MLB Daily Notes: Monday, May 9
It’s Monday morning, and I love Monday mornings. That’s not a joke either. After running around and playing with and taking care of kids all weekend, coming downstairs to go to work all by myself on these mornings is very relaxing and gratifying.
Mother’s Day went fine, although indeed those pictures I got my wife are just way too big. Too quick on the “buy now” trigger by me, didn’t really understand how big 36x24 is.
I have committed myself this week to getting up at 5:30 every morning to get a run in as a race against my son waking up. I accomplished it today, even though I was almost crapping my pants the entire way. Of course when I got home, baby Lee was standing up in his crib yelling - ready to go - so maybe I’ll have to push that back to 5:00 moving forward. I don’t know, if anybody has any freaking tips on how to get a kid to sleep in later - they’re welcome. Although 100% of my audience here are males, so I really don’t expect any help to be coming my way. My wife said she’d try something different tonight… to me it’s just like hey let’s just keep the kid awake an extra hour an stick to that, but she claims it’s not that simple! Sleep schedules and stuff.
The scientification of every human action is a problem, man. We think we can find the answer to everything that ails us in the brain somewhere. I suppose that’s true for a lot of stuff, like hundreds of years ago we thought that having a dream meant the god of thunder was telling you to kill an entire country of people - so I’m glad we’ve figured that stuff out, don’t get me wrong. But I think when we have to have a scientific answer for everything, we end up being wrong a ton - and lots of times we end up just ignoring common ass sense.
I mean scientists are wrong all the freaking time. It wasn’t that long ago we’d give people who acted weird electro-shock therapy, and that was what the doctors and scientists recommended. I imagine a lot of them were out there saying “I’m a doctor, just trust me - trust the science”. There’s no denying the positive progress we have made, but it’s very foolish for us to think that today we have it right and fifty years ago we didn’t. We’ll be saying that same thing fifty years from now - who knows the barbaric stuff we’re doing now that we’ll be condemned for later (I know a few things… dot dot dot)
There were 1,291 plate appearances yesterday as we had NO POSTPONEMENTS and a couple of double headers. The weather looks phenomenal this week, so we should get tons of good action in.
Jordan Montgomery made a brilliant start yesterday, striking out five hitters and earning 16 whiffs on just 71 pitches. We’ve seen this stuff from him before, of course, and it’s no doubt that he’ll continue to fall short of ace-tier, but at least we can feel like he’s the solid pitcher we’ve come to know over the years.
George Kirby would have to be the real pitching story of the day as he shoved for six scoreless innings in his Major League debut.
This arsenal looks a bit Hunter Greene-ish, with the 60% four-seamer usage and the higher velocity than expected. He was throwing the ball very hard out of the gates but quickly decelerated the pitch in the later innings. Color me incredibly skeptical of any rookie throwing a four-seamer this often - and that 5% swinging-strike rate on the slider is absolutely pitiful. For context, the league average slider has earned a 16.5% swinging-strike rate this year.
If it’s true that Kirby will throw the four-seamer over half the time and his slider isn’t good, I would imagine some rough times are ahead for the rookie.
My buddy Clint is going to be pissed to read this because he jumped on Kirby and is probably feeling really good about himself, and he had previously also jumped on Hunter Greene, who I immediately said bad things about and turned out to be exactly correct. And I play Clint this week in our league - so ha! Eat shit, Clint!
Okay it’s freaking 9:30 and I’ve done no real work today - time to buckle down. Here are the notes.
Wait one more thing! I improved the Matchup Splits Scores file this morning, adding more data. Here’s a sneak peek:
This is a look at how every hitter matchup lines up every day, and it’s available only to paid members.
