I didn’t think it was possible to go an entire season without using a left-handed starter. Baseball puts such an emphasis on having good left-handed pitching that I could not fully comprehend a statistic I saw just a few weeks ago.
Thus, upon hearing that the Phillies will go the entire year without having a southpaw start a single game, I was shocked. I checked it and was able to confirm. The 2017 Phillies, assuming a lefty doesn’t start in their last three games, will go the entire year without one, becoming the first Phillies team to do so since 1918. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score.
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It’s easy to forget that Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger are rookies.
Judge just recently eclipsed the 40-home run mark, making him just the second rookie in Major League Baseball history to do so. Bellinger, too, has a chance to hit 40, as he is just two shy with about two weeks to play. Those two players already feel like established veterans, as they’ve practically waltzed their way to the AL and NL Rookie of the Year awards, respectively. And behind Judge and Bellinger sits a tier of other solid rookies. Some — like Matt Olson and Rhys Hoskins — have hit like Judge and Bellinger but do not have the plate appearances to pad their counting stats and consistency as Major League batters. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. With tonight’s home run by *checks notes* uh, Alex Gordon (his 7th of the year), a new single-season home run record has been set. No, Barry Bonds’ 762 still stands. As does his 73. (Yes, those are the records, PEDs aside.) This new record, though, still might be more surprising than one might guess.
That home run was the 5,694th of the year, meaning more homers have been hit during the 2017 Major League Baseball season than during any other Major League Baseball season dating back to 1871. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. Losing streak or not, it’s not controversial to say that the Dodgers are stacked this season. At 96–52, the team is still on pace to win 105 games, and they should be able to clinch the National League West division sometime next week.
Obviously, for Dodgers fans, it’s not the time to be worrying about the offseason. Despite being consistently good for the past 15 years or so — especially including the last five, in which they’ve captured the NL West title every year — the Dodgers have not appeared in a World Series since 1988, when they beat the Athletics in five games. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. Baseball is in the midst of a “revolution.”
Hitters are prioritizing fly balls over ground balls, swinging the bat with a slight uppercut to generate a higher launch angle. Some are doing this with great extremes. In accordance with a potentially juiced baseball, balls are flying all over the yard. As a result, the league’s fly ball rate is high, with the home run per fly ball rate on pace to break records. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. |