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Netzer

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If only statcast had the technology to measure the launch angle and exit velocity of yankee balls that have been hit off of your chin.

Goo Punch
Goo Punch
Hank Chinaski
Hank Chinaski

Good fucking riddance. 

texifornia

texifornia 59017

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, youdunnf'dup said:

Man, the A’s are all like “fuck this wildcard bullshit. I want the division”. 2.5 games back of the Astros with a big series against them this week. 

But in all seriousness, the A's seem to do a lot better as spoilers than they do as favorites. Classic Oakland, I suppose.

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TheFlagship

TheFlagship 466

Posted
Posted

Another week, another good slate of ball games. Big week for Oakland as mentioned above.

WAS @ STL (4 games)

SEA @ OAK (3 games)

MIL @ CHC (2 games)

BOS @ PHI (2 games)

COL @ HOU (2 games)

CHC @ PIT (4 games)

COL @ ATL (4 games)

MIL @ STL (3 games)

HOU @ OAK (3 games)

LAD @ SEA (3 games)

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TheFlagship

TheFlagship 466

Posted
Posted

9 teams in the NL have at least a 24% chance to make the playoffs. Going to be a wild last 40 games

https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds

Current projections have Phillies, Cubs and Dodgers as division winners, Brewers host the WC game and the Braves and Diamondbacks playing a 1 game playoff to go to the WCG. 

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 55867

Posted
Posted (edited)
13 hours ago, shnsajax said:

David Bote may be the greatest Cub ever.

Rosenthal:

Quote

Before meeting the rookie, before ever seeing him play, Chicago Cubs third base coach Brian Butterfield was an unabashed David Bote fan.

For Butterfield, one of the game’s top infield instructors, a video of Bote performing a series of fielding drills was a revelation like few he had experienced in his 40 years in baseball.

Call it, for lack of a better phrase, glove at first sight.

“It’s the first day of spring training,” Bote recalled. “(Butterfield) shakes my hand and has these big old eyes, like he’s looking into your soul. He says, ‘What’s your name?’ I say, ‘David.’ And he says, ‘Oh, Bote!’

“It was the first time I had met him. And he goes, ‘I just watched a 10-minute video of you. It’s fantastic!”

Bote, 25, burst onto the national stage Sunday night with the Cubs down to their last strike, hitting a pinch-hit walk-off grand slam to give the team a 4-3 victory over the Washington Nationals.

It was one of the most electrifying moments of the season, the Cubs’ first walk-off slam when trailing by three runs since Ellis Burton hit one on Aug. 31, 1963. But long before the homer, Bote had won over Butterfield, manager Joe Maddon and the rest of the staff, providing the team with what bench coach Brandon Hyde calls “a shot in the arm.”

Bote isn’t a former first-round pick like five of the Cubs’ other position players — infielder Javier Báez, center fielder Albert Almora Jr., third baseman Kris Bryant, left fielder Kyle Schwarber and utility man Ian Happ. No, Bote was an 18th-rounder in 2012, the 554th pick overall in the Cubs’ first draft class under Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer. Only last November did he finally crack the team’s 40-man roster.

Butterfield, in his first season with the Cubs, says Bote is the team’s hardest worker by “light years,” describing him as an “animal.” The video of Bote going through his drills, in Butterfield’s view, is nothing less than a coach’s dream.

Bote — the son of Bob Bote, an accomplished high school coach in Colorado, and younger brother of Danny Bote, who followed his father’s career path and coached David his senior year at Faith Christian High School in Arvada, Colo. — developed his routine so he could practice indoors in Colorado during the offseason.

He replicates an outdoor workout by setting up a Hack Attack pitching machine in a batting cage, then fielding one grounder after another.

“You can take 100 groundballs on the field and be gassed,” Bote said. “Or you can take 300 groundballs in a cage at game speed and get the same amount of work.”

Jeremy Farrell, in his first year as the Cubs’ minor-league infield coordinator, took note of Bote’s routine at the team’s spring-training facility in Mesa, Ariz., before official workouts began. Bote had arrived early to spring training, and his work inspired Farrell — the son of former Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays manager John Farrell — to make the video.

“The drill package had been in our system for a while. David kind of took it to the next level with intensity and execution,” Farrell said. “Being a first-year infield coordinator, I was like, ‘Man, this would be really cool to get on tape and build more of a true package that we could talk to all of our players and coaches about.’ So we filmed him.

“He puts the Hack Attack (pitching machine) on the ground, takes the legs off. He starts out on his knees, funneling, soft hands and all that. Then he gets on his feet and starts working different balls to where he has to attack and press through, or retreat with a drop step.

“He’s technically sound, fundamental. His execution is off the charts. The way he goes about his work, specifically in this drill set he came up with, gives him in the confidence in his feet and his hands that he is showing at the big-league level right now.”

Butterfield, 60, did not know Bote previously, but it was natural he would gravitate to the infielder; Butterfield had developed his reputation as an infield instructor with the New York Yankees, helping Derek Jeter refine his defense after the future Hall of Famer made 56 errors in his first professional season. Butterfield also served as a minor-league manager with the Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks, and before joining the Cubs spent 18 1/2 years as a major-league coach with the D-backs, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox.

Every morning during spring training, before the day’s regular work began, Butterfield conducted “Infield University” for the Cubs’ infielders. Seeking to kick off his program with a bang, he told Bote, “On the first day, you’re going to go out there and do your routine in front of everybody.”

Bote all but panicked at the notion of serving as an example for Cubs infielders Baez, Bryant, first baseman Anthony Rizzo and shortstop Addison Russell.

“I couldn’t say no,” Bote said. “But I’m like, ‘I’m going to go in there and show KB, Riz, Javy, Addison — four All-Stars, Gold Glovers — a rookie’s infield routine? Yeah, sure, ok, Butter.’ I’m like, I can’t do it.

“I think it over. I go up to Butter and say I’m not going to do it. And he goes, ‘You know what? I was thinking about it. It’s a tough spot to put a rookie in. It’s your first camp. But I’ll take credit for everything.’ I said, ‘Please do. You can call this your drill. You can say you had me do this. This can be the Butter Show.’”

The deception worked to perfection.

“David was kind of the guinea pig to show us all the drills,” Bryant said. “I think Butter showed him the drills first.”

Uh, not quite.

Butterfield’s father, Jack, was a highly successful college coach for two decades at Maine and South Florida before serving three years as the Yankees’ director of player development and scouting. He might have reached even greater heights as a baseball executive if he had not died in a car crash on Nov. 16, 1979.

Jack was 50 at the time, Brian 21.

“The magnitude of our loss cannot be expressed in words,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said after Jack’s death. “He was the epitome of what you’d look for in a teacher of young men.”

That’s who Jack Butterfield was, and who Brian aspires to be. When Brian talks about Bote, he gives him his highest possible compliment, saying the rookie stirs memories of his father.

“My dad would absolutely love David Bote, because of his toughness and preparation,” Brian said. “When I’m working with him, it always make me think of Jack. He was tough. He loved anyone who really worked, loved guys who were tough-minded.”

Bote said the two coaches in his family, his father and brother, always would tell him the same thing: There are two kinds of people who make it. The freaks and the guys who work hard. And the freaks who work hard? As Bote says with a smile, they become the Mike Trouts of the world… superstars.

Bote, recognizing early on he was not a freak, adopted the mindset, “Get a little bit better each day. Grind it out. See what happens.”

“The kid’s old school,” said Chili Davis, the Cubs’ first-year hitting coach. “He shows up, he’s the first guy in the cages. What I love about him is he works with a purpose. You talk to him, he has a reason why he’s in there, what he’s working toward.

“It doesn’t mean he spends an hour in the cage. He might spend 20 minutes. But the work is solid.”

