Here’s the first full attempt at our new feature: Mega-In-Depth: Key At-Bat The first one is from March 9, and it is emerging lefty pitching prospect Tyler Olson vs. Cleveland’s Michael Brantley. Here’s our “Enhanced GIF” of the deciding pitch. Now let’s look at some of the supporting data from BrooksBaseball.net. We also plan…
More enhanced GIFs for key ABs. For those of you for whom it doesn’t work on iPad, we’ll try to work out a solution once we move to the new platform. First, Nelson Cruz waiting and then pouncing on an Ian Kennedy breaking ball that stays up and then breaks to around Cruz’ knees. From…
I’ve been working on creating “enhanced” GIFs in which I highlight the ball and the bat in each frame. Here’s D.J. Peterson’s home run in the 1st inning of the Wednesday game vs. San Diego. And here’s Taijuan Walker’s strikeout of Matt Kemp in the same inning.
[I know our blog audience skews a bit older than some of the other blogs, so some of us have to get used to applying the concept of “aging” to guys in their mid-30s.] Nelson Cruz turned 34 last season, and is signed by the Mariners for his age-34, 35, 36 and 37 seasons. Nelson…
From some angles, Justin Ruggiano looks like an absolute gem. He hits for power, can run, plays all three outfield positions, is just two years removed from a sparkling .909 OPS, draws some walks, hits right-handed, saves puppies from burning buildings, and who knows what else. But then, as in “Dateline Mysteries,” some folks began…
In the first part we found a lot to like about Justin Ruggiano. But we are still like the dogged best friend who smells a rat and doesn’t trust the smarmy new stepdad … [by continuing this theme we are not implying anything about Ruggiano himself, of course … ] We used our Flowchart Profiler…
One-for-one trades involving established major leaguers take some guts, of course, because there isn’t any wiggle room. Either you got the better player or you didn’t. I think we established that healthy Michael Saunders is the superior player to J.A. Happ. In the end it depends on that word “healthy.” Because for all the shiny…
I’ve been a big Michael Saunders booster since way back when he was at High Desert and West Tennessee (now Jackson), and when he was on the 2008 Canadian Olympic team. I still recall his Olympic bio blurb in which it said he played not just hockey (natch) but also basketball, soccer and lacrosse —…
When we employ the Flowchart Profiler, we identify a player’s “skill set” profile by running through three questions in order: Does he consistently hit the ball hard in the air? (Power) Does he hit line drives for hits-in-play? (Line drives) Does he demonstrate plate skills to draw walks and avoid strikeouts? (Plate skills) Michael Saunders for…
In order to evaluate Michael Saunders’ potential upside, we need to decide which skill-set classification he fits into. We have two choices. Based on his career totals, he’s a “Third Tier” hitter who is relatively one-dimensional (power, but not huge power) and strikes out a lot; Based on 2012-14 alone, he’s a “Second Tier” hitter…
Is it the happ- happ-iest time of the year? Not so much. But, as the Mariners found out with the Gift-from-Heaven season they received from Chris Young in 2014, having a guy who can go out every fifth day and not get bludgeoned to smithereens is a good thing. So before we look at what…
I keep dinking and fussing around with my “new toolbox” — and I’ll publish the whole set of explanatory material eventually, but events now dictate that it be actually employed in the field. So off we go, and we’ll explain what we need to along the way. Nelson Cruz “Flowchart Profile” 1. Does he consistently…
In the first part we used our not-yet-fully-revealed but “fully-operational” … [its a trap! not really] … Flowchart Profiler to zero in on Nelson Cruz’ non-random skill set. We found: Cruz has the all-important power factor: consistently hitting the ball hard in the air. Cruz does not consistently hit line drives for hits-in-play. Cruz does…
In the first parts we identified Nelson Cruz’ Flowchart Profile (Power: yes; Line Drives: no; Plate Skills: no), and learned that among hitters with that skill-set his career stats (.829 OPS) are considerably above the mean (.754 OPS). More than that, he’s coming off two seasons (.833 and .859) that are above his career norms.…
I’ve spent a lot of time on this because I wanted it to be something that was both accessible and actually worked. Let’s hope so. The Batted Ball Project is first. Then we build on that to create the Flowchart Profiler. *** Here’s my Opening Statement: 1. Over the years, I have not hung around…