CSW% Leaders - Yesterday
1. Jordan Montgomery (NYY): 22.5 SwStr%, 40.8 CSW%
2. Jakob Junis (SF): 11.4 SwStr%, 39.2 CSW%
3. Gerrit Cole (NYY): 22.8 SwStr%, 37.7 CSW%
4. George Kirby (SEA): 18.5 SwStr%, 35.8 CSW%
5. Walker Buehler (LAD): 15.3 SwStr%, 32.7 CSW%
6. Dallas Keuchel (CWS): 9.8 SwStr%, 32.6 CSW%
7. Dane Dunning (TEX): 9.0 SwStr%, 32.0 CSW%
8. Konnor Pilkington (CLE): 16.9 SwStr%, 31.3 CSW%
9. Joe Musgrove (SD): 14.8 SwStr%, 30.6 CSW%
10. Zach Thompson (PIT): 15.2 SwStr%, 30.4 CSW%
Top Pitcher JA Scores - Yesterday
1. Gerrit Cole - 6.33 IP - 82.0 JA Points
2. Jordan Montgomery - 5.67 IP - 68.0 JA Points
3. Joe Musgrove - 7.0 IP - 65.5 JA Points
4. Zach Thompson - 5.0 IP - 60.5 JA Points
5. George Kirby - 5.67 IP - 59.0 JA Points
6. Zac Gallen - 7.0 IP - 49.75 JA Points
7. Alek Manoah - 5.0 IP - 45.25 JA Points
8. Walker Buehler - 7.0 IP - 44.75 JA Points
9. Bruce Zimmermann - 6.0 IP - 42.5 JA Points
10. Max Scherzer - 5.67 IP - 42.5 JA Points
Pitcher JA Scores - Season
1. Shohei Ohtani (LAA) - 5.0 GS - 59.62 JA Points
2. Corbin Burnes (MIL) - 6.0 GS - 56.28 JA Points
3. Lucas Giolito (CWS) - 4.0 GS - 55.72 JA Points
4. Dylan Cease (CWS) - 6.0 GS - 53.42 JA Points
5. Kevin Gausman (TOR) - 6.0 GS - 53.18 JA Points
6. Shane McClanahan (TB) - 6.0 GS - 53.12 JA Points
7. Garrett Whitlock (BOS) - 3.0 GS - 52.85 JA Points
8. Carlos Rodon (SF) - 5.0 GS - 50.34 JA Points
9. Brandon Woodruff (MIL) - 5.0 GS - 48.59 JA Points
10. Max Scherzer (NYM) - 6.0 GS - 47.79 JA Points
Velo Changes - Yesterday
Max Scherzer's SL velo (15 pitches) DOWN -1.5mph to 84.0
Alek Manoah's FF velo (41 pitches) DOWN -1.6mph to 92.7
Daulton Jefferies's CU velo (17 pitches) DOWN -1.7mph to 78.9
Zack Greinke's SL velo (19 pitches) DOWN -1.8mph to 81.4
Tyler Mahle's FC velo (15 pitches) DOWN -2.6mph to 84.5
Pitch Mix Changes - Yesterday
Aaron Ashby's CH usage (35.4%) up 17.5 points
Bruce Zimmermann's FF usage (48.2%) up 15.6 points
Chris Bassitt's CH usage (16.8%) up 12.4 points
Chris Paddack's CH usage (36.4%) up 10.6 points
Dakota Hudson's SI usage (61.4%) up 17.4 points
Dallas Keuchel's SI usage (63.0%) up 20.8 points
Glenn Otto's SI usage (25.6%) up 19.8 points
Jake Odorizzi's FC usage (34.2%) up 17.2 points
Jordan Lyles's FF usage (38.9%) up 11.5 points
Jordan Montgomery's SI usage (45.1%) up 12.1 points
Justin Steele's SI usage (26.1%) up 21.4 points
Konnor Pilkington's CH usage (31.3%) up 20.2 points
Kyle Gibson's FC usage (31.9%) up 13.0 points
Ryan Yarbrough's CU usage (32.4%) up 25.3 points
Tyler Mahle's FF usage (59.4%) up 11.5 points
