Kala’i Rosario gained the Arizona Fall League’s House Run Derby this previous November, and he did so in spectacular vogue. Not solely did the 21-year-old Minnesota Twins outfield prospect pummel a complete of 25 baseballs over the fence at Mesa’s Sloan Park, the longest of them traveled an influence hitter-ish 465 toes. By and enormous, that’s what Rosario’s recreation is all about. As Eric Longenhagen identified final summer time, the 6-foot, 212-pound Papaikou, Hawaii native had beforehand gained the 2019 Space Code Video games House Run Derby and he “swings with unimaginable pressure and has large uncooked energy for his age.”
Rosario’s setup within the field stood out to me as a lot as his capacity to bludgeon baseballs after I watched him seize the AFL’s derby crown. The fitting-handed hitter not solely had his toes unfold huge, he had subsequent to no stride. I requested him about that following his finals victory over Toronto Blue Jays infield prospect Damiano Palmegiani.
“Tonight my setup was a little bit completely different, however in video games I normally do a small stride, so it wasn’t a giant distinction,” Rosario informed me. “I’ve energy already, so I don’t lock into my coil an excessive amount of. Once I get into the field I sort of preset every thing, and from there it’s simply letting my fingers do the work.”
Enhancing his contact abilities is each a purpose and a necessity for the slugger. Rosario had a 29.6% strikeout charge to go together with his .252/.364/.467 slash line and 21 residence runs in 530 plate appearances with Excessive-A Cedar Rapids. As Longenhagen additionally opined in his midseason writeup, Rosario’s “high-effort swing has zero precision.” Widening out and shortening up have been a part of his effort to alleviate that subject.
“This yr I had a wider stance that has let me have much less motion in my swing,” defined Rosario, who regardless of his swing-and-miss points did enhance his Ok-rate and stroll charge relative to the 2022 season. “When I attempt to do an excessive amount of is when issues get out of order, so I’m attempting to maintain it so simple as potential and sort of simply let my energy play for itself.”
The facility-hitter label?
“I don’t thoughts it in any respect,” stated Rosario. “It comes naturally for me.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Joel Youngblood went 10 for 15 in opposition to Jim Kaat.
Julio Franco went 10 for 16 in opposition to Shawn Estes.
Hanley Ramirez went 10 for 17 in opposition to Craig Stammen.
Shane Mack went 10 for 18 in opposition to Scott Sanderson.
Glenn Wilson went 10 for 19 in opposition to John Candelaria.
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Who was higher, Ellis Burks or Bernie Williams? I requested that query in a Twitter ballot earlier this week, and the outcomes had been roughly what I anticipated. The longtime New York Yankee gained by a large margin, garnering 65.6% of the votes solid, whereas his five-team up to date acquired simply 34.4%. The pattern measurement was comparatively meager — just a few hundred folks weighed in — but it surely’s uncertain that greater participation would have moved the needle in a significant manner. Williams was not solely superb, he was additionally a well-liked participant on perennially-successful squads that gained 4 World Collection titles with him roaming middle discipline.
These issues stated, was Williams really higher than Burks? Here’s a snapshot of their regular-season numbers, which got here in 2,076 video games for the previous and a couple of,000 video games for the latter.
Williams: 2,336 hits, 287 residence runs, 147 steals, 126 wRC+, 43.9 WAR.
Burks: 2,107 hits, 352 residence runs, 181 steals, 125 wRC+, 44.7 WAR.
After which there’s October. Together with being a one-franchise participant, Williams has a resumé that features 121 postseason video games, 32 of them within the World Collection. Burks, who performed for the Pink Sox, Rockies, Indians, Giants, and White Sox, noticed motion in simply 25 postseason video games, none of them within the World Collection.
My take? Flip-flop their team-specific resumés and Burks wins this ballot, fairly probably by the same margin. Does that imply he was higher? No. It signifies that the 2 had been extra comparable than you may suppose. The numbers help that conclusion.
