GIFCap: Kevin Gausman makes MLB Debut

Kevin Gausman has been a popular name on this Thursday night, and the prospect showed us what he’s got to offer the major leagues, and we may be in for some fun watching this kid. A quick scouting report on him from Baseball Prospectus:

Screen Shot 2013-05-23 at 4.24.55 PM

Pretty good fastball, above average slider, and pretty good changeup, and if all that gets put together, that all equals pretty darn good in your rotation. Some overall thoughts from the lead scout at Baseball Prospectus on the kid’s outing:

Onto what he showed Toronto and the rest of the majors in his five innings of work.

The fastball:

That was Gausman’s first strike thrown.

Emilio Bonifacio likes the other Orioles starters better, I think.

Nice, Gausman hitting his spots.

I really liked that pitch, just not the best reception from Matt Wieters there. Gausman threw 99 the pitch before that.

Jose Bautista missing 99 MPH.

Oh, no, Gausman not hitting his spots. J.P. Arencibia two run homer would make it 4-3 on a fastball inside.

The slider:

Really liked that pitch.

That mistake of a hanging slider to Adam Lind begun the two-run rally the Blue Jays would begin against Gausman in the 4th.

The changeup:

How do you not love that changeup. Man oh man.

This was also the kind of look Gausman had on all night, one where you assume he’s taking it all in, really getting used to the idea that he is a major leaguer, and that THIS IS SO COOL!

 

Looks like Baltimore’s got a pretty good rookie on their hands.

Kevin Gausman won’t have to buy breakfast for a while

Top prospect Kevin Gausman makes his MLB debut tonight for the Baltimore Orioles, and as a surprise congratulations gift, his Orioles teammates gave Mr. Gausman his favorite food, or at least what I hope is his favorite food: donuts

I’m going to guess there’s somewhere around 15-20 donuts in each of those containers, and there are about 50 cases of those visible in the picture (scary thought that there could be more). This means that Kevin Gausman has at least 750-1,000 donuts that he will need to go through if he kept all those donuts. I don’t know when those kinds of donuts expire, but if it were in a month, and he were to eat those on his own, he would have to eat at least 25-33.333 donuts a day to not put them to waste. However, if he ate all of those donuts, he would be wasting his body. What to do… what to do…

Water Cooler Day Off Talk: My May 23rd All Star Ballot

Earlier I wrote about how you could validate voting for each Giant on the MLB All Star Ballot, now it’s probably an appropriate time to list my actual All Stars. Since voting doesn’t close until the 4th of July, there’s going to be plenty of room for hot streaks, and hot piles of slumps. As with the online ballot itself, I’ll give you my players for each position, and we’ll leave it at that for now.

American League

C – Carlos Santana (8 HR, .405 OBP, .410 wOBA, 163 wRC+, 1.7 fWAR) over Joe Mauer (2 HR, .416 OBP, .386 wOBA, 144 wRC+, 1.9 fWAR)

1B – Chris Davis (14 HR, .420 OBP, .458 wOBA, 190 wRC+, 2.3 fWAR)

2B – Dustin Pedroia (8 SB, .420 OBP, .375 wOBA, 132 wRC+, 2.0 fWAR) just over Robinson Cano (13 HR, .335 OBP, .375 wOBA, 134 wRC+, 1.6 fWAR)

SS – Jhonny Peralta (4 HR, .379 OBP, .364 wOBA, 127 wRC+, 1.7 fWAR)

3B – Miguel Cabrera (13 HR, .459 OBP, .480 wOBA, 206 wRC+, 3.0 fWAR) over Evan Longoria (9 HR, .399 OBP, .420 wOBA, 171 wRC+, 2.9 fWAR)

OF – Mike Trout (9 HR, 9 SB, .400 wOBA, 157 wRC+, 2.4 fWAR)

OF – Jose Bautista (11 HR, .408 wOBA, 158 wRC+, 1.9 fWAR)

OF – Alex Rios (10 HR, 8 SB, .372 OBP, .397 wOBA, 146 wRC+, 1.7 fWAR) just over Alex Gordon (6 HR, .387 OBP, .396 wOBA, 150 wRC+, 1.9 fWAR)

DH – David Ortiz (7 HR, .397 OBP, .429 wOBA, 168 wRC+, 1.1 fWAR)

National League

C – Buster Posey (6 HR, .395 OBP, .385 wOBA, 152 wRC+, 1.8 fWAR)

1B – Joey Votto (7 HR, .484 OBP, .438 wOBA, 182 wRC+, 2.7 fWAR) over Paul Goldschmidt (12 HR, .400 OBP, .420 wOBA, .166 wRC+, 2.1 fWAR)

2B – Matt Carpenter (3 HR, .387 OBP, .365 wOBA, 137 wRC+, 2.1 fWAR) over Marco Scutaro (1 HR, .382 OBP, .358 wOBA, 133 wRC+, 1.6 fWAR)

SS – Jean Segura (7 HR, 14 SB, .390 OBP, .407 wOBA, 2.4 fWAR) just over former Long Beach State Dirtbag Troy Tulowitzki (9 HR, .409 OBP, .427 wOBA, 163 wRC+, 2.3 fWAR). You could go either way here.

3B – David Wright (6 HR, 10 SB, .395 OBP, .385 wOBA, 151 wRC+, 2.1 fWAR) over Chase Headley (does not play on the Mets)

OF – Carlos Gonzalez (11 HR, 8 SB, .390 OBP, .413 wOBA, 154 wRC+, 2.1 fWAR)

OF – Justin Upton (14 HR, .387 OBP, .410 wOBA, 165 wRC+, 2.0 fWAR)

OF – Shin-Soo Choo (9 HR, .449 OBP, .426 wOBA, 174 wRC+, 2.0 fWAR) over Carlos Gomez (152 wRC+, 2.6 fWAR) and Ryan Braun (9 HR, .412 wOBA). Just don’t put Choo in CF.

Feel free to put your ballot or changes in the comments because I can see how you might like player B over player A. Short season so far, lots of time left before I have to decide who I’m voting in 35 times.

Validating your vote for every #SFGiants player with numbers

Every fan has their own strategy for voting for choosing whom they would like to don the All Star patches in New York in July. The strategies I know of are:

  • Voting for the statistically best on both leagues (usually that’s pretty subjective though)
  • Voting for the best in the league of the team you support, voting for the worst on the other league
  • Voting for the players you want to see play
  • Voting for only your team in one league, and then a variety of choices for the other league (e.g., just the Astros, nobody, etc.)

Of course, every team wants you to vote for their players, so now for Giants fans that want to justify their all-Giants ballot, how will you do that from a statistical point of view? All stats are within the context of their position within the National League:

  • Buster Posey: tied for the NL lead in fWAR (1.8), leads in OBP, wOBA, wRC+. Possibly the easiest vote for the ballot within the Champs’ roster.
  • Brandon Belt: According to Fangraphs fielding value, is the very best. Also, number of baby giraffe hats to other headgear of NL 1B very much in favor of Belt.
  • Marco Scutaro: Leads in highest BABIP, lowest K%, AVG, Contact% (making contact with the pitch — 95.3), lowest rate of swinging strikes (1.4%)
  • Brandon Crawford: Tied for having the highest positional value on Fangraphs. Most handsome.
  • Pablo Sandoval: T-most HR (8), leads in RBI (see if you can sneak this one past somebody), AVG, WPA all despite seeing the lowest ratio of pitches in the strike zone.
  • Gregor Blanco: Because he makes great catches in the outfield to save the game, that’s why you vote him in. You may also use the fact that he’s been much better than replacement level overall this year
  • Angel Pagan: Makes the highest rate of contact on balls outside of the strike zone. Also could have the best hair of all NL center fielders.
  • Hunter Pence: T-most SB (8), has seven dingers, and his defense hasn’t been all that bad.

I’m just glad I did this with the Giants and not some really awful team. Pitchers get selected by people that wear the uniform, except for that Final Vote stage. Even if you’re not voting for the Giants, and voting for the best in the NL, they still have some pretty good options to choose from. Maybe I’ll do a blog post on that someday.

Maybe you shouldn’t run on Rangers OF Leonys Martin

Leonys Martin is not a big name in National League households, but Rangers fans have been getting to know the kid this year, and I suppose a little bit the past couple years, but he’s caught my attention with some of the highlight reel plays he’s put on. First though, a scouting report on the young Cuban from 2012 when Baseball Prospectus did their top prospects list for the Rangers:

Screen Shot 2013-05-18 at 9.16.15 AM

Ok, “good instincts in center field and an outstanding arm.” You’d hope for a 25 year old those instincts and outstanding-ness have only got better. I haven’t watched him before, but they look pretty good to me…

Had to GIF this one, because this one was my favorite

and from the 3B camera

Incredible. First time I saw this play was on TV, and man, that looks very impressive on the big screen.

and Jean Segura is not a slow guy, either.