Walker Buehler's FC usage (38.8%) up 15.5 points
Zac Gallen's FC usage (20.7%) up 12.4 points
Zach Thompson's FC usage (44.3%) up 15.0 points
CSW% Leaders - Last 3 Weeks
Jordan Montgomery - 87 TBF, 37.5% CSW%
Corbin Burnes - 100 TBF, 37.0% CSW%
Shane McClanahan - 90 TBF, 36.0% CSW%
Joe Musgrove - 106 TBF, 34.6% CSW%
JT Brubaker - 76 TBF, 34.1% CSW%
Gerrit Cole - 86 TBF, 33.7% CSW%
Eric Lauer - 97 TBF, 33.6% CSW%
Kevin Gausman - 102 TBF, 33.6% CSW%
Aaron Nola - 92 TBF, 33.2% CSW%
Jesus Luzardo - 87 TBF, 33.2% CSW%
K% Leaders - Last 3 Weeks
Eric Lauer - 97 TBF, 38.1% K%
Corbin Burnes - 100 TBF, 38.0% K%
Max Scherzer - 99 TBF, 36.4% K%
Shane McClanahan - 90 TBF, 35.6% K%
Dylan Cease - 95 TBF, 32.6% K%
Gerrit Cole - 86 TBF, 32.6% K%
Aaron Nola - 92 TBF, 31.5% K%
Kevin Gausman - 102 TBF, 31.4% K%
JT Brubaker - 76 TBF, 30.3% K%
Max Fried - 93 TBF, 28.0% K%
K-BB% Leaders - Last 3 Weeks
Corbin Burnes - 100 TBF, 34.0% K-BB%
Eric Lauer - 97 TBF, 32.0% K-BB%
Max Scherzer - 99 TBF, 31.3% K-BB%
Shane McClanahan - 90 TBF, 31.1% K-BB%
Kevin Gausman - 102 TBF, 30.4% K-BB%
Aaron Nola - 92 TBF, 28.3% K-BB%
Max Fried - 93 TBF, 26.9% K-BB%
Dylan Cease - 95 TBF, 25.3% K-BB%
Luis Garcia - 123 TBF, 22.8% K-BB%
Pablo Lopez - 97 TBF, 22.7% K-BB%
GB% Leaders - Last 3 Weeks
Framber Valdez - 99 TBF, 71.8% GB%
Adam Wainwright - 96 TBF, 64.3% GB%
Dakota Hudson - 95 TBF, 62.3% GB%
Shane McClanahan - 90 TBF, 61.1% GB%
Logan Webb - 98 TBF, 60.8% GB%
Kyle Gibson - 90 TBF, 60.3% GB%
Yu Darvish - 75 TBF, 58.9% GB%
Corbin Burnes - 100 TBF, 57.9% GB%
Dallas Keuchel - 85 TBF, 57.6% GB%
Yusei Kikuchi - 76 TBF, 57.4% GB%
Magic Formula Qualifiers - Pitchers - Last 3 Weeks
Aaron Nola - 92 TBF, 31.5 K%, 3.3 BB%, 51.7% GB%
Austin Gomber - 68 TBF, 29.4 K%, 2.9 BB%, 54.3% GB%
Corbin Burnes - 100 TBF, 38.0 K%, 4.0 BB%, 57.9% GB%
Dylan Cease - 95 TBF, 32.6 K%, 7.4 BB%, 46.4% GB%
Freddy Peralta - 64 TBF, 31.2 K%, 6.2 BB%, 50.0% GB%
Kevin Gausman - 102 TBF, 31.4 K%, 1.0 BB%, 47.8% GB%
Kyle Wright - 79 TBF, 27.8 K%, 7.6 BB%, 57.1% GB%
Max Fried - 93 TBF, 28.0 K%, 1.1 BB%, 55.4% GB%
Pablo Lopez - 97 TBF, 27.8 K%, 5.2 BB%, 52.3% GB%
Shane McClanahan - 90 TBF, 35.6 K%, 4.4 BB%, 61.1% GB%
Tarik Skubal - 69 TBF, 27.5 K%, 2.9 BB%, 50.0% GB%
Multiple Barrels
Giancarlo Stanton (NYY) 8 PA, 12 Swings, 3 Barrels, 1 HR
Pete Alonso (NYM) 9 PA, 17 Swings, 3 Barrels, 2 HR
Colin Moran (CIN) 4 PA, 7 Swings, 2 Barrels, 2 HR
Gleyber Torres (NYY) 8 PA, 9 Swings, 2 Barrels, 1 HR
Top Hitter JA Scores - Yesterday
1. Pete Alonso - 5.0 PA - 67.0 JA Points
2. Jean Segura - 4.0 PA - 63.0 JA Points
