Ryan Noda was a 22-year-old Toronto Blue Jays prospect coming off his first full skilled season when he led Sunday Notes on December 15, 2018. Drafted within the fifteenth spherical out of the College of Cincinnati a 12 months earlier, Noda had logged 20 residence runs and a .421 OBP with then-Low-A Lansing, prompting me to match him to former Bearcat Kevin Youkilis. With the caveat “I’m not near being in his class,” he advised me that he modeled his recreation after Joey Votto.
5 years and two organizations later, Noda is now a big-leaguer himself. Chosen by the Oakland Athletics out of the Los Angeles Dodgers system in final winter’s Rule 5 draft, the left-handed-hitting first baseman proceeded to place up strong numbers with MLB’s worst-performing membership. In 495 plate appearances, Noda logged a team-best .364 OBP and slugged 16 residence runs with a 123 wRC+.
“I don’t thoughts these two comps in any respect,” Noda replied once I reminded him of our bygone dialog. “I definitely wouldn’t thoughts having both of their careers, both.”
It’s in all probability secure to say that Noda received’t go on to match, and even approximate, what Votto has achieved over his storied profession. Channeling Youkilis, who was 27 years previous — Noda’s present age — when he established himself as a big-league common may very well be one other story. The erstwhile nook infielder averaged 20 residence runs with a .385 OBP and a 127 wRC+ in his seven-season prime.
Stylistically talking — Youkilis being a righty apart — would he comp himself extra to at least one than the opposite?
“Not likely,” stated Noda. “However I do take each of them under consideration with how I’m going about hitting. I’m attempting to get a pitch to drive and from there hopefully driving it. On this recreation, endurance is essential — and never simply on the plate. It’s a protracted season, and when you can keep on with what you do finest, even once you’re going dangerous, you will be profitable.”
Noda and I have been at Fenway Park when he spoke these phrases, which dropped at thoughts one more comp. I requested him how acquainted he’s with 23-year-old Crimson Sox rookie Triston Casas.
“Not an excessive amount of,” Noda responded. “I do know he’s a superb ballplayer and that he can swing it properly. It will likely be attention-grabbing to see him play through the years and watch how comparable we possibly are. However once more, I don’t know an excessive amount of about him.”
Casas had a 13.9% stroll price to go along with 24 residence runs and 129 wRC+ in 502 plate appearances this season. Noda had a 15.6% stroll price to go along with his aforementioned 16 residence runs and 123 wRC+ over 495 plate appearances. With the caveat that Casas is three years youthful and has a first-round pedigree — Boston drafted him Twenty sixth-overall in 2018 — there are undoubtedly some similarities. If Casas goes on to satisfy expectations, Noda wouldn’t thoughts having his profession both.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Bryce Harper is 20 for 49 towards Julio Teheran.
Brian Harper went 18 for 44 towards Dave Stewart.
Tommy Harper went 21 for 56 towards Dave McNally.
Terry Harper went 11 for 18 towards Bruce Ruffin.
George Harper went 32 for 71 towards Grover Cleveland Alexander.
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Left on the cutting-room ground from Thursday’s interview with former Seattle Mariners scouting director Tom McNamara have been his reflections on the membership’s fourth-round choose within the 2012 draft. With the 131st-overall choice, Seattle took a 3rd baseman whose collegiate profession comprised all of 51 video games and 229 plate appearances.
“We would have liked a senior, as a result of we’d spent cash,” McNamara advised me. “Patrick Kivlehan was a security on the Rutgers soccer crew. He performed each baseball and soccer. The wonderful story about Kivlehan is that he didn’t play school baseball for his first three years. I bear in mind flying in and speaking to the coach at Rutgers. I requested him, ‘How did he make the crew?’ He stated, ‘He requested if he might check out for the crew. I advised him we had a spot, however he was in all probability by no means going to play.’ Effectively, what occurred is that Rutgers’ third baseman tore a hamstring and Kivlehan ended up taking part in third base and nearly profitable the Triple Crown within the Huge East. We took him within the fourth spherical and he received to the large leagues. He performed with Arizona and Cincinnati, and I feel San Diego.”
The Mariners traded Kivlehan to the Texas Rangers in December 2015 as a part of a five-player deal, reacquired him six months later in trade for Justin De Fratus, then launched him in early August. The Padres picked him up, and Kivlehan made his MLB debut a number of weeks later. He went to log a 84 wRC+ over 250 plate appearances in what was finally a modest big-league profession.
The participant taken one choose after Kivlehan has had a notable profession that took awhile to get off the bottom. The Baltimore Orioles chosen Christian Walker 132nd general out of the College of South Carolina, solely to position him on waivers 5 years later after 31 nondescript big-league plate appearances. Then got here a four-week rollercoaster that finally landed the slugging first baseman in his present residence. The Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds each claimed, however then waived, Walker earlier than the Arizona Diamondbacks inked him to a contract on the eve of the 2017 season. The remaining is historical past. Hitting in the midst of the D-Backs lineup, Walker has 69 residence runs and a 122 wRC+ over the previous two seasons.
