Category: Baseball
FanGraphs Power Rankings for the Week of June 3–9: A Look at the Top Teams in Baseball
Baseball’s middle class is pretty large this year Just 10 teams have records over .500 right now, while nine teams are within three games of a playoff berth — and that doesn’t include the four teams that are currently tied for the final National League Wild Card spot. Because the standings are so compressed, especially…
An Epic Battle Unfolds in the Bronx: A Showdown Between Giants
NEW YORK — For a matchup with so much history — the most common World Series pairing, and the most storied as well — meetings between the Dodgers and Yankees have been curiously rare since the introduction of interleague play in 1997. It took until 2013 for Major League Baseball to bring the Dodgers back…
An In-Depth Guide to Visual Scouting for Pitching: Part Three
Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports We’re back at it again with another batch of baseball lingo. As usual, I encourage you to go check out previous installments of this series to catch up on what you missed or familiarize yourself with the premise of these primers. You can find each of them by clicking on each…
Analyzing Squared-Up Rate and Launch Angle in Baseball: A Visual Study
D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports I continue to find Statcast’s bat tracking data fascinating. I also continue to find it overwhelming. Hitting is so complex that I can’t quite imagine boiling it down to just a few numbers. Even when I look at some of the more complex presentations of bat tracking, like squared-up rate,…
Confidence is the Key to Future Success for Baseball Prospect Colt Keith
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports Colt Keith is searching for his comfort zone at baseball’s highest level. Currently day-to-day with a sore knee – which occurred during a collision over the weekend — the Detroit Tigers rookie infielder is slashing just .215/.269/.280. Moreover, belying his sturdy 6-foot-2, 245-pound frame and ability to propel pitches far distances,…
The Rockies’ Defensive Stars Are Heating Up at the Plate
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports I’ve written about the Colorado Rockies so many times over the past two years that I think we can all take the normal disclaimer as read. They’re not very good, and they’re probably not going to be very good in the short or medium term. However, there is some good…
Top 41 Prospects in the Houston Astros Organization
Prospects in the Houston Astros Farm System Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Houston Astros. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. This is the fourth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll…
The Chicago Cubs Seeking a Spark at the Top of the Lineup
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love. Things have taken a rough turn for the Chicago Cubs since the end of April. Over the weekend, they lost three of their four games against…
Twins Introduce New City Connect Uniforms
(Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images) The Minnesota Twins finally released their City Connect uniforms. Well, in reality, they are more like the “State Connect” unis because they represent a full state as opposed to a single city. Minnesota, known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” is famous for the high number of lakes and rivers….
FanGraphs Chat with Ben Clemens – June 10, 2024
2:01 Ben Clemens: Hey everybody, welcome to the chat 2:01 Ben Clemens: Let’s just dive right in 2:02 Scratch: What major change to baseball will have taken place 50 years from now that we aren’t even talking about as a possibility right now (e.g. robo umps, etc)? 2:02 Ben Clemens: Number of fielders, maybe? Assuming…