N1: I think the scout in all of us rejoiced to see Luis Lara’s1 well-timed leaping grab in the 11th inning yesterday, followed by his excellent throw home against the next batter in an unsuccessful attemot to prevent the winning sacrifice fly. It would have been a sequence Brewers fans could remember. Instead, not only did the Brewers lose, but the good throw home counted as no individual achievement whatsoever. It wasn’t even like a long run in football forced out inside the 10 yard line.
Defensive performance in baseball, particularly on throws, occurs unusually within limits. Provided the pitch is a strike or a near strike, the batter can always hit it out of the park, but he often can’t throw out a runner.
I think the Lara equivalent to that throw would be a brilliant soccer play that came up short of a goal. The outfielder wanting to cut off the winning run coming home is truly more helpless, but the situations are equivalent in that the respective players get no statistical credit for what they did.2
N2: Striking out 16 of the 31 batters he’s faced in August across 8 innings, Adrian Morejon has been on a strikeout tear lately. In fact, by line scores, Morejon has looked like Mason Miller, who has 93 strikeouts on the season from 196 batters faced.3
Morejon has thrown 23% changeups this year. I don’t know what he was doing in the minor leagues, but the last time he featured a changeup, he was more of a starter, and it was in a brief big league stint in 2021.
The 16 August strikeouts have broken down 7 against the changeup, 4 against the sinker, 3 against the slider, and 2 against the four-seamer. Good luck, batters.
Even though he is used rather sparingly, Miller leads MLB relievers in strikeouts. Morejon is 4th, with 80, and has already set a career high.
N3: The Mets recently brought up Cristian Pache, who may have been the prospect in the 2022 Matt Olson trade who generated the most attention, even though it included included Shea Langeliers. Pache now is 27, and it’s hard to escape the conclusion that he rather unfathomably peaked as a teenager. He hit .281 in the South Atlantic League at 18, then .285 in the Florida State League at 19. But he is a .179 major league hitter, with most of his 563 at-bats coming in 2022 or 2024. Even with the difference in level, I would think you should be able to post a better average in the hitter-friendly AAA leagues than the pitcher-friendly A ones, but Pache sported just a .232 International League batting average this year, a .251 Pacific Coast League one last year.4 And with OPSes of .640 and .745, he’s probably been even worse in OPS. That you would be worse at 27 than 19 is so strange, I understand why teams keep seeing if he can refind it.
N4: I see the Twins gave up three minor leaguers, and maybe that is too many, but with his 2.58 FIP this year, the acquisition of Jeff Hoffman seems like it was a good idea. Hoffman is third in MLB in bullpen strikeouts this year. The Twins certainly had a need.
N5: Don’t think it’s going to happen, but it would be pretty wild if Pete Crow-Armstrong (currently 3rd, and 9 pts. behind leader James Wood) led the NL in on-base percentage this year, after never having beeb at .300 before. I might have believed a 50-50 season for Jazz Chisholm before I’d have believed that.
N5: With a .746 OPS, Taylor Trammell has been a pleasant surprise this year. It does seem like he’s simply doing the Astros a solid when he plays center and doesn’t really belong there. He is -5 Defensive Runs Saved with 25 center field starts. He is +0 in left with 17 starts.
N6: Not only did Griffin Conine hit his 13th home run Wednesday, but he reached base 5 times and raised his season’s OPS 51 points to .944. Looking at his minor league record, I have to say, I don’t see anything like this continuing. The Dukee also just turned 29.
N7: 18 runs in Cubs-Nationals. No reason to be surprised there!
N8: The way Alex Bregman has come on, he should make an inspirational video to give students cramming for their final exam hope.
N9: A .570 OPS for Cal Raleigh 367 plate appearances through the season, sheesh. Hard not to think he has killed the Mariners, particularly considering expectations.
N10: Although Nimmo played left field last year, it’s more or less accurate to say that Carson Benge has replaced him on the Mets. Benge is the better ballplayer, and in short time will probably be the much better ballplayer. But there are errie similarities in their 2026 hitting statistics.
Nimmo: 121 H/439 AB, ,276 AVG, 13 HR, 39 BB, 105 SO
Benge: 120 H/438 AB, .274 AVG, 13 HR, 35 BB, 103 SO
Thanks to a 27-16 edge in doubles, Nimmo’s slugging average is 31 points better.
But yes, he is the father who right now can barely beat his 15-year-old son in tennis, but next year it will be a different story.
N11: I have to think Craig Kimbrel himself was surprised when the Royals called.
By the way, Lara received a 70 fielding grade from Baseball America before this year, a 60 throwing grade. He was also supposed to be a 70 runner. So far, what is playing out from a metrics standpoint is his fielding, which is 4 runs above average in 188 innings, or +28 per a normal season’s 1300 innings. His sprint speed (74th percentile) and arm strength (56th percentile) aren’t reflecting 70 grades at this point.
Although I suppose in soccer, the manufactured shot on goal might look good on the player’s ledger?
My desire for this to be exactly half, and the thought that it conveniently should be, made me see it as such at first, but 93*2 is 186, not 196. So Miller is shy of 50% strikeouts on the season (what is wrong with him?).
But Miller himself has actually been more perfunctory on the strikeout front in August: he has 8 against 24 batters in 5 2/3 innings.
570 cumulative AB.
The Nimmo-Benge line sent my eyes wide open at this early hour. Kudos to Nimmo for that extra SLG so he can sleep at night without feeling stalked by Father Time.