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A quiz:
Which pitcher holds the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise report for strikeouts in a single season? (A touch: he additionally has the franchise’s second-highest single-season strikeout whole.)
The reply will be discovered beneath.
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NEWS NOTES
Brad Ciolek, who has been serving as Baltimore’s director of draft operations, is leaving the group and will likely be becoming a member of the Washington Nationals. Ciolek has overseen the final 5 Orioles drafts, which embrace the alternatives of Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Heston Kjerstad, and Adley Rutschman,
Toronto Blue Jays coach Luis Rivera has determined to retire. The 59-year-old former big-league infielder had coached and managed within the Jays system since 2010.
Casey Cox, who pitched for the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers from 1966-1972, after which briefly for the New York Yankees, died earlier this month at age 82 (per Baseball Participant Passings). The best-hander’s finest season got here in 1969 when he went 12-7 with a 2.78 ERA.
SABR’s Larry Dierker chapter will maintain a twin in-person/Zoom assembly tomorrow (Monday October 16) starting at 7pm with former Astros announcer Invoice Brown the visitor speaker. Extra info will be discovered right here.
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The reply to the quiz is Bob Veale, with 276 strikeouts in 1965. A 12 months earlier, the hard-throwing southpaw logged an NL-best 250 strikeouts, the second-highest whole in Pirates franchise historical past.
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The Houston Astros advancing to their seventh consecutive LCS ranks proper up there with the Nineteen Nineties Atlanta Braves and a number of a long time of New York Yankees American League supremacy. The grownup sons of the enlargement Colt .45s are eight wins away from a 3rd World Sequence title since 2017.
The Brooklyn Dodgers deserve some love right here. Shortly earlier than being relocated to Los Angeles in 1958, “Dem Bums” reached the World Sequence 5 occasions from 1949-1956. and their win totals within the three years they fell simply quick have been 89, 97, and 92 (in what was then a 154-game-schedule). The winningest of these not-quite seasons was famously painful — Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard ‘Around the World capping a four-run backside of the ninth inning for the New York Giants. 4 years after that soul-crushing 1951 defeat, Brooklyn received its solely World Sequence by beating the Yankees in seven video games. Johnny Podres was on the mound for the 2-0 clincher, whereas Gil Hodges drove in each runs.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
NPB’s postseason received underway on Saturday with the Chiba Lotte Marines beating the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 8-2. Twenty-one-year-old wunderkind Roki Sasaki threw three scoreless innings for the profitable facet, whereas 2018 Atlanta Braves first-round choose Carter Stewart was tagged with the loss.
NPB’s different first-stage contest noticed the Hiroshima Carp edge previous the Yokohama DeNa BayStars 3-2 in 11 innings with a pair of former MLB pitchers getting the selections. Nik Turley was credited with the win, whereas J.B. Wendelken was tagged with the loss. Sport 2 of every best-of-five, first-stage matchups are at the moment.
Yuki Matsui, who will reportedly be exercising his worldwide free agent rights this offseason, made his five hundredth NPB look in his remaining recreation of the common season The 27-year-old Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles southpaw had 39 saves and a 1.60 ERA this 12 months.
Seunghwan Oh recorded his four-hundredth KBO save, and his 522nd professionally, on Saturday. The 36-year-old Samsung Lions right-hander’s resume consists of 80 saves in NPB and 42 extra in MLB.
Erick Fedde went 20-6 with a 2.06 ERA for the KBO’s NC Dinos. The 30-year-old former Washington Nationwide right-hander had 204 strikeouts and 134 hits allowed in 174-and-two-thirds innings.
Dong Ju Moon went 8-8 with a 3.72 ERA over 118-and-two-thirds innings for the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles. The 19-year-old right-hander went six scoreless in his final begin of the season.
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Dixie Howell holds three obscure big-league data. Per his B-Ref bio web page, the Harold, Kentucky native is the final reduction pitcher to hit two residence runs in the identical recreation, having carried out so with the Chicago White Sox on June 16, 1957. Furthermore, all 5 hits he had that season — a double, a triple, and three residence runs — went for additional bases (Rick Wrona subsequently tied Howell’s most-hits-sans-a-single report in 1994 whereas taking part in with the Milwaukee Brewers). Howell additionally holds the report for the longest time between when he first pitched within the majors and when he received his first victory. He made his MLB debut in 1940 and wasn’t credited with a win till 1955.
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FARM NOTES
Alexander Albertus slashed .310/.471/.468 with 5 residence runs and a 152 wRC+ in 170 plate appearances between the Dominican Summer season League and the Arizona Complicated League. A local of Oranjestad, Aruba, the 18-year-old infielder within the Los Angeles Dodgers group drew 38 walks and fanned simply 19 occasions.
Cesar Quintas had a .516 BABIP in 168 plate appearances with Giants Orange, one in every of two San Francisco entries within the Arizona Complicated League. The 20-year-old outfielder fromValencia, Venezuela slashed .372/.506/.473 with one residence run and a 159 wRC+.
Jakob Marsee has 19 hits, together with 9 for additional bases, in 38 at-bats for the Arizona Fall League’s Peoria Javelinas. The 22-year-old outfielder within the San Diego Padres system slashed .274/.413/.428 with 16 residence runs this 12 months between Excessive-A Fort Wayne and Double-A San Antonio. Marsee is a former Central Michigan College Chippewa.
Carter Howell has seven hits, together with a triple and a pair of residence runs, in 21 at-bats with the Arizona Fall League’s Scottsdale Scorpions. The 24-year-old Fargo, North Dakota-born outfielder within the San Francisco Giants system swatted 10 taters and had a .295/.369/.442 slash line between Low-A San Jose and Excessive-A Eugene.
Liam Hicks is 16-for-28, together with 4 doubles, for the Arizona Fall League’s Shock Saguaros. The 24-year-old, Toronto, Ontario-born catcher within the Texas Rangers group slashed .275/.414/.373 with 4 residence runs between Excessive-A Hickory and Double-A Frisco.
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The next paragraph is included in Jonathan Mayo’s Sensible, Mistaken, and Fortunate: The Origin Tales of Baseball’s Sudden Stars:
“It begs the query, after all. If the Padres space scout and regional crosschecker had him in as a second rounder, if a nationwide crosschecker noticed him, if the the scouting director got here in to see a non-public exercise, all of which occurred in accordance with Campbell, how on earth did Mookie Betts grow to be a San Diego Padre?”
Betts, as has been properly chronicled, lasted till the fifth spherical of the 2011 draft when he was taken by the Boston Crimson Sox with the 172nd-overall choose. The Padres, who had the 173rd choose that 12 months, had taken eight gamers earlier within the draft, together with 4 supplemental first-round alternatives. None of them have come near matching Betts’s accomplishments.
Mayo addresses that a part of the backstory, in addition to how Betts finally landed in Boston, in his must-read e-book.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
MLB.com’s Michael Clair wrote about how power-hitting Japanese highschool phenom Rintaro Sasaki will reportedly bypass the NPB draft and, with MLB in thoughts, as an alternative attend school in america.
Dan Connolly provided some observations from the Orioles’ postseason press convention, and opined on the Mike Elias-Brandon Hyde partnership, at Baltimore’s WHAR.
True Blue LA’s Eric Stephen wonders if Clayton Kershaw has thrown his final pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Protecting the Nook’s Matt Dallas appeared again on the 1949 Cleveland Indians, who didn’t defend a World Sequence championship. Greater than seven a long time later, the fanbase awaits its first title since 1948.
Over at Bless You Boys, Patrick O’Kennedy gave us an offseason calendar protecting not solely the Detroit Tigers, but in addition MLB as a complete. From the GM Conferences to the non-tender deadline to the Rule 5 draft, it’s all right here.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Together with the postseason, NLCS managers Torey Lovullo and Rob Thomson have a mixed 672 managerial wins. ALCS managers Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy have a mixed 4,379 managerial wins.
Lance Lynn allowed 48 residence runs in 186-and-a-third innings (together with the postseason). Sonny Grey allowed 10 residence runs in 193 innings (additionally together with the postseason).
Mookie Betts is 6-for-48 with two extra-base hits over his final three postseason collection. Trey Turner is 18-for-42 with 10 extra-base hits over his final three postseason collection.
Ronald Acuña Jr’s mixed runs scored-RBI whole in the course of the common season was 255. Matt Olson’s mixed runs scored-RBI whole was 266.
The league-average crew totals for stolen bases and caught-stealings this 12 months have been 117 and 29 respectively. Probably the most-league-average crew was the Seattle Mariners, with 118 stolen bases and 30 caught-stealings. The New York Mets swiped 118 bases and have been caught simply 15 occasions.
Arizona Diamondbacks batters mixed for 36 sacrifice hits this season, probably the most of any crew. Atlanta Braves batters mixed for 2 sacrifice hits this season, the fewest of any crew
Minnesota Twins pitchers mixed to permit 443 walks with a franchise report 1,560 strikeouts. Pitchers for the 1991 World Sequence champion Twins mixed to permit 488 walks with 876 strikeouts.
Bob Gibson received the win because the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Yankees 7-5 in World Sequence Sport 7 on at the moment’s date in 1964. The Boyer brothers each homered — Clete for the dropping facet and Ken for he victors — as did Lou Brock, Mickey Mantle, and Phil Linz.
On at the moment’s date in 1975, Luis Tiant went the space because the Boston Crimson Sox edged the Cincinnati Reds 5-4 in Sport 4 of the World Sequence. El Tiant threw 163 pitches whereas scattering 9 hits and 4 walks. The Reds stranded eight runners, together with two within the backside of the ninth.
Gamers born on at the moment’s date embrace Tommy Toms, a right-handed pitcher who appeared in 18 video games for the San Francisco Giants from 1975-1977. The Charlottesville, Virginia native went 0-1 in every of the three seasons, and was credited with one save.
Additionally born on at the moment’s date was Jim Command, a 3rd baseman who went 4-for-25 whereas getting cups of espresso with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1954 and 1955. The Grand Rapids, Michigan native’s lone residence run was a grand slam off of Brooklyn Dodgers right-hander Carl Erskine.