Daily Briefing: Hitting the reset button

The FanGraphs Newsletter, June 8, 2021 [READ IN BROWSER]( By Jeffrey Bellone - June 8, 2021 🟢 HITTING THE RESET BUTTON When the Mariners promoted top prospect Jarred Kelenic in May, the general reaction from the baseball community was finally. After [service time games]( kept him in Triple-A to start the season -- where he batted .370/.414/.630 with two home runs -- his promotion seemed like the obvious path. Less than one month later, Seattle has optioned him back to the minors. The 21-year-old outfielder, who ranks as [FanGraphs' fourth best prospect on THE BOARD]( was caught in a dreadful 0-39 slump, while batting .096 with 26 strikeouts in just 92 plate appearances since making his major league debut. It's not the first time a hyped prospect has struggled out of the gate, and it won't be the last. For Kelenic, it seemed as if the timing was right for a reset. ⚫️ WHAT ELSE HAPPENED? ▫️ Dylan Bundy earned his first win of the season by tossing 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball in the Angels' 8-3 victory over the Royals last night. The right-hander is now 1-6 with a 6.16 ERA (5.13 FIP). He had been winless in his previous 10 starts. ▫️ Longtime San Francisco Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper [announced]( on Monday that he will undergo chemotherapy for an undisclosed illness. In his statement, Kuiper said, "I still plan on broadcasting this season, though I may take a few more games off if I'm not feeling well." 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 There were only three games on the ledger yesterday, and none of them produced a significant play in terms of drastically shifting the win probability of the game. However, Anthony Rizzo dropping a Manny Machado pop-up in foul territory proved significant after Machado homered on the next pitch. SCORES (HOME TEAMS IN CAPS) PADRES 9 Cubs 4 RED SOX 5 Marlins 3 ANGELS 8 Royals 3 Track every game using our [LIVE SCOREBOARD](. [On Pitch Sequences and Spin Mirroring]( by Carmen Ciardiello Pitch types are derived from their movement and velocity. The former is mainly derived from the axis of rotation and the spin rate; sometimes the effect of seam shifted wake is sprinkled in, too. Based on 2020 data, here is the average axis of rotation and spin rates for the main pitch types for right-handed pitchers directly from the Statcast data (left-handed pitches are the opposite so I filtered by handedness): My goal here is to see if the spin axis differential between two pitches thrown in sequence alone can be a driving force behind generating swinging strikes and suppressing batter production overall. [READ MORE ]( 📝 RECENTLY PUBLISHED [October Isn't Everything: Storylines to Keep an Eye on in the National League]( by Sara Sanchez [Mariners 2020 First-Rounder Emerson Hancock Talks Pitching]( by David Laurila [Daily Prospect Notes: 6/7/21]( by Eric Longenhagen [A Collision Has Derailed Evan Longoria's Resurgence]( by Jay Jaffe [How Brandon Crawford's New Swing Turned Things Around]( by Luke Hopper [Looking for Prospects, Listening for Community]( by Tess Taruskin 🎧 FANGRAPHS PODCASTS 🎧 [BEAT THE SHIFT PODCAST: Yankees Episode w/ Sweeny Murti (WFAN):]( - Who has been the Yankees MVP to date? - [Gerrit Cole]( - [DJ LeMahieu]( - Deadline trade needs - [Gleyber Torres]( - [Giancarlo Stanton]( / [Luis Severino]( – Injury updates - How will the Yankees handle innings limits for starting pitchers down the stretch in 2021? - Is Aaron Boone on the managerial hot set? 🔝 TOP PERFORMERS Some additional performances not noted above. 🔺 RYAN WEATHERS (SP/SDP): 5 IP, 3 ER, 4 SO (2 swinging strikes), 1 BB, 5 H. 🔺 NICK PIVETTA (SP/BOS): 4.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 SO (6 swinging strikes), 3 BB, 7 H. 🔺 MAX STASSI (C/LAA): 3-4 (1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 R) 🔺 STARLING MARTE (CF/MIA): 3-4 (1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 SB) 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. 📚 [Jarred Kelenic's Mariners demotion was necessary and one that can be beneficial with some patience]( by Matt Calkins, Seattle Times: It’s a chance for Kelenic to take a breath and not feel as though he has to single-handedly save this franchise. He is only 21. He can mash in Tacoma for a few weeks (he hit .370/.414/.630 in the six games he played there this year) and get his mind and swing right [...] This is a wait-and-see situation for Kelenic. The start to his MLB career was obviously inauspicious, but shouldn’t spike anxiety levels just yet. This is where everybody needs to be patient. Especially Jarred Kelenic. 📚 [The Upside of Bunting]( by Patrick Dubuque, Baseball Prospectus ($): The defensive shift in baseball is becoming a problem. Not the one that the league has toyed with banning, the realignment of positions in response to an individual hitter’s tendencies. A bigger problem, as Rob Arthur [has researched]( the past [couple of weeks]( has been more of a continental drift, or the melting of the ice caps. Defensive players have slowly, inexorably migrated away from the plate, with third basemen being one of the prime examples. To a degree, it’s a product of strength training and the ability to throw to first from farther away. Primarily, though, it’s a simple matter of providing the infielder with more time to react, and more ground to cover while reacting, when fielding the ball. Every infielder should stand as far back as they can to make the play as needed. Unless, of course, there was something that prevented them from playing back. It would be nice if something like that existed. 📚 MORE READS: [Providing MiLB players with housing sounds good, but the devil's in the details, and it's a terrible idea]( by Sheryl Ring, Esq., Beyond the Box Score [Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Is Finally Having the Vladito Season We've Been Waiting For]( by Michael Baumann, The Ringer [Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. define a group that could dominate baseball for years]( by Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic ($) [@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](