Jamey Carroll, what are you even doing.

Ron Washington thinks your attempts to run on Martin are hilarious though:

Re: Paul Goldschmidt, plenty of DBacks fans more than willing to break the Law

Paul Goldschmidt wasn’t touted as some super prospect when he was drafted or while he was coming up through the the minors. Steven Burt of the Diamondbacks division of SB Nation pieced together some evaluations from a few scouts, but whenever Goldy does something productive, I feel like I see the army of fans go after Keith Law. But that really speaks more to what I see on social media, but maybe that’s subject to what happens to come across on my timeline. There are plenty of people like me that really respect Keith Law’s opinion, and he hasn’t become one of the biggest names in scouting because of his inability to evaluate, and any scout will tell you they will never have a 100% track record of being right. It stands to reason then that even the common fan will understand that scouts will at least get one player wrong, but much like the big leagues itself, a lot of people expect perfection. Diamondbacks fans have very vocally let Law know that they strongly believe — with the numbers as their guide — he has been very wrong about their Goldy.

When anybody SBNation gets involved, you can count on their following getting behind them right away for sure.

This guy has made it his life mission to get Law to say Goldschmidt is “more than a bench bat.”

Well, maybe this isn’t a DBacks fan.

Well that’s just a “don’t-read-the-comments” type comment

Keepin’ it going

One of Law’s many responses (you don’t need an insider account to view his tweets, *winky face*)

And I forgot to subscribe from my “don’t read the comments” way of life

Screen Shot 2013-05-18 at 8.58.35 AM

Screen Shot 2013-05-18 at 8.58.57 AM

I mean, really, guys.

This isn’t something that only happens with Diamondback fans and Law’s evaluation of Goldschmidt, it’s in or been in every fanbase with some player evaluator — sometimes the general manager, the field manager, someone else in the front office, or even maybe a respected blogger or former player. I think Giants fans give Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean a lot of grief for Brandon Belt, and I don’t see that being let go anytime soon.

Honestly, I get, but I’m really not sure why we as human beings do this. Someone makes a mistake, we don’t let them forget, sometimes all in good fun, sometimes malicious. We see this kind of stuff all the time in politics, but I don’t want to go there. I understand the desire for accountability, but if Keith Law ends up being incorrect on the level of play from Goldschmidt to the very end, OK. If Goldschmidt turns into a platoon bat next year, OK. I don’t see why this has to be such a big deal. I’m trying my hardest to think of why there’s a good reason to go off on someone in this scenario, but I just can’t think of it.

GIFCap: Reminding you what a #SFGiants win looks like

If it seems like it’s been a while since the Giants won, and it’s true: Sunday was the last time. Today is Thursday, and the last two days in Toronto have been nightmares thanks to the defense and the pitching of the squad. Here are some GIFs that might make up a victory in the regular season.

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly when Matt Cain started out by striking out Dexter Fowler.

But then Matt Cain started allowing dingerz and not catching breaks at the plate.

BUT THEN Brandon Crawford begins being the star of the show by hitting a bases clearing double with 2 outs in the 4th.

And then goes all Golden on the Rockies

Barehanded, ya’ll

The Giants would score some more runs, yada yada details, and then you bring in Sergio Romo to strike out Dexter Fowler just like the game started for the Rockies at bat.

Here’s a jump where Angel Pagan is unhappy with Hunter Pence.

Here’s some lovin between Marco Scutaro and Crawford

And those are some of the things that make for a Giants win. That feels good after two days of destruction and nearly happened again tonight after being down 6-0 at the end of 3. Eight straight runs to win a Thursday evening game? Yes, thank you! But less allowing runs to the other team, please.

The Best Worst Bat Flip I’ve ever seen

Credit to Ben Badler of Baseball America for putting this out there, but you really have to watch this

The player at bat knows he got it. He CRUSHED that offering, and points at his dugout…. and then the ball gets caught on the warning track. He then gets consoled by an opposing player.

The action in GIF form:

 

I cannot stop laughing at this.

Make up your mind, George Kontos

I knew among qualified relievers on the Giants, George Kontos had the lowest Left on Base % of all of ‘em. I thought this was going to be a rant about how his LOB% was horrible and that in 2012 he probably was a lot better and I was going to turn it into a “hopefully he gets better?” type of post. Then I started stumbling upon numbers. Numbers that will make you think, that will get you down to the basement and crave whatever mom’s cooking in the kitchen upstairs. At the beginning of the season, we held out hope that Kontos could be a good RHP to have as a set-up man, and despite his overall numbers, it’s not crazy to suggest he still could be that, but as a ROOGY (Right-handed one out guy). You wouldn’t think so from the numbers he threw out there in 2012:

Split G PA H 2B 3B HR BB SO BA OBP SLG GDP BAbip
vs RHB as RHP 42 115 25 7 2 2 6 28 .231 .270 .389 3 .291
vs LHB as RHP 28 62 9 0 0 1 6 16 .164 .242 .218 0 .205
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2013.

Better numbers against LHH than RHH, he was doing some reverse-platooning, but what he was doing against RHH was still pretty acceptable, so I guess it wouldn’t have been a crime to have him in the 8th. Turn the page to 2013 and you get:

Split G PA H 2B 3B HR BB SO BA OBP SLG GDP BAbip
vs RHB as RHP 21 58 9 3 0 0 5 15 .173 .241 .231 3 .237
vs LHB as RHP 13 27 9 2 1 2 2 5 .360 .407 .760 0 .389
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2013.

An explosion of success from LHH against Kontos, but a pretty good line against RHH. Maybe he is getting killed by BABIP and that’ll even itself out, or maybe he’s already been trying to figure out ways to adjust to the way LHH have been hitting off of him. Here’s some other stuff that you can either take as not encouraging, or just interesting:

  • Kontos’ 21 appearances lead the team, one ahead of Sergio Romo
  • He does not lead relievers in innings pitched (21.0). That belongs to Chad Gaudin (21.1).
  • Kontos had a 51.3% ground ball rate in 2012.
  • It’s 25.0% in 2013
  • His 63.1% LOB% this year is 21st-worst of all 169 qualified relievers

The ground ball rate worries me a bit, and it’s no wonder why his xFIP is 4.10 while his FIP is 3.35 this year (too bad for him he’s unable to keep the ERA down like Matt Cain could). I would like to know who the real George Kontos is though. Is it the ROOGY in 2013, or the good reliever in 2012? No one would be surprised if it were the former, since it’s pretty difficult to be very good at the minor leagues, and I mean the Yankees gave the Giants Chris Stewart for him, but it wouldn’t be the first time an organization was wrong about a player. I’d love for Kontos to revert back to 2012 form, but his ground ball numbers and performance against LHH will be something to keep an eye on. Yes, and his LOB%, too.

Exciting News: Per Pedro Gomez, Jonathan Sanchez close to Dodgers deal

Just trying to ignore the defensive mishaps in this Giants game I’m watching when:

Jonathan Sanchez could be a Dodger. Soon. While this may make you laugh at the Dodgers, what if Dirty finds everything that’s been lost for so long? What if he figures it out and stops walking people? What if he

Date Tm Opp DR IP H R ER BB SO HR HBP ERA BF Pit
Apr 5 PIT @ LAD 99 5.0 6 3 3 1 4 1 0 5.40 22 88
Apr 10 PIT @ ARI 4 3.1 8 9 9 4 2 2 1 12.96 23 93
Apr 21 PIT ATL 10 3.0 4 2 2 3 5 0 0 11.12 15 74
Apr 26 PIT @ STL 4 0.0 3 2 2 0 0 2 1 12.71 4 17
Apr 29 PIT @ MIL 2 2.1 4 2 2 0 4 2 0 11.85 11 48
PIT 13.2 25 18 18 8 15 7 2 11.85 75
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/14/2013.

…I mean he could

Year Age Tm ERA G GS IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ WHIP
2012 29 KCR 7.76 12 12 53.1 65 47 46 8 44 1 36 5 1 4 270 54 2.044
2012 29 COL 9.53 3 3 11.1 17 13 12 3 9 1 9 0 0 2 57 51 2.294
2013 30 PIT 11.85 5 4 13.2 25 18 18 7 8 0 15 2 0 0 75 31 2.415
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/14/2013.

…well, alright. Best of luck, Dirty. How bad could it actually get.

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