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insidethegiftbasket · 4 years ago

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Yankees (22-18) at Rangers (18-24)

Monday – 8:05pm on YES: Gerrit Cole (5-1, 1.37 ERA) vs Jordan Lyles (1-3, 6.63 ERA) Tuesday – 8:05pm on YES and ESPN: Jameson Taillon (1-3, 5.40 ERA) vs Mike Foltynewicz (1-3, 4.60 ERA)

Wednesday – 8:05pm on YES: Corey Kluber (3-2, 3.48 ERA) vsTBD

Thursday – 2:05pm on YES and MLBN: Domingo German (3-2, 3.62 ERA) vs Dane Dunning (2-3, 3.42 ERA)

A Brief Section on Globe Life Field

This is the first time the Yankees will be playing at the new Rangers stadium, and it plays pretty differently than the previous park.

Now obviously Globe Life Field held the NL postseason and the World Series last year, but this is the first season where the Rangers have gotten to play in front of fans there. GLF’s dimensions are all honoring important Rangers players and moments:

Left Field Pole is 329 feet in honor of Adrian Beltre

Left Field inside the line is 334 feet in honor of Nolan Ryan

Left Field power alley is 372 feet as the Rangers first played in Texas in 1972

Deepest dimension is 410 feet in honor of Michael Young

Straightaway centerfield is 407 feet in honor of Pudge Rodriguez

Right Field power alley is 374 feet in honor of the 1974 Rangers having the first winning season ever

Right Field Pole is 326 feet in honor of Johnny Oates

42 feet from the plate to the backstop in honor of Jackie Robinson

Compared to the previous Rangers ballpark, the new Globe Life Field is a pitcher’s paradise: at the old Ballpark in Arlington, there were 19% more runs than average, 12% more home runs than average, and wOBA was 9% higher as well. It consistently ranked as one of the best hitter’s parks outside of Coors. In comparison, the new stadium is really tough for hitters: it was 11% worse than average in homers allowed last year (although its back to league average so far this year), 4% worse than average in runs allowed, and 2% worse than average in wOBA.

Rangers Injury Report

UTL Brock Holt: on the 10 Day IL with a strained hamstring, no timetable to return

SP Kohei Arihara: on the 10 Day IL with a finger contusion, no timetable to return

Rangers Pitching

The Rangers rotation is kinda like the Island of Misfit Toys—it’s been high profile guys who have gotten dumped after poor performances or guys that have been passed around, but the Rangers are trying to take fliers on guys with some track record of success and then trade them for prospects. The big issue with that for Texas is when they have guys that DO actually perform well, they hold onto them for far too long and get limited returns instead (see: Lance Lynn and Mike Minor.) Rangers pitching as a whole has a 93 ERA+, which is really quite bad. While they are in the top 10 in walks allowed (3.02) they have allowed the most hits in baseball (362) and second most homers (54) and are below average in strikeouts. The bullpen is 17th in baseball with a 3.94 ERA as well, although the bullpen does have a couple nice bright spots in it.

Starting game one is right handed pitcher Jordan Lyles. Lyles is a four pitch pitcher—he’ll use his four seamer and curveball against righties and lefties, and mixes in a slider for righties and a change for lefties. His fastball, to be completely fair and honest, is garbage—it’s a 93mph fastball with okay movement, but it’s -9 run value makes it the second worst pitch in baseball this season (last year it was only the fourth worst pitch in all of baseball, so maybe there’s room for improvement?) He throws the fastball nearly 50% of the time, and opposing hitters are slugging .705 against it, which is just awful. It has a 64.7% hard hit rate. He’s allowed nearly as many extra base hits (10) as strikeouts (11) with it.

That’s Lyles’ pitch percentages by zone for a fastball—notice 8.4% of those are meatballs and then another 25% of those are up and in against righties/up and away against lefties.

Yeah, allowing over .600 batting averages on a third of your fastballs is a good way to end your Major League career.

Game two starter is Mike Foltynewicz, who in 2018 was an All Star for the Braves and got Cy Young votes for them as a 26 year old. Unfortunately for Folty, 2019 was a bad year and 2020 was a disaster- he lost 5mph off his fastball, lost a lot of weight, and was promptly DFA’d during the season. 2021 has been a bit better so far for him- his fastball is back up to 94mph, still slower than it was in his prime, but better than the high 80’s fastball he was rocking last year. His slider looks to be back in rhythm as well—opponents are hitting just .196 off his slider this year and he has 22 strikeouts in 46 at bats finishing guys off with it. Where Folty’s problems come from however are his awful platoon splits: righties are slashing .257/.292/.475 with five homers and 26 strikeouts in 101 at bats. Lefties are slashing .315/.386/.658 with six homers and 13 strikeouts in 73 at bats. His change up and curveball, both lefty only options, are getting destroyed.

Folty has always been a stuff guy and more of a thrower than a pitcher, but when your stuff isn’t blowing guys away, you’re not really that valuable on the mound.

Lastly I wanted to give a shoutout to former Yankee prospect Ian Kennedy for putting up his best season in a decade as the Rangers closing pitcher. Kennedy was originally traded to the Diamondbacks as part of the Curtis Granderson trade in 2009, but he’s still alive and kicking out of the pen in Texas now. Ian’s basically gone from throwing four pitches as a starter to throwing his 4 seamer 80% of the time, which is probably a great decision: it’s only 94mph, but it has elite movement—an extra 2.1 inches of drop and an extra 2.6 inches of horizontal movement.

He’s just going to pound the strike zone with heaters and hope that you don’t rip him apart, but so far this season it’s been working really well.

Rangers Hitters

Texas’ lineup is starting to get back on track a bit after a brutal 2020 season. As a team they have a 100 wrc+, which is 10th in baseball, and are 8th in homers hit. They do have, in typical Rangers fashion, the fifth most strikeouts, but also in typical Rangers fashion they’re aggressive on the base paths—third in stolen bases (28) and 11th in extra base taken % (42%.)

While former Yankee prospect Nick Solak is doing really well, and the star of the team is the always fun Joey Gallo, the breakout star of the Rangers so far has been Adolis Garcia:

Garcia has come from virtually nowhere to play an elite outfield and has just been crushing balls all over the park, but he does have an unsustainable .352 BABIP and 16% barrel rate. Is he going to stay good? My guess is yes, but I don’t think he’ll be a near MVP candidate the rest of the season.

#Yankees #New York Yankees #Rangers #Texas Rangers #MLB #Baseball #Series Preview #Breakdown #Jerry Gallo is dead--I know that!

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hellofaisal · 4 years ago

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Imran Khan Biography: Early Life, Education, Net Worth, Assets, Controversies, Cricket and Political Career

The 22nd and current Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is a cricketer turned government official. He was brought into the world on October 5, 1952, and is likewise the director of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Imran Khan prior to going into governmental issues, Khan was an International Cricketer and Captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team which he prompted Pakistan's triumph in 1992 Cricket World Cup

if you want to read history of imran khan please click on that link

Imran Khan: Birth and Family

history of imran khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi was destined to a Pashtun group of Mianwali in Lahore on October 5, 1952, to Ikramullah Khan Niazi and Shaukat Khanum. Imran Khan was the lone child of the couple and has four sisters.

mran Khan has a place with Pashtun identity and Niazi clan. Haibat Khan Niazi, one of Imran Khan's predecessors, was Sher Shah Suri's driving general and the legislative leader of Punjab.

Imran Khan's mom hails from the Pashtun clan of Burki which has given a few effective cricketers in Pakistan's set of experiences. His cousins Javed Burki and Majid Khan are additionally the effective cricketers of Pakistan. Imran Khan is additionally a relative of the Sufi fighter artist Pir Roshan.

Imran Khan: Education

Imran Khan got his previous training at Aitchison College and Cathedral School in Lahore and afterward the Royal Grammar School in Worcester and dominated in cricket. In the year 1972, he got himself joined up with Keble College, Oxford and graduated in 1975 in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Imran Khan: Cricket Career

Imran Khan began playing cricket at 13 years old and made his five star cricket debut at the age 16 in Lahore. From 1970-71, he began playing for his host groups - Lahore A, Lahore B, Lahore Greens and Lahore.

At 18 years old, Imran Khan made his presentation for the Pakistan National Cricket Team and played against England in 1971 at Edgbaston. In August 1974, Khan made his presentation in One day International (ODI) and played against England at Trent Bridge. In the wake of moving on from Oxford, Khan got back to Pakistan in the year 1976 and began playing for all time in Pakistan National Cricket Team and played against New Zealand and Australia. He met Tony Greig on his West Indies visit. Tony marked Imran Khan for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket.

In a quick bowling challenge at Perth in the year 1978, he came third bowling at 139.7 km/h abandoning Dennis Lillee, Garth Le Roux and Andy Roberts while Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding were still in front of Khan.

In 1970, he turned into a pioneer of 'switch swing' bowling method. He conferred his mystery stunt to Pakistan's bowling team Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

In 1982, Khan took 62 wickets in 9 Test matches at 13.29 each. In January 1983, he accomplished a Test bowling rating of 992 focuses playing against India.

Imran Khan accomplished the second-quickest all-rounder's triple in 75 tests- - making sure about 3000 runs in 300 wickets. Ian Botham holds the quickest record of all-rounders triple. Khan has additionally accomplished the second-most elevated record-breaking batting normal of 61.86 for a Test batsman- - playing at position 6 in the batting request.

Imran Khan played his last Test coordinate in January 1992 against Sri Lanka at Faisalabad. Khan resigned from cricket after Pakistan's notable success in 1992 World Cup last against England in Melbourne Australia.

Imran Khan has played 88 Test matches, 126 innings and scored 3807 runs with 6 centuries and 18 fifties as a batsman while as a bowler he stepped through 362 wickets in Exam matches turning into Pakistan's first and world's fourth bowler. In ODI, he played 175 matches and scored 3709 runs as a batsman and as a bowler he took 6 wickets for 14 runs, establishing a precedent for the best bowler in ODI innings in a losing cause. In Test cricket, his most noteworthy score was 136 and in ODI his most noteworthy score was 102 not out.

In 1982, Imran Khan succeeded Javed Miandad turning into the chief of Pakistan cricket crew. Imran Khan played 48 Test matches (Pakistan won 14, lost 8 and 26 were drawn) and 139 ODI's (Pakistan won 77, lost 57 and just one match was drawn) as a skipper.

Imran Khan: Post-retirement from cricket

Imran Khan after his retirement from the cricket conceded that he sporadically scratched the ball and lifted the crease. In the year 1996, Khan effectively protected himself in a criticism activity delivered by a previous English chief and all-rounder Ian Botham and batsman Allan Lamb. They guaranteed that Khan had called the two cricketers "bigot, not well taught and ailing in class" and was engaged with ball-altering. Khan fought that he had been misquoted, saying that he was guarding himself in the wake of having conceded that he altered the ball in a district coordinate 18 years prior. Imran Khan won the criticism case, which the appointed authority marked a "total pointless activity", with a 10–2 larger part choice by the jury.

Post-retirement, Imran Khan composed a few assessment pieces for different papers - Guardian, The Independent, Telegraph, and so on He has likewise seemed a few times as a cricket reporter on a few Asian and British games organizations - BBC Urdu, TEN games, and so forth He has likewise given the match outlines to each Cricket World Cup since 1992.

On November 23, 2005, he was named as the chancellor of University of Bradford. On February 26, 2014, the University glided a movement to eliminate Imran Khan as a chancellor because of his nonappearance from each graduation service since 2010. Later on, on November 2014, Khan ventured down as the chancellor refering to his expanding political responsibilities.

Imran Khan: Political Career

Imran Khan was offered the political situations during his cricket vocation - the then President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq offered him a political situation in Pakistan Muslim League (PML), previous Prime Miniter of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif additionally welcomed him to join his ideological group, which he declined.

In 1994, Khan joined a gathering drove by the previous ISI ( Inter-Services Intelligence) boss Hamid Gul and Muhammad Ali Durrani who was head of Pasban, a breakaway youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan.

On April 25, 1996, Imran Khan established his own gathering Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and challenged races for the seat of National Assembly of Pakistan in 1997 Pakistani general political race as an applicant of PTI. He challenged more than two voting demographics however lost the political race.

Imran Khan upheld General Pervez Musharraf's military upset in 1999 and accepted that he will end debasement. In 2002, he was likewise offered the Prime Ministerial post by General Musharraf however turned down the offer.

On October 2, 2007, Khan joined 85 different MPs to leave the Parliament fighting the official political decision which General Musharraf was challenging without leaving as Army Chief. After General Musharraf announced a crisis in Pakistan, Khan was put under house capture on November 3, 2007. Be that as it may, he later figured out how to get away and joined understudy fight at University of Punjab on November 14 where he was caught and abused by the understudy activists. He was later captured from the dissent and was shipped off Dera Ghazi Khan prison in Punjab yet was delivered following a couple of days.

On October 30, 2011, Khan tended to countless allies in Lahore and on December 25, 2011, in Karachi on the difficult approaches of the public authority.

On April 21, 2013, Imran Khan dispatched his PR lobbies for 2013 Pakistan races. Khan tended to public gatherings in various pieces of the nation - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Seraiki belt urban communities, and so forth He reported that his gathering will present a uniform arrangement of training where the rich and helpless will have similar chances. He finished his mission by tending to allies of Islamabad by means of a video where he was lying on a medical clinic bed in Lahore because of his head wounds after he tumbled from a forklift at the edge of the stage.

On May 11, 2013, races were held in Pakistan and Pakistan Muslim League (N) won with a greater part. Nonetheless, PTI arose as the second-biggest gathering in Karachi and won 30 straightforwardly chose parliamentary seats. PTI turned into the third-biggest gathering in National Assembly after Pakistan People's Party.

PTI dipped the hostility hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and framed common government and introduced a tax-exempt, even spending plan for the Financial Year 2013-14.

Imran Khan was of the assessment that fear monger exercises can be halted in Pakistan through discourse and offered to open an office in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa territory. He charged US when they murdered Hakimullah Mehsud (Talibani Leader) which prompted the aggravation in Pakistan and requested the public authority to impede NATO supply line in reprisal.

On November 14, 2013, Khan requested for the excusal of Ministers of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and requested Chief Minister Pervez Khan Khattak to end the coalition with QWP. Bakht Baidar and Ibrar Hussain Kamoli of QWP who were clergymen for Manpower and Industry and Forest and Environment separately were excused and Chief Minister excused Yousuf Ayub Khan, Minister for Communication and Works of PTI over his phony degree.

Imran Khan: 2018 Pakistan General Election

Imran Khan challenged from 5 bodies electorate in 2018 Pakistan General Elections. He turned into the primary individual throughout the entire existence of Pakistan who challenged and won in all the 5 electorates. Beforehand, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who challenged from four voting demographics won in three of every 1970.

In May 2018, PTI reported a 100-day plan for the future government- - the production of another territory in Southern Punjab, optimizing of the consolidation of Federally Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the improvement of peace circumstance in Karachi, and advancement of relations with Baloch political pioneers.

Imran Khan: Victory discourse subsequent to winning 2018 decisions

After his triumph in 2018 Pakistan General Election, Khan laid a few strategies for his future government and expressed that he will assemble Pakistan as a

#historyofimrankhan #imrankhanwife #imrankhanfather #imran hashmi #usafootball #imrankhan #imrankhanppolitics #imran government #pm imran #imran

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mechagalaxy · 5 years ago

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Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: Mecha Combat #1188 - Febuary 3356 Axe Attacks

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)

Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat #1188

Brought to you by ANN

Highlighting the Febuary 3356 Axe Attacks

This time the Gaming Authorities decided we were to have a Mech specific event. Only the venerable 20 ton Axe Bot would be legal.

-Unless you fought on K11, there every model a Commander could get into a formation would be legal.

Not the best venue for me. Yes, we have a trio of Axe Bot Mechs, but others have more (others again have few if any).

Said trio were gathered from mothball status, cleansed, equipped and armed. This took loooots of time as decades of accumulated grime and rat/bat/whatever droppings could be found in any inconvenient places.

But Bruno`s underlings managed to get the Mechs ready, and about a quarter-hour before the scramble we were on our way to the mountains. Due to a not quite stellar performance lately we had been demoted to K4, where we for once not would be tail-end Charlie when it came to Piloting Licence.

At the mountain there were still room for medal seekers, and a spot on the lower foothills was our for the asking.

But my crew wanted better, and a glimpse at the opponents gave me hope.

Most seemed to be in main, and while there were some Axe Bots as point Mechs, I did not believe they had pure formations.

The first target was Leopold Hackenbush from Death`s Brethren, and his single Axe Bot fell before my trio. We were now on the slopes, and the only one who could refuse us a win were Donald Anthony Alligood from the Black Star Lycan Rangers who held the top.

I was confident he had fewer Axe Bots than the tonnage indicated, and an attack was launched.

And splattered against a solid five Mech line.

Drat. But that is why one brings hatorades. To eventually battle aside those having somewhat stronger formations. Attack after attack were launched, and after eight tries the last Mech of his line fell.

-Just to reveal ANOTHER five Axe Bot line.

My two shot up Mechs got blown apart as the pilots stared at said line in disbelief.

A quick trip back to the compound to adjust the weaponry was neccesary, and when we returned it was in a rapid-attack mode.

How many attacks who failed is unknown, Three dozens, four?? But in the end my forces claimed the top.

I made an inventory and vinced. We were out of supers, and the number of large/standard hatorades still avialible was also reduced. One strong push from Alligood and we would be back at the slopes having little hope of a comeback.

But that was a worry for later. Now we put out recording equipment to capture the action on all the tops.

And, despite some hefty action below us, Alligood stayed put.

