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Jared Jones had made only one big-league look when my colleague Ben Clemens wrote on April 2 that we must always all get irresponsibly excited concerning the rookie right-hander. Little has occurred to vary that opinion. When Jones takes the mound this afternoon for the sixth time in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, he’ll achieve this with a 2.79 ERA, a 3.19 FIP, and 34.8% strikeout charge. Furthermore, his fastball has averaged 97.3 mph, sometimes reaching triple digits.
Following his second begin, I caught as much as the flame-throwing 22-year-old at PNC Park to get a first-hand account of his arsenal and improvement path. Among the many issues I realized is that he was particularly uncooked when the Pirates drafted him Forty fourth-overall in 2020 out of La Mirada (CA) Excessive College.
“I didn’t know easy methods to pitch after I signed,” Jones informed me. “I simply threw fastballs, and throwing arduous in highschool is rather a lot totally different than throwing arduous in professional ball. Guys in professional ball can hit the arduous fastball, particularly if you happen to don’t have the rest.”
Jones did have secondary pitches previous to getting drafted, initially a curveball “that wasn’t superb,” after which a slider that went from “simply okay” as a younger prep to “fairly good” by the point he’d graduated. Even so, he was admittedly extra thrower than pitcher — somebody whose elite arm energy allowed him to “simply throw fastballs by guys.”
Velocity got here naturally to the now-6-foot-1, 180-pound righty. It additionally got here early. “I used to be in my sophomore yr of highschool after I hit 97 [mph] for the primary time,” defined Jones. “I’ve been a tough thrower for a very long time.”
His understanding of pitching metrics is one other story.
“To be fully trustworthy, I don’t know what my pitches did in highschool,” mentioned Jones, who at the moment depends closely on his heater-slider combo, mixing within the occasional curveball or changeup. “I simply threw them. I didn’t know what vertical break or horizontal break was till my first yr of professional ball. They confirmed me issues like [TrackMan data] and I had no concept what it was till I began asking questions. I had no concept what the analytics have been, or what they meant.
“I don’t assume an excessive amount of about them now,” added Jones. “I’m a competitor after I’m on the market pitching, I don’t actually assume, ‘Is my fastball transferring this fashion? Is my slider doing that?’ I simply go on the market and compete. That’s simply who I’m. I’m a fiery competitor.”
Make {that a} fiery competitor persevering with to get pleasure from success on the big-league stage. With every begin, the extent of pleasure Jones elicits is changing into much less and fewer irresponsible.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Victor Martinez went 22 for 52 in opposition to Chris Sale.
Vic Energy went 14 for 29 in opposition to Bob Grim.
Vic Wertz went 7 for 11 in opposition to Satchel Paige.
Vic Davalillo went 9 for 11 in opposition to Bennie Daniels.
Vic Roznovsky went 6 for 9 in opposition to Mel Stottlemyre.
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Jerry Narron wasn’t afraid of going in opposition to the grain when he managed the Cincinnati Reds from 2005-2007. Now a coach for the Los Angeles Angels, the 68-year-old former big-league backstop — a lot to the consternation of the day’s talk-radio wags — would sometimes put a basher in a table-setter spot within the batting order. OBP was the strategy behind the insanity.
“Once I began managing, within the minors in 1989, I attempted to make out my batting order by on-base share,” defined Narron. “Then, after I managed the Reds, I’d typically put Adam Dunn within the two-hole. Everyone mentioned, ‘What on the planet are you doing, placing Adam Dunn within the two gap?’ I’d say, ‘Properly, he’s an influence man and he’s going to get on base for us.’ With Dunn, I knew that it was going to be a base on balls, a strikeout, or a house run. I caught some warmth on the Cincinnati speak reveals, nevertheless it labored out okay.”
Dunn logged a team-best OBP within the three-year span whereas slashing .248/.379/.527 with 120 residence runs and a 129 wRC+. His 327 walks have been second-most within the majors throughout that span, whereas his 527 strikeouts led all gamers, That was total. When batting second within the order, which he did 188 occasions, Dunn’s on-base share was a lofty .441.
Dan O’Brien was Cincinnati’s GM in 2005, and Wayne Krivsky held the function in 2006-2007. As for the entrance workplace member whose enter helped immediate the atypical transfer, his identify would possibly come as a shock.
“The man I talked to about doing it was performing some analytics stuff and video scouting for us on the time,” defined Narron. “It was [current Reds GM] Nick Krall. I beloved speaking with Nick earlier than he was the large canine. I imply, there was the supervisor getting some info from one of many lowest guys on the totem pole. I believe the speak reveals in all probability would have died if I informed them who I used to be getting info from.”
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A quiz:
Fergie Jenkins has probably the most pitcher WAR (53.6) in Chicago Cubs franchise historical past. Which underrated former Cub has the second-most pitcher WAR in franchise historical past?
The reply may be discovered under.
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NEWS NOTES
The Atlantic League season bought underway on Thursday, and the outcomes included a mixed no-hitter. Parker Markel and a pair of relievers mixed to permit only one baserunner — that on a stroll — because the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars topped the York Revolution 4-0.
SABR’s Oral Historical past Committee shall be internet hosting a dwell Zoom interview with Dave Righetti on Thursday Might 9 at 8pm EST. Extra info may be discovered right here.
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The reply to the quiz is Rick Reuschel, who was value 47.0 WAR pitching for the Cubs from 1972-1981, and once more in 1983-1984. All informed, the non-Corridor of Fame right-hander amassed 68.2 WAR over his 19 seasons.
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Left on the cutting-room flooring from my recently-published interview with Chicago Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks was his reply to this query: When in your profession do you are feeling you have been at your finest?
“I felt like I used to be on the high of my sport in 2016,” Hendricks informed me. “My stuff was taking part in the most effective — the way it was grading out — and my command was superb. From day certainly one of that season it appeared like I used to be in a position to put each pitch the place I needed it. I additionally really feel that I used to be in a position to learn swings rather well. It was only a particular yr. We performed such unbelievable protection, which is a large a part of the sport for me. All the pieces form of got here collectively, each for me and the staff.”
Hendricks went 16-8 with an NL-best 2.16 ERA over 190 regular-season innings in 2016. He subsequently began Recreation 7 of the World Sequence and allowed two runs, certainly one of them earned, in four-and-two thirds innings in a contest the Cubs went on to win 8-7 in 10 innings.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
James Naile is 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA over six begins with the KBO’s Kia Tigers. The 31-year-old former St. Louis Cardinals right-hander has fanned 38 batters and issued three free passes in 36-and-two-thirds innings.
Seong Ho Cheon is slashing .357/.396/.450 in 139 plate appearances with the KT Wiz. The 26-year-old second baseman leads the KBO in hits (46) and triples (3).
Yuki Yanagita is slashing .342/.495/.456 in 105 plate appearances for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. The 35-year-old outfielder is a nine-time All-Star who has hit .313/.410/.539 over 13-plus NPB seasons.
Tatsuya Imai is 2-0 with a 0.77 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 35 innings for NPB’s Seibu Lions. The 25-year-old right-hander went 10-5 with a 2.30 ERA and 130 strikeouts in 133 innings a yr in the past.
Bo Takahashi recorded his first NPB win on Thursday as Seibu beat the Orix Buffaloes 3-1. The 27-year-old right-hander from Presidente Prudente, Brazil pitched within the Arizona Diamondbacks system from 2014-2019 and within the Cincinnati Reds system in 2021.
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Which third baseman is/was higher, José Ramírez or Scott Rolen? I requested that query in a Twitter ballot a number of days in the past, and the outcomes counsel that Ramírez isn’t almost as underrated as he as soon as was. Cleveland’s present hot-corner stalwart garnered 55% of the votes forged, whereas the Corridor of Fame acquired 45%.
Recency bias, or is Ramírez actually worthy of his slight polling benefit? Let’s take a look at some numbers, factoring in age. Ramírez turned 31 in mid-September final yr, and Rolen has an early-April birthday, so we’ll examine them by means of their age-30 seasons.
SR: 1,300 hits, 231 HRs, 2,359 TB, 92 SB, 129 wRC+, 48.9 WAR.JR: 1,327 hits, 216 HRs, 2,376 TB, 202 SB, 128 wRC+, 45.2 WAR.
From age 31 to to the tip of his profession, Rolen hit 85 residence runs and logged a 110 wRC+ and 21 WAR. What Ramírez goes on to do is clearly unknown, so how they’ll stack up when it comes to profession numbers is anybody’s guess. As for the through-age-30 comparability, Rolen has the sting — albeit a slender one.
