Really wish the studios would put together a fair and final deal to get the actor’s strike wrapped up. The drought of content that is looming is going to be brutal …
- Adolis Garcia, a former Cardinals outfielder who was let go for nothing, was obviously named the ALCS MVP after his monster performance against the Astros. That included another couple home runs last night, and it added to his record-making and record-approaching totals:
- So, before the game last night, MLB made this cowardly decision:
- But ball don’t lie: Abreu wound up giving up a two-run homer in the game. That part was fun, especially given the Astros’ crying about the whole situation (that they created).
- Speaking of Abreu, though, his name in the news got me looking over his career numbers, and I find it interesting how he came up around 23/24 after having loads of success in the upper minors, but not quite finding the same success in the big leagues. It wasn’t until last season, at age 25, that he exploded as one of the more dominant relievers in the AL (and then he repeated this year at age 26). Looking at what changed for him, and it was mostly that he added a couple MPH on his fastball, which seems to have made his slider play up even more.
- Why mention all that? Well, I suppose I just like to be reminded that very talented Triple-A relievers can come up multiple times, not quite break through, and then something changes/evolves/improves and then they can break out. We know this to be true, of course, for ALL players, but I suppose sometimes I forget it for up-down relievers. Development still happens.
- Yes, that’s me partly thinking about Daniel Palencia, who showed incredible stuff this year at age 23, but couldn’t quite harness it completely … yet. I’m just a big Palencia believer. Heck, even his results this year in the big leagues weren’t THAT bad. His 4.45 ERA was just 3% worse than league average, and his 4.00 FIP was actually 8% better than league average – both much better than what Abreu was doing at 23. Palencia already has that premium velocity, too.
- (Others that got exposure this year in the big leagues, but from whom you’d love to see big steps forward next year either in production or big league innings: Luke Little, Keegan Thompson, maybe Hayden Wesneski if he lands in pure relief, maybe Caleb Kilian if he’s finally converted, Brandon Hughes if he can stay healthy, heck, Michael Rucker is almost the prototypical model of what I’m talking about when it comes to up-down guys finally breaking out.)
- Speaking of velocity bumps, I generally agree with this thinking on the Cubs needing more velocity in their rotation:
- Velocity on its own isn’t everything, but we KNOW FOR A FACT that – all else equal – more velocity makes the hitter’s job harder. And the trend lines tend not to be linear, either. I believe I read something like the difference between 95 and 98 mph is ENORMOUS compared to the difference between 92 and 95 mph.
- Interesting longer-term story to follow:
- This is crazy, and I hadn’t quite realized it was happening as it was happening:
- Joe Carter’s leaps are just so iconic. In terms of images burned into my baseball brain, it’s top ten:
- Team bonding:
- In conclusion, I chuckled: