Daily Briefing: A messy commute

The FanGraphs Newsletter, May 28, 2021 [READ IN BROWSER]( By Jeffrey Bellone - May 28, 2021 🟢 A MESSY COMMUTE For many of us trying to work through the pandemic, our commutes have disappeared, as we've traded car trips and transit rides for short walks to our dining rooms, or wherever our laptop happens to be set-up to work. Baseball players don't have the luxury to work from home. It turns out it's pretty important for them to be at the stadium to perform their jobs. Shocking, I know! Yesterday, we learned that commuting isn't always easy for major leaguers, even if you're Shohei Ohtani. The two-way star was scratched from his scheduled start yesterday in Oakland after a crash on the Bay Bridge forced several members of the team, including Ohtani, to take the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to RingCentral Coliseum. While [BART's Twitter account]( was quick to note there were no reported issues for any Coliseum-bound trains last night, manager Joe Madden said the team decided to push out Ohtani's pitching date when it became clear he wouldn't make it to the stadium in time to follow his normal pre-game routine. Ohtani ultimately made it into the lineup as the designated hitter, and went 0-3 in the Angels' 5-0 loss. ⚫️ WHAT ELSE HAPPENED? ▫️ By now, you've probably seen the [replay]( of Pirates first baseman Will Craig's adventure trying to capture the third out of the third inning in yesterday's Cubs-Pirates game. Cubs shortstop Javy Báez pounced on Craig's mistake, turning what appeared to be a routine groundball to the left side into a base-running side show that allowed Wilson Contreras to score from second and Báez to reach second after Craig inexplicably forgot that all he needed to do was step on the first base bag to end the inning. The Pirates first baseman was pulled off the bag on the initial throw, but for some reason, he decided to chase Báez down the first base line to apply a tag, rather than retreat back to first base for the easy out. Things unraveled from there. ▫️ Cleveland starter Shane Bieber struck out 12 batters and took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning to help lead his team to a 5-2 win over the Tigers in Detroit yesterday. The right-hander improved to 5-3 on the season with a 3.13 ERA (2.94 FIP). This newsletter is made possible due to the generous support of our members. If you are reading this email or use FanGraphs in your daily baseball routine, please consider supporting us. [BECOME A FANGRAPHS MEMBER]( YESTERDAY'S MOST PIVOTAL PLAY Jackie Bradley Jr. delivered the first walk-off RBI of his career to propel the Brewers to a 6-5 victory over the Padres in 10 innings. Bradley had gone 3,448 major league plate appearances without a walk-off before yesterday, [most]( of any active player. SCORES (HOME TEAMS IN CAPS) BREWERS 6 Padres 5 (10) WHITE SOX 5 Orioles 1 Cardinals 5 D-BACKS 4 (10) Cleveland 5 TIGERS 2 Phillies 3 MARLINS 2 Blue Jays 2 YANKEES 0 (DH/7) YANKEES 5 Blue Jays 3 (DH/7) DODGERS 4 Giants 3 ATHLETICS 5 Angels 0 Reds 3 NATIONALS 0 (7) MARINERS 5 Rangers 0 METS 1 Rockies 0 (DH/7) METS 4 Rockies 2 (DH/7) RAYS 7 Royals 2 Cubs 5 PIRATES 3 Track every game using our [LIVE SCOREBOARD](. [Checking in on the Hitter's Count]( by Owen McGrattan In practical terms, however, a hitter likely won’t be thinking in terms of overall offspeed usage when going over the myriad of swing decisions; they’re thinking about movement, too, as well as what type of swing they have to take to match that movement. With an effective usage mix, a pitcher can create chaos, especially when it comes to the range of vertical movement a hitter has to cover. The standard deviation of vertical movement on all types of pitches in hitter’s counts has continued to widen over the past few years, and the movements are growing more varied. While you can see large values for 2015, ’16, and ’17, keep in mind that in 2021, pitchers are approaching those large standard deviations in movement while throwing fewer fastballs. There’s more to pitch shape than vertical movement, but we know how [important]( vertical movement is at generating favorable outcomes for pitchers. [READ MORE ]( 📝 RECENTLY PUBLISHED [New York Can't Catch a Break]( by Ben Clemens [Whose High Home Run Was the Most Impressive?]