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I additionally ran a Mark Buehrle–Andy Pettitte ballot. Prefacing my query with a caveat that the currently-on-the-ballot southpaws are borderline candidates at finest, I requested which ones has the higher Corridor of Fame resumé. Simply over 400 folks responded, and this time the outcomes weren’t what I anticipated. As a substitute of an in depth contest, what I obtained was a margin of victory practically equivalent to that of the aforementioned ballot. Pettitte cruised to a 64.1% to 35.9% win over his left-handed up to date.
How carefully matched are their credentials? Slightly than citing their numbers, I’ll share one thing my colleague Jay Jaffe wrote when assessing their candidacies within the identical article one month in the past: “I’m going to chew on the outcomes awhile longer and probably return to the drafting board earlier than I decide to together with both on my poll.”
Jay in the end voted for Pettitte, and never for Buehrle, whereas Ryan Thibodaux’s invaluable Poll Tracker reveals that different Corridor voters are likewise favoring the previous (albeit by an insignificant margin). That means that Pettitte certainly deserved to win my ballot, though, once more, I’m stunned that he did so simply.
Did Pettitte’s having gotten much more publicity by dint of sporting pinstripes for 15 years and making 44 postseason begins (to Buehrle’s 4, all with Chicago’s less-popular membership) issue into the outcomes? As was the case with Williams and Burks, I’m inclined to suppose that it very a lot did.
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A quiz:
Which participant has the best on-base proportion in Cincinnati Reds franchise historical past?
The reply might be discovered under.
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NEWS NOTES
This yr’s SABR Analytics Convention will embrace a Baseball Prospectus Founders panel, comprising Clay Davenport, Gary Huckabay, Rany Jazayerli, Christina Kahrl, and Joe Sheehan, with Will Carroll serving because the moderator. The convention might be held in Phoenix from March 8-10.
The Texas Rangers have employed Dave Bush as their director of pitching technique. The 44-year-old former big-league hurler has spent the final 4 years because the pitching coach for the Boston Pink Sox.
Ryan Mossman is becoming a member of the New York Yankees as a minor league pitching coach. The 2016 Shenandoah College graduate has spent the final 5 years as an assistant coach at Milligan College.
Chuck Harrison, a primary baseman who logged 241 hits whereas enjoying for the Houston Astros from 1965-1967, and for the Kansas Metropolis Royals in 1969 and 1971, died on December 30 at age 82. The Abilene, Texas native swatted 40 residence runs for the Double-A San Antonio Bullets in 1964.
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The reply to the quiz is Joe Morgan, with a .415 OBP. Joey Votto ranks second with a .409 OBP, whereas Kal Daniels, who had 1,398 plate appearances for the Reds from 1986-1989, is third at .408.
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Luke Little pitches for the Chicago Cubs, but it surely was one other historic franchise that captured his rooting pursuits as a younger fan in Charlotte, North Carolina. No, it wasn’t the Atlanta Braves. The 23-year-old southpaw’s allegiance was with a workforce that broke a well-known curse 12 years earlier than his present membership broke one in all their very own.
“My cousin was an enormous Pink Sox fan once we had been rising up,” defined Little, who made his MLB debut with Cubs in September and was featured right here at FanGraphs a month later. “He favored Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Jonathan Papelbon… all of these guys. I all the time frolicked with my cousin — he’s like a brother to me — and my mother and father by no means pushed me towards a sure workforce. My uncle is a Pink Sox fan, too. That’s just about the way it occurred.”
The concept of taking the mound in a Cubs-Pink Sox World Collection predictably appeals to the 6-foot-8 hurler.
“That will be good,” Little stated of my suggestion. “I’d like to play at Fenway, whether or not it’s in a Cubs jersey or in a Pink Sox jersey. Having it’s within the World Collection would make it even sweeter.”
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Justice Bigbie, a 24-year-old Detroit Tigers prospect who slashed .343/.405/.537 with 19 residence runs throughout three ranges final season, would take pleasure in being a part of a Fall Basic matchup at Citi Discipline.
“My workforce rising up was the New York Mets,” stated Bigbie, who was featured right here at FanGraphs in my “Talks Hitting” collection simply over a month in the past. “David Wright is from my space — from Chesapeake (Virginia) — so I grew up rooting for him. He was my favourite participant. Principally due to him, I rooted for the Mets.”
Bigbie would presumably additionally take pleasure in seeing Wright get extra help in Corridor of Fame balloting, and — favourite participant bias apart — who may blame him? I couldn’t discover room for the erstwhile Mets stalwart alone poll, however that doesn’t imply I didn’t give it critical thought. In a nine-year-stretch (2005-2013) earlier than accidents cratered his profession, Wright logged 46.4 WAR, the fourth highest complete in MLB behind solely Albert Pujols, Chase Utley, and Miguel Cabrera.
As my colleague Jay Jaffe just lately opined, “David Wright is the best place participant in Mets historical past.” That destiny intervened was really unlucky. Given a number of extra years of fine well being, he wouldn’t at the moment be at 5.7% in his first yr of eligibility —principally a coin flip to stay on the poll — however quite a critical candidate to ultimately get a plaque in Cooperstown.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Greg Fowl is slashing .275/.362/.541 with 9 residence runs in 127 plate appearances for the Australian Baseball League’s Melbourne Aces. The 31-year-old former MLB first baseman leads all ABL hitters in round-trippers.
Sam Gardner is 4-0 and has 43 strikeouts to go along with simply six hits allowed in 20 scoreless innings with the Australian Baseball League’s Brisbane Bandits. The just-turned-27-year-old right-hander within the Milwaukee Brewers system pitched for the Excessive-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in 2023.
Brian Rey is slashing .331/.418/.436 in 150 plate appearances for the Puerto Rican Winter League’s Indios de Mayaguez. The 25-year-old outfielder/second baseman batted .344 with a .993 OPS for the unbiased American Affiliation’s Lake Nation DockHounds final yr after being launched by the Cincinnati Reds in Could.
Vidal Bruján is slashing .262/.405/.324 in 186 plate appearances with the Dominican Winter League’s Estrellas Orientales. The 25-year-old infielder was acquired by the Miami Marlins from the Tampa Bay Rays in November as a part of a five-player commerce. https://www.mlb.com/information/vidal-brujan-calvin-faucher-trade-marlins
Former Seibu Lions pitcher Chih Chia Chang, who in 2002 set a since-broken NPB document for many consecutive innings with not less than one strikeout, died this previous week at age 43. Joseph Yeh has the story at Focus Taiwan.
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Vaughn Grissom met with the Boston media over Zoom on Thursday, and one of many questions the brand new Pink Sox acquisition addressed was his hitting method vis-a-vis Fenway Park’s Inexperienced Monster. When he made his big-league debut with the Atlanta Braves on August 10, 2022, Grissom cleared the excessive wall at Boston’s residence park in his third plate look.
“Every little thing has to come back again to staying up the center and the opposite manner, after which let the pull-side pop come,” stated Grissom, who was celebrating his twenty third birthday when he spoke these phrases. “Particularly with the wall — attempt to not get too targeted on the wall. However I’ll say that in my minor-league profession, I loved hitting with the large wall in left. I loved hitting in [High-A] Greenville with the duplicate. I additionally performed at Jet Blue fairly a bit rising up in Florida… It’s fairly cool.”
The Pink Sox play their spring coaching video games at Jet Blue Park in Fort Myers, so the younger infielder might be getting extra alternatives to take purpose on the 37-foot-high goal in lower than two months’ time. Come April, he’ll be doing a lot identical at MLB’s oldest ballpark. Grissom said within the Zoom name that he’s rising into his power, so even with a staying-up-the-middle method, the Inexperienced Monster may in the end function extra than simply an inviting goal. It may very nicely grow to be his shut good friend.
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Left on the slicing room flooring from Thursday’s Q&A with Baltimore Orioles outfield prospect Billy Cook dinner was his reply to a query I requested on the finish of our dialog: What else may folks be concerned about understanding about you?
“I’m an Eagle Scout,” replied Cook dinner, who graduated from Pepperdine College with a enterprise diploma and aspires to be a monetary analyst after his enjoying days are over. “Rising up, our church would do Boy Scouts and stuff like that. I ended up being an Eagle Scout, which not many individuals are; it’s not on a regular basis you run into one. It was a great expertise. It’s one thing I really feel has helped me in life, in addition to in baseball.”
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
The St. Louis Publish-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold wrote about soccer legend Ernie Nevers’s transient big-league profession, which included twice hanging out Babe Ruth.
Shin-Soo Choo 추신수 feels that the KBO has an extended methods to go, not simply when it comes to bettering bodily services, but in addition in adopting a unique mindset. Jeeho Yoo has the story at Yonhap Information.
Pitcher Record’s Lucas Seehafer wrote about how Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s exercises are distinctive however essentially sound.
At The Sporting Information, Ryan Fagan delved into how Shohei Ohtani’s deferral-heavy contract may affect the baseball business.
At Motor Metropolis Bengals, Rogelio Castillo made a case for the Detroit Tigers signing free agent slugger Jorge Soler.
SABR.org posted a memoriam to famend baseball researcher Larry McCray, who died on December 26 at age 81.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Chris Sale is 4-3 with 12 saves and a 2.55 ERA in 80 regular-season reduction appearances. Johan Santana went 4-2 with one save and a 3.96 period in 76 regular-season reduction look.
Michael Brantley had 1,656 hits and a .298/.355/.439 slash line.
Shannon Stewart had 1,653 hits and a .297/.360/.430 slash line.
Since debuting with the New York Mets in 2019, Pete Alonso has 192 residence runs, probably the most within the majors over these 5 seasons. Prince Fielder had 192 residence runs over his first five-plus seasons (he went deep twice in a 62-game cup of espresso previous to his 2006 rookie yr).
Dale Murphy performed in 162 video games and gained a Gold Glove annually from 1982-1985. His residence runs totals had been 36, 36, 36, and 37.
Corridor of Fame outfielder Larry Doby and will be-Corridor of Fame pitcher Don Newcombe each performed for the Japanese Central League’s Chunichi Dragons in 1962. Extensively thought to be MLB’s first nice Black pitcher, Newcombe spent his ultimate skilled season as an outfielder/first baseman, logging a dozen residence runs and a .789 OPS with Chunichi.
Masanori Murakami was the primary Japanese participant in MLB historical past. The left-hander debuted with the San Francisco Giants on September 1, 1964 at age 20 and proceeded to go 5-1 with a 3.43 over 54 appearances and 89-and-third innings via the 1965 season. He then returned to Japan, the place he pitched from 1966-1982.
The Boston Pink Sox signed Keith Foulke as a free agent on right this moment’s date in 2004. The righty reliever logged 35 saves that yr, 32 within the common season and three extra within the postseason. The final of them got here in Boston’s World Collection clincher.
The Philadelphia Phillies bought “Sliding Billy” Hamilton from the American Affiliation’s Kansas Metropolis Cowboys on right this moment’s date in 1890. The Corridor of Fame outfielder went on to slash .350/.462/.438 over the following dozen seasons, six every with the Phillies and the Boston Nationals. Hamilton swiped 100 bases and scored 198 runs in 1894.
Born on right this moment’s date was Bunky Stewart, a right-handed pitcher who went 5-11 with a 6.01 ERA whereas showing in 72 video games for the Washington Senators from 1952-1956. The Jasper, North Carolina native — his given title was Veston Goff Stewart — went 15-2 with a 1.16 ERA for the Coastal Plain League’s New Bern Bears in 1951.
Additionally born on right this moment’s date was Clay Roe, a left-handed pitcher whose big-league profession comprised one recreation for the Senators in 1923. The Greenbrier, Tennessee native was tagged with a loss regardless of permitting no hits or earned runs in an inning-and-two-thirds. Roe walked six of the 12 batters he confronted and threw three wild pitches.