Tony-OH

I'm sure there are some kind of analytics that says it's worth the gamble, but I was just taught a different way. I can still remember my high school coach telling me "Make sure the ball gets through the infield before going." Obviously there are many factors that can go into this from the amount of outs, additional runners on base, who is coming to bat next, and how hard the ball is hit. But, in the vast amount of cases, I don't see how it's smart to go on contact with a major league infield playing in on the edge of the grass. We've seen 3 runners thrown out at home already (two by the Orioles and one from the Yankees I believe) in just four games. Now maybe it's analytics, but analytics also told Kevin Cash to take out his pitcher in the World Series and it may have cost them the series. This is what happens when you a totally a slave to the analytics and don't have a feel for the game a bit. It just seems that feel is starting to be lost be today's managers.

Yep, awful decision as well, but that was a big chopper that needed a great quick throw. Either way, these teams are failing baseball 101. With the infield in, you don't go on contact.

Apparently they are in Florida, but no word on whether they are healthy or not. It appears if they are healthy, they will start year in AA.

I heard Kjerstad is not in Florida and the people I know have no idea where he is or what his statis is currently. Apparently it's a mystery to most, even in the organization.

Now I like the Band Box. lol

As soon as i post this his next offspeed pitches were called strikes.

Wells can't throw an offspeed pitch for a strike.

This is just one of the nights where one of the best in the business has his A+ stuff.

That and Judge was dogging it. If he's running hard on 3-2 he should have scored easily. That's two plays he's dogged it on this game.

Agreed, his command all spring was not great either.

It was slow with a long arm action. He'll need to quicken that up to get those close DPs.

Cole looks pretty impossible to square up right now. His stuff is pretty sick today. Another reason not to run on contact with the infield drawn in.

Besides the Kjerstad news, the bigger omissions from the alternate camp roster in my mind are Michael Baumann and Alex Wells. Both did not pitch this spring after getting invites, Wells with an oblique and Baumann supposedly needing more time since being shutdown with an elbow injury last summer. Looking at the roster, there are plenty of guys who could be starters in AAA so it could be that both are heading back to Florida and will start the year in Bowie. But, it could be that they are both hurt still and in Baumann's case, that's very disconcerting since he supposedly was pitching some this spring on the back fields so the wonder is whether he reinjured something? Elbows are never a good thing to get shutdown for. Hopefully we'll get minor league spring training rosters soon.

Back on 10 March, Elias told reporters Kjersatd would report to the alternate site when it opened and now he's not on the roster. Perhaps they changed plans and sent him to Sarasota since he's not going to start the year in AAA? Actually makes more sense to send him to Sarasota where it's warmer and he'll be around the guys he'll play with this year.

Thanks. I'll try to take a look at Wells a bit later and post something.

Mac Sceroler's debut was fascinating for several reasons and was certainly the highlight of an otherwise lackluster 7-0 loss to the Yankees. Let's take a look: The crazy situation he was brought into by Hyde I would love to know if a pitcher was ever brought into a tougher situation for his major league debut, especially for a Rule 5 pick rookie who has never pitched above A-ball. It's almost unfathomable that manage Brandon Hyde would even think about bringing in Sceroler with the bases loaded, one out, and Aaron Judge at the plate, but that's exactly what he did. Why Hyde didn't start off the 6th inning down 6-0 with Sceroler is a mystery in it's ownself, but once Paul Fry struggled, it's even stranger to decide that was the moment to give the rookie his major league debut. After falling behind 3-1 all on fastballs, Sceroler threw a 3-1, 94 MPH down and in fastball to Judge for a strike who then fouled off a 94 MPH fastball in the upper part of the zone on 3-2. Then, for some reason, perhaps thinking there is no way Sceroler throws him seven straight fastballs, Judge took strike three on a 94 MPH fastball right in the middle of the plate but low in the zone for strike three. https://www.mlb.com/video/mac-sceroler-called-strike-to-aaron-judge?q=GamePk %3D [634587] AND PitchSpeed %3D {{ 36%2C 105 }} Order By Timestamp DESC&cp=MIXED&p=2 Sceroler then got behind Aaron Hicks 1-0 and then got him to pop out to Ramon Urias on a down and in 93 MPH fastball, down the right field line to get out of the bases loaded jam. Whiff Rate It's very rare to see a high Whiff rate at 100% on any pitch type with more than a few thrown, but Sceroler literally had a 100% Whiff rate on his nine off-speed pitches which means the nine times Yankees swung at anything off speed they missed. That includes seven split changes which was his most effective off-speed pitch. High spin rates You want to know why Sceroler was probably taken despite never pitching above A-Ball? Probably because of his high spin rate stuff. His fastball averaged 2637 RPM despite averaging 92.5 MPH and topping at 94.4. According to Driveline baseball in 2017, the average MLB fastball was 92 MPH with a spin rate of 2200 RPM for a Bauer's Unit of 24. In 2016, the top Bauer's units for fastball with more than 100 pitches thrown was Andrew Bailey's 28.9. Sceroler's fastball came out to 28.5 Bauer's unit in his major league debut over 2.2 IP. That would have been good for second best that year (it's the data found in the article). Fastball: 2637 RPM avg (28.5 Bauer's units) https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=11b27cf4-9495-4c2a-a804-9ef357422281 Curveball: 3006 RPM https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=be0e12de-ff12-4605-ac43-bd5a2e60ce24 Slider: 2709 RPM https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=8c60cecb-01c2-4510-9f82-a9d629086fd7 That spinrate on his curveball enabled it to drop vertically 62.5 inches which is 5.8 inches of drop more than MLB avg. His slider has good spin rate, but is basically a hard curveball with very little horizontal movement and is about five MPHs faster with less break than his curveball. He may be better served long-term with a cutter than the slider. Split-change His split change was his best pitch by WHIF (7-7, 100%) but he threw 6 of 13 in the zone but did get batters to chase the pitch low two times out of the seven times below the strike zone. His split has the most horizontal movement of any of pitches getting 13.1 inches of arm side run which is 1.8 inches better than average and 16% better than major league average overall. It only has 1354 RPM average but enough active spin to get the arm-side run and thus the swing and misses. https://www.mlb.com/video/mike-tauchman-strikes-out-swinging-AyLDDA?q=GamePk %3D [634587] AND PitchSpeed %3D {{ 36%2C 105 }} Order By Timestamp DESC&cp=MIXED&p=0 Command? Despite the great numbers, the rub here is the command of his pitches was a bit below average, especially the curveball. While his curveball had good movement, he only threw two strikes out of eight with the pitch garnering one Whiff. Only 9 of his 23 fastballs were in or touching the strike zone and of the four sliders he threw, two were strikes with one in the heart of the zone. Moving forward It's hard to argue that his first appearance was anything other than outstanding. If he can't command the curveball batters will just ignore the pitch so he will need to be able to get that pitch in the zone more often. The split change got five swing a misses in the zone while his fastball got the only other swing and miss in the zone at the very top of the zone. At worse his fastball, split change could make him a pretty good reliever out of the pen but he'll need to command that curveball better or better place the occasional slider (maybe go to a cut fastball vs slider?) if he's going to move to the rotation one day.

While I was not for how he was brought into the game, Sceroler showed the nice four pitch mix that shows his potential as a starter down the road. His 100% WHIFF rate on all nine offspeed pitches that the Yankees swung out, including seven split changes is almost unheard of at the major league level. Pretty crazy numbers there. Getting swings and misses on your stuff is huge. Now, the weird thing was Sceroler didn't get a ton of swing and misses in spring so maybe his stuff improved with the adrenaline of making his first major league appearance. Saying that, I remember how different Mike Wright looked in his debut then he ever looked in the minors. Great start for the young man and I'm excited to see how his off-speed stuff plays in his next few outings to see if this outing was an outlier or if the Orioles really found something special.

Then use Sceroler to start the 6th, use him for two-three innings, the use Armstrong and/or Fry for an inning. It was a lack of foresight and managerial experience to know Sceroler was your long guy yet you bring him into a bases loaded jam with Aaron Judge at the plate. Grant it, the young man did great, but you can tell most baseball experts like Palmer were wondering WTF?

Hyde's job is to put his players/pitchers into the situation that allows them the best chance to succeed. Armstrong hadn't pitched against live competition in what, a week or more? He was coming off Paternity leave. I was very critical at the time when he brought him in to the game, but Lopez had lost it. It was the 5th inning so honestly, that's probably Armstrong's role to get that out. Once it was 6-0, what I can't understand why he decided to use Fry in the 6th instead of starting the Sceroler with a clean inning to make his major league debut. It's almost unfathomable that a manager would start off a Rule 5 draft picks major league debut with the bases loaded and Judge up to bat down 7-0. Grant it, Sceroler got Judge out on one of the worse takes I think I've ever seen, but it was a crazy managerial decision. Yes, I get that Fry sucked, but how do you do that to the young man? It was just a lack of foresight by Hyde to put Sceroler into that situation. Oh well, nothing like a Yankees game to bring everyone back to reality. The Orioles literally poop their game pants when they walk into that stadium. Never seen a team so intimidated by another team. What is that 11 straight losses? Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

I get why Sceroler was next, but he should have never have even been in that situation in the first place with any kind of foresight. LeBlanc is out there as well and could have been used if Sceroler sucked. Either way, you don't start with a vet and assume if he sucks you bring the kid into a mess in his major league debut. It was was terribling managing. The more I see of Hyde the more I'm starting to think he struggles with having a good feel for the "what ifs". The manager's job is to put his players int eh best position to succeed. Vet managers don't do that to their rookies.