Daniel Murphy appears to finally be better after his off-season surgery. He is back to being a Mets killer with three hits so far Tuesday night, two of them home runs. He scored three times and drove in six. And that’s with just three innings played! The Nationals lead the Mets 13-0.
Maybe the Nationals not trading away any of their stars sent the right message today.
Turner’s Dairy is a new collection of townhomes located at the corner of Ontario Street and West 17th Ave, Vancouver. This project will offer 13 contemporary townhouses, Sizes ranging from 695 square feet to 1,636 square feet. Contemporary and efficient living, designed for the modern family. Progressive meets heritage in these sleekly crafted and thoughtfully created homes. The building’s open and expansive spaces, high ceilings, and vast casement style windows harken back to the lofts and offices that were inhabited by generations of industrial businesses, starting with Turner’s Dairy.
The post Turner’s Dairy at the corner of Ontario Street and West 17th Ave appeared first on Vancouver New Condos.
I’m very glad to see that the Brewers, Pirates, Braves, and Mariners were so active at the trade deadline. The Brewers and Mariners never won a World Series, and the Pirates and Braves have not won in a long time. (Yes, it’s been over 20 years since the Braves won the World Series.)
The Brewers get Johnathan Schoop and his power. Schoop uses a lot of outs to deliver his punch, but he’ll be be better than the production Milwaukee received from their middle infielders this season. The Orioles also sent Kevin Guasman and Darren O’Day to Atlanta, providing more depth to that pitching staff. The Orioles have done a nice job of restocking their farm system.
The Pirates land Chris Archer. I’m hoping that the fine coaching staff in Pittsburgh can return Archer to his 2015 form. His three-true outcomes remained good in that time period, but it seems he gives up way too many hits for his strikeout rate. The Rays get two players not yet in their prime who were touted as top prospects at one point. In addition, the Rays acquired Tommy Pham and traded Wilson Ramos to the Phillies, so it’s tough to tell if Tampa Bay were buyers or sellers in these deals.
I think Pirates fans owe Pirates ownership a bit of an apology. They would have had a better team with Gerrit Cole, but I’m not sure they would have had a better team with Andrew McCutchen. This group proved they could win, and ownership went out and improved for this stretch run. Maybe the front office and coaching staff in Pittsburgh knows what they are doing.
The Mariners picked up the well traveled outfielder Cameron Maybin from the Marlins, which gives them outfield depth. The Indians did the same in getting Leonys Martin from the Tigers.
The Nationals, a team that also never appeared in the World Series, dumped a reliever. It might have been a clubhouse move:
This deal surprises me, as if the Nats had wanted to clear money, they could have cleared more with Madson or Herrera. Feels worth noting Kintzler something of a squeaky wheel. https://t.co/Qvngaqfx9T
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) July 31, 2018
There were some other deals today, but all in all it was a good trading season. A number of teams are all in on trying to win this year. Prospects were redistributed to weaker teams. The Yankees cleared some of their relief talent for international signing money.
The Pirates are one of those teams that are not quite in the race but not quite out of the race in the NL Central as they host the Cubs. Pittsburgh is seven games behind Chicago in the NL Central and 3 1/2 games being the Diamondbacks for the 2nd NL Wild Card. Jon Lester takes on Jameson Taillon. Lester is 7-4 against the Pirates in 14 starts since joining the Cubs. He has allowed 11 home runs in 81 2/3 innings. Taillon faces the Cubs for the first time.
The Twins try to gain another game on the Indians as Cleveland sends Trevor Bauer against Kyle Gibson. Bauer struck out 192 batters this season in 147 1/3 innings after striking out 198 last season in 176 1/3 innings. Gibson owns a 5.21 ERA against the Indians for his career.
Finally, Wade Miley leads Milwaukee against the Dodgers and Walker Buehler. Miley owns a 2.01 ERA this season despite 13 walks and just 12 K in 22 1/3 innings. Buehler walked 14 in 62 innings. They should trade first names, as Walker would be more appropriate for Miley. At least they would not need to change their monograms. 
Silly me, I always thought we were supposed to sell solutions.
That is, as sales people, we were supposed to understand our customers and their businesses–not in the abstract, but very specifically. What are Christy’s goals, dreams? What is she accountable for? What issues stand in the way of her achieving these? What happens when she doesn’t achieve them?
