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The Baltimore Orioles have been 9 video games beneath. 500 once I talked to Jordan Lyles in late Might, and so they have been solely a smattering of video games higher when the veteran right-hander was featured here in Sunday Notes on June 26. Not a lot modified over a month’s time. Furthermore, most indicators pointed to the rebuilding Birds’ occurring to have a sixth straight shedding season.
A revisiting of what I wrote seven weeks in the past is so as. Not solely has Baltimore morphed into considered one of baseball’s hottest groups, the crux of that column was Lyles’s bad-club background. Now in his twelfth big-league season, the journeyman hurler got here into the present marketing campaign having by no means performed a full yr with a staff that completed above .500.
That may be about to alter. With 24 wins of their final 33 video games, the Orioles went into final evening with a report of 59-53, in third place within the American League East and in possession of the ultimate wildcard slot. Earlier this week, I requested Lyles in regards to the staff’s surprising ascent within the standings.
“Once we talked, there was a unique ambiance round our ball membership, our clubhouse,” mentioned Lyles. “Issues undoubtedly rotated and acquired transferring in a greater course for us. It’s been a joyful experience. It’s been enjoyable to see these younger guys begin to develop, and to develop rapidly.”
Amid that development, the Orioles entrance workplace noticed match to take one step backward in hopes of taking two steps ahead. In strikes that weren’t well-received by a lot of the fan base, Baltimore traded Trey Mancini and Jorge Lopez. On back-to-back days, an impression bat and a more in-depth departed city in alternate for an extra inflow of promising, but mostly-unproven, expertise.
“We had just a little hiccup on the deadline,” acknowledged Lyles. “Two of our higher gamers went to totally different groups. It was a most likely a tricky week or so main as much as that deadline for [General Manager] Mike Elias, deciding what course could be greatest for the group. I believed it was up within the air, that it may go both approach.”
Lyles is sort of conscious that he too may have modified addresses. At age 31, and with a pitching pipeline that features then likes of DL Hall and Grayson Rodriguez, he doesn’t profile as an enormous a part of the staff’s future. That he’s nonetheless in Baltimore comes as a reduction.
“I’ve been on ball golf equipment that had no probability of creating it to the playoffs, however this yr is totally different,” mentioned Lyles, who’s 9-8 with a 4.35 ERA and a 4.43 FIP over a team-high 130-and-one-third innings. “Within the weeks previous to the deadline we simply form of hit a swap and turned it on. It was enjoyable exhibiting up every single day, so I used to be greater than OK to stay an Oriole. Our youthful guys have stepped up for the reason that trades, too. I’m excited to proceed to be an Oriole previous the deadline.”
As for the staff’s postseason prospects, let’s simply say that Lyles is equal elements pragmatic and optimistic.
“We now have a tricky schedule transferring ahead,” reasoned Lyles. “Everyone knows that. Actually, it’s not a lot about considering playoffs, however reasonably extra of making an attempt to win every collection. Each time we present up we really feel that we will take two out of three from an excellent staff. Confidence clever… we have now a variety of it proper now.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Honus Wagner went 29 for 74 in opposition to Noodles Hahn.
Derek Jeter went 12 for 20 in opposition to Hideo Nomo.
Jimmy Rollins went 12 for 19 in opposition to Nate Snell.
Julio Franco went 9 for 14 in opposition to Bobby Thigpen.
Pablo Sandoval went 7 for 12 in opposition to Johan Santana.
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Jeff Francoeur is aware of his approach round a batter’s field. Now a TV analyst for the Atlanta Braves (and infrequently for TBS), he logged 5,700-plus plate appearances in a big-league profession that spanned the 2005-2016 seasons. A free-swinger throughout his enjoying days, Francoeur spent six of his 12 years with the staff he at the moment broadcasts for.
Which present Atlanta Braves pitcher would the erstwhile outfielder have least favored to face throughout his enjoying profession?
Charlie Morton,” was Francoeur’s response once I posed that query earlier this week. “If I have been a left-handed hitter, it might be Max Fried. It’s due to the curveball. Charlie’s is so dynamic. He can actually throw it three or 4 other ways. After which Max, he does such an excellent job of coming in with the heater. He’ll pound you in, in, in, after which drop the curve. To me, these two could be the hardest pitchers.”
