Page 47 - Baseball Analysis News Today

May 3, 2021 Last week, I wrote about the Padres and how their usage of the infield shift stands out. To recap: They shift almost exclusively against left-handed hitters to great success, neglecting right-handed ones in the process. This decision is backed up by public research, which casts doubt on the efficacy of shifts against righties. As a few of the comments noted, though, the Padres aren’t the most interesting subject when it comes to shifts. If anything, they’re conformists! The Dodg...

May 3, 2021 This week kicks off with two exciting players who should leave a huge impact on the sport over the next decade, and concludes with two who left their fingerprints all over the last one. Outside of a deGrom-Ohtani matchup (which, All-Star Game, if you’re listening…) you’d be hard pressed to come up with a more exciting combination of starting pitchers. Tyler Glasnow, a pitcher who’s been abandoned by consistency at times in the past, is turning his question marks into periods...

70 How much contact does Bobby Witt Jr. need to make to be a star? Even with a raucous 2021 spring performance on his ledger, there are reasonable concerns among pro scouts who saw him about how often he’s going to swing and miss. None of this is new. Witt swung and missed a lot during his showcase summer but his subsequent fall and spring were strong enough to make him the second overall pick of the 2019 draft class, and he’s the type of talent who’d be a threat to go first in most draft...

Is Matt Barnes a top tier closer? (36:07) What’s wrong with Kyle Hendricks? (48:05) Justin’s Roto Riteup Streaming Record (52:40) — As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions. You can show your support to Fangraphs by becoming a member! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site gr...

April 29, 2021 NEW FEATURE ALERT! We have added an upgraded version of RosterResource’s Closer Depth Chart to FanGraphs. Read more about it here. We will always include a link to the full Closer Depth Chart at the bottom of the Bullpen Report each day. It’s also accessible from the RosterResource drop-down menu and from any RosterResource page. Please let us know what you think. The 2021 version of Bullpen Report includes five different sections, as well as the closer chart, which can be fo...

April 29, 2021 Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan’s morbid press conference comment, the continued excellence of Byron Buxton, Mike Trout, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., an early-season dip in infield shifting and an interesting disparity in defensive disparity between the Padres and Dodgers, and Rob Manfred’s comment about sports betting and the pace of baseball. Then they bring on frequent Stat Blast consultant Adam Ott, who’s about to begin a new job as a d...

SOURCE: Baseball Savant Rodriguez is facing more batters in 0-2, 1-2, and 2-2 counts (31.5% versus 25.2% in 2018-19). His first pitch strike rate is up a couple of percentage points. Batters are seeing ball three on only 5% of pitches against Rodriguez compared to 9.6% before. You cannot throw ball four without getting to ball three, so that fact that this has led to a minuscule walk rate is not surprising in the slightest. Excising batter-friendly counts is the result of Rodriguez relentlessly...

April 29, 2021 Prospect writers Kevin Goldstein and Eric Longenhagen will sometimes have enough player notes to compile a scouting post. This is one of those dispatches, a collection of thoughts after another week of college baseball, minor league spring training, and big league action. Remember, prospect rankings can be found on The Board. Kevin’s Notes John Baker, RHP, Ball State: 9 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8K When I saw John Baker’s line from Friday’s game against North Illinois, my first r...

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April 28, 2021 Heading into the season, the Milwaukee Brewers were a popular pick to win the NL Central, with half of the writers here at FanGraphs expecting them to emerge victorious. The strength of the team is its pitching, with a rotation spearheaded by Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes as well as an excellent bullpen anchored by Josh Hader and 2020 NL Rookie of the Year Devin Williams. But there was a good deal of uncertainty about where the offense would come from and how much run suppor...