NEWSLETTER
Major League Baseball has finally decided to acknowledge and incorporate Negro Leagues statistics into its records, more than 77 years after Jackie Robinson made history by breaking baseball’s color barrier. More on that decision in today’s MLB Notes.
MLB Has Added Negro Leagues Stats Into its Record Books
The title of all-time leader in batting average no longer belongs to Ty Cobb (.367), and Babe Ruth (1.164) is no longer the king of OPS. Instead, Josh Gibson (.372) now holds the title for batting average and OPS (1.177) as well.
On Wednesday, Major League Baseball is set to reveal the findings of a recently combined statistical repository that includes information from the Negro Leagues, which were active from 1920 to 1948. This formal acknowledgment of the data occurred three and a half years following MLB’s official recognition of the Negro Leagues as major leagues in December 2020.
“People will be, I don’t know if upset is the word, but they may be uncomfortable with some Negro League stars now on the leaderboards for career and seasons,” Larry Lester, an author and longtime Negro Leagues researcher who served on the committee, told The Athletic.
“Diehards may not accept the stats, but that’s OK. I welcome the conversations at the bar or the barbershop, or the pool hall. That’s why we do what we do.”
More on MLB’s decision from The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner:
Jeremiah Estrada Goes From Waiver Claim to Record Holder
In November, the Chicago Cubs placed reliever Jeremiah Estrada on outright waivers. It wasn’t unwarranted at the time. Between Triple-A and the majors last season, Estrada walked 38 hitters in 39.1 innings of work. The Padres claimed him one day after the Cubs placed him on waivers.
Last night, he wrote his name in the record books, passing Phillies’ José Alvarado for the most strikeouts in a row by a pitcher since at least 1961. In the Padres victory over the Marlins last night, Estrada struck out the side in the ninth inning, marking his 11th, 12th, and 13th consecutive strikeouts over his previous three outings.
“It’s an elite fastball,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Tonight, he was throwing some splitters that were filthy. The command of the secondary pitches, coupled with a special fastball in the zone — that’s what gets you 13 straight punchouts.”
Estrada has been lights out in his last three appearances, but he’s been solid all season for San Diego. He has a 0.55 ERA and has struck out 18 of the previous 21 hitters he has faced.
You Have to See this Pitch!
You have to see this pitch from Cardinals’ prospect Ettore Giulianelli! During a relief appearance for Single-A Palm Beach, Giulianelli delivered a 74.4 mph breaking ball that drew a swinging strike. But it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill breaking ball; it showed 58 inches of vertical break and moved eight inches to Giulianelli’s arm side! It registered 2,192 rpm of spin, too. That type of movement is knuckleball-type movement, but the spring rate is nothing like a knuckleball.
Umpiring Around MLB is About to Get Better
Fangraphs’ Davy Andrews makes a compelling argument that umpiring around Major League Baseball is about to get better (and not just because Angel Hernandez is gone!).
“You know how at the beginning of every season, there are a couple of blown calls during a nationally televised game (or at least, calls that appeared to be wrong according to the on-screen strike zone), and certain people start complaining that umpires are terrible and they’re getting worse? Those people always catch me off guard. I usually forget about the missed calls when the season ends, but those people somehow manage to keep their umpire anger at a high idle through the entirety of the offseason so that the instant baseball returns, they’re ready to shout about the umpires again without any need to ramp up. I don’t know how they do it without pulling an oblique, but in a sense, those angry people are right.
“Even though the umpires are always getting better year after year, they’re nearly always more accurate toward the end of the season than at the beginning — so much so that when the season starts, they’re worse than they were at the end of the previous season. For a month or two, the umpires really have gotten worse. We often say early in the season that pitchers are ahead of hitters. It turns out they’re ahead of umpires too.”
Read Davy’s full story over at Fangraphs!