When the light finally flashed, I knew the receivers of fresh Nephilax`es would be:

Div 1 362+ (25 Commanders): Sherriff Leary Wretham, Warlock (19h,15m)

2: Daniel Scott

3: Jeff Haas

4: Darryl Proctor

5: Jay Fleharty

6: Christine Mainer

7: Ben Rail

8: Dan Ross

9: Gary Muenzel

10: Chad Leon Baker

Div 2 -361 (8 Commanders): Stroker Spot, 中臣氏 (2h,14m)

Div 3 -266 (12 Commanders): Makema Mathews, "R.V." (4h,56)

Div 4 -195 (14 Commanders): Sten Hugo Hiller, Star League (30m,42s)

Div 5 -152 (11 Commanders): Drake Hunter, Star League (1m,16s)

Div 6 -109 (20 Commanders): Jack Wade, "R.V." (12h,25m)

Div 7 -80 (14 Commanders): Brian Lee, Ronins (12m,32s)

Div 8 -54 (13 Commanders): Kyle Mardon, JC`s Rowdy Bunch (19h,26m)

Div 9 -36 (11 Commanders): NameOfProfile, Mad Scientist 1 (8h,7m)

Div 10 -24 (11 Commanders): Watson, Jagdstaffel 2 (12h,28m)

Div 11 -16 (13 Commanders): monmoy133 (9h,37m)

On the ten tops where only Axe Bots were to fight:

2(G)+1(S)+1(S)+3(G,2S)+2(2S)+5(1S)+3(3S)+1(S)+1(S)+1(G)= Three Golds, twelve Silvers and four bronzes were awarded to Commanders who might have had pure Axe Bot formations.

Total Contestants: 152

Total medals claimed: 137 (of 165 possible)

The participation took another dive this time. Even compared to the not so well attended Cruiseweight we just had, nineteen fewer Commanders showed up?

Why? Because they lacked of Axe Bot`s perhaps? That did not seem to be a deterrent to many of those who showed up and got medals.

Not that many did. Only on Mount Olympus and K6 were all the Medals claimed. From the other nine tops a total of twenty-eight Bronzes were returned for resmelting.

Only two Golds were in play the last half-hour, while eight Golds were held for more than two hours.

OK, so most of the winners had the goods and were to strong to be displaced. But was that the situation when it came to the lesser prizes as well? An answer can be found by looking at the number of medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event:

.............Silvers......Bronzes

Div 1 ....1 of 4.........7 of 10

Div 2 ....3 of 4.........2 of 3

Div 3 ....2 of 4.........6 of 7

Div 4 ....1 of 4.........3 of 9

Div 5 ....2 of 4.........5 of 6

Div 6 ....0 of 4.........1 of 10

Div 7 ....3 of 4.........7 of 10

Div 8 ....1 of 4.........6 of 8

Div 9 ....4 of 4.........6 of 6

Div 10 ..4 of 4.........6 of 6

Div 11 ..4 of 4.........8 of 8

Again, the action on the lowest tops was non-existant. This time K9, K10 and K11 went without any medal attacks.

On the other side, K4, K5 and K6 all saw most of the medals finding fresh holders, and the fighting on K8 was pretty intense as well.

Both the "Raging Vengeance" (K3 + K6) and Star League (K4 +K5) managed to secure double triumphs in this event.

We also had an unaligned winner; monmoy133 on K11, but none of the cruiserweight winners managed to get a follow-up win.

However, I feel one Commander deserves special mention.

Darryl Proctor of the Northwind Dragons managed to get a Silver on Mount Olympus. When one consider that sixteen of the other Commanders there had licences more than twice as high as his, that is remarkable. And when you add in that to get to the highest top from k2, the Gold he won in the Cruiserweight the event before, again being heavily out licensed, is a rare accomplishment indeed.

While it might be to early to confirm legendary status, he have won two 20 ton Golds, as well as having one win in a Axe Bot Chrono. (out of fifty-three total KotM Golds)

Upcoming event: Half Centennial

Here we get another tonnage restricted event. The heaviest Mechs allowed to fight on the tops will be the 50 tonners.

Event ends February 9 between 1430 and 1500 New York Time

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jutebugle4-blog · 6 years ago

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Hoerner is a top AFL hitter after first pro season

MESA, Ariz. -- Both Nico Hoerner and the Cubs were excited to see how he'd fare in his first taste of pro ball after they drafted him 24th overall in June. But his pro debut lasted just 14 games before he strained ligaments in his left elbow diving for a ball in July.

One of the purposes of the Arizona Fall League is to help prospects make up for lost at-bats and innings. Hoerner took full advantage of the opportunity, emerging as one of the best hitters in the developmental league despite his lack of pro experience. He concluded his season with a three-hit day on Thursday, stroking a pair of doubles and driving in three runs as his Mesa Solar Sox outlasted the Surprise Saguaros 11-10.

• Gameday

Hoerner said he was thankful to the Cubs for giving him the opportunity to play in the AFL. The only other 2018 draftee in the league this fall was Mesa right-hander Calvin Coker, a 15th-round pick by the Athletics.

"They trusted me a lot," Hoerner said. "They knew I'd make the most of it, whether the results were great or not, I'd make the most of it development-wise. That was my goal going into it, and I think I did a good job of that."

After batting .327/.450/.571 with two homers and six steals in 14 games across three levels during his truncated pro debut, Hoerner hit .337/.362/.506 with a homer and a steal in 21 games for the Solar Sox. He tied for the Fall League lead with four triples, ranked second with 30 hits and placed third with 45 total bases.

• Arizona Fall League batting leaders

During his time in Arizona, Hoerner stood out with his ability to handle the bat and use the entire field. The Stanford product also showed glimpses of sneaky power. Some scouts question whether his actions and arm fit better at shortstop, where he spent most of his time with Mesa, or at second base, but there are no worries about his ability to produce at the plate.

Hoerner said the Fall League helped him learn what he needed to improve going forward. Though he had a lot of success at the plate, he also drew just two walks versus 16 strikeouts in 94 plate appearances.

"I feel like I understand already what I do that works for me at this level, but also things I really need to work on and got exposed in some ways," Hoerner said. "So for me moving forward, it helps my offseason knowing what I need to work on a lot. Pitch selection and approach, not so much I need to revamp my swing or anything but just getting to know how pitchers work and focusing on my strengths."

Mesa's season finale was a wild affair in which four of its first five batters recorded extra-base hits, including a home run by third baseman Bobby Dalbec (Red Sox) off left-hander Shawn Morimondo (Blue Jays), as it surged to a 10-2 lead after four innings. But the Saguaros rallied with five runs in the eighth as first baseman Will Craig (Pirates) tied for the AFL home run crown with his sixth of the season, a three-run shot off Coker, and tied ithe game with a two-out, two-run single from third baseman Charles LeBlanc (Rangers) in the top of the ninth. Left fielder Nick Heath (Royals) got into scoring position with the tying run with his 13th steal of the fall, breaking a tie with Mesa's Daniel Woodrow for the AFL lead.

The Solar Sox responded with a walkoff win in the bottom half, with catcher Jake Rogers (Tigers) driving in his first run in 52 Fall League plate appearances to end it. Perhaps the best defensive catcher in the Minors, Rogers hit .167/.231/.271 for Mesa but came through with the game-winning single against Joe Barlow (Rangers).

Jim Callis is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow @jimcallisMLB on Twitter. Listen to him on the weekly Pipeline Podcast.

Source: https://www.mlb.com/news/cubs-nico-hoerner-18-draft-a-top-afl-hitter/c-300798628

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sundayera7-blog · 6 years ago

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BCB Top 20 Cubs Minor League Prospects: System overview and honorable mentions

This week is time for my annual look at the top 20 prospects in the Cubs system and today we start off with a look at the system and some players who didn’t make the list for one reason or another. Then we’ll count down five prospects each day until revealing the top five prospects, including a new number one, on Friday.

To be perfectly honest, the Cubs have a poor farm system at the moment. It’s certainly one of the bottom five systems in the game. I’ve been doing these ranking for about 10 years and this is the worst that I can remember. Perhaps 2008 or 2009 were worse — I can’t really remember back that far. The system has been culled of talent by promotions, trades for major league players (a good thing, no doubt) and many of the top prospects who remained had poor years in the minors in 2018. Honestly, as I was doing the second-half of the top ten, I struggled sometimes to list anyone whom I thought was worth such a ranking. If you think that someone that I haven’t ranked should be in the 11 to 20 range, I’m going to admit that you may very well be right. After the first dozen prospects, there’s a whole lot of differing shades of “meh” here. I don’t think there is a single player in the system that you can’t add a “but” to any positive evaluation you’d give him. Part of that comes with success at the major league level—the Red Sox farm system isn’t very good at the moment either.

But that’s not to say there isn’t some talent here. The five guys at the top all have a chance to be pretty darn good major leaguers. The Cubs also appear to have had a pretty terrific 2018 draft — fully four of my top ten prospects were taken last June. All of them have the potential to step up and become prized prospect in 2019. If all four of them live up to their potential, then this system becomes a top 20 system pretty quickly. If also a few of those disappointing 2018 prospects return to form, then this system could be ranked in the top half or maybe even higher in 2020. It’s unlikely that it will improve that much, but it also seems highly unlikely that the system will remain this down for more than a season. And don’t forget, someone like David Bote went from “meh” to “hmmm” to “nice” pretty darn quickly.

This list is my own, based upon my watching hundreds of minor league games this past year and reading as many “expert” analysts as I can. I do have one rule that is unique to my ranking in that I don’t rank any player who hasn’t at least played in Arizona. That rules out some good prospects in the Dominican Summer League including one who hasn’t even started yet that I’ll write about today. The reason for that is that while I can read what scouts and expert analysts say about the player, I have no way of independently verifying what those people have written. For me to say “This guy is one of my top 20 prospects because a bunch of other people think he’s a top 20 prospect” just seems dishonest to me.

So here are some prospects who didn’t make the Top 20 list to talk about for today. They’re not in any particular order. These are not the players whom I would rank as the 21st through 25th ranked prospects, but they’d probably be in the top 30.

Also, players still need to have rookie eligibility to be listed.

Clicking on the player’s name takes you to his milb.com page.

Richard Gallardo. RHP. 6’1”, 187. DOB: 09/06/01. IFA Venezuela. Signed for $1 million 2018.

Gallardo was the prize international free agent signing of the Cubs this past July and you’re going to see his name on a lot of Cubs top ten or top twenty prospects lists. In fact, MLB Pipeline ranked him as the top international free agent pitcher available last year. I don’t have him ranked because he has yet to throw a pitch in an official game for the Cubs.

From the scouting reports, at 16 he was already throwing a fastball at 89-93 mph and had an advanced curve not just for someone that age. I’ve read reports that say he could move quickly through the Cubs system, but since he’s barely turned 17, “quickly” likely means he could be in the majors in 2022. Even that is pretty optimistic.

Gallardo is someone to watch and someone to dream on. He obviously has room to add some bulk and the velocity that would follow. There’s a potential top-of-the-rotation pitcher in there, but clearly at 17 he’s miles away and there is so much that can still go wrong. He’s advanced enough that the Cubs may have him make his professional debut in Arizona rather than the DSL, but there are a lot of factors that go into that decision outside of just baseball talent.

Here’s Gallardo pitching at a showcase before he signed with the Cubs. You can see why some people are so excited. I was pretty impressed and I had to keep reminding myself “That kid is only 16 in that video.”

Christopher Morel. SS/3B. B:R T:R. 6’0”, 160. DOB: 06/24/99. IFA: Dominican Republic. Signed 2015 $800,000.

Morel started last season out in Eugene mostly because the new draftees weren’t ready when the Ems season started in June. He struggled there, but was much better after being demoted to AZL 1 in July. He was considered a team leader on the club that lost the Arizona League Championship Game.

Morel’s glove is ahead of his bat at this point and scouts praise his sure hands and strong arm. The Cubs would like him to add a some bulk which means he could end up as a third baseman rather than a shortstop. The Cubs think his swing is conducive to adding power. Morel also has above-average speed, but he only managed to steal one base in 2018 after swiping 23 in the DSL in 2017.

After his poor .165/.172/.220 in 25 games in Eugene, Morel hit a promising .257/.331/.363 with two home runs in 29 games for AZL 1. He strikes out a little too much at this point and he’d probably benefit from not trying to pull everything. But I expect that Morel will be much better in Eugene this summer than he was last year.

By the way, I feel I need to mention that he was seriously injured when he walked through a glass door after signing in 2015, costing him the 2016 season. That delayed his development as his wrist was pretty badly cut up. But he’s fully recovered now and is ready to take a step forward in 2019. Just not through a door again.

The Cubs signed his younger brother Rafael this past summer as well.

Here is Morel hitting an RBI single for the Ems.

Duane Underwood. RHP. 6’2”, 210. DOB: 7/20/94. Drafted 2nd round, 2012. Pope HS (GA).

I thought I’d be done writing about Underwood by now. He’s been a top 30 prospect since the Cubs drafted him. Since that time, he’s simultaneously disappointed and shown enough that you just don’t want to give up on him.

Underwood made his MLB debut on June 25 at Dodger Stadium and that start turned out to be a bit of a Rorschach test. If you were inclined to think favorably of Underwood, he kept a good Dodgers lineup to one run and two hits over four innings with three strikeouts. If you are down on Underwood, you can point out his three walks and the home run he gave up to Kiké Hernandez. He also labored in the first two innings and didn’t look all that great.

Underwood spent the rest of the season in Triple-A Iowa, making 20 starts before moving to the bullpen in August for seven relief appearances. He was 4-10 with a 4.53 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 119⅓ innings. He walked 37 and gave up six home runs, which isn’t bad for the homer-happy Pacific Coast League.

Here’s every pitch he threw against the Dodgers. Jim Deshaies and Len Kasper give a pretty good scouting report on Underwood in the broadcast as well.

Tyson Miller. RHP. 6’5”, 200. DOB: 07/29/95. Drafted 4th round, 2016. California Baptist.

If you just look at the stat line on Miller in 2018, it looks like he took a step forward in High-A Myrtle Beach. Miller made 23 starts for the Pelicans and went 9-9 with a 3.54 ERA. He struck out 126 batters over 127 innings. He walked 35.

But Miller’s stuff is the same as it’s always been—average. He’s got a fastball around 90-91 that sometimes hits 93, but he has good movement on it and when he’s on, he can locate it pretty well. His slider is mostly average and he needs to work on his change. So exactly like hundreds of other pitchers in the minor leagues.

What stands out about Miller is his mound presence and overall baseball intelligence. He gets the most out of his modest skills. He’s going to be tested in Double-A this year. If he succeeds, then maybe he’s the type of pitcher who can get by with craftiness to carve out a career as a back-of-the-rotation pitcher.

Here are highlights from Miller’s best start of the season when he struck out seven Mudcats over seven scoreless innings on May 2. As you can see, sometimes Miller looks pretty good out there.

Reivaj Garcia. 2B. B:S, T:R. 5’11, 175. DOB: 08/12/01. IFA: Mexico. Signed for $500,000, August 2017.

Garcia is the latest in the Cubs quest for talent in Mexico and he had a pretty impressive US debut in 2018. At only 16 years old, Reivaj (that’s “Javier” spelled backwards) hit an impressive .300/.362/.355 with seven steals in 40 games for AZL 2 against players who were at least two or three years older than he was.

Garcia is a little switch-hitter who makes hard contact to all fields. He hasn’t shown much or any power yet, but since he just turned 17 it makes it a little difficult to project at this point. If I had to guess, his power would project out to be 40-45 or slightly below average, but there is a whole lot of room for that to go in either direction. His speed is about average for a middle infielder—he’s not a burner but he’s pretty smart for someone so young so he can get the most out of the speed he does have.

Defensively, scouts think he’s probably a second baseman although his range and arm are good enough that he could play shortstop if necessary.

Someone who can hit .300 at any professional level at 16 has to be taken seriously, even if it’s hard to figure out exactly what kind of player he’s going to be. I love the sound of the ball leaving his bat in the video below.

Tomorrow: Prospects 20 through 16.

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2019/1/14/18180245/top-20-cubs-minor-league-prospects-system-richard-gallardo-christopher-morel-reivaj-garcia

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twins2994 · 8 years ago

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Cleveland Indians-Minnesota Twins Series Preview

4.17.17-Danny Salazar RHP (0-1) 4.63 ERA Vs. Kyle Gibson RHP (0-1) 8.00 ERA

4.18.17-Josh Tomlin RHP (0-2) 18.47 ERA Vs. Phil Hughes RHP (2-0) 3.86 ERA

4.19.17-Trevor Bauer RHP (0-2) 8.44 ERA Vs. Adalberto Mejia LHP (0-1) 4.05 ERA

4.20.17-Corey Kluber RHP (1-1) 6.38 ERA Vs. Ervin Santana RHP (3-0) 0.41 ERA

The Indians At A Glance- The Cleveland Indians are of to a rough start in 2017. They have lost four out of their last five games and dropped a three-game series to the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field over the weekend. Jason Kipnis is on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. Kipnis is on a rehab assignment and is expected to be back soon. Lonnie Chisenhall leads the team in batting average with .417 and two home runs. Francisco Lindor is off to a hot start. He is hitting .362 with four homers and 8 RBI’s. New addition Edwin Encarnacion is hitting only .205 in 22 games. The catching corps is struggling at the plate too. Roberto Perez has a .077 average and Yan Gomes has a .067 average. Andrew Miller has not allowed a run through six innings out of the bullpen this year. Cody Allen has not had a save since the second game of the season in Texas.

The Twins At A Glance- The Twins lost two out of three to the Chicago White Sox this weekend at Target Field. The pitching was superb as they lost 3-1 yesterday to the White Sox. On Saturday, Ervin Santana threw a complete-game shutout to beat Chicago 6-0. The Twins lost 2-1 on Friday, so all three games were low scoring. There are a couple of guys hitting on the squad, while the rest are struggling. Robbie Grossman is hitting .310 with a .487 on-base percentage. Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco are hitting .302. Byron Buxton is still struggling to find contact. He is 4-for-43 so far this season with 23 strikeouts. The starting pitching allowed just one run in the three-game set with Chicago. The bullpen blew games on Friday and Sunday, but they did not have big leads to protect.

What To Watch For- The Indians won the season series with the Twins 10-9 last year. That’s surprising since Cleveland went to the World Series and Minnesota was the worst team in baseball. The Twins have the best team ERA in baseball with 2.46. They have struck out the second-least amount of batters in baseball. Kyle Gibson has struggled in the past against the Cleveland indians. He is (2-3) with a 6.40 ERA in nine career starts against the Tribe. Phil Hughes is (6-3) with a 3.90 ERA in 12 games versus the Indians. Trevor Bauer is (1-5) with a 5.32 ERA in his career against the Twins. Thursday is a great pitching match-up with Corey Kluber taking on Ervin Santana. Kluber is (8-5) against the Twins, while Santana is (5-11) all-time versus the Tribe.

-Chris Kreibich-

#Twins #MnTwins

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ecoorganic · 4 years ago

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MLB Power Rankings: Who's Already Surprising Us?