Likewise, I thought we were supposed to understand the customer’s businesses, again, not in the abstract, but very specifically. What are the goals/priorities of Christy’s managers, all the way up to the top of the company? How is the company doing in achieving those goals? How are they performing for their customers and in their markets? How are they performing compared to the alternatives? What stands in the way of their achieving their goal? What do they need to change? What is their willingness to change? What happens if they don’t change?
Then again, back to Christy, what’s this mean to her, her colleagues, and the other 5.8 people that might be involved in the buying process?
Then finally, how do we help them achieve their goals? How do we help them change? But this was very specific, it focused on Christy and the other 5.8, it focused on the company. “Currently, your performance is this…., I understand you want to change to do that…… If you aren’t successful the consequences are….. But if you did this…… you could achieve that…. In this period of time….. and the risks would be these….”
I thought that we were supposed to focus on those issues most important to Christy and her colleagues. While we might have a laundry list of many areas where we could help them, those that were important to Christy and her team were the one’s we focused on, and we didn’t bother her with the things that were irrelevant to them.
That’s what solution selling is about…….or at least that’s what I thought.
Yet, it seems that’s not how solution selling is practiced by the majority of sales and marketing people.
It seems solution selling is more “self centered,” that is about the seller’s company, products(solutions), and how wonderful these are. It seems this type of solution selling works this way:
Reach out to as many people, organizations as you can—the more the better, the more frequently the better.
Present, “This is our company and all these customers “just like you,” buy from us…” It turns out none of those companies are “just like us,” but I’m left with figuring out it maybe the are and what it might mean.
Present, “These are our wonderful products and this is what they do…….”
Alternatively, “Our solutions help you increase revenue, decrease costs, improve profitability, improve customer satisfaction, improve your competitiveness, improve productivity….”
Then on to the demo, where we learn more about what the products do….
By that time, the customer is supposed to have that “Aha moment,” and immediately succumb to issuing a purchase order, as the sales person moves to the next customer selling the same solution.
And then customer success contacts us with, “what do you want to do……..”
It seems today’s solution selling is, indeed, about problems and the problems solved.
But it is not about Christy’s or her organization’s problems. That is, it is not specifically about what concerns her, her team and her organization. It is not specific about what they will achieve, when they will achieve it, how they can achieve it, what they have to do/change, or the risks…..
It seems solution selling is not about the customer, but what we do and the problems we solve.
For Christy and her team to understand what it means to them (or what is even relevant to them), they have to become solution buyers. That is, they have to sort through the lists of features/functions/speeds/feeds. They have to sort through the problems the solutions address always asking,
“What does this mean to me/us? What parts of this solution are relevant to me/us? How will it impact us? What specific results will we achieve? What do we have to do to achieve them? How do we do this? What are the risks?”
It seems the new version of solution selling is just about generic problems/opportunities. To understand what it means to the customer, the customer has to figure it out.
Apparently, the new solution selling is dependent on the customers’ abilities to be great solution buyers.
That is, they have to have the ability, and willingness, to sort through the solution to figure out what it means to them. They have to recognize where their problems are, recognize they need to change, then figure out the specific improvements the solution will provide them.
For them it’s insufficient to know the solution improves productivity, improves revenue, reduces costs, improves competitiveness. They have to answer, “by how much, when, how do we do it?”
And customers have figured this out, they know they have to become solution buyers. They know the solution sellers won’t be able to help them out with these issues. They don’t know how, they don’t have the ability, or they don’t care.
Solution buyers have learned they have to figure these things out themselves. And they have become very efficient at it–they’ve learned they don’t need solution sellers.
The Red Sox traded two minor leaguers to the Angels for Ian Kinsler.
The Braves sent depth to the Reds in exchange for Adam Duvall.
The Pirates acquired Keone Kela from the Rangers in exchange for a player plus.
More to come this evening when all has settled.
Here are the top picks my programs produced for use in Beat the Streak. This post mostly explains the ideas behind the calculations. In addition, this post shows tests on the Neural Network (NN). This post discusses an NN that includes the ballpark. I updated the models, and the results of those tests are here.
For 2018, I am just going to publish the Log5 hit averages and the NN probabilities with parks factored in. I am keeping track of the results here. I added a graph that gives a visual representation of the probability and success each day.