( by Justin Choi [Top 65 Prospects: Texas Rangers]( by Eric Longenhagen [Roto Riteup: May 28, 2021]( by Justin Mason [Bullpen Report: May 28, 2021]( by Jason Martinez [Analyzing Power Drainers]( by Lucas Kelly [What You Can Bring to the Ballpark in 2021]( by RJ McDaniel [Marcell Ozuna Slides Onto the Injured List]( by Dan Szymborski [Bryce Harper Was Clearly Playing Hurt]( by Devan Fink 🎧 FANGRAPHS PODCASTS [EFFECTIVELY WILD EPISODE 1700: Dirty Secrets and Naked Truths]( Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about [Javier Báez]( and [Will Craig]( on a baffling blooper, a naked streaker seizing the moment during a rain delay at Nationals Park, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt’s objection to a foreign-substance inspection (and how MLB should respond), an update from New Era about its short-lived “Local Market” caps, and [Francisco Lindor]( protracted season-starting slump, then answer listener emails about legalizing sticky stuff for bad teams and whether umps would improve if they didn’t rotate around the field. 🎧 FANGRAPHS AUDIO: [Kris Atteberry and Jared Sandler Issue Grades]( 🎧 CHIN MUSIC, EPISODE 15: [Super Weird Exotic Nonsense]( 🔝 TOP PERFORMERS Some additional performances not noted above. 🔺 CHRIS BASSITT (SP/OAK): 9 IP, 9 SO (9 swinging strikes), 1 BB, 2 H and 0 ER. 🔺 CHRIS FLEXEN (SP/SEA): 7 IP, 6 SO (25 swinging strikes), 1 BB, 3 H and 0 ER. 🔺 WILLY ADAMES (SS/MIL): 4-5 (1 HR, 1 R, 4 RBI) 🔺 AUSTIN MEADOWS (LF/TBR): 2-4 (1 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI) Check out our [Live Daily Leaderboards]( to track each day's top performers in real-time. ⚾️ ROSTER REPORT For the latest roster information, please visit our [RosterResource]( pages. 📚 [MLB draft stock watch: Who is playing their way into the first round?]( by Kiley McDaniel, ESPN Insider: The 2021 MLB draft starts July 11, so we're about six weeks out and the consensus in the industry is now ballooning out from just the top 10 or so picks to beyond the first round. To get a more well-rounded take on players in the top two rounds, I spent last week in Southern California seeing both amateur and pro prospects, but for a draft-focused article, I'll stay on that topic. Here is a look at some of the most intriguing players I saw, along with the most interesting names shooting up the draft boards at the right time. 📚 [Weird and Wild, the Max Scherzer Graduation Day Edition]( by Jayson Stark, The Athletic ($): So what weirdness did you miss in the latest, greatest week of baseball in 2021? Oh, maybe Ronald Acuña Jr. striking out — against a position player who was in the middle of giving up eight runs! … Or possibly the end of one man’s nine-year quest for one stinking hit! … Or even a team that went eight straight innings without scoring any runs but still scored 14! But none of that was the Weird and Wild highlight of the week — because a three-time Cy Young winner decided it was time to collect his long-overdue honorary degree in playing catch! 📚 MORE READS: [Zack Wheeler Is Re-Breaking Out]( by Michael Ajeto, Pitcher List [The League's Defensive Positioning Has Changed]( by Robert Arthur, Baseball Prospectus ($) [Mickey Callaway is fired and banned, but will anything else change?]( by Marc Normandin [@fangraphs]( [FanGraphs]( [FanGraphs]( [RSS]( [FORWARD]( [SUBSCRIBE]( Copyright © 2021 FanGraphs Inc, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the FanGraphs Newsletter. Our mailing address is: FanGraphs Inc 1200 N Hartford St. Apt 312Arlington, Va 22201 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](