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A random obscure former participant snapshot:
Joe Kmak smacked a single off of Mark Langston in his first MLB plate look, which got here on April 6, 1993 as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. On August 27, 1995, Kmak singled in opposition to Greg Maddux whereas taking part in in his penultimate big-league sport with the Chicago Cubs. In between, there have been simply 35 base knocks for the right-handed-hitting catcher from Napa, California. His lone residence run got here at Wrigley Discipline on July 29, 1995, this in a sport the place the Cubs walked off the Philadelphia Phillies 8-7 on a three-run homer by Shawon Dunston that adopted a two-out error and successful by pitch.
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FARM NOTES
Chandler Simpson has stolen 18 bases in 22 makes an attempt whereas slashing .383/.493/.383 over 16 video games for the Excessive-A Bowling Inexperienced Sizzling Rods. The 23-year-old outfielder within the Tampa Bay Rays group pilfered 94 baggage within the low minors final yr.
Creed Willems is slashing .300/.344/.667 with six residence runs in 64 plate appearances for the Excessive-A Aberdeen IronBirds. The 21-year-old catcher within the Baltimore Orioles group has a 13.0% floor ball charge, the bottom amongst minor-league hitters.
Tayden Corridor is slashing .377/.500/.492 with 5 doubles and a triple in 76 plate appearances for the Low-A Carolina Mudcats. The 21-year-old first baseman within the Milwaukee Brewers group batted .296 for the Australian Baseball League’s Brisbane Bandits this previous winter.
Drew Thorpe is 4-0 with a 0.75 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 24 innings for the Double-A Birmingham Barons. The 23-year-old right-hander was acquired by the Chicago White Sox from the San Diego Padres this previous winter as a part of the five-player Dylan Stop deal.
Owen Murphy is 3-1 with a 1.13 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 24 innings for the Excessive-A Rome Emperors. The 20-year-old right-hander was drafted twentieth total in 2022 by the Atlanta Braves out of Illinois’s Riverside-Brookfield Excessive College.
Emmett Olson has logged 19 strikeouts, and allowed simply eight hits, over 16 scoreless innings for the Low-A Jupiter Hammerheads. The 21-year-old southpaw was drafted out of the College of Nebraska by the Miami Marlins final yr within the fourth spherical.
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To say that Shota Imanaga’s transition from NPB to MLB has gone easily could be an understatement. In 5 begins for the Chicago Cubs, the 30-year-old former Yokohama BayStars southpaw is 4-0 with a 0.98 ERA and a 2.36 FIP over 27-and-two-thirds innings. Furthermore, he has 28 strikeouts to go together with simply three walks and 19 hits allowed.
Previous to his pitching at Fenway Park on Friday, a reporter requested Cubs supervisor Craig Counsell how Imanaga has been in a position to make the transition as seamlessly as he has.
“That’s an excellent query; I don’t know if I’ve sufficient expertise with different pitchers and the way they transitioned,” replied Counsell. “However certainly one of Shota’s finest traits is that he’s very curious, and he’s very open. I believe he takes in info very effectively. He watches very effectively. That results in somebody who is superb at making changes. While you mix that with [his] being an excellent pitcher — he’s superb at what he does — there are in all probability much less changes that he’s needed to make thus far that possibly we’d have anticipated. His stuff is taking part in rather well with the hitters proper now. As he retains going through hitters, I’m certain these changes will come. However he’s doing a extremely good job with the issues that he’s good at.”
What are the issues that Imanaga is nice at? I requested that query to Cubs broadcaster, and former big-league left-hander, Jim Deshaies.
“He’s bought a using fastball that he throws up within the zone, that main league hitters simply haven’t been in a position to get on high of, and likewise tend to chase,” Deshaies informed me on Saturday. “He performs that north-south sport rather well: four-seamers up, split-fingers down. He’ll sprinkle in an occasional breaking ball — curveballs to righties which might be a extra a get-ahead pitch — and there’s a fairly good slider as effectively, which he’ll throw to lefties. I don’t know if the truth that he’s 5-10 creates a distinct look to hitters, however I believe there’s some deception there. And there’s life on that fastball, as a result of it’s not 95 [mph], it’s 92. He additionally doesn’t stroll individuals. He has nice command. That was his popularity when he got here right here from Japan, and that’s what we’ve see right here, in spring coaching and now by means of 5 major-league begins.”
A easy transition certainly.
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APRIL STAT NOTABLES
The Chicago White Sox got here into this weekend’s collection in opposition to Tampa Bay not having performed in opposition to an AL East or AL West opponent. They have been 2-15 in opposition to the AL Central and 1-7 in opposition to NL groups.
The Milwaukee Brewers are 7-1 in one-run video games and 2-0 in extra-inning video games. The Houston Astros are 0-7 in one-run video games and 0-3 in extra-inning video games.
The Astros are the one staff with no triple this season. The Chicago Cubs have hit eight triples, probably the most within the majors.
Seattle’s Luis Urias has 5 hits — three doubles, two residence runs, and no singles. Washington’s Joey Gallo has 9 hits — 5 doubles, three residence runs, and one single.
Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna went into final evening with a .344 batting common and an NL-best 31 RBIs. Kansas Metropolis’s Salvador Perez went into final evening with a .344 batting common and an AL-best 25 RBIs.
San Francisco’s Logan Webb has allowed three runs and issued three walks over 29 innings in his final 4 begins.
Detroit’s Reese Olson is 0-4 with a 3.18 ERA and a 2.79 FIP.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
A former minor-league umpire has sued MLB, claiming that he was harassed by a feminine ump, and fired for being a bisexual man. Ronald Blum has the story at AP Information.
MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince wrote about how the median age of MLB ticket patrons has dropped by a number of years in latest seasons.
The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner addressed the pitcher win standards — a topic I opined on right here at Sunday Notes two weeks in the past — as a part of his glorious “Sliders” column (subscription required).
San Francisco Giants prospect Reggie Crawford misses hitting baseballs over fences. John O’Connor wrote concerning the two-way-player-turned-pitcher-only for The Richmond Instances-Dispatch.
MiLB.com’s Rob Terranova profiled St. Louis Cardinals prospect Sem Robberse, a 22-year-old native of Zeist, Netherlands who’s excelling on the mound with the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Jackson Holliday, whom the Orioles demoted to Triple-A on Friday, began his MLB profession 2-for-34. Willie Mays, who was 19 days faraway from his twentieth birthday when he debuted with the New York Giants in 1951, began out his MLB profession 1-for-26. Holliday was 20 years and 144 days when he debuted.
Pete Rose hit 30 triples for the Florida State League’s Tampa Tarpons in 1961. Three different gamers tied for second-most within the circuit with a dozen apiece.
Cleveland Indians third baseman Al Rosen slashed .336/.422/.613 with 43 residence runs, 145 RBIs, and a 178 wRC+ in his 1953 AL MVP season. He had 9.1 WAR.
St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion slashed .267/.324/.382 with six residence runs, 63 RBIs, and a 92 wRC+ in his 1944 NL MVP season. He had 4.6 WAR.
Babe Ruth performed in 10 World Sequence, seven with the Yankees and three with the Crimson Sox. New York gained 4 titles with Ruth on the roster, Boston gained three.
The Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers 6-3 on in the present day’s date in 1996, with round-trippers accounting for all 9 runs. The groups mixed to go deep seven occasions, with Scott Brosius hitting two of Oakland’s 5 residence runs within the Sunday matinee at Tiger Stadium. Greg Gohr surrendered 4 of the gophers.
Dick Sipek made his MLB debut for the Cincinnati Reds on in the present day’s date in 1945, strolling as a pinch-hitter in a 1-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. An outfielder who appeared in 82 video games and batted .244 in his lone big-league season, Sipek attended the Illinois College for the Deaf, the place he was mentored by Luther Taylor, who had attended the Kansas College for the Deaf earlier than pitching for the New York Giants (and briefly the Cleveland Blues) from 1900-1908.
Bock Baker made the primary of his two big-league appearances on in the present day’s date in 1901 and allowed 23 hits and 13 runs in eight innings because the Cleveland Blues misplaced to the Chicago White Sox 13-1. The southpaw, who was often known as Smiling Bock, subsequently allowed six hits and 11 runs in six innings whereas pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics in a 14-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
Gamers born on in the present day’s date embrace Cuddles Marshall, who on Might 28, 1946 was New York’s beginning pitcher within the first evening sport ever performed at Yankee Stadium. Marshall’s modest profession noticed him go 7-7 with a 5.98 ERA over 185 innings from 1946-1950.
Additionally born on in the present day’s date was Fred Schemanske, who completed his temporary and statistically-unique profession with a 1.000 batting common and a 27.00 ERA. Simply 20 years outdated when he performed in two video games for the Washington Senators in 1923, Schemanske allowed three runs in his lone inning on the mound, and went 2-for-2 with a stroll in three plate appearances.
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