I watched the last three innings of Carlos Rodón’s start for the Tornados last night.
Rodón was dominant. He wasn’t barely eking out a perfect game. While I was watching, no one came particularly close to marring his gem… until the first batter in the ninth. Josh Naylor dribbled one toward first. Naylor ran 10% faster than his sprint speed (according to MLB) (which might raise some questions for his manager), while Jose Abreu frantically contorted his body trying to touch first. The ump called it an out, and video replay barely confirmed it.
Rodón got to a 1-2 count on the next batter, then threw a back-foot slider. He wants that pitch back, because, as I just said, it was a back-foot slider. It hit the batter on his back foot, which is what the name says it’s going to do. That pitch comes with a prominent warning label: “this pitch will hit the batter’s back foot.” He threw it anyway, instead of his “perfect game slider”, for some reason.
That ended the perfect game, but not the no-hitter.
I wonder if we’ve ever had a no-hitter in the EFL before. Does anyone remember?
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 10 | 2 | .815 | — | 81.6 | 38.8 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 9 | 3 | .765 | 0.6 | 54.1 | 30.0 |
| Peshastin Pears | 8 | 4 | .683 | 1.6 | 52.6 | 35.8 |
| Haviland Dragons | 8 | 4 | .661 | 1.8 | 52.4 | 37.5 |
| D.C. Balk | 5 | 3 | .683 | 2.3 | 38.2 | 26.0 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 5 | 3 | .671 | 2.4 | 45.2 | 31.7 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 6 | 4 | .624 | 2.5 | 52.6 | 40.9 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 7 | 5 | .602 | 2.6 | 50.9 | 41.4 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 6 | 4 | .560 | 3.2 | 45.2 | 40.1 |
| Kaline Drive | 6 | 6 | .524 | 3.5 | 54.3 | 51.7 |
| Cottage Cheese | 5 | 7 | .425 | 4.7 | 67.6 | 78.7 |
Old Detroit: W 2, L 0; 14 – 9. (35 PA, .364, .371, .606; 3 ip, 1 er, 3.00 ERA). As part of trying to be a better Christian, I am going to resist the temptation to remind everyone that the Wolverines keep producing batting lines like yesterday’s even though they are playing without Eloy Jimenez and Ke’Bryan Hayes. And even though Byron Buxton sat out both games of yesterday’s double header. To say something like that would be prideful, which goeth before a fall, and hurtful to people I don’t want to hurt. So I will not mention it. Instead, I’ll just celebrate James McCann’s first good day of the season: 3 for 4 with a homer! And Rafael Devers’ 3 for 4 with a double,
Flint Hill: W 2, L 0; 9 – 3. (34 PA, .207, .324, .414; 10 ip, 0 er, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 0.00 ERA). Keone Kela tacked on a 10th no-hit inning (albeit with a walk) to put icing on the Tornado’s cake and ensure their accession to first place in the EF… oh, wait, those Jimenez-Hayes-Buxton-less W’s hit well enough to hold them off. Oh, well, the Flinties can always try again the next time their pitcher throws a no-no… Maybe then someone other than Bo Bichette (3 for 5 with 2 homers) will provide some offense.
Peshastin: “L”, 6 – 5. (28 PA, .238, .429, .381; 5.3 IP, 2 er, 3.40 ERA). The Pears continued their rapid ascension. The team went only 5 for 21, all singles, but tacked on 5 walks and 2 HBP to clog the bases. Jazz Chisholm’s homer drove in three. The only MLB player ever to be named “Jazz” is now OPSing 1.030 on the season. (I tried to get Phil to trade Jazz to me, but he was insufficiently cooperative.)
Haviland: L, 0 – 4. (39 PA, .086, 0.179, .0.171; 2 ip, 2 er, 9.00 ERA) The Dragons tried to replicate the Pear approach to hitting, supplementing two singles with one Brandon Lowe homer, 3 walks, and a hit batsman. But the Pears hit almost twice as much while the Dragons opted to put up almost twice as many AB, which (predictably) made their offense infinitesimal compared to the Pears.
Side note: Brandon Lowe and his mispronounced cousin Nate Lowe both homered yesterday.
DC: L, 2 – 5. (37 PA, .212, .270, .303; 8.3 ip, 5 er, 5.42 ERA) Joe Musgrove is already old news. The fire has gone out. He only got through 4 innings, allowing only 1 earned run but feeling shelled nonetheless by four hits, including a homer. Jose Berrios came in to finish the game, and succeeded, giving up 4 runs in his 4.3 innings, including a walk-off three run hit of some sort (not a homer) with one out in the home ninth.
Eno Sarris published an interesting article yesterday on the Athletic, exploring whether this year’s baseballs are affecting batting results. He suggests that the changes MLB took to increase drag may have also increased bounciness. So a 100-MPH blast won’t travel quite as far due to drag. But the swing that produced 100 MPA last year will produce a faster ball (101?) this year, adding back the lost distance.
I bring this up here because of this excerpt — a list of the players who have shown the biggest boost in batted-ball speed so far this year:
Max Exit Velocity Improvers (MEVI)
| PLAYER | 2021 MAX | 2020 MAX | DIFF |
|---|---|---|---|
|
113.3
|
90.9
|
22.4
|
|
|
106.2
|
96.2
|
10
|
|
|
116.4
|
109
|
7.4
|
|
|
115.4
|
109.6
|
5.8
|
|
|
107.7
|
103.6
|
4.1
|
|
|
109.5
|
105.5
|
4
|
|
|
112.9
|
109
|
3.9
|
|
|
108.4
|
105
|
3.4
|
|
|
107.6
|
104.2
|
3.4
|
|
|
115.2
|
111.9
|
3.3
|
|
|
113.5
|
110.3
|
3.2
|
|
|
111.1
|
108.2
|
2.9
|
|
|
115.3
|
112.5
|
2.8
|
|
|
110.7
|
108.1
|
2.6
|
|
|
104.9
|
102.6
|
2.3
|
Yermín Mercedes
Paul DeJong
Eddie Rosario
Yadier Molina
Tyler Naquin
Ty France
Matt Olson
Jason Heyward
See that last listed elite improver? That’s the formerly light-hitting Myles Straw, over whom the Wolverines and the Balk battled in the free agent draft. The wily Balkmaster outwangled me, and is reaping a nice reward. He apparently knew something I did not know.
Canberra: “L”, 5 – 4. (40 PA, .300, .300, .375; no pitching). That velocity-improvers chart reveals, WAAAY too late, what Ryan was up to when he snuck David Dahl past us during the draft. He was getting the 5th biggest improvement in hard-hitting in all of MLB, for minimum wage. Dahl went 2 for 5 with a double to back up Mike Trout’s 2 for 4 with a double, as the ‘Roos tried to win while going 40 plate appearances without a walk. Usually that’s inadvisable, but with David Dahl rifling hits all over the place, it almost worked.
Pittsburgh: DNP, (-2) – (-3). 36 PA, .258, .324, .323; 12.3 ip, 3 er, 2.20 ERA). Now the Alleghenys know why their batters have been treating balls so gently, as evidenced by this batting line: they have no one on the Max Exit Velocity Improvers (MEVI) list. Only Luis Robert managed an extra base hit (a double). But it almost didn’t matter, because Tyler Anderson and Nathan Eovaldi combined for 9 strong innings at a cost only 3 earned runs, and two relievers garnished that effort with scoreless innings.
Portland: L, 5 – 6. (48 PA, .256, .333, .395; 7.3 ip, 4 er, 4.93 ERA). Only one homer in that sea of PAs, by Travis Shaw who, presumably, was active. Otherwise that 729 OPS would be even lighter for a 5 run output.
Jon Gray struggled a little (4 ip, 3 er) but three relievers really did relieve, allowing only 1 earned run in 3.3 ip.
Bellingham: DNP, (-1) – 1. (29 PA, .214, .241, .464; 12 ip, 6 er, 4.50 ERA). Ronald Acuna had a great day (a homer, a double, and a single in 5 plate appearances) to lead the offense. Only Rowdy Tellez (2 for 4) and Rhys Hoskins (1 for 4) followed. Everyone else failed to lift a finger to help, going 0 for 15, none of them facing Rodón. Charlie Morton struggled (5 er in 6 ip), but Tyler Mahle picked him up (1 er in 5 ip) as did Jake McGee (0 er in 1 ip).
Kaline: “L”, 9 – 7. (36 PA, .345, .444, .586; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). An Edgar Martinez Day for the Drive, let by Aaron Judge’s 3 for 4 with two homers. Darwinzon Hernandez (who matches the two Z’s of Jazz Chisholm’s name but has to wander through almost the entire alphabet to collect them) provided the lone inning.
Cottage: W, 10 – 8 (59 PA, .340, .407, .547 — Edgar Martinez Day!; 0.7 ip, 0 er , 0.00 ERA). So much to comment on here. Where do I start?
1. I called the Portlies’ 48 PA a “sea”, but the Cheese ran 59 out there, almost exactly twice as many as they needed. An ocean!
2. On the other hand, the Cheese produced about 10% of the daily pitching they needed. I am guessing they were trying to exploit a market inefficiency here, Billy Beane style, by zigging toward hitting when everyone else was zagging toward pitching.
3. The effects of zigging off a cliff while everyone else was zagging away from the ledge should be more devastating. And they would be, except the Cheese achieved Edgar Martinez offensive production.
4. Sometime after I noticed the Wolverines had two players on that MEVI list (#s 3 and 7), I realized the Cheese also had two (#s 2 and 10.) #10 Ohtani didn’t help them yesterday; the only time he reached base was on a walk. But #2 did: the amazing I-didn’t-see-him-coming Zach McKinstry went 2 for 5 with a homer. Only double-header-playing Alex Verdugo (5 for 8 with a homer) outdid him for the Cheese yesterday.
5. We should also recognize standout performances by Brandon Nimmo (3 for 5) and eWie Trea Turner (2 for 4 with two doubles and a walk)
Which reminds me: how are the contestants on the shortstop free agent draft Let’s Make a Deal doing as of today?
Door # 1: Corey Seager (PA:$12,250) 1.019 OPS
Door # 2: Trea Turner (CC: $11,250) .830 OPS
Door # 3: Carlos Correa (OD: $10,750) .888 OPS
Door # 4: Andrelton Simmons (none) .925 OPS
Door # 5: Jose Iglesias (HD: $3,750) .527 OPS
Listings on the MEVI list: Carlos Correa, #3.
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 10 | 2 | .815 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 9 | 3 | .765 | 0.6 |
| Boston Red Sox | 9 | 3 | .750 | 0.8 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 6 | 6 | .500 | 3.8 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 5 | 6 | .455 | 4.3 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 5 | 7 | .417 | 4.8 |
| New York Yankees | 5 | 7 | .417 | 4.8 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 5 | 3 | .683 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 5 | 3 | .671 | 0.1 |
| New York Mets | 5 | 3 | .625 | 0.5 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 6 | 6 | .500 | 1.5 |
| Miami Marlins | 5 | 6 | .455 | 2 |
| Washington Nationals | 3 | 6 | .333 | 3 |
| Atlanta Braves | 4 | 8 | .333 | 3.5 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 6 | 4 | .624 | — |
| Kansas City Royals | 6 | 4 | .600 | 0.2 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 6 | 4 | .560 | 0.6 |
| Cleveland Indians | 6 | 5 | .545 | 0.7 |
| Detroit Tigers | 6 | 6 | .500 | 1.2 |
| Chicago White Sox | 6 | 6 | .500 | 1.2 |
| Minnesota Twins | 5 | 7 | .417 | 2.2 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Cincinnati Reds | 7 | 3 | .700 | — |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 7 | 5 | .583 | 1 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 6 | 6 | .500 | 2 |
| Cottage Cheese | 5 | 7 | .425 | 1.9 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 5 | 7 | .417 | 3 |
| Chicago Cubs | 5 | 7 | .417 | 3 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Haviland Dragons | 8 | 4 | .661 | — |
| Los Angeles Angels | 7 | 5 | .583 | 0.9 |
| Seattle Mariners | 6 | 5 | .545 | 1.4 |
| Kaline Drive | 6 | 6 | .524 | 1.7 |
| Houston Astros | 6 | 6 | .500 | 1.9 |
| Texas Rangers | 5 | 7 | .417 | 2.9 |
| Oakland A’s | 5 | 7 | .417 | 2.9 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 10 | 2 | .833 | — |
| Peshastin Pears | 8 | 4 | .683 | 1.8 |
| San Francisco Giants | 8 | 4 | .667 | 2 |
| San Diego Padres | 8 | 5 | .615 | 2.5 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 7 | 5 | .602 | 2.8 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 4 | 8 | .333 | 6 |
| Colorado Rockies | 3 | 9 | .250 | 7 |