. Everyone seems to either forget that he lost nearly 20 pounds right before the season started, or they don’t understand how significant that is. Players lose muscle weight, flexibility, and explosiveness throughout the grind of a season as it is. Losing that muscle weight before the season even started is the vast majority factor in Mookie’s offensive struggles this season, and his defense at SS would be even better without that illness as well.
I can understand an argument for having Mookie in RF being best for the team currently, as our OF defense would be better with Teo in LF, Pages in CF, and Mookie in RF — but that doesn’t work with our current roster construction, especially with the addition of Alex Call. Unfortunately, Conforto will continue getting starts often against RHP (though he’s been hitting fairly well for a month now, so hopefully that continues), while Call will get starts often against LHP. That means Teo will be in RF and Pages in CF almost every game.
Our mainstays just need to play better and more specifically, they need to get back to mashing baseballs. I’m optimistic Muncy’s return will help that happen soon. If the starting pitcher ls can stay healthy, we will remind everyone else why they were so mad about our roster heading into the season.
I definitely believe Betts playing short has hurt his offensive output. However that’s based on the same facts as you thinking it hasn’t hurt him, as it’s just our different opinions. He was sick in March and five months later his production has gotten worse almost every month. There’s so much more responsibility being a middle infielder than playing right field. Put him in the outfield and tell him to just go have fun.
Playing SS is what Mookie’s actually enjoys though. It’s his original position and he loves being more involved in the game defensively. His numbers have decreased each month offensively because his body is failing him, due to the illness and loss of muscle weight. I cannot stress this enough apparently.
Relax, I gave you my opinion but evidently you don’t care for other people’s opinions. However if he enjoys playing there and his body is failing him as you say make it easier for him and put him in the outfield.
I prefer they keep him at short and his production stays the same .
Betts is 22nd in Range Factor, middle of the pack (tied for 10th) in fielding percentage…NOT solidly above average. And his bat isn’t the same this year. Doesn’t matter, though. The Guggenheim Group will just buy another expensive shortstop…maybe 2, just because they can.
GSP
Range factor and Fielding Percentage are…not good defensive metrics.
If one SS plays on a team full of groundball pitchers and another plays on a team full of flyball or strikeout pitchers, they will have a wildly different number of chances (range factor) that has nothing to do with how good either SS is.
Errors is similar. Imagine two SS’s
SS1: 1000 balls hit to them. Lets 300 go by without touching them and makes 10 errors. They made (1000-300-10) 690 outs and have a (690/700) .986 fielding percentage.
SS2: 1000 balls hit to them. Only 100 go by because they have much better range than SS1. But, they make 20 errors (TWICE as many!). This SS converted (1000-100-20) 880 batted balls in to outs. That’s 190 more than SS1. But their fielding percentage was only (880/900) .978.
The SS with the worse fielding percentage was the better defender.
Don’t use range factor or fielding percentage to assess defense.
You don’t work your butt off to be pretty good at SS only to move again. Yeah he’s closer to average on OAA but he’s 7th in MLB in DRS at SS. Rojas at this point in his career would not be better than Mookie at SS. I guarantee you that Mookie will not magically start hitting again if he’s playing 2B or RF. I really don’t understand how fans think this way because no one in baseball agrees with that thought pattern. If he’s ever moved out of SS in the future it will be due to losing range as opposed to not hitting at SS.
Baseball fans are stupid
Is that why you’re here to prove your point?
An opinion is not a guarantee.
I’ll add that even though I don’t think his defensive position matters much in predicting his offensive output, these were his OPS numbers by position last season:
SS — .907 OPS in 280 PA
RF — .840 OPS in 179 PA
2B — .732 OPS in 56 PA
Agree with your posts on this topic but it could have been the other way around last year and still no proof that position matters when it comes to batting. Baseball is a statistical heavy game, and a lot of it is significant and a lot of it is just noise and randomness. I’m amazed in how many people think noise is sustainable. It’s not.
Baseball is also an incredibly difficult game and it can quickly humble even the best of them. We love to point to reasons as to why a player can’t hit all of a sudden. But we can only guess at the end of the day. Some reasons are more rational than others but still guessing.
We had the minimum amount of Muncy for too long…. It’s Maximum Muncy time!
If the Dodgers truly wanted Maximum Muncy, they could have traded for the other one and played them at the same time.