On September 5, nearly two weeks ago, Rafael Soriano came into pitch with a three run lead in the top of the ninth. The Nationals were getting ready to take the series opener from the Phillies. Three outs stood between Soriano and the finish line, which would have put the Nationals eight games up in the East. He blew it. Domonic Brown led off with a single, followed by a two-run home run by Carlos Ruiz to make it a one run game. Soriano then got a groundout and a strikeout, and although he had made the game close, he was staring right in the face of a Washington Nationals victory. Ben Revere, the Phillies light-hitting center fielder, worked the count to 2-2. Soriano likely then delivered his final pitch as Nationals closer. Revere took the 2-2, a hanging breaking ball, and hit it over the right field fence. That was Revere's second career home run in over 1,900 plate appearances. Soriano was booed as he was pulled from the game. The Nationals then announced that Soriano would no longer be in the closer's role for the team. They announced that they would be using a closer-by-comitttee strategy, but that has not been the case. Drew Storen has closed every game since Soriano's last hiccup and has been doing it exceptionally well. Storen was selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2009 MLB Draft. He broke onto the scene in 2011, saving 43 games in 48 opportunities, and really proving why the Nationals took him that high in the draft. In 2012, he was hurt, undergoing elbow surgery, for most of the season, but still came back to save four games in five opportunities, as the Nationals went to the playoffs for the first time since moving to Washington. However, in the 2012 National League Division Series, with the Nationals holding a 7-5 lead after letting the Cardinals back into the game, Storen allowed four runs to score with two outs, and took the loss as the Nationals went home with nothing to show for their early 6-0 lead. That was Storen's last pitch as full-time closer, as Washington signed Soriano to a two-year, $22 million deal to handle the closing duties for 2013 and 2014. Storen has learned. Although he did have a down season in 2013, he came back in 2014 as the best pitcher he has ever been over his short five season career. He is 2-1 with a 1.29 ERA, 0.959 WHIP, and a 2.79 FIP in 57 games. He has posted a 42 to 11 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 49 innings where he has allowed just seven earned runs. And since becoming closer on September 6, Storen has saved three games (he has saved four on the season), pitching three clean innings, while striking out six. The one main thing that Storen has changed is well, his change-up. He added the pitch late last season, and now he is using it as often as 20 percent of the time. Hitters are hitting just .205 against it and he has struck out just as many hitters (15) with it as he has with what is likely his best pitch, the slider. It's been the equalizer that Storen has needed. When hitters are looking for the slider in a breaking ball count, Storen can throw them a change-up, buckling them at the same rate. "Any time you can go to three different pitches in a two-strike count, that helps," Storen said to the Washington Post. "Adding that change-up has been huge for me. I can throw it against righties and lefties. It’s really paid off for me recently." And as the Nationals' magic number to make the postseason dwindles down to six, it has to be Storen closing the games of the National League Division Series. And has to be Storen recording the saves and getting the outs as Washington makes their World Series run. And it has to be Storen as full-time closer. He's changed it all up and has done his job extremely effectively. --Devan F.
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If I had asked you this question on August 10th, you would have laughed in my face. At that time, the Oakland Athletics had a four game lead in the American League West and pretty much everyone considered them to be a lock for the postseason. The A's were so far ahead of their division -- and baseball in general -- that people were picking them to win it all. Easily. The Athletics have had one of the worst months in recent memory. From August 10th to September 10th, Oakland won nine games. Nine. The Athletics went 9-20 during that stretch, hitting just .231 as a team, and posting a horrific .293 on-base percentage. They hit a home run just 21 times in 1,071 plate appearances. Their pitching has been okay. The Athletics are allowing 4 runs per game since August 10th, which isn't phenomenal by any means, but they are posting a 1.141 WHIP during that stretch, which is actually pretty good. But still, in a stretch of a month, the A's went from four up on the Angels to nine games back, losing a total of 13 games of ground in just 29 games played. That begs the question, are the Athletics still going to make the playoffs? What has been the issue for this team, one that had turned on the engine from the beginning of the year, but cannot find its groove? I have two words to answer the latter of the two questions: Yoenis Cespedes. The Athletics dealt Cespedes -- perhaps the last guy I would think they would trade -- to the Red Sox to bolster their pitching staff with Jon Lester. Before the Lester-for-Cespedes trade, the Athletics averaged 5.0 runs per game and posted 109 wRC+, but since they have been a lot worse, scoring just 3.7 runs per game and posting a 93 wRC+. Billy Beane, the A's general manager, likely noticed his offense was in a funk and acquired Adam Dunn from the White Sox, trying to regain some of the power that was lost. Since Dunn joined the team on the final day of August, the run scoring has taken a little bit of a rebound in a very small sample size. Since the First of September, the Athletics have averaged just over 4 runs per game, and while that is nowhere near where they were during the first half of the year, it is a start. So that brings me back to the former question, can the Athletics can still make the playoffs? I don't know. The Athletics are falling fast, but still have a 1.5 game lead over the Seattle Mariners for the top Wild Card spot and a two game lead over the Detroit Tigers for a playoff spot in general. FanGraphs.com, a fantastic website for baseball stats and projections, believes that the Athletics have a 93.7% chance to make the playoffs. I hear the exhale of Athletics fans everywhere. But that 93.7% chance was 99.9% on August 10th. At that time, Oakland was projected to finish 97-65 and have a 16% chance to win the World Series, one that would be their fifth since moving to Oakland. Oh, how things can change in a month. The A's are now projected to finish 91-71 and have a 6% chance of winning it all. Is this slide going to cost them the World Series? The world will never know the answer to that question, but we do know that the hot teams are usually the ones that fare well in the postseason. And the Athletics have never been colder this season. On paper, this team looks good. Really good. But it may not be enough to win the championship. --Devan F. Yesterday, the Kansas City Royals announced their first round of September call-ups, as the rosters will be expanding from 25 players to 40 players. One of the Royals' call-ups is left-hander Brandon Finnegan, their 2014 First Round Pick. Let that sink in. The 21-year-old Finnegan was pitching for Texas Christian University (TCU) earlier this season, was drafted in June, a mere three months ago, and now will be called up to pitch for Kansas City, although just eight of his thirteen professional appearances have come in Double-A. Is now too soon to be calling Brandon Finnegan to the major leagues? Looking at the stats, Finnegan has been nothing short of superb this season. Despite his 0-4 record, Finnegan has a 1.33 ERA and a 0.889 WHIP, along with a 26 to 4 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 27 innings pitched. In his junior season with TCU, which came earlier this year, Finnegan had a 9-3 record in 17 starts, posting a 2.04 ERA in 105 2/3 innings pitched, fanning 134. Let's face it, who are the Royals going to find in their system that has struck out 160 batters in 132 2/3 innings pitched this season. Kansas City is in the postseason chase? They need help in their bullpen. Why not call up the guy who is dominating minor league hitters to help you out? I am looking at the situation as an outsider. I am not within the Royals organization. They know things that we just do not know, and could see something in Finnegan that we are missing. With that said, if he is used properly, I am all for calling up Brandon Finnegan if you truly believe that he will help this team down the stretch. I think it is a great time to get Finnegan some major league experience, plus he may get some opportunities to perhaps pitch in high pressure situations. While it looks like it could be a mistake from the surface, the Royals did something remarkable, they called up their 2014 First Round Pick at just the right time. Congratulations to Brandon Finnegan on making the major leagues, and deservedly so. |