NEWSLETTER
MLB NOTES—Once in a while, you come across a story that’s an absolute must-read. The Athletic’s Andy McCullough delivered that for us this morning with his feature, which helps us understand the school of logic behind the pitching revolution in the last decade-plus that has altered the balance of baseball.
Must Read – Missing Bats: How an obsession with strikeouts upended the balance of baseball
Today’s installment is the first of five parts that McCullough and a team of writers at The Athletic have spent six months working on, pooling interviews with some of the most impactful and innovative minds in pitching development in baseball.
In today’s opener, Andy McCullough goes back to the mid-2000s, when PITCHf/x tracking systems were installed in every MLB stadium. The data — spin rate, release points, movement, etc. — quickly became a treasure trove of insights.
It’s a long read but undoubtedly worth your time. Check it out!
What’s Going on with the Mets?
It seems like just yesterday that we were collectively dunking on the New York Mets and itemizing their trade deadline sell-off list. But since the calendar flipped to June, the Mets have been singing a different tune, winning 13 of 19 games and passing the Giants, Reds, Cubs, and Pirates in the NL Wild Card standings.
Entering play today, the Mets are just a game out of the final Wild Card spot in the National League. Perhaps Francisco Lindor was on to something when he downplayed the inevitable sell-off the Mets would have this summer. Lindor hit his 13th home run of the season on Sunday. He’s been a significant part of the turnaround in New York. So have veterans Pete Alonso (.864 OPS), J.D. Martinez (.974 OPS), and Brandon Nimmo (.950 OPS). But the veterans haven’t been alone. Youngsters like Mark Vientos and Francisco Álvarez have also done their fair share of the work.
The Mets bullpen has also been outstanding during this stretch. We’re still five-ish weeks from the deadline, and just like it did between the end of May and now, things can change, and the Mets could end up being sellers. No matter how impressive they’ve been in recent weeks, they have no realistic shot at winning the NL East with Philadelphia one of the hottest teams in baseball and the Braves loaded with premium talent. Would Steve Cohen risk passing on potential long-term help via trades next month to chase a possible Wild Card berth in a crowded field? Time will tell.
Speaking of Turnarounds in the National League, the Cardinals are Hot
The St. Louis Cardinals completed a sweep of the San Francisco Giants on Sunday thanks to seven innings of one-run ball by Sonny Gray. Gray struck out eight and walked none, allowing just one hit for the Cards. The lone hit and run allowed came on a Patrick Bailey solo home run in the seventh inning, ending Gray’s bid for perfection after he retired the first 20 hitters of the game in order.
St. Louis has won seven of their last ten games and owns the National League’s best record (24-13) since May 12. The Cardinals enter play today with a 39-37 record, good for second place in the NL Central, and have the second Wild Card spot with a one-game lead over the San Diego Padres.
MLB.com’s John Dention has more on Gray’s dazzling performance on Sunday, the turning point in his season, and the red-hot Cardinals:
From Pinball Wizard to Hitting Savant: Zack Meisel on Cleveland’s Steven Kwan
“Steven Kwan’s path to hitting prominence started in his grandmother’s garage, where he fiddled with a rickety, outer space-themed pinball machine.
“Press the flipper. The ball shoots through a metal rail to the top of the board, where it waltzes with a pinwheel. Then go to work. With expert timing on the controls — quick fingers and a quicker mind — the game could last all afternoon.
“The root of Kwan’s rise to prominence in the batter’s box for the Cleveland Guardians is his hand-eye coordination, a trait mastered through childhood summers full of pinball.
“Two decades later, Kwan is flirting with a .400 batting average and blazing a trail to the All-Star Game. He’s leaving those in his dugout saying “wow” and leaving those in the opposing one asking: “How?'”
The Athletic’s Zack Meisel has more on how Steven Kwan turned elite pinball skills into elite bat-to-ball skills as a Major League Baseball player:
