Page 49 - Eric Longenhagen News Today

April 21, 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 weekend of college baseball, minor league spring training, and big league action. Remember, prospect rankings can be found on The Board. Editor’s Note: This piece originally incorrectly stated Cole Winn had had a Tommy John surgery. It has been removed. FanGraphs regrets the error. Eric�...

April 20, 2021 Ian Anderson was one of the better stories of the 2020 season. Entering the year as the No. 3 prospect in the Braves’ system and the No. 44 prospect in all of baseball, he was seen as a future mid-rotation starter who could help quickly. He did just that and more: Added to the rotation in late August, Anderson finished seventh in the NL Rookie of the Year voting despite making just six starts. He put up a 1.95 ERA in those outings, and while the supporting data said he wasn�...

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images In July of 2017, a 16-year-old Everson Pereira was thrilling baseball fans across one of the northernmost regions of South America. The teenager already possessed physical gifts that projected him to be an above-average defender in center field, an above-average baserunner, and a hard line-drive hitter on the highest of baseball levels. When combined with the good instincts and a love for the game that was on display as well, the Yankees were impressed enough ...

April 19, 2021 When the Marlins beat the Mets on April 10th, most of the post-game focus was on Jacob deGrom. The Mets’ ace had pitched a gem: eight innings, five hits, 14 strikeouts, and no walks, with the only run coming on a towering Jazz Chisholmhomer in the second inning. And while the indignation on deGrom’s behalf was not unwarranted, it ironically created a smaller, secondary injustice in its wake, obscuring from view the other stellar pitching performance of the day. Miami’s sta...

Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images One of the biggest gambling events in baseball is the international free agent signing period. For years, MLB teams have thrown money at remarkably talented teenagers from around the world, hoping to strike gold. Players like Ronald Acuña Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., and Juan Soto are among the recent superstars who have emerged from these groups. That’s the dream. In 2014, the Yankees tried their hand at a recent trend by going hog wild in the IFA marke...

April 16, 2021 Scan the WAR leaderboard, and you’ll find some expected names: Ronald Acuña Jr. atop the list with 1.5; Mike Trout comfortably in the top three; Vladimir Guerrero Jr. bashing his way into the top five. Yet nestled in at No. 9 with 0.8 WAR, wedged between a pair of Dodgers, is one of the bigger surprises of the season so far: Orioles centerfielder Cedric Mullins. Thursday’s pair of 0-fers in a doubleheader against the Mariners snapped an 11-game hitting streak to start the y...

April 14, 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 weekend of college baseball, minor league spring training, and big league action. Remember, prospect rankings can be found on The Board. Kevin’s Notes Jonathan Cannon, RHP, Georgia: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K After throwing 11.2 scoreless innings out of the pen last spring as a freshman f...

Daily baseball statistical analysis and commentary.

April 12, 2021 To begin, I want you to take a look at this screenshot from Saturday’s game between the Mets and Marlins at Citi Field. What do you think happened? What might have been the outcome? First things first: That’s Jacob deGrom on the mound. He’s the best pitcher on Earth, as well as other inhabited worlds we have yet to discover. And as expected, he’s been mowing down the Marlins. In the first inning, he dismantled Corey Dickerson on four fastballs that went 99.9, 99.8, 100.4,...

April 12, 2021 As part of my exhausting shtick, I like to respond “April!” to questions in my chats involving player performances in the season’s early going. This is effective shorthand when someone wants to know if, say, George Springer is a bust because he’s put up a .480 OPS in his first two weeks in the majors. It’s also dead wrong. April stats, in their proper context, are meaningful. “But Dan, a few weeks of baseball is a tiny sample!” That’s correct, but you have to tak...