Francoeur swung the bat from the fitting aspect. Morton would thus be the more durable of the 2. Appropriate?
“100%,” agreed Francoeur. “That curveball would screw me up. I may at all times deal with the fastball. It was the curveball that gave me issues.”
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A quiz:
The identical pitcher is the Kansas Metropolis Royals franchise chief in full video games, shutouts, and residential runs allowed. Who’s it?
The reply will be discovered beneath.
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NEWS NOTES
Ian Kinsler and John Blake have been inducted into the Texas Rangers Corridor of Fame yesterday. Kinsler performed eight of his 14 big-league seasons, and logged 1,145 of his 1,999 profession hits, with the Rangers. At present the membership’s Government Vice President of Public Affairs, Blake has spent 34 of his 44 years in skilled baseball with the Rangers.
The championship sport of Baseball Canada’s 22U Nationals have been held final Sunday in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Newmarket, Ontario took house the title, beating the host staff 3-1.
The spouse of Arizona Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen died earlier this month after a battle with mind most cancers. Info on how one can donate to The Nicole Hazen Fund For Hope, which endeavors to battle aggressive mind tumors, will be discovered here.
Mike Bordick has been added as a featured speaker for subsequent week’s Nationwide SABR Convention, which will probably be held in Baltimore from August 17-21. Info will be discovered here.
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The reply to the quiz is Dennis Leonard, who pitched for the Royals from 1974-1986. Paul Splittorff ranks second in all three classes.
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Sandy Alcantara has arguably been the very best pitcher in baseball this season. The Miami Marlins right-hander has a 2.01 ERA and a 2.85 FIP over an MLB-high 166 innings, and his 4.4 pitcher WAR is tied with Kevin Gausman and Carlos Rodón for probably the most in majors.
In line with Louis Head, his former teammate’s dedication to his craft ranks second to none.
“I’ve performed skilled baseball for awhile, and I’ve performed with some actually good gamers,” mentioned Head, who spent the primary three months of this season with Miami earlier than being claimed off waivers by the Orioles. “I might put few of them right into a class with Sandy Alcantara in the case of work ethic. He’s laser-focused. Even the day after his begin, he’s acquired a plan, and he does it, and he sticks to it. Whether or not it’s within the weight room, his catch play… he’s one of many hardest staff I’ve ever seen.”
And there may be Alcantara’s arsenal.
“The stuff he has is unbelievable,” exclaimed Head. “I imply, while you’ve acquired three high quality pitches you could throw for a strike anytime you need… and I shouldn’t even say ‘high quality,’ it’s three elite pitches that he can put wherever he desires. I believe that goes to point out the work ethic in creating these pitches. Quite a bit goes on behind the scenes that permits him to do what he does.”
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Munetaka Murakami turned the youngest participant in NPB historical past to succeed in 40 house runs in a season when he went deep on Thursday on the age of twenty-two. The Yakult Swallows slugger broke the report co-held by Sadaharu Oh (1963) and Koji Akiyama (1985), each of whom have been 23 years outdated.
Edwin Escobar is 4-0 with two saves and a 1.75 ERA over 46-and-two-thirds innings with the Yokohama BayStars. The 30-year-old former Boston Pink Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks southpaw has been pitching in NPB since 2017.
Juan Lagares has 11 hits, together with a house run, in 42 at bats for SSG Landers. The previous New York Mets and Los Angeles Angels outfielder signed with the KBO membership final month after being DFA’d by the Halos.
Mexican League batters are slashing a strong .304/.380/.488 this season. One of the best beginning pitchers within the hitter-friendly circuit have been former Texas Rangers right-hander Yohander Méndez, who’s 7-0 with a 2.78 ERA, and Cuban left-hander Yoennis Yera, who’s 8-2 with a 3.01 ERA.
The Australian Baseball League introduced its schedule for the 2022-2023 season, which will get underway on the second weekend of November. The ABL is returning after a two-year hiatus and can comprise eight groups.
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Spencer Strider was featured here at FanGraphs earlier this week, with the themes at hand being a pair of his earlier outings, and the effectiveness of elevated fastballs. Left on the slicing room ground from my dialog with the Atlanta Braves right-hander have been his ideas on two different topics: BABIP, and a staff that’s carried out a frustratingly-good job of shedding his excessive heaters.
“I don’t take a look at my BABIP over small samples, as a result of that’s one thing that tends to appropriate,” the analytically-savvy hurler informed me. “However I do over bigger ones. I’ve a really low FIP (1.97). If I’ve a really low batting-average-against, I wish to know if I’m incomes these these outs or if I’m getting fortunate. If I’m getting fortunate, that’s a pattern I can count on to alter. I must know that, To date, my BABIP and my batting-average-against have been fairly correlated. My (.299) BABIP isn’t decrease than the league common by a big margin.”
The staff that the majority stands out for its means to not chase his high-riders is identical one which tagged him for 4 runs over two-and-two-thirds innings on August 7. Of the six hits Strider allowed that day, half have been properly struck, whereas the others had xBAs of .060, .170, and .220.
“The Mets put collectively phenomenal at bats,” mentioned Strider. “Once they fall behind, they’re each affected person and foul off a variety of balls. You possibly can can solely throw so many pitches in a sequence earlier than one thing unfavorable can occur. BABIP goes to be round .300, so you’ll be able to solely get so many balls in play earlier than a few of them find yourself falling for hits. That’s what makes them actually good; they put balls in play and are capable of make the most of that.
“They’re clearly very conscious that groups battle with shedding my fastball,” continued Strider. “That’s been their strategy. It’s one thing I’ll have to determine.”
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FARM NOTES
Logan O’Hoppe has 4 house runs in six video games since becoming a member of the Double-A Rocket Metropolis Trash Pandas final weekend. Acquired by the Los Angeles Angels from the Philadelphia Phillies on the commerce deadline, the 22-year-catcher has a 147 wRC+ and has gone deep 19 instances on the season.
Chandler Redmond left the yard 4 instances for the Double-A Springfield Cardinals on Wednesday evening. The 25-year-old first baseman’s round-trippers included a solo shot, two- and three-run homers, and a grand slam. St. Louis’s Thirty second-round decide within the 2019 draft has a 102 wRC+ and 17 house runs on the season.
Sandro Gaston leads all Dominican Summer time League hitters with 11 house runs. The 19-year-old Cuban-born catcher/first baseman within the Houston Astros system is slashing .328/.427/.702 with a 185 wRC+ in 157 plate appearances.
Bryan Woo has fanned 48 batters and issued simply six walks in 34 innings between three ranges within the Seattle Mariners system. At present with Excessive-A Everett, the 22-year-old right-hander — a sixth-round decide in final yr’s draft out of Cal Poly — has a 2.91 ERA and a 3.09 FIP.
Mitch Bratt has a 2.35 ERA and a 3.21 FIP to go along with 76 strikeouts and 20 walks in 61-and-a-third innings for the Low-A Down East Wooden Geese. The 19-year-old left-hander from Newmarket, Ontario, Canada was drafted within the fifth spherical final yr by the Texas Rangers.
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The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath was the featured visitor on Friday’s episode of FanGraphs Audio, and among the many topics addressed by the Toronto-based author was the problem of non-vaccinated gamers’ not being allowed into Canada. I requested McGrath for a north-of-the-border perspective on the obviously-not-understood-by-all dynamic.
“I believe the Toronto media is just a little bit uninterested in that storyline to some extent,” mentioned McGrath. “It occurs each collection the place a brand new staff is available in and there are some guys that may’t play. Then a few of the US media go on about how the Blue Jays are at such a bonus… [and] it doesn’t utterly seize all the image. On the one hand, sure, generally groups will not be sending one hundred pc of their staff to Toronto. However, the Blue Jays have needed to additionally be certain that everybody on their staff is vaccinated. That was an endeavor they needed to take over the offseason, over spring coaching, ensuring that each single participant on their 40-man — in the event that they wished to be a part of the staff — was vaccinated.
“I’m a Canadian citizen and to journey to the US, I’ve to show that I’m vaccinated with a view to journey there,” McGrath went on to say.” Plenty of gamers who will not be Americans have needed to cope with that… There was this storyline of ‘I don’t need Canada telling me what I can do,’ however the US has the identical guidelines. It’s not only a Canadian factor. So there’s that hamster-wheel of a storyline as properly.”
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
SportsNet Canada’s Shi Davidi took a detailed look at Blue Jays supervisor John Schneider, whose message has been resonating with Toronto’s gamers.
The Rating’s Travis Sawchik theorized that the brand new left-field dimensions at Camden Yards may be serving to to gas the Orioles’ surprising success this season.
Sports activities Illustrated’s Emma Baccellieri wonders if Washington Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin is having the worst pitching season ever.
At MiLB.com, John Liepa offered us with a brief history of the Blue Sox and Bunnies, groups that performed vital roles in Iowa’s baseball previous.
At The Kyodo Information, Jim Allen chronicled the 150-year journey of transformation for Japanese baseball.
Solomon Bates signed with the impartial American Affiliation’s Sioux Metropolis Explorers on Thursday, two days after the 25-year-old former San Francisco Giants pitching prospect publicly got here out as homosexual. Alex Reimer has the story at Out Sports activities.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
The Cleveland Guardians (initially the Cleveland Blues) and Detroit Tigers have performed one another 2,284 instances for the reason that franchises have been fashioned in 1901. Detroit has received 1,142 of these video games. Cleveland has additionally received 1,142.
The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers and New York/San Francisco Giants have performed one another 2,531 instances. The Giants have 1,273 wins, the Dodgers 1,258 wins.
Derek Jeter had 3,465 hits, 97 sacrifice bunts, and 58 sacrifice flies.
Mike Bordick had 1,500 hits, 97 sacrifice bunts, and 54 sacrifice flies.
Luis Arraez has 11 profession sacrifice flies and no sacrifice bunts.
Travis Jankowski has 11 profession sacrifice bunts and no sacrifice flies.
The Detroit Tigers have hit an MLB-low 66 house runs this yr, with solely Javier Báez (11) and Jeimer Candelario (10) in double figures. In 2004, a Tigers staff that completed 72-90 went deep 201 instances and had 11 gamers end with 10 or extra.
Xander Bogaerts hit his three hundredth profession double on Thursday, turning into the eleventh participant to succeed in that mark with the Pink Sox. Bogaerts is the simply the second to take action earlier than his thirtieth birthday, Carl Yastrzemski having notched 312 on his solution to a franchise-best 646. Bogaerts turns 30 on October 1.
The Detroit Tigers swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Browns on right now’s date in 1937, profitable by scores of 16-1 and 20-7. Gee Walker, Pete Fox, and Charlie Gehringer — the primary three batters within the Tigers’ batting order — went a mixed 21-for-29 over the 2 video games.
On right now’s date in 2000, Rico Brogna hit a walk-off grand slam to provide the Boston Pink Sox a 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Satan Rays. Brogna’s blast — his lone house run in a Pink Sox uniform — adopted intentional walks to Carl Everett and Nomar Garciaparra.
On right now’s date in 1954, pinch-hitter Hobie Landrith singled house Ted Kluszewski within the backside of the tenth inning to raise the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Corky Valentine, a right-hander who Hank Aaron as soon as referred to as probably the most ornery character within the league — “I’m not saying he was a racist; I believe Corky Valentine simply hated all people” — acquired the win in reduction.
Gamers born on right now’s date embrace David Manning, whose big-league profession comprised two pitching appearances for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003. The appropriate-hander had a 16.20 ERA and was charged with a loss in every of his begins.
Additionally born on right now’s date was Tommy Shields, whose big-league profession comprised two video games with the Baltimore Orioles in 1992 and 20 with the Chicago Cubs in 1993. An infielder who earned an undergraduate diploma on the College of Notre Dame and a grasp’s diploma in sports activities administration from the College of Massachusetts, Shields is now the bench coach for the Omaha Storm Chasers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Kansas Metropolis Royals.
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