During spring training, Butterfield began “Infield University” each day at 6:30 a.m. Bote was there every morning without fail, even if he had played in a Cactus League game the previous night. He would even beat Butterfield to the park, turning on the lights upon his arrival at 6:15 a.m.

“I hate when people are waiting on me,” Bote said. “I want to get there and be ready to go by the time they’re there so they don’t wait on me and waste their time.”

Earlier this season, Davis identified Ben Zobrist, 37, as the Cubs hitter who surprised him most, marveling at how the 13-year veteran studied not just the opposing starter, but also the opposing relievers.

Zobrist is not alone in that approach.

“Bote does the same thing,” Davis said. “He makes notes under every reliever’s name, comes up with a plan of attack.

“The first time you see a guy isn’t on the mound in the fifth, sixth, seventh inning. You’ve looked at him on video, formed a mental image in your mind. How he pitches. His release point. What the stuff looks like. You build a plan based on what you see.”

With two outs in the ninth inning Sunday night, the Cubs trailing 3-0, the bases loaded and the count 2-2 against Nationals right-hander Ryan Madson, all of Bote’s studying helped produced the highlight of his career.

Bote had made 2,399 plate appearances in the minors, thinking such a moment might never come.

Baseball America ranked Bote the Cubs’ No. 26 prospect after the 2016 season, writing, “Never a priority prospect, Bote struggled to get playing time and still has yet to receive 400 plate appearances in a season. He opened the 2016 season bouncing between high Class A, Double A and even Triple A, filling in for injured infielders, before finally getting regular reps down the stretch at high Class A Myrtle Beach.”

As detailed in an earlier story by The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma, Bote’s wife, Rachel, had to talk him out of quitting that season. He persevered, then, at the Cubs’ urging, adjusted his swing to improve his launch angle around the Double A All-Star break last season, creating more power.

Baseball America elevated him to No. 12 on the Cubs’ list, but still was not that impressed, writing, “Bote has the makeup and baseball savvy… to get the most out of his tools, which grade out as average or fringe-average across the board. He lacks the dynamism of Chicago’s current batch of infielders and profiles better as an extra player or second-division regular in the Yangervis Solarte mold.”

Such a profile might indeed be Bote’s ceiling, but he viewed his addition to the Cubs’ 40-man roster last November as a breakthrough, his first sign that a major-league promotion was within reach. He then performed well in spring training, batting .269 with a .781 OPS, only to be optioned to Triple A on March 13.

That day, Hoyer told him, “Come to the field ready every single day. One morning you’re going to wake up, and you’re going to be a big leaguer.” Bote took the words to heart, saying he could not imagine a demotion being more positive. And to the Cubs, his arrival had become inevitable.

“It was clear he was ready to play in the big leagues,” Hoyer said. “It was obvious to us that even though we didn’t have a spot on the initial 25, you knew he was going to be a guy who, through injuries, was going to come up and down a number of times.”

Hoyer was correct: The Cubs have summoned Bote five times from Triple A, first on April 21 as an injury replacement for Zobrist, most recently on July 26 as one for Bryant. He has appeared in 24 games at third base, six at second and two at first, batting .329 with a .418 on-base percentage and .539 slugging percentage in 91 plate appearances — a significant and likely unsustainable leap from his .263/.350/.411 minor-league slash line.

When the Cubs are healthy, their only true bench players are infielder Tommy La Stella and catcher Victor Caratini. Most everyone else rotates in and out of the lineup, and the return of Bryant from left shoulder inflammation, if it occurs before the expansion of rosters on Sept. 1, likely will lead to one more short-term demotion for Bote.

Maddon, though, envisions Bote possibly remaining in the mix, at least in September, saying Bryant enjoys playing the outfield. Using both Bryant and Bote at the same time would enable the Cubs to get more right-handed hitters in their lineup, though such a move would come at the expense of Jason Heyward or Kyle Schwarber.

Bote has surprised Maddon and others with his defense at third base — “I was told he was a second baseman, not that good at third,” Maddon says. The Cubs’ veterans, impressed by Bote’s effort and maturity, do not view him the way they do most rookies, treating him as if he belongs.