I have been asked to expand the list to the top 25 players for an econometric project.
First, the Log5 Method picks:
0.332 — Nick Castellanos batting against Homer Bailey.
0.313 — Yulieski Gurriel batting against Mike Leake.
0.308 — Jose Iglesias batting against Homer Bailey.
0.308 — David Peralta batting against Bartolo Colon.
0.306 — John Hicks batting against Homer Bailey.
0.304 — A.J. Pollock batting against Bartolo Colon.
0.304 — Albert Almora batting against Jameson Taillon.
0.299 — Jose Martinez batting against Jonathan Gray.
0.297 — Jon Jay batting against Bartolo Colon.
0.295 — Yadier Molina batting against Jonathan Gray.
0.291 — Eduardo Escobar batting against Bartolo Colon.
0.290 — Victor Martinez batting against Homer Bailey.
0.289 — Javier Baez batting against Jameson Taillon.
0.287 — Marcell Ozuna batting against Jonathan Gray.
0.286 — J.D. Martinez batting against Jake Arrieta.
0.286 — Buster Posey batting against Clayton Richard.
0.284 — Paul Goldschmidt batting against Bartolo Colon.
0.283 — Odubel Herrera batting against Drew Pomeranz.
0.283 — Mookie Betts batting against Jake Arrieta.
0.281 — Yairo Munoz batting against Jonathan Gray.
0.281 — Victor Reyes batting against Homer Bailey.
0.280 — Leonys Martin batting against Homer Bailey.
0.279 — James Adduci batting against Homer Bailey.
0.278 — Asdrubal Cabrera batting against Drew Pomeranz.
0.278 — Alex Bregman batting against Mike Leake.
Bailey pitched poorly this season, but came back after missing two months with a pretty good start his last time out. Still, it may be a good day for the Tigers.
Here is how the NN with Park ranks the players:
0.304, 0.734 — Albert Almora batting against Jameson Taillon.
0.332, 0.733 — Nick Castellanos batting against Homer Bailey.
0.313, 0.729 — Yulieski Gurriel batting against Mike Leake.
0.286, 0.718 — J.D. Martinez batting against Jake Arrieta.
0.308, 0.717 — David Peralta batting against Bartolo Colon.
0.276, 0.714 — Daniel Murphy batting against Steven Matz.
0.299, 0.714 — Jose Martinez batting against Jonathan Gray.
0.289, 0.711 — Javier Baez batting against Jameson Taillon.
0.271, 0.711 — Scooter Gennett batting against Matt Boyd.
0.273, 0.709 — Corey Dickerson batting against Jon Lester.
0.304, 0.709 — A.J. Pollock batting against Bartolo Colon.
0.283, 0.708 — Mookie Betts batting against Jake Arrieta.
0.286, 0.707 — Buster Posey batting against Clayton Richard.
0.295, 0.706 — Yadier Molina batting against Jonathan Gray.
0.276, 0.706 — J.T. Realmuto batting against Kolby Allard.
0.274, 0.704 — Avisail Garcia batting against Daniel Duffy.
0.297, 0.703 — Jon Jay batting against Bartolo Colon.
0.275, 0.702 — Wilson Ramos batting against Tyler Skaggs.
0.263, 0.701 — Michael Brantley batting against Kyle Gibson.
0.308, 0.701 — Jose Iglesias batting against Homer Bailey.
0.241, 0.700 — Jean Segura batting against Charlie Morton.
0.276, 0.699 — Matt Kemp batting against Wade Miley.
0.276, 0.699 — Christian Yelich batting against Walker Buehler.
0.287, 0.698 — Marcell Ozuna batting against Jonathan Gray.
0.306, 0.698 — John Hicks batting against Homer Bailey.
0.273, 0.698 — Matt M Duffy batting against Tyler Skaggs.
0.274, 0.698 — Adrian Beltre batting against Zachary Godley.
0.276, 0.698 — Manny Machado batting against Wade Miley.
Almora pops to the top of the list, but he almost never plays when the NN says he’s most likely to get a hit. Castellanos and Yuli Gurriel are the consensus 1-2 picks.
Remember, your best pick will fail about 25% of the time. Good luck!
The idle Mike Trout remains atop the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings. Matt Carpenter, Christian Yelich, and Alex Bregman rank 2-3-4, separated by less than 0.6 points. Carpenter and Bregman trade slots, Carpenter collecting three singles in the 5-4 Cardinals win over the Rockies, while Bregman went 1 for 4 in the 2-0 Houston loss to Seattle. Jose Ramirez, despite two home runs to tie for the MLB lead, remains fifth in the rankings.
The Oakland Athletics are doing away with the traditional season ticket package:
The Oakland Athletics are doing away with traditional season-ticket plans for next season in favor of a membership program that will let fans to buy general admission tickets, reserve seats and also receive special perks.
The change in approach is geared to offer fans both the ability to buy ticket packages similar to the way they usually would or have more flexible options.
“A’s Access” memberships, which the team calls the first of their kind, will go on sale Friday and include benefits such as half-price concessions, a 25-percent merchandise discount and parking.
Some of the higher end car makers are doing this, where drivers subscribe to cars, rather than own one. It allows them to change the car they are driving based on their needs.
It appears the Giants are losing a starter
:
Giants starter Johnny Cueto, who was supposed to combine with Madison Bumgarner as one of the best one-two rotation punches in baseball, appears headed for Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery, which would end his season and keep him out for most of 2019 as well.
“There has not been something determined yet, but it’s fair to say there’s a strong possibility of having surgery,” manager Bruce Bochy said Monday before the Giants’ game against the Padres at Petco Park.
Cueto, signed to a six-year, $130 million contract before the 2016 season, went on the disabled list in late April with a partially torn ulnar-collateral ligament, the injury that requires Tommy John reconstruction, but attempted to rehabilitate the arm without the operation.
Cueto is 32 years old, so there is a real possiblity he never returns from this operation.
The Mariners want taxpayers to fund renovations to SafeCo Field if they sign a 25-year-lease to play in the stadium:
But critics have argued that the tax doesn’t require the county to allocate all funds towards tourism and promotion. They could, instead, put that money towards affordable housing.
“The Mariners are a billion dollar for-profit business that has generated enormous wealth for a small group of private owners,” Councilmember Dave Upthegrove, said in a statement. “This business can and should continue to pay for upkeep of the baseball stadium. This business is the sole tenant of the facility — which was already built for them largely with taxpayer funds.
“State law is absolutely clear that these funds can be spent on affordable housing, services for homeless youth, and actual tourism promotion that generates a greater economic benefit throughout King County.”
I suspect doing away with the hotel tax would do more to promote tourism than spending money to promote tourism. Just eliminate the tax, and let the Mariners figure out where else to play.
If the public funding is rejected, they won’t the Mariners won’t just leave overnight. Were the county to reject the funding plan, the team would sign a short-term lease extension of up to five years (instead of the 25-year lease extension) to ensure the team continues to play at Safeco while they figure out a different long-term lease solution.
Or if the city were smart, they would throw them out as tenants until they agree to something more lucrative for Seattle. Just say no to more public funding.
The Yankees acquired Lance Lynn from the Twins:
The Yankees have acquired right-hander Lance Lynn from the Twins for infielder/outfielder Tyler Austin and Class A right-hander Luis Rijo, a source tells MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.
I don’t quite know what the Yankees see in Lynn, who pitched poorly this season and very poorly lately. Either someone on the Yankees thinks they can fix his problems, or he is an insurance policy against injuries. Rijo is just 19 with great three-true outcomes in the low minors.
The Astros and Blue Jays made a trade for closers with problems:
Swapping a closer with on-field problems for one with off-field troubles, the World Series champion Houston Astros traded Ken Giles to the Toronto Blue Jays along with a pair of pitching prospects for Roberto Osuna on Monday.
Houston also sent right-handers David Paulino and Hector Perez to Toronto as part of the deal, a day before the deadline for trades without waivers.
The 23-year-old Osuna is eligible to pitch in the big leagues starting Sunday after a 75-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. He has made six scoreless one-inning appearances in the minors since July 14, the last three at Triple-A.
In Giles last 14 2/3 innings pitched, he walked three and struck out 18, but allowed 21 hits. The three true outcomes are there, and maybe a change of scenery can help him.
Yesterday some thoughts about hit streak and the Beat the Streak game led to some research on what percentage of starts do position players get hits. Looking at data from 1969 on (lower mound, division play), the query calculated the percent of time non-pitcher, starting player earned at least one hit in a game. The data shows that 2018 is the second least likely season for a starting batter to get a hit in a game. In 1972, the probability was just 0.63. This season, it’s 0.6356. The big difference between the two was that in 1972, the league averaged 3.69 runs per team game, while in 2018, teams are averaging 4.45 runs per game. This season is a fairly extreme outlier. The regression equation, 23.7 * P(H) – 11.1 has an r-squared of .79. You can see the data here. I suspect there are a lot more walks this season and a lot more home runs. Players have needed to find other ways to score because a lot of players are taking the collar.
Every day, each of us gets dozens of horrendously bad prospecting emails. My friend, Hank Barnes, of Gartner has made a regular #FridayFails series featuring his worst of the week.
Fortunately, spam filters take care of most of them, but some filter through anyway. I’ve limited my writing about these–there’s just too much bad material that it gets repetitive. But I can’t refrain from writing about a certain category of prospecting letters. It’s those written by self proclaimed experts in sales, marketing, sales enablement, prospecting, content.
I write about these for several reasons. First, even people who know better do stupid things. Second, if they are using the methods and techniques they espouse as “best practice,” then their prospecting is actually a representation of their work–and what they can do for you. Read Buyer Beware! Finally, I do get some sort of perverse joy at calling these horrendous effort to people’s attention.
Before I go further, I’ve done terribly bad prospecting before, I’ll probably fall victim to some bad efforts in the future. We all make mistakes, hopefully, learn and improve. But the examples I highlight from these self proclaimed guru’s represent systemic approaches they use. It’s not just one ill conceived approach, but it’s them consciously executing the very worst of prospecting, inflicting it over and over in a mindless way.
About a week ago, a good friend and client, let’s call him John, forwarded me an email stream, saying, “This is just horrible prospecting! It’s from someone who does similar stuff to you…..” John is EVP of Sales and Marketing for a $B plus organization. He’s done some tremendous things in building the capability of the organization, and we’ve been proud to help in those efforts. So it was funny to see his reaction to this person’s prospecting efforts.
This morning, he forwarded me the email stream, yes the madness continued. His note simply said, “This takes the cake for all time worst email prospecting!”
I’ve reproduced the email flow below, as you would expect, all names and links have been changed.
Email 1:
John,
I notice on LinkedIn that we have several connections in common. As the Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at XYZ, I would think that we also have similar challenges driving growth and results.
We’ve been successful at helping other Sales & Marketing VPs at companies like Company A, Company B, and Company C to hit their numbers through our Sales Enablement technology.
Here is a quick 1-minute video on our website that better explains it [Link to self promotional video]
Do you have a few minutes to talk next week?
Regards, Bob, CEO, [Sales Enablement Company]
Email 2, 5 days later, this was a forward of the original email with the new note leading:
John,
Just following up on my previous email.
Best Regards, Bob, CEO, [Sales Enablement Company]
Email 3, 5 days later, another build on the prior emails:
John,
Sorry to keep bothering you. I just think that we can really help you drive revenue at XYZ through sales effectiveness.
Regards, Bob, CEO, [Sales Enablement Company]
Email 4, 5 days later, same pattern:
John, just following up.
Bob. CEO, [Sales Enablement company]
Email 5, 1 day later, you guessed it same pattern:
John,
I should stop bugging you soon. I don’t want you to think that I’m as annoying as this other “Canadian”, Justin Bieber.
[Link to Justin Bieber song]
Regards, Bob, CEO, [Sales Enablement Company]
What in the world is “Bob” trying to accomplish, and is this a demonstration of his organization’s competence and expertise in selling?
He’s not creating any value in his messaging. He might have in the first, but while he chose references in the same industry as John’s, the references were B2B2C examples, and John runs a B2B business. So there wasn’t much he could learn from those references—beside the links took him to “here’s our fantastic products.”
Bob could have demonstrated his knowledge by providing some insight into the challenges the industry is facing (tremendous industry consolidation, regulatory, restructuring issues impacting all players). He could have provided some examples of how his organization helped similar companies address those challenges. But he didn’t.
Then in his subsequent emails, he didn’t build on anything. He didn’t expand his message, he didn’t address other issues, he didn’t demonstrate any knowledge of the issues John may have been facing. He didn’t provide any insight into industry activity (It so happened John’s company made a major disruptive acquisition, but of course Chris didn’t take the time to acknowledge that or even talk about the integration challenges of that acquisition.).
Bob was simply too lazy to build a message that demonstrated knowledge, delivered insight, or provoked interest. But I suppose, his company thinks that volume and touches count, not content.
Bob goes further in insulting John. He acknowledges, two times, that his messages are nothing more than harassment. That he isn’t engaging, that he isn’t trying to create value. All he wants to do is “bug” and waste John’s time.
What Bob has done has been not just squander a potential to build a relationship and help my friend. He’s created a “prospect” actively telling his friends, “If this is an example of their work, stay away from them!”
John asked me what to do. I gave a few snide suggestions, but in the end told him not to react, just “SPAM” it. I added, you can expect he will give you 9-11 additional emails because that’s what the data says–it takes 14-16 touches to get someone to respond. It’s already programmed into his drip campaign, we know the mailing pattern, so we can predict the days you are likely to get an email.
John sighed, he just created a rule to move all messages from Bob’s company into his SPAM filter.
The profession of selling deserves better than this! Our customers deserve better than this!
As you evaluate vendors, including companies like mine, make sure we practice what we preach. The way we prospect and develop relationships with you, the way we engage and create value for you and your team is likely to be what we will drive in working with your team. If you think “Bob’s” approach is right, if it builds the relationships and engages customers in the way that you think represents your company well–then clearly he has a solution for you. If not, then don’t waste your time.
First place teams collide in Boston as the Phillies send Aaron Nola against David Price. Nola comes into the game third in the NL in ERA at 2.42. He’s having a great July, with a 2.16 ERA, one home run, six walks, and 29 K in 25 innings. Price is 2-1 in July despite a 6.43 ERA. He allowed eight home runs in 21 innings during the month.
First place Houston faces off against second place Seattle as Gerrit Cole takes on James Paxton. Cole has fallen in Tom Tango Cy Young Tracker points, ranking fourth. His ERA is up in his last eight starts, mostly due to a high walk rate. Paxton pitches for the first time since 7/12, his back putting him on the disabled list. He is 2-0 with a 1.32 ERA against the Astros this season.
Finally, the Brewers visit the Dodgers with Freddy Peralta facing Kenta Maeda. In his rookie year, Peralta is proving tough to hit. His 57 K in 43 1/3 innings helped him allow just 22 hits. That balances the 22 walks he issued. Maeda continues to pitch better at home with a 2.74 ERA in Los Angeles, 3.78 on the road.
Enjoy!
For the fourth week in a row, MLB offense came in at over nine runs per game. Through 17 weeks, 2018 is still running behind 2018, but the gap narrowed a bit. The 2018 season is producing 8.90 runs per game, compared to 9.33 runs per game through 17 weeks of the 2017 season. (All comparisons are through 17 weeks.) One piece of good news is that strikeouts are coming down. In April games were seeing 17.5 K per game, in July 16.6 K per game. We may in fact be seeing the adjustment people want, with more batters trying to put the ball in play. I even saw Bryce Harper get an infield hit yesterday by taking an easy swing on a two strike pitch and grounding the ball to where the shortstop should be. By the time the third baseman got to the ball, Harper was safe. I’ve even seen two hit and runs this week.
That said, all hits are still down 0.5 per game compared to last season. It’s good to see that some adjustments are happening.
Here are the top picks my programs produced for use in Beat the Streak. This post mostly explains the ideas behind the calculations. In addition, this post shows tests on the Neural Network (NN). This post discusses an NN that includes the ballpark. I updated the models, and the results of those tests are here.
For 2018, I am just going to publish the Log5 hit averages and the NN probabilities with parks factored in. I am keeping track of the results here. I added a graph that gives a visual representation of the probability and success each day.
I have been asked to expand the list to the top 25 players for an econometric project.
First, the Log5 Method picks:
0.338 — David Peralta batting against Martin Perez.
0.336 — A.J. Pollock batting against Martin Perez.
0.331 — Eddie Rosario batting against Shane Bieber.
0.324 — Jon Jay batting against Martin Perez.
0.320 — Buster Posey batting against Eric Lauer.
0.319 — Eduardo Escobar batting against Martin Perez.
0.315 — Paul Goldschmidt batting against Martin Perez.
0.310 — Nick Markakis batting against Wei-Yin Chen.
0.309 — Freddie Freeman batting against Wei-Yin Chen.
0.306 — Brandon Crawford batting against Eric Lauer.
0.303 — Alen Hanson batting against Eric Lauer.
0.303 — Ozzie Albies batting against Wei-Yin Chen.
0.299 — Gorkys Hernandez batting against Eric Lauer.
0.296 — Ketel Marte batting against Martin Perez.
0.296 — Joe Mauer batting against Shane Bieber.
0.293 — Nick Hundley batting against Eric Lauer.
0.292 — Evan Longoria batting against Eric Lauer.
0.290 — Nick Ahmed batting against Martin Perez.
0.289 — Charlie Culberson batting against Wei-Yin Chen.
0.288 — Austin Slater batting against Eric Lauer.
0.288 — Brandon Belt batting against Eric Lauer.
0.286 — Steven Duggar batting against Eric Lauer.
0.284 — Steven Souza batting against Martin Perez.
0.284 — Jake Cave batting against Shane Bieber.
0.284 — Jorge Polanco batting against Shane Bieber.
It should be a good day for the Diamondbacks hitters. Even Nick Ahmed makes the list!
Here is how the NN with Park ranks the players:
0.331, 0.739 — Eddie Rosario batting against Shane Bieber.
0.338, 0.730 — David Peralta batting against Martin Perez.
0.336, 0.723 — A.J. Pollock batting against Martin Perez.
0.320, 0.722 — Buster Posey batting against Eric Lauer.
0.309, 0.721 — Freddie Freeman batting against Wei-Yin Chen.
0.310, 0.716 — Nick Markakis batting against Wei-Yin Chen.
0.324, 0.714 — Jon Jay batting against Martin Perez.
0.303, 0.713 — Ozzie Albies batting against Wei-Yin Chen.
0.264, 0.710 — J.D. Martinez batting against Aaron Nola.
0.247, 0.710 — Jean Segura batting against Gerrit Cole.
0.274, 0.704 — Michael Brantley batting against Ervin Santana.
0.262, 0.702 — Mookie Betts batting against Aaron Nola.
0.315, 0.701 — Paul Goldschmidt batting against Martin Perez.
0.319, 0.701 — Eduardo Escobar batting against Martin Perez.
0.261, 0.700 — Charlie Blackmon batting against Carlos Martinez.
0.268, 0.698 — Jose Martinez batting against Tyler Anderson.
0.306, 0.697 — Brandon Crawford batting against Eric Lauer.
0.268, 0.695 — Christian Yelich batting against Kenta Maeda.
0.296, 0.694 — Joe Mauer batting against Shane Bieber.
0.267, 0.693 — Yadier Molina batting against Tyler Anderson.
0.237, 0.693 — Dee Gordon batting against Gerrit Cole.
0.252, 0.691 — Yulieski Gurriel batting against James Paxton.
0.245, 0.690 — J.T. Realmuto batting against Julio Teheran.
0.257, 0.689 — Nolan Arenado batting against Carlos Martinez.
0.299, 0.687 — Gorkys Hernandez batting against Eric Lauer.
0.268, 0.687 — Lourdes Gurriel batting against Edwin Jackson.
0.289, 0.687 — Charlie Culberson batting against Wei-Yin Chen.
0.256, 0.687 — Adrian Beltre batting against Robbie Ray.
0.303, 0.687 — Alen Hanson batting against Eric Lauer.
David Peralta is the consensus first choice, Rosario second choice. It might, however, be a good day to double down on Peralta and Pollock.
Remember, your best pick will fail about 25% of the time. Good luck!
There were no changes in the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings from yesterday. The top five of Mike Trout, Alex Bregman, Christian Yelich, Matt Carpenter, and Jose Ramirez remain the same.
The Houston Astros get swept by the Rangers as Texas takes the third game of the series 4-3. The sweep corresponds to the injury to Jose Altuve. The Astros were 67-37 with Altuve playing (every game up until the injury), 0-3 without him.
Nathan Eovaldi throws seven shutout innings for the Red Sox as they beat Minnesota 3-0. J.A. Happ allows one run in six innings as the Yankees defeat Kansas City 6-3. After one start, both deals are working out well.
Sean Newcomb takes the mound for the Braves in the ninth inning with a 4-0 lead over the Dodgers and three outs away from a no-hitter. He is scheduled to face Logan Forsythe, Cody Bellinger, and Chris Taylor. He has thrown 117 pitches, a career high for him, 70 for strikes.
Update: Forsythe flies out to left for the first out.
Sean Newcomb just completed seven no-hit inning against the Dodgers. He walked one and struck out seven so far as the Braves lead 4-0. He’s thrown 100 pitches, 58 for strikes, so he hasn’t exactly been in great control. The Dodgers just can’t hit what he’s offering.
Update: Two ground outs and a strikeout, and Sean Newcomb will take no-hitter into the ninth inning.
Brett Phillips, making his Royals debut, just robbed Austin Romine of a three-run homer. The slow motion replay of the catch is fun, as Phillips seems to be screaming as he jumps, and closes his eyes as the ball goes into his glove. A great catch, but not text book.
The Yankees lead the Royals 3-0 in the top of the fifth inning.
The Dodgers and Braves continue to post outstanding pitching match-ups as Ross Stripling takes on Sean Newcomb as Los Angeles goes for a four-game sweep. All the decisions Stripling earned came as a starter. In that role he owns a 2.76 ERA. Out of the pen it was 0.59 in 15 1/3 innings. His only weakness is the 13 home runs he allowed in 100 total innings. Newcomb pitched about the same as he did last season in terms of three-true outcomes, but his ERA is about a 0.9 runs lower. His BABIP dropped from .327 to .253, which could be luck or great fielding. He is allowing fewer line drives, which may indicate he’s fooling batters enough to avoid solid contact.
Toronto sends Ryan Borucki against the White Sox and Carlos Rodon. Both are bright spots in otherwise disappointing seasons for the teams. Borucki has not allowed a home run in his first five major league starts, covering 29 1/3 innings. Rodon owns a 1.77 ERA at home thanks to just five walks in 20 1/3 innings. He walked 15 batters in 30 1/3 road innings.
Seattle tries to halt their skid with Marco Gonzales facing the Angels and Felix Pena. Gonzales came into his own at seasonal age 26, striking out 104 and walking just 23 in 119 2/3 innings. Pena blossomed as a starter, with a 2.73 ERA in his six starts this season. He struck out 32 in 29 2/3 innings in that role.
Enjoy!
Cooperstown becomes the focus of the baseball world this afternoon at 1:30 PM EDT as the 2018 class receives their plaques and makes their speeches. There are a large number of inductees, as the writers voted in four players. Vald Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones, and Jim Thome receive the highest honor the baseball writers bestow. Jack Morris and teammate Alan Trammell won the nod of the veterans committee, honoring the great Tigers teams of the 1980s. Sheldon Ocker takes the J.G. Taylor Spink Award (writing) and Bob Costas receives the Ford C. Frick Award (broadcasting).
There are arguments about a few of the inductees, especially Morris, Trammell, and Hoffman. This is not the day for that, however. All these players brought a great deal of joy to baseball fans, and it’s a day to remember that. Congratulations to all!
Dave Martinez faced a bases loaded, no out situation in the bottom of the tenth, the Marlins J.T. Realmuto at the plate. Martinez brings Bryce Harper in to play at first base for a five man infield. Realmuto hits a fly ball down the rightfield line. Michael Taylor and Bryce Harper each almost reach it, but it falls for a hit. Given the way they were running, they would not have had a chance to throw out the runner from third, Magneuris Sierra, since he is very fast and neither would have time to stop and set for the throw.
If Harper had been at his normal position in rightfield, however, he likely would have caught the ball. He might have made the play close at home, as the ball hung in the air a long time, and Harper has a strong arm. It reminds me of this play from the 2001 World Series:
Joe Torre brought the infield in against Luis Gonzalez with one out instead of playing back for a potential double play. If Jeter is playing at his normal position, he catches that line drive and the Diamondbacks do not score on that batted ball. It is tough to fault the managers, they know their teams, they know their opponents, and they likely make the move that works out the best in the long run. It just looks bad when you make the right move and the batter doesn’t cooperate.
Harper noted after the game that Realmuto would not have been at the plate if the Nationals had traded for him.