3. Colin Moran - 4.0 PA - 58.0 JA Points
4. Seth Brown - 4.0 PA - 53.0 JA Points
5. Michael Perez - 3.0 PA - 49.0 JA Points
6. Mike Yastrzemski - 5.0 PA - 47.0 JA Points
7. William Contreras - 4.0 PA - 41.0 JA Points
8. J.D. Davis - 4.0 PA - 40.0 JA Points
9. Wilmer Flores - 4.0 PA - 40.0 JA Points
10. Juan Yepez - 4.0 PA - 40.0 JA Points
Hitter JA Scores - Season
1. Yordan Alvarez (HOU) - 97.0 PA - 153.4 JA Points
2. Jose Ramirez (CLE) - 122.0 PA - 145.57 JA Points
3. Taylor Ward (LAA) - 96.0 PA - 135.42 JA Points
4. Freddie Freeman (LAD) - 115.0 PA - 129.39 JA Points
5. Mike Trout (LAA) - 106.0 PA - 129.06 JA Points
6. Rowdy Tellez (MIL) - 100.0 PA - 121.2 JA Points
7. Juan Soto (WSH) - 133.0 PA - 119.4 JA Points
8. Aaron Judge (NYY) - 110.0 PA - 117.45 JA Points
9. Max Muncy (LAD) - 102.0 PA - 108.63 JA Points
10. Nolan Arenado (STL) - 114.0 PA - 108.07 JA Points
Hardest Hit Balls
Ronald Acuna Jr. (ATL) - 114.5mph - double
Jorge Alfaro (SD) - 113.4mph - home_run
William Contreras (ATL) - 113.4mph - home_run
Giancarlo Stanton (NYY) - 113.0mph - home_run
Pete Alonso (NYM) - 112.6mph - foul
Brandon Lowe (TB) - 111.4mph - foul
Mitch Garver (TEX) - 111.4mph - double
Joc Pederson (SF) - 110.8mph - field_out
Kyle Schwarber (PHI) - 110.3mph - foul
Mike Moustakas (CIN) - 109.9mph - foul
Last 3 Weeks - Brl% Leaders
Mike Trout - 69 PA, 38 BIP, 12 Brls, 31.6 Brl%
Aaron Judge - 69 PA, 42 BIP, 12 Brls, 28.6 Brl%
Ryan Jeffers - 49 PA, 27 BIP, 7 Brls, 25.9 Brl%
Rowdy Tellez - 70 PA, 49 BIP, 12 Brls, 24.5 Brl%
Patrick Wisdom - 58 PA, 31 BIP, 7 Brls, 22.6 Brl%
Yordan Alvarez - 81 PA, 50 BIP, 11 Brls, 22.0 Brl%
Byron Buxton - 53 PA, 32 BIP, 7 Brls, 21.9 Brl%
Willy Adames - 83 PA, 51 BIP, 11 Brls, 21.6 Brl%
Bryce Harper - 74 PA, 52 BIP, 11 Brls, 21.2 Brl%
Joc Pederson - 50 PA, 38 BIP, 8 Brls, 21.1 Brl%
Last 3 Weeks - Contact% Leaders
Steven Kwan - 54 PA, 87 Swings, 92.0 Cont%
Luis Arraez - 52 PA, 91 Swings, 90.1 Cont%
Michael Brantley - 72 PA, 129 Swings, 89.9 Cont%
Nick Madrigal - 49 PA, 89 Swings, 88.8 Cont%
Austin Meadows - 64 PA, 106 Swings, 88.7 Cont%
Isiah Kiner-Falefa - 59 PA, 111 Swings, 87.4 Cont%
Ty France - 85 PA, 179 Swings, 87.2 Cont%
Wander Franco - 74 PA, 139 Swings, 87.1 Cont%
Miguel Rojas - 53 PA, 100 Swings, 87.0 Cont%
Josh Naylor - 60 PA, 105 Swings, 86.7 Cont%
Magic Formula Qualifiers - Hitters - Last 3 Weeks
Freddie Freeman - 73 PA, 13.7 K%, 20.8 Brl%
Joc Pederson - 50 PA, 20.0 K%, 21.1 Brl%
Juan Soto - 83 PA, 19.3 K%, 14.5 Brl%
Max Kepler - 70 PA, 17.1 K%, 16.7 Brl%
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