In this era of baseball, there are now two philosophies on how to play defense. Each philosophy is trying to demonstrate which way is best to convert balls into outs. The traditional way of playing a straight up defense has been slowly dying out while the idea of moving defenders…
Jason Heyward’s offensive performance—or lack thereof—in 2016 has been very well documented. He is currently on pace to finish the year with career lows in just about every offensive category, including batting average, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage. To that point, his current wRC+ of 70 is by far the worst…
As a baseball fan, you hear it all the time on any MLB broadcast. As I was recently watching the Nationals play the Mets on ESPN, Curtis Granderson hit a groundball right into the heart of a “Full Ted Williams shift”, where Daniel Murphy, the second baseman playing in shallow…
“Five-tool player” is a term that gets thrown around in baseball circles a bit more than it probably should these days, but one player we can unequivocally agree who fits that mold is the man patrolling center for the Angels most nights: Mike Trout. The 24-year-old comfortably leads baseball with 42.5 Wins Above Replacement according…
Shifting has become increasingly common in baseball and companies like Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) are at the forefront for bringing this information to light. Shifts are employed strategically by placing infielders in positions where batters have dictated with previous performance that they are more likely to hit ground balls and short…
Yes, you read that correctly. Adam Eaton, the minuscule 5′ 8″ leadoff hitter for the Chicago White Sox, is one of the best right fielders in all of baseball. Sounds crazy, right? Most think of Eaton as a solid, speedy outfielder for a White Sox team that has been rather…
Major League Baseball teams are more invested in their players today than ever before. In 2015, player salaries jumped to an all-time high of over $3.5 billion, a raise north of $320 million (and over 10 percent) from 2014 alone. And now that they give out contracts of upwards of $30 million…
What makes a dominant pitch dominant? Sometimes all we need is the eye test. That upper-90s heater elevated above the letters for a whiff? Yep, that is dominant. That mid-80s slider thrown down and away to a right-handed batter for a hapless swing and equally hapless chopper? No doubt, that’s nasty. Perhaps that…
Major League Baseball officially flipped its calendar from April to May this past weekend, which means we’ve arrived at a juncture of the season—roughly 15 percent through 2015’s total plate appearances, if you want to get overly specific—where player performance, trends and adjustments can be dissected with a certain amount…
Last week, Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story set the Major League record by hitting seven home runs in his team’s first six games of the 2016 campaign, passing hall of famers Mike Schmidt and Willy Mays, along with former Rockies great, Larry Walker, each of whom had hit six home runs…