Butterfield thinks back to spring training, when Bote received the news he was getting sent down. And he thinks back to his father, and how Bote would have been Jack’s kind of his player.

“Nobody’s going to keep you from getting to the big leagues,” Butterfield recalls telling Bote. “You’re going to out-will people, out-tough people, will your way there.”

On video. In person. Any way David Bote can.

Rosenthal: How David Bote, the 554th pick of the 2012 draft, worked and willed his way to the Cubs

Ken Rosenthal 1h ago comment-icon@2x.png 2 save-icon@2x.png

 

What a great story...

Edited by Beau Vine
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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 53505

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Also, kill the error and earned and unearned runs...

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jackie-bradley-jr-and-the-error-rule/

 

 

I don’t know how statcast works, but it seems backwards that bradley’s play there was a 6% catch probability and jake marisnek’s full length diving catch a couple of days ago was around 38% I believe. 

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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

Posted
Posted (edited)

NSIAP, but the Rays proposed Tampa stadium is interesting.

https://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/2018/07/10/rays-reveal-ybor-city-stadium-details/

Rays’ Ybor stadium revealed: Translucent roof, $892 million price tag

TAMPA — The Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday unveiled a design for an Ybor City ballpark with huge windows that would open to let in a breeze and a translucent roof topped by a distinctive wing-like canopy.

...whose roof promises spectacular views of summer lightning storms...

...which would be Major League Baseball's most intimate, with just 28,216 seats...

AR-307109691.jpg?MaxW=950&cachebuster=35

New-Rays-5.jpg

Offseason greenhouse?  I wonder if they know that the Astrodome had to have its roof painted after players complained about the glare?

Edited by clapclapclap
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spystud13

spystud13 2371

Posted
Posted

This is an odd fucking reason for a personnel change. 

Quote

"Dayton absolutely had my support until a few weeks ago, but I had nodded off during the afternoon game against the Cards and had the scariest dream" explained Glass. "When I awoke I knew I had to make the change, not only for myself and the fans, but also for Dayton himself who I know is having a hard time coping with all the losses"

————

Asked about the dream which precipitated the drastic change Glass said; "Well, I don’t want to go into any great detail but there were essentially two parts to it. In the first part it was like I was riding on a little train through one of those haunted house rides at the state fair, all these ghost like skeletons with the faces of incompetent Royals players and employees past and present kept popping out screaming and cackling "Thanks for all the dough suckaaaahhhhhh!".

"I can tell you it was so scary!, Glass added Even today when I close my eyes I can still see all the faces….Hammels…..Kennedy…. Wood…..Escobar……Maurer…….Grimm…….Ned......Trey Hillman........Steve Physioc........Hud........all those guys " "In the second part of the dream I am walking into an owners meeting and everyone looks up at me and starts laughing…..I can’t understand why and then Tom Ricketts points at my crotch and I look down and see that I am naked as a jay."

https://www.royalsreview.com/2018/8/13/17683200/glass-replaces-moore-as-royals-gm

 

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spystud13

spystud13 2371

Posted
Posted

Shit was actually pretty serious. 

Quote

Not only did Kenley Jansen call 911 to report an irregular heartbeat last week, the Dodgers' closer said the situation required doctors in Denver to use an electrical shock in order to get his heart back into rhythm.

Speaking to reporters for the first time since he left the club and returned to Los Angeles before the four-game series in Denver this past weekend, Jansen insisted he was feeling good and was upbeat after throwing a 16-pitch "touch-and-feel" bullpen session.

His timetable for a return remains uncertain, but Jansen sounded confident he will return before the four-to-six-week recovery time that was originally reported.

"I feel much better; health-wise everything feels good," said Jansen, who has started taking blood thinners to help him to correct his latest issue with atrial fibrillation. "The minute they shocked me back in, I felt better. I feel great just working out again."

https://www.mlb.com/news/kenley-jansen-got-electric-shock-for-bad-heart/c-290213824

 

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