What's gotten into the Rockies? Has David Ross already revived the Cubs? The ... Marlins?

The 2020 MLB campaign is only two weeks old, and unfortunately that has already been ample time to become skeptical of the season’s viability. COVID-19 outbreaks have caused the league to quarantine entire teams and make drastic alterations to an already wonky schedule, while the commissioner

lays blame on the players and deflects accountability.

With so much opportunity for dismay, we're using Week 3 of Power Rankings to highlight one pleasant surprise from each club. Because what are the early days of a baseball season for if not a little positivity?

30. Pittsburgh Pirates (Last Week: 29)

It wasn’t enough to prevent falling into the basement of our rankings, but the Pirates secured a walk-off win on Thursday against the Twins, who entered with MLB’s best record. Kevin Newman had the game-winning single after racking up four walk-off hits last year as a rookie.

29. Kansas City Royals (Last Week: 26)

At long last, Trevor Rosenthal appears to have rediscovered his form (and, more importantly, his health). He missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery, then posted a 13.50 ERA with 26 walks in 15 1/3 innings for the Nationals and Tigers last season. So far in 2020, he has a 1.93 ERA with five strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings, and has yet to walk a batter. His fastball is as firm as ever, averaging 98 mph.

28. Seattle Mariners (Last Week: 28)

The emergence of J.P. Crawford’s bat has to be music to the ears of Mariners fans. Crawford, a former top prospect whose defense has always been strong, hit .222/.320/.367 in 165 games before this season. He’s batting .280/.410/.380 through 14 games, and has cut down his strikeout rate from 21% in 2019 to just 11.5% in 2020.

27. Detroit Tigers (Last Week: 24)

Tyler Alexander’s record-setting 10-strikeout performance in relief on Sunday is among the most surprising feats of the young season. Alexander has never had overpowering stuff, with a fastball sitting around 90 mph. He’s faced 26 batters on the season and struck out half of them, providing support for a Tigers bullpen that ranks 18th in the Majors with a 4.30 ERA.

26. Baltimore Orioles (Last Week: 30)

Does moving out of the cellar of SI’s power rankings qualify as a pleasant surprise? Last weekend’s sweep of the Rays certainly counts, as does Hanser Alberto’s hot start. The 27-year-old still rarely walks (1.9% walk rate in 53 plate appearances), but he’s improved his plate discipline, swinging less often at pitches out of the zone and more often at strikes than he did a season ago.

25. Texas Rangers (Last Week: 23)

It’s been a tough start to the season collectively for Rangers hitters, who are batting a combined .208/.290/.362 through 11 games. One positive note has been 34-year-old Todd Frazier, who’s hitting .289/.372/.553 after signing with Texas on a one-year, $5 million deal this offseason.

24. Boston Red Sox (Last Week: 21)

The Red Sox have had the worst starting rotation in the American League, so finding a bright spot requires a bit of squinting. Left-hander Martin Perez has been just that through his first three starts, going 2-1 with a 3.45 ERA and no home runs allowed while inducing weak contact—his average exit velocity is 82.5 mph, among the lowest in baseball.

23. Arizona Diamondbacks (Last Week: 22)

While Madison Bumgarner and Robbie Ray have both taken a nosedive this season and brought along Arizona’s playoff odds with them, rotation mates Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen have tried to pick up the slack by recording ERAs under 3.00 in five combined starts so far.

22. San Francisco Giants (Last Week: 27)

Mike Yastrzemski has been doing his best impression of Mike Trout at the plate, slashing .304/.458/.630 to lead the Majors in fWAR (1.1) entering Thursday. Like Trout, he’s also playing center field, but in spacious Oracle Park after manning the corners last season, increasing his value for the Giants even more.

21. Miami Marlins (Last Week: 25)

The Marlins are somehow leading the NL East despite playing with a skeleton crew after over half their team tested positive for COVID-19. Their ragtag group of green youngsters and journeymen swept a four-game set from the surprisingly frisky Orioles to help Don Mattingly, who admitted he didn’t know some of his newly signed players, become the franchise’s all-time winningest manager.

APSTEIN: Marlins' Eddy Alvarez Becomes First Winter Olympic Medalist to Play MLB

20. Los Angeles Angels (Last Week: 20)

The Angels traded four minor leaguers for Dylan Bundy this offseason to help improve a starting rotation that ranked last in combined fWAR last season, and the early results have been spectacular. Bundy tossed his third career complete game on Thursday, and is 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in three starts with 25 strikeouts and just two walks in 21 2/3 innings.

19. Toronto Blue Jays (Last Week: 18)

This young Toronto lineup has yet to find its rhythm, but 27-year-old Teoscar Hernandez has been a steady force. Six of Hernandez’s 11 hits have gone for extra bases (four homers and two doubles).

18. New York Mets (Last Week: 13)

Robbie Cano is slapping singles like it’s going out of style—which, it sort of is. He's batting .412 on the back of 11 singles in 39 plate appearances, the highest single rate (which sounds like an unfortunate romantic stat) among players with at least seven singles entering Thursday’s games.

• Verducci: What Happened to MLB's Elite First Basemen?

17. Milwaukee Brewers (Last Week: 16)

The Brewers are yet another team whose schedule has been interrupted by COVID-19. None of Milwaukee’s hitters have really found a groove yet, but Adrian Houser’s seven innings of shutout ball against the White Sox on Wednesday lowered his ERA to 0.75, vaulting him to third on the MLB leaderboard.

16. Philadelphia Phillies (Last Week: 17)

The Phillies have played just seven games in 14 days, or as many as they’ll play in a five-day span against Miami in September. The most pleasant surprise of their season so far is that no players were infected with the coronavirus when they played the COVID-stricken Marlins on opening weekend.

15. Cincinnati Reds (Last Week: 12)

Nick Castellanos had a tale of two seasons while split between the Tigers and Cubs last year. Reds fans are happy he’s carrying over what he showed in Chicago, ranking among the top five league-wide in home runs (six), RBI (13) and OPS (1.212) and carrying a 12-game hitting streak to begin the season until it was snapped Thursday.

14. St. Louis Cardinals (Last Week: 14)

The Cardinals have just five games under their belt and haven’t taken the field since last Wednesday, so it’s hard to draw any conclusions here. Longtime heralded prospect Tyler O’Neill has two home runs in 15 at-bats, so that’s … something.

13. San Diego Padres (Last Week: 11)

A renewed emphasis on plate discipline has translated to the best Padres offense since the steroid era, as San Diego leads the NL with 5.5 runs per game. Just as it seemed like Wil Myers had worn out his chances to start in San Diego, he’s finally hit his stride in his sixth season in SoCal and leads the Padres in OPS (1.109).

12. Chicago White Sox (Last Week: 19)

White Sox starting pitchers have scuffled so far with a collective 5.46 ERA. The bullpen, though, has been stellar. Alex Colome, Evan Marshall, Ross Detwiler and Matt Foster have pitched a combined 23 1/3 innings of relief without allowing a run.

11. Tampa Bay Rays (Last Week: 4)

Dropping from fourth to 11th may seem harsh, but that’s where getting swept by the Orioles will get you. The Rays have dropped six of their last seven, but a silver lining has been the improvements made by second baseman Brandon Lowe. Lowe was an All-Star last year and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting, and now he’s improved his slash line to .302/.375/.605. He’s particularly doing damage on fastballs, hitting .389 against heaters in 2020 after batting .291 on fastballs last year.

10. Cleveland Indians (Last Week: 6)

One of the few consistent contributors in Cleveland's lineup has been Cesar Hernandez, who’s batting .319/.429/.383 after two years of below-average performance in Philadelphia. The bullpen must be mentioned here as well—Cleveland relievers have a combined 1.34 ERA with no home runs allowed in 33 2/3 innings.

9. Washington Nationals (Last Week: 7)

Washington’s bullpen has the third-best ERA (1.53) in the Majors among teams who haven’t had COVID-related postponements after the unit recorded an NL-worst 5.68 ERA in 2019.

MLB Blog: Nationals's Early-Season Woes Strike Again in 2020

8. Colorado Rockies (Last Week: 15)

Colorado’s core four starters (Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, Jon Gray, Antonio Senzatela) have combined for a 2.49 ERA in 11 starts, providing a nice collective rebound after all except Gray struggled to repeat their 2018 form last season. All three of Colorado’s losses have been by one run. Rocktober will likely be upon us soon enough.

7. Atlanta Braves (Last Week: 8)

Mike Soroka may be out for the season, but Max Fried looks ready to assume the ace role in Atlanta after allowing a total of four runs in three starts against the Mets, Rays and Blue Jays.

6. Houston Astros (Last Week: 5)

The Astros’ rotation would be in dire straits were it not for two youngsters: Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez. The pair has combined for a 1.93 ERA in 23 1/3 innings pitched, with 21 strikeouts and just one home run allowed. With Justin Verlander injured and Lance McCullers still struggling, Javier and Valdez will be relied upon to keep Houston in contention.

5. Oakland Athletics (Last Week: 10)

The A’s have risen to the top of the AL West thanks to their sensational pitching. Oakland pitchers ranked eighth in the Majors last year in total WAR, but rank second through 13 games so far. That jump is thanks to the team’s bullpen, which sports a 1.80 ERA in 55 innings.

4. Chicago Cubs (Last Week: 9)

Before the Cubbies were inexplicably whipped by the Royals on Thursday to snap a six-game winning streak, their rotation held a MLB-best 1.95 ERA. Every starter has carried his weight, from steady veterans Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester to the resurgent pair of Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood (Thursday’s debacle aside) and even the soft-contact dependent Alec Mills.

3. Minnesota Twins (Last Week: 3)

Everyone expected the Twins’ lineup to rake this year, but few likely expected Minnesota’s rotation to pitch this well. Twins starters had a 4.19 ERA last season, ranking 11th in the majors. The group’s 2.71 ERA through 13 games ranks third-best in 2020—led by ground-ball machine Randy Dobnak, who’s posted a 0.60 ERA through three starts.

2. New York Yankees (Last Week: 2)

Yankees fans who watched him thrive last year might not consider this a surprise, but Gio Urshela has picked up where he left off last season and taken his game to an even higher level. Urshela is batting .324/.405/.649 through the team’s first 12 games, posting a ludicrous 57.7% hard-hit rate. Any doubts about the legitimacy of Urshela’s breakout 2019 campaign are quickly being put to bed.

BACCELLIERI: What's the Craziest Feat We Could See in 60 Games?

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (Last Week: 1)

Accidental Opening Day starter Dustin May has upped his velocity another notch this season and throws the fastest sinker in the league (97.8 mph), per Fangraphs. He also made Manny Machado look like a Little Leaguer with one of the nastiest pitches of the season on Tuesday, when he picked up his first win of the season while pitching a career-high six innings.

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torentialtribute · 5 years ago

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Tim Murtagh was Ireland’s metronome as his nibbly nous put England to the sword

Ten days after a Dublin-born batsman lifted the World Cup for England in Lord & # 39; s, a Lambeth-born seafarer Ireland in dreamland.

Eoin Morgan watched from a catering cabinet on Wednesday, perhaps still squeezing the events that made his way to the pantheon of England & # 39; s sporting greats.

Meanwhile, his Middlesex team-mate Tim Murtagh was doing – he says – what Tim Murtagh is doing: landing the ball on the seam, nibbling in this way and that, and his beloved Lord & # 39; s pitch of the rest. England staggered in the lunch, 85 all out.

Tim Murtagh was the nemesis of England during the first day of their one-off test against Ireland

He tore through England & # 39; s batting line-up when they all came out for 85 in their first innin gs

Bowlers like Murtagh are not allowed to run through h Test sides. He turns 38 next week, works at around 75 km / h and has collected the majority of his 805 first-class wickets on the provincial circuit. If he hadn't played Test cricket, some would probably have claimed that he wasn't cut for it anyway.

His route to the top was unconventional. Many years after joining the 19 World Cup team in England, he was talking to Ed Joyce, the Middlesex Dubliner, who pointed out that Murtagh's Irish grandparents offered alternative entry to the international competition. A rush for paperwork followed, including a visit to an aunt in France.

Since then, Murtagh has been the metronome of Ireland. Hardly a preview was written for this game that did not state that the Irish would be in the mix as long as the circumstances suited him. They did that very much.

England had seen the plan after Joe Root had won the throw to abandon the new ball, waiting for a green field to change color in the heat of the Sahara and then inevitably getting tired in the bowlers of Ireland. It sounded good in theory. Then Murtagh went to work.

In his second round he caused a puncture from Jason Roy. In his sixth, he found the exterior of Rory Burns. In the age of seventeen, he crawled one through the gate of Jonny Bairstow and stuck Chris Woakes. He left Moeen Ali behind in his eighth. Roy made five, Burns six, the last three ducks. It was a bloodbath.

Jonny Bairstow was cradled clean by the 38 year old as he took five wickets at Lord & # 39; s

At that time, Murtagh had figures of 7.2-2-11-5, and England were 43 for seven, yet always two for their lowest total test, made in Sydney in 1887 and wondering what the hell had happened to them. They eventually scraped their way to 85, with Murtagh ending in five for 13 – the cheapest five in a Lord & # 39; s Test.

In the immediate aftermath he might have spoken to England & # 39; s batsmen when he told Sky Sports: & # 39; I'm not quite sure what happened in the last two hours to be honest & # 39;

Later, he had a little more perspective: & # 39; We knew that we could bend a little from damage. The goal was to overthrow three or four for lunch. We did not expect it to go as well as it was. & # 39;

And so his name will now appear forever on the legendary plate of honor – not in the dressing room of Middlesex and considered home, but in the distance quarters, a warning to the batters of the opposition province for the rest of the summer and beyond.

& # 39; As a child, I grew up sitting on that plate, & # 39; he said. "It was a fantastic feeling to keep the ball up at lunchtime – a good feeling I've had in my career."

Murtagh celebrates with his teammates in Ireland after claiming the scalp of Rory Burns (left)

It was tempting to see Nibbly Nous of Murtagh as a one-man rejection of the ICC's decision to limit the World Cup up to 10 teams, a decision that hit Ireland hard when they did not come out of last year's qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe.

But Ireland has used the complaint to urge them. Although England has treated this test as an inconvenience and has used its position between the World Cup and the Ashes as an excuse to let major players rest, Murtagh accepted the challenge in his way from there or there.

& # 39; If you gave us time to play in England, this would be the time we had chosen – from such a high point after winning the World Cup and with an Ashes series around the corner, & # 39; he said. We must use that to our advantage. Boys are under pressure to get into that first Ashes test this week. & # 39;

Thanks to Murtagh, the pressure in the second innings in England has risen a number of steps.

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primecaptain · 6 years ago

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Yuvraj Singh retires

Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement from cricket on Monday in Mumbai. The left-handed batsman said goodbye to international cricket with an aggregate of 11,778 runs. Yuvraj scored 8701 runs in ODIs, 1900 runs in Tests and 1177 runs in T20Is respectively.

Yuvraj Singh is, undoubtedly, one of India’s biggest match-winners. Yuvraj scored 5453 runs at an average of 42.93, scoring 11 hundreds and bagging the Player-of-the-Match award 18 times. For many years, he remained the pillar of India’s middle order. From 284 matches in which he batted either at No. 4, 5 or 6, Yuvraj scored a rollicking 8254 runs with 13 centuries. But beating all those accolades, perhaps Yuvraj’s biggest contribution to Indian cricket remains winning the World Cup in 2011 at home, where battling an illness, he scored 362 runs from eight innings.

Yuvraj while announcing his retirement.

"After 25 years, in and around 22 yards, and after almost 17 years of cricket on and off, I have decided to move on," Yuvraj said. "I am so lucky to play 400-plus games for India. I would never have imagined this that I started my career as a cricketer. It was a love-hate relationship with the sport, in retrospect. I don't think I hated the game, because the love I have for it today, which will remain a constant till the end of my life. I can't really express in words what that feeling is,"

Harbhajan said on asking Yuvraj’s retirement

“We wouldn’t have won the 2011 World Cup without Yuvraj. Wining two World Cups (including WorldT20 in 2007) has been his biggest present to India. Whenever I meet him, I always thank him for getting us those moments, medals which wouldn’t have been possible without him,”

Yuvraj Singh debuted for India during ICC Champions Trophy in 2000 against Kenya, last played for the national team in 2017 in an ODI against West Indies at North Sound.

Our best wishes to Yuvraj Singh for his future.

#fanatsy cricket #cricket #yuvrajsingh #icc world cup 2019 #worldcup2019 #cricket fans #Indian team

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browanger55-blog · 6 years ago

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BCB Top 20 Cubs Minor League Prospects: System overview and honorable mentions

Also, players still need to have rookie eligibility to be listed.

Clicking on the player’s name takes you to his milb.com page.

Richard Gallardo. RHP. 6’1”, 187. DOB: 09/06/01. IFA Venezuela. Signed for $1 million 2018.

Christopher Morel. SS/3B. B:R T:R. 6’0”, 160. DOB: 06/24/99. IFA: Dominican Republic. Signed 2015 $800,000.

The Cubs signed his younger brother Rafael this past summer as well.

Here is Morel hitting an RBI single for the Ems.

Duane Underwood. RHP. 6’2”, 210. DOB: 7/20/94. Drafted 2nd round, 2012. Pope HS (GA).

Here’s every pitch he threw against the Dodgers. Jim Deshaies and Len Kasper give a pretty good scouting report on Underwood in the broadcast as well.

Tyson Miller. RHP. 6’5”, 200. DOB: 07/29/95. Drafted 4th round, 2016. California Baptist.

Here are highlights from Miller’s best start of the season when he struck out seven Mudcats over seven scoreless innings on May 2. As you can see, sometimes Miller looks pretty good out there.

Reivaj Garcia. 2B. B:S, T:R. 5’11, 175. DOB: 08/12/01. IFA: Mexico. Signed for $500,000, August 2017.

Defensively, scouts think he’s probably a second baseman although his range and arm are good enough that he could play shortstop if necessary.

Tomorrow: Prospects 20 through 16.

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2019/1/14/18180245/top-20-cubs-minor-league-prospects-system-richard-gallardo-christopher-morel-reivaj-garcia

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feetglider2-blog · 6 years ago

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Arizona Fall League Final Recap: Nico Hoerner shines for Solar Sox

The Arizona Fall League has completed another season and the Peoria Javelinas defeated the Salt River Rafters 3-2 in ten innings on a walkoff home run by Braves prospect Braxton Davidson. Davidson also broke his foot running the bases, so there was some real drama there.

The Mesa Solar Sox, the team that the Cubs’ prospects play for, finished the season with a 15-14-1 record. That record put them just a half a game behind Salt River for a spot in the Championship Game. They won two of their final three games, but it turned out that they needed to win all three to catch Salt River for the division title.

Here’s a quick summary of how the Cubs prospects did in the AFL.

Hitters

Nico Hoerner: All eyes were on the Cubs’ 2018 first-round pick and Hoerner lived up to everyone’s expectations and more. Hoerner played in two of the final three games and went 4 for 9 with two doubles.

Hoerner finished the AFL season with a batting line of .337/.362/.506 with four doubles, four triples, one home run and one stolen base. Even for the hitter-friendly AFL, that’s a terrific line. His .337 average was ninth in the league and he was named in this article as one of the top ten breakout prospects of the AFL.

If you’re looking for a downside, Hoerner did walk only two times compared to 16 strikeouts.

Here’s Hoerner talking about his experience in the AFL. [VIDEO]

D.J. Wilson: Wilson did not have a strong AFL and in particular, he did nothing to dispel the questions about his hit tool. He did, however, finish strong. He played in two of the three games in the final week and went 4 for 9 with a double and two steals.

For the entire AFL, Wilson played 16 games and hit .190/.268/.238 with three doubles. He was a perfect six-for-six in stealing bases.

Trent Giambrone: Giambrone played all three of the final games and went 1 for 12 with two walks. He also made two errors in the one game that Mesa lost, but since Mesa lost 14-3, I don’t think Giambrone’s mistakes were a factor in the final outcome of the game.

While the final week wasn’t good, Giambrone had an excellent AFL campaign overall. Giambrone got into 12 games and hit .327/.400/.490 with two doubles and two home runs. He also stole two bases in three attempts.

P.J. Higgins: Higgins played just ten games in the AFL and none of the final three Solar Sox contests. Higgins finished with a line of .158/.283/.237 with one home run.

Jhonny Pereda: Pereda caught one game this past week and went 2 for 4 in that 14-3 shellacking.

For the entire AFL, Pereda played in eight games and went .276/.344/.345 with two doubles.

Pitchers

Erick Leal: in his first five starts in the AFL, Leal did not allow a single run, earned or unearned. Unfortunately, he started last Tuesday’s game and gave up his first run of the fall in the third inning. It got worse. In the fourth inning, Leal faced six batters and failed to retire anyone. In that last start, Leal pitched 3+ innings and allowed seven runs, six earned, on six hits. He walked two and struck out three.

Still, one bad start shouldn’t detract from an overall terrific AFL season. Leal pitched 20.1 innings and went 2-1 with a 2.66 ERA. He struck out 20 and walked 11.

Justin Steele: Steele’s season ended before our last update, so it’s time to just recap how he did. Steele pitched 18⅔ innings over six starts and posted a 5.79 ERA with one win and one loss. Steele struck out 16 and walked 11. It should be noted that Steele only returned from Tommy John surgery in July, so just the fact that he was on the mound should be taken as a positive.

Bailey Clark: Clark made one relief appearance in Wednesday’s 10-6 win and he gave up two runs on three hits in just one inning. Clark walked one and struck out one.

For the entire AFL season, Clark pitched 12 innings over nine relief appearances. He allowed five runs overall which gave him a 3.75 ERA. Clark struck out eight and walked eight.

Manuel Rondon: Rondon pitched one inning in Thursday’s finale and retired all three batters he faced.

For the AFL as a whole, Rondon pitched 11⅓ innings over two starts and six relief appearances. He allowed six runs, which left him with a 4.76 ERA. Rondon struck out seven and walked eight.

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2018/11/20/18104210/arizona-fall-league-recap-nico-hoerner-trent-giambrone-erick-leal-justin-steele-chicago-cubs

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itsasif007-blog · 6 years ago

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Ranking times 15th and 9th notwithstanding

New Post has been published on https://www.highasduck.com/ranking-times-15th-and-9th-notwithstanding/

Ranking times 15th and 9th notwithstanding

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I didn’t think his stuff was particularly sharp, but he made pitches and did get through it.

The Vikings are 2 Week 1 the last two years and have a solid rotation of quarterbacks.

Last , Diggs led the NFL contested catch rate according to Pro Football Focus.

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yahoo-roto-arcade-blog · 7 years ago

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Shuffle Up: Sell high on Gleyber Torres?

Hotshot rookie Gleyber Torres still hits in the lower third of the Yankees lineup, for now. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

The Shuffle Up season rolls on. Today, we tackle the middle infielders.

The numbers don’t matter in a vacuum; what matters is how the player prices relate to one another. Assume a 5×5 scoring system, as always. Everyone listed here has second base (hiya, Rizzo) or shortstop eligibility in the Yahoo game at the current time. Players at the same cost are considered even. I’m not ranking the injured guys; it just becomes a silly game of “Who has the most injury optimism?”

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And I’m not a doctor. (Somebody get me a doctor.)

Have some disagreements? Have some major disagreements? That’s good! That’s why we have a game. I welcome your respectful disagreement, anytime: @scott_pianowski on Twitter.

Everything to this point is an audition, that’s it. If you want a ranking of who’s been the best to this point, you can get that elsewhere.

$41 Jose Ramirez $41 Jose Altuve $40 Francisco Lindor $32 Carlos Correa $31 Manny Machado $30 Jean Segura $28 Anthony Rizzo $28 Trevor Story $27 Trea Turner $26 Scooter Gennett $26 Javier Baez

Story’s breakthrough is a modestly-kept secret. He’s already up to a career high in stolen bases, he’s trimmed the strikeout rate by 7.7 percent, he’s pulling the ball more and he’s significantly improved his hard contact. His walks are static, but every other plate discipline stat is in his favor. He bats fourth or fifth, nightly, behind Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado. Life is good . . . Gennett’s past calendar year: .314/.361/.534, with 32 homers, 113 RBIs, 96 runs. He’s turned himself into a star. The four-homer game last year was your tipoff, but too many people took the easy way out and took cheap shots at Gennett, held that performance against him. Players sometimes improve in a surprising or non-linear way.

$24 Alex Bregman $22 Xander Bogaerts $22 Andrelton Simmons $21 Ozzie Albies $20 Didi Gregorius $19 Brandon Crawford $19 Whit Merrifield $18 Brian Dozier $18 Dee Gordon $17 Cesar Hernandez $15 Gleyber Torres $15 Daniel Murphy $15 Eduardo Escobar

I’m sure I’m going to get killed in the comments for intimating that Torres might not automatically be the next Yankees great in line with DiMaggio, Mantle and Jeter. But let’s try to be realistic about who he is and what he’s done. He’s slashing .283/.337/.554 in 48 MLB games, after posting a .285/.362/.419 slash in his entire minor-league career. He only hit 24 home runs in 370 minor-league games; he already has 13 for the Yankees. He might be able to keep that .327 BABIP, especially with his elevated hard-hit rate. But he’s also striking out 27.5 percent of the time, and he’s only stolen two bases.

He’s batted ninth in 38 of his starts, albeit any spot in the New York lineup is a good one. But it will cost him that extra at-bat most of the time. Sure, they theoretically could move him up. Who’s moving down?

I have him priced as a solid player. I don’t consider $15 any kind of an insult. But baseball is hard, pitchers will make adjustments too, Torres might bat at the bottom of the order all year, and it’s tricky to trust a player who hits for more power in the majors than he did in the minors. Yes, the MLB ball is different. Yes, we saw this with Gary Sanchez (anytime you’re ready in 2018, Sanchez). Yes, Torres is just 21 and he’s still growing into his body and his career. But when someone is this splashy and this productive, this quickly, for this public a team, you better believe I’m going to look around and see if someone will make me a sweetheart deal. This is the type of player you can often be overpaid for.

$14 D.J. LeMahieu $13 Matt Carpenter $13 Chris Taylor $13 Jonathan Schoop $12 Asdrubal Cabrera $11 Tim Anderson $11 Yangervis Solarte $10 Jurickson Profar $9 Josh Harrison $9 Jed Lowrie $8 Ian Kinsler $8 Derek Dietrich $8 Marcus Semien $7 Jose Iglesias $7 Jonathan Villar

Schoop’s ranking is an “I don’t know either” ranking, to be sure. He’s been hurt this year. He’s hitting in bad luck but he’s making a lot of that bad luck, hitting more grounders, losing tons of hard contact. He’s chasing an eyelash more this year but it’s not a major difference, and his strikeout and walk rates are almost identical from last year. He’s hit two homers in his last seven games, with five walks against six strikeouts. Perhaps he’s finally settling in after the oblique injury. I would not drop him or give him away in a cheap deal; give this story a little more time to develop.

Cabrera hasn’t hit a thing for three weeks, though he did homer Sunday at Arizona. Perhaps the hamstring injury lingered longer than anyone recognized. This is not the week to sit him, as the Mets open with a four-game hitch in Colorado . . . I’m doing some pedigree chasing with Profar; remember, he wasn’t just a prospect, he was *the* prospect. His plate discipline is elite, and his .253 BABIP doesn’t jibe with his hard-hit rate. He’s pulling the ball more this year. I’m not giving up yet . . . Iglesias has figured out the base-stealing game, and the Tigers are letting him run liberally. His average is no longer a tax in today’s game; anything over .260 is likely to help you in many formats. I’d bump him into double-digits if the Tigers let him bat first or second; he’s almost always in the No. 8 slot. If only he walked a little more.

$6 Daniel Descalso $6 Ben Zobrist $6 Matt Duffy $6 Addison Russell $6 Marwin Gonzalez $6 Starlin Castro $6 Jose Peraza $6 Willy Adames $4 Ketel Marte $4 Jordy Mercer $4 Freddy Galvis $4 Jose Pirela $4 Yolmer Sanchez $4 Cory Spangenberg $4 Nick Ahmed $4 Amed Rosario $4 Yoan Moncada $4 Eduardo Nunez $4 Devon Travis

I still haven’t given up on Travis. He had a nifty 8-for-16 binge last week with a couple of homers, one off Max Scherzer. Travis is still just 27, has been hurt most of his MLB career. He had an OPS+ of 131 for his 62-game rookie season three years ago (62 games), then posted a 108 number the next year (100 is average). His career slash is playable — .285/.325/.453. I added him a few places, for cheap buy-ins, this week.

$3 Niko Goodrum $3 Jedd Gyorko $3 Joe Panik $2 Ian Happ $2 Alen Hanson $2 Yairo Munoz $2 Dansby Swanson $2 Chad Pinder $2 Jason Kipnis $2 Adalberto Mondesi $1 Ehire Adrianza $1 Isiah Kiner-Falefa $1 Charlie Culberson $1 Kike Hernandez $1 Johan Camargo $1 Hernan Perez $1 Rougned Odor $1 Scott Kingery $1 Logan Forsythe $0 Wilmer Difo $0 Miguel Rojas $0 Joseph Wendle $0 Brock Holt $0 Adam Frazier $0 Brad Miller $0 Alcides Escobar $0 Wilmer Flores $0 J.P. Crawford

Odor still has options remaining. I don’t care what the contract says, a demotion might be the right play here.

The Injured and Unranked Elvis Andrus (until he’s back, he’s not back) Daniel Robertson Zack Cozart Robinson Cano Paul DeJong Dustin Pedroia

Follow the Yahoo fantasy baseball crew on Twitter: Andy Behrens, Dalton Del Don, and Scott Pianowski

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3sportsguns · 7 years ago

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Fantasy Baseball 2017 The Rosterables Week 15

HG - We are past the All-Star game with the trade deadline less than two weeks out. As with any season there are players who put together a year that when the view their career after being retired look at that one year when everything was right and think what if? For 2017, Marwin Gonzalez has been lights out in Houston, while Trevor Cahill and Mike Clevinger can seem to do little wrong in 2017. Then there are the vets who through injuries, slow starts or even suspensions begin to find a rhythm as some point with Maikel Franco, Gerardo Parra, Sterling Marte and Gregory Polanco playing better now than at any point this year. As always rookies continue to shine or will soon as Yoan Moncada gets his first real chance in the show while Tony Pham continues to turn heads.

Waiver Claims

Marwin Gonzalez 1B/SS/3B/OF Astros - Gonzalez inherits the starting job at short with Carlos Correa out 6 to 8 weeks and his production to date screams that he should be picked up. The versatile Astro is having a career year hitting 309 with 17 long balls, 55 RBI, 44 runs scored and 4 stolen bases making Marwin well worth owing.

Yoan Moncada 3B White Sox - The top prospect in baseball has finally been called up by the White Sox. The former Cuban star is worth an add in deep leagues and in all dynasty groups going forward.

Maikel Franco 3B Phillies - Franco is beginning to show signs at the dish after an inconsistent first half. He is on a run of 16 hits in 52 at bats that has pushed his average to 235 and his 4 homers and 11 RBI over his last 13 games has Franco sitting at 14 homers and 52 runs driven in for the season.

Gerardo Parra OF Rockies - Parra is smoking hot after returning from the DL with 8 multi-hit games and 20 hits in 36 at bats for the Rockies. The former Brewer has also added 12 scored runs, 12 runs knocked in and has his average up to 364 making him a good addition now.

Tony Pham OF Cardinals - Pham has opened eyes in St. Louis and around baseball as the rookie is batting 311 and is 9 for 19 since break. The young righty has also tallied 12 long balls, two since All-Star game, along with 38 runs sent home, 13 stolen bases, and 46 runs scored making Pham a five-category contributor that warrants higher ownership.

Sterling Marte OF Pirates - Marte is back after his 80-game suspension for the Buccos and should help Pittsburgh and your fantasy team as he stole a career best 47 bags last season while batting 311 with an on base of 362 with 46 runs driven in.

Gregory Polanco OF Pirates - Polanco has picked up his game with a 438 batting average in July and hits in all but three game this month. The young lefty is now up to 271 with 8 homers, 8 stolen bases and 33 runs scored and any player batting north of 430 over 54 plate appearances can be used with confidence.

Trevor Cahill RP/SP Padres - Cahill has returned from the DL with his third start the best as he went 6.2 innings allowing just one earned run. The veteran has been a pleasant surprise this season sporting an ERA of 3.18, WHIP of 1.24 and 71 Ks in 57.1 frames making Cahill worth starting, especially with reliever eligibility.

Michael Wacha RP/SP Cardinals - Wacha was good early, then was hit hard for several starts but lately he is looking as sharp as he was down in Florida this Spring. This was punctuated with his first career shutout with just 3 hits allowed along with 9 strikeouts in his last performance. Wacha has now hurled three quality starts over his last four and should be owned for the rest of the season.

Mike Clevinger RP/SP Indians - Clevinger has been shot in the arm for an otherwise bumbling Indians’ team as the journeyman has tossed four quality outings in a row with just two runs surrendered over 24 frames. The veteran has an ERA of 2.73, WHIP of 1.12 and 71 Ks in 66 innings making him an ideal addition to your rotation.

#FantasyBaseball #MLB #WaiverClaims

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yahoo-big-league-stew-blog · 7 years ago

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How the Brewers shocked everyone and took over the NL Central

yahoo

There was one certainty heading into the 2017 Major League Baseball season: The National League Central belonged to the Chicago Cubs. Coming into the year, you would have been hard pressed to find a projection system or analyst who disagreed.

With the All-Star Game looming, the Cubs find themselves trailing the surprising Milwaukee Brewers. After Thursday’s 11-2 thumping, the Brewers extended their lead in the division to 4.5 games.

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Unless you drink out of a bubbler or pronounce the beginning of the word “bagel” like “bag” — like the fine people of Wisconsin — there’s no way you saw this coming.

Any time a team defies the odds, analysts delve into their performance looking for one magical explanation. But that’s not the case here. The Brewers’ success isn’t built on one huge discovery. They haven’t discovered “the next Moneyball,” which has become baseball’s “one weird trick” attention-grabbing headline.

No. The Brewers’ rise to prominence is due to multiple factors that, when added together, explain how they’ve turned themselves into a legitimate playoff contender.

Let’s explore each of those reasons now.

Eric Thames has been a key acquisition for the Brewers. (AP Photo)

THE BREWERS HIT ON SOME KEY ACQUISITIONS The team’s scouting department deserves a lot of credit for recommending both Travis Shaw and Eric Thames. Shaw was coming off a disappointing season in which he hit just .242/.306/.421. The Boston Red Sox, who could desperately use a third baseman now, didn’t think he would recover, so they traded him to Milwaukee.

They were wrong. Shaw has been Milwaukee’s best position player according to fWAR. He’s on his way to his finest offensive season, posting a .296/.362/.564 slash line with an already career-high 18 home runs over 318 plate appearances. Shaw has made more contact, pulled the ball with greater frequency and cut down on his strikeouts with the Brewers. They deserve credit for identifying him as a strong buy-low candidate, and getting him to make the necessary adjustments to break out.

The same thing happened with Thames. Even though he put up Bonds-ian numbers in Korea, there was still a fair amount of skepticism over whether those numbers would carry over to MLB. The Brewers were willing to take that chance, and based on Thames’ three-year $16 million price tag, it’s fair to assume other teams had some concerns. He’s already justified that contract, hitting .245/.375/.566 with 23 home runs. The batting average might be low, but his plate discipline and power are elite. Thames is second on the team’s offense in fWAR, and a big reason they are second in baseball with 133 home runs.

Jimmy Nelson’s breakout has been a huge factor in the Brewers rise to prominence. (AP Photo)

TWO PITCHING BREAKOUTS HAVE STABILIZED THE ROTATION Jimmy Nelson and Chase Anderson haven’t received a lot of love, but both have legitimate All-Star cases. Nelson has been the best player on the team according to fWAR. His 2.8 figure ranks fourth among pitchers in the National League.

After two average seasons in the team’s rotation, Nelson has taken a huge step forward this year. He’s striking out more than a batter per inning for the first time in his career while cutting down his walk rate dramatically.

A big part of his success has been adjusting his approach against left-handers. From 2012 to 2016, lefties hit .268/.361/.352 against Nelson. That performance resulted in a .353 wOBA, an advanced stat that measures offensive performance. Basically, every lefty turned into Adrian Beltre when they stepped in against Nelson.

Those numbers have plummeted to .233/.296/.394 in 2017. Nelson has found a way to turn Beltre into Gordon Beckham. He’s accomplished that by cