At 38 years old and some-odd months, Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley should be on the steady decline. And while he definitely does not play at the same level he once did, Utley’s productivity has yet to disappear.
Utley has made 161 trips to the plate so far this season, slashing .250/.356/.426 with four home runs, 18 runs driven in and three stolen bases. Utley’s OPS of .783 would be his highest since 2014, and his current walk rate of 12.4 percent rivals the numbers he put up during the heart of his career in 2009 and 2010. If that isn’t impressive enough, Utley’s strikeout tendencies, which had been on the rise, dropped seven percentage points from 2016 to 2017. Utley has already produced 1.0 fWAR this season with the Dodgers, putting him on pace to post an amount in the 2.5 to 3.0 range if he can continue his good start. That total would be his highest since — you guessed it — 2014, when he was a 4.6-fWAR player. His game has been on the decline since, but he’s tied for 95th in fWAR this season among the 306 players with at least 100 plate appearances. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score.
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James Madison High School in Vienna, VA, has the definition of an elite high school baseball program. Coach Mark “Pudge” Gjormand has been at the school for 22 seasons, collecting 20 or more wins in 10 seasons, including in each of the past five years. (VA high school teams rarely play more than 25 games in a season.)
Obviously, these are excellent accomplishments. Madison consistently sends players to Division I colleges on scholarship, and one of their players--Andy McGuire—was selected in the 2013 MLB Draft, although he upheld his scholarship to the University of Texas. This season, as far as I know, was the first that the Madison High School team used advanced statistics in their baseball program. Lucky for me, Gjormand sought me out to collect data not found in the general scorebook. For hitters, I collected information such as batted ball tendencies, including where they hit it, how hard they hit it and the type of batted ball it was (ground ball, fly ball or line drive); average number of pitches hitters saw per at bat; and BABIP. For pitchers, I looked at strike and ball rates; first pitch strike rates; and batted ball tendencies against. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. With a 25-33 record, the Miami Marlins appear to be stagnant. The last time the team finished higher than 3rd place came in 2009, and they have been a mediocre 535-656 (.449) in the time since. The team hasn’t made the postseason since 2003 when they won the World Series.
And, with a sale potentially upon the horizon, the Marlins appear to be headed in a different direction for the future. A new report from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports suggested that the Marlins could be “wide open” entering the deadline, assuming they do not turn things around in the next few weeks. And, for a few valuable, young players, this could mean playing in a new city come August 1. Yes, I’m talking about outfielders Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna, along with catcher J.T. Realmuto, three pieces who were thought to have been part of the next contending Marlins club. Instead, it’s possible that they all could be on different contending teams just within a few months. And, if Miami does not turn things around, those three could be hot commodities come trade deadline time. Just take one look at the numbers. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. Once the 666th pick in the 2005 MLB Draft by the Florida Marlins, first baseman Logan Morrison has broken out twelve years later. Sure, he’s had a successful MLB career considering his draft position, but Morrison has elevated his game to elite levels this season with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Until this point, Morrison has served as a solid left-handed platoon option at first for all three teams for which he has played. But, Tampa Bay has given him starts in 43 of their 53 games this season, including in 23 of 25 games in May. And, all Morrison has done is produce. The 29-year-old has 197 plate appearances this year, and he’s slashing .251/.350/.557 with 14 home runs and 35 RBIs. His 141 wRC+ would be the best of his career. It ranks 22nd in the Majors among qualified hitters. On top of that, he’s already been worth more fWAR this season (1.5) than in any other full year to date. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. On Saturday, the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox played a doubleheader in Chicago. Detroit promoted right-handed pitcher Buck Farmer to the majors as its 26th man, and the plan was to start him for the nightcap.
Everything went as expected. The White Sox beat the Tigers, 3-0, in Game 1. Farmer took the hill to start Game 2, and the first pitch of the afternoon was delivered at 4:49 pm local time. What was not expected, though, was Farmer’s brilliant performance. He threw 6 1⁄3 innings, allowed just three hits and struck out 11 while walking two. In his spot start, Farmer struck out more batters than any Tigers pitcher had done in any single outing all season. It was a Major League career-high in strikeouts for Farmer, albeit not a professional high (he fanned 12 playing Class-A ball in 2014). After the game, the Tigers optioned Farmer back to Triple-A Toledo. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. |