The FanGraphs Newsletter, April 12, 2024 [READ IN BROWSER]( April 12, 2024 We’re two weeks into the 2024 season — Seoul Series excepted — so it’s difficult to take any hot start too seriously. Still, it’s a surprise that the Pirates entered Thursday with the National League’s highest winning percentage (.750, on the back of a 9-3 record), despite losing to the Tigers 5-3 on Tuesday afternoon in Pittsburgh. Since this isn’t the kind of condition that has tended to prevail after April in recent years, we’ll zoom in for a closer look. The Pirates entered 2024 having finished below .500 in five straight seasons and seven out of the past eight, with an 82-79 record in 2018 constituting the lone exception; last year’s 76-86 record was their best since then, a 14-win improvement over 2022. While they did not have a particularly auspicious winter, they didn’t sit still, with general manager Ben Cherington signing half a dozen players — including four former All-Stars ([Aroldis Chapman]( [Yasmani Grandal]( [MartÃÂn Pérez]( and [Andrew McCutchen]( the last of them re-upping) and a Gold Glove winner ([Michael A. Taylor]( — to one-year contracts worth anywhere from $2.5 million to $10 million, with a couple notable minor league deals as well ([Domingo Germán]( [Eric Lauer](. Cherington also made a handful of trades, most notably adding [Marco Gonzales]( and [Edward Olivares](. The team’s biggest move was [inking]( top starter [Mitch Keller]( to a five-year, $77 million extension that suggests he’ll outlast all of the newcomers. At 9-3, the Pirates have matched their 2018 team for the most wins within the first 12 games. Not since 1992, when Jim Leyland piloted [Barry Bonds]( and friends to a 10-2 start and a 96-win season that fell [one ninth-inning rally short]( of a pennant, have they started the year better. In their burst of 21st-century competitiveness — three straight second-place finishes and Wild Card berths from 2013–15, with a high of 98 wins in the last of those years — they were 6-6 at this juncture each time. [Read More]( [Five Things I Liked (Or Didn't Like) This Week, April 12]( The most exciting man in baseball! One of the least exciting situations in baseball! Pitcher defense! Implied baserunning threats! We've got it all this week, for a very particular definition of "all." | by Ben Clemens [Prospect Pupu Platter: Jackson Merrill, Spencer Arrighetti, and Luis Gil]( Scouting notes on the Padres center fielder and two pitchers on the starter/reliever line. | by Eric Longenhagen [A Trio of White Sox Injuries Has Made a Bad Team Even Worse]( In quick succession, Eloy Jiménez, Luis Robert Jr., and Yoán Moncada all went down, exacerbating a 2-10 start and making a dreadful club an unwatchable one. | by Jay Jaffe [Top of the Order: Mizuhara Set To Be Charged]( Plus, the criminal complaint against Ippei Mizuhara, the ragtag Guardians bullpen, and Mike Trout’s hot start. | by Jon Becker [MLB Avoids Worst-Case Gambling Scenario. But It's Not Time to Relax]( MLB could treat this like a bullet dodged. The league would be wiser to treat it like a warning shot. | by Michael Baumann 🎧 [Effectively Wild Episode 2150: Crime Doesn't Ippei]( [DOWNLOAD THE FANGRAPHS APP]( [FanGraphs & Effectively Wild Merch Is Now Available at BreakingT!]( [ORDER HERE]( [2024 MLB predictions: Our hottest hot takes two weeks in]( via ESPN [Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani, and the Moral Hazard of Speculation]( by Ginny Searle, Baseball Prospectus ($) [Who's the next No. 1 prospect after Holliday? We take a look]( by Sam Dykstra, MLB
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