A-Rod was on pain medication during playoffs,
spent the night in the ER

post from Bronx Baseball Daily on 03 December 2012 01:38:19 PM. © Bronx Baseball Daily

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Baseball Card Show Purchase #5 A Nice Stack Of
John Smoltz & Tom Glavine Rookie Cards

post from 30-Year Old Cardboard on 03 December 2012 01:30:44 PM. © 30-Year Old Cardboard

Baseball Card Show Purchase #5 – A Nice Stack Of John Smoltz & Tom Glavine Rookie Cards Just like the Randy Johnson rookie cards that I showed off a few hours ago, these two studs fall into the same category … Continue reading →

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Picture: Derek Jeter still in shape despite
misleading photo

post from Bronx Baseball Daily on 03 December 2012 01:05:01 PM. © Bronx Baseball Daily

[...]

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Fish Bites: Miami Marlins Begin Winter Meetings

post from Fish Stripes - All Posts on 03 December 2012 01:02:10 PM. © Fish Stripes - All Posts

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The Miami Marlins made headlines last December by signing Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes, and Heath Bell at the annual Winter Meetings. With the meetings set to begin on Monday, the Marlins have several decisions to make as they return to the venue where they traded away a young Miguel Cabrera several years ago.

President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest recently said that the team would love to add a power hitter to complement Giancarlo Stanton in the lineup. Miami's current depth chart is once again full of youthful and mostly inexperienced players. Signing a veteran power hitter could help the team enormously.

Though Justin Ruggiano had a great rookie season, the Marlins have also made it clear that they are looking for a center fielder. The team has already signed Juan Pierre, adding outfield depth and speed to the lineup. Pierre likely won't be getting the majority of the playing time, however.

Michael Morse of the Washington Nationals is a name to watch. After trading for Denard Span last week, the Nationals have a projected outfield of Werth, Span, and Bryce Harper, leaving Morse as the odd man out. Morse can play first base, though Washington is hoping to resign Adam LaRoche.

Morse is a South Florida product, and could help the Marlins at multiple positions. If the Marlins want Logan Morrison at first base, Morse can play left field. Miami could leave Morrison in left and put Morse at first base, too.

Jayson Stark of ESPN reported that the Nationals were shopping Morse, and it likely wouldn't take a package full of prospects to acquire him. At the very least, Miami should give General Manager Mike Rizzo a call on Morse.

Aside from first base and a few outfield spots, the Marlins don't have many holes to fill. The team seems satisfied with Steve Cishek as the closer. Miami may look to add a veteran starting pitcher, but based on the recent trade with Toronto, it is hard to see Miami signing more than two or three free agents.

The Winter Meetings represent the beginning of the true off-season action. It remains to be seen how the Marlins will improve their squad after a sub-par 2012 and a fire sale trade with the Blue Jays.

-Though they earned a reputation for trading superstar players in Nashville after dealing Miguel Cabrera several years ago, the Marlins have said that they will not be trading Giancarlo Stanton this week. "Our plans for him in '13 are to be our right fielder and to be in the middle of our lineup," said Beinfest, adding that he had not spoken with Stanton since the Blue Jays trade. "It was an emotional time so I'm kind of taking everything with a grain of salt. I can't speak for Giancarlo's feelings because those are his feelings, but these things sometimes take a little time to settle down and see clearer, and that's kind of what we're going through right now."

-The Marlins recently released their 2013 Spring Training schedule. The Yankees, Red Sox, Twins, Mets, Braves, and Tigers will all be making trips to Roger Dean Stadium. Miami pitchers and catchers will report on February 11, and will pay their first Grapefruit League game against the Cardinals on February 23.

-Miami t endered right hander Ryan Webb a contract on Thursday. Webb was arbitration eligible for the first time. He made the league minimum of $480,000 last season. Webb is a candidate to setup to serve as a setup man.

-On Friday afternoon, Miami claimed outfielder/first baseman Joe Mahoney off waivers from Baltimore. Mahoney went hitless in four at-bats with the Orioles. He batted .265 with 10 home runs and 56 RBIs at Triple-A.

-Larry Beinfest has made it clear that he wants to sign a power hitter, if possible, at the Winter Meetings. "We'd love to add some power to the lineup, if possible," Beinfest said.

-Miami's recent trade with the Blue Jays s hould help replenish a thin farm system. "This deal, in general, it positions you to do one of two things -- which is to have this talent come and play for us in the Major Leagues, or to use this talent to get other pieces that we need to play in the Major Leagues," Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said. "To have as big a stable as possible down there matters to your overall success. We had players. We have more now."

-Justin Ruggiano's snarky response to Ken Rosenthal on Twitter went viral last week. "I came out of nowhere when I was 30 years old and it seems like people are already forgetting what I did last year," Ruggiano said in a phone interview." Personally, I'd like to be given that opportunity to play out there every day."

-A year ago in Dallas, the Miami Marlins made headlines through their aggressive acquisition of three key free agents. This year in Nashville, the Marlins may be the joke of Major League Baseball after trading away those key players several weeks ago.

Around The League

-The Mets' main priority at the Winter Meetings will be to extend the contract of R.A. Dickey, according to a report. Dickey is coming off a career year with New York.

-Despite rumors suggesting otherwise, first baseman Adam LaRoche is hoping to resign with the Washington Nationals. "I've made it as clear as I can that I want to come back," LaRoche said. "On the other hand, I've got two kids and a wife to worry about, too, so I can't do something stupid. I'm not looking to set a record deal by any means. Let's get something fair and let's go. I want to finish up in D.C., and then when I'm done there, I'll be done."

-Though he made headlines by signing free agent B.J. Upton last week, Atlanta general manager Frank Wren is not content, as he still seeks a leadoff hitter.

-Both the Phillies and Giants are pursuing outfielder Angel Pagan. Pagan batted .288 last season and stole 29 bases for the Giants.

At Fish Stripes

-Here is a piece comparing the 2012 fire sale to that of 2005.

-The Marlins are reportedly looking for a center fielder.

-Does Owner Jeffery Loria have a moral obligation to the Marlins fan base? Check out the Fish Bites take here.

-Why can't the Marlins trade Giancarlo Stanton? Find out here.

-Every team has or had a player that isn't well respected by the league and/or fans. Find out who that is for the Marlins here.

-Miami prospect Arquimedes Caminero has been dominant in the Dominican Winter League.

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A-Rod played through hip tear in playoffs, will
need surgery

post from Bronx Baseball Daily on 03 December 2012 12:30:53 PM. © Bronx Baseball Daily

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Yankees Hot Stove: Oh not Alex Rodriguez again

post from Lady Loves Pinstripes on 03 December 2012 12:22:20 PM. © Lady Loves Pinstripes

I knew it was too good to be true, as Alex Rodriguezcannot stay out of the headlines and this time the news has a trickling effect. The New York Post is reporting that, New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez is expected to have a second surgery in the coming[...]

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Ian Desmond gets more first pitch strikes than
anyone. Why

post from Beyond the Box Score - All Posts on 03 December 2012 12:02:50 PM. © Beyond the Box Score - All Posts

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In 2012, Ian Desmond had a first-pitch strike thrown on him 70.8% of the time. For an idea of how big that is, since 2002, the first year the stat was kept, that has been done roughly zero times.

The strange thing about this, is that Ian Desmond had a breakout season, posting a 5.4 fWAR season. He posted a wRC+ of 128 and a wOBA of .362. For reference, below are charts showing the relationship between F-Strike% and the two stats. The R-squared between F-Strike% and wRC+ was .186, and the R-squared between F-Strike% and wOBA was .193. Both obviously show inverse relationships. The charts include qualified hitters from 2002-12, with split-seasons.

Ian-desmond-wrc-f-strike_medium

Ian-desmond-woba-f-strike_medium

Looking at some of the outlying points, Ian Desmond sticks out as the highest F-Strike%, but there are a couple of other stray seasons.

See those three points near the top? Those all belong to Barry Bonds, notorious slugger and intentional-walker. Those points are to be expected because when someone is being intentionally walked and pitched around as much as he is, they probably will not have to deal with too many first-pitch strikes.

Back to Desmond, he saw a ridiculous F-Strike% in 2012 because of a couple of reasons. Looking at his pitch f/x data for 2012 (via Texas Leaguers), he had a four-seam fastball thrown to him first-pitch 30.1% of the time, choosing to swing at 38.2% of those. He fouled of 19.2% of the first-pitch fastballs he saw, a little more than half of the fastballs he swung at. He put only 13.3% of the fastballs in play that he saw on the first pitch, and that is troublesome when one considers the league batted .226/.265/.346 after 0-1 counts in 2012.

Looking below, we can see that Desmond had a propensity to swing at some pitches that he probably should not have. That is one excellent way to fall behind in the count.

Desmond would expand the zone both high and low, and that is not the ideal way to start off an at-bat. I count 6 cutters out of the zone low, 1 outside, 3 high, and 2 inside. He also had a tendency to swing at sliders that were out of the zone.

The second most-frequent pitch he saw 0-0 was the slider, which he got 18.8% of the time. He swung at 65.7% of them, and shockingly he either whiffed or fouled off a combined 38% of them (19% exactly for each).

The league posted on OPS after 0-1 counts of .612, while Desmond was able to post an OPS after 0-1 counts of .713. The strange thing regarding all of this, as I mentioned before, was that Desmond had a career year for Washington. So how did he do it?

In 0-1 counts, Desmond swung at the pitches in the chart below (small-sample size and all).

In 0-1 counts Desmond again saw majority fastballs, with the pitch being thrown to him 30.8% of the time (86 total). He whiffed at only 7% of them, but fouled off a lot of them again, posted a foul rate on fastballs of 32.6%. He only put 16.3% of these fastballs in play, a slight improvement over the 13.3% of 0-0 fastballs he put in play. Against sliders, which he saw 23.7% of the time, he put 22.7% of them in play and whiffed at 19.7% of the sliders he saw 0-1.

In 0-1 counts, Desmond batted .545 with a slugging percentage of .696, as opposed to the league's numbers in 0-1 counts which were a .321 batting average and a .483 slugging percentage.

Looking at his spray-chart, it would appear as though Desmond made some quality contact on low and inside pitches in 0-1 counts, which he did not do for some reason in 0-0 counts.

0-1 Counts

0-0 Counts

The spray chart below shows that when he pulled the ball in 0-1 counts, he had a lot of success in 2012.

So getting back to the question: What does this mean?

My first thought is that this is randomness, and that I am trying to find signal where there may not be any. The samples involved here are minuscule, and even just one season of a high F-Strike% is probably just a normal outlying season. If this persists with Desmond it could be something to watch, but as of now it looks like it was just a combination of a free-swinger and some randomness.

One thought is that he goes into counts trying to hit the first pitch, a strategy that I can say is still lingering in the culture of baseball. The fact that he fouled off a lot of first pitches is one reason why this came to mind, as pre-determining that he is going to swing can lead to some weak contact. He really struggled against sliders in 0-0 counts, chasing them frequently and seeing them more frequent than any non-fastball pitch. He swung a lot more often in 2012, with his swing rate being 54.6% compared to a career swing rate of 49.1%.

So what do you guys think? Random? Or is there something larger here?

Credit Texas Leaguers, Baseball Heat Maps, Fangraphs, and Baseball-Reference for the stats and charts.

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Napoli Signs With Red Sox

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A-Rod To Have Hip Surgery (Updated)

From Joel Sherman:

Alex Rodriguez was playing late in the regular season and playoffs with a re-tear in his surgically repaired right hip, The Post has learned.

Rodriguez is expected to need a second surgery in the coming days and will miss, at minimum, a piece of the 2013 season. Still, the hope is that the procedure will allow A-Rod to return as a full, successful player as early as the ?13 season and for the rest of a contract that takes him through the 2017 campaign.

The expectation is that Rodriguez wants to play on, not retire. The surgery is expected to be performed in Colorado by Dr. Marc Philippon, who performed the initial surgery in 2009. Rodriguez came back from that operation to play well, driving in 100 runs in just 124 games and starring in a postseason that culminated with the Yankees? only title during his tenure.

...

The recurrence of the hip tear potentially helps explain why Rodriguez suffered through such a miserable postseason, which ultimately led to his benching. He was 3-for-25 with no extra-base hits and 12 strikeouts during the playoffs. However, Rodriguez also is 37 and so age could be a factor in the decline and also his ability to recuperate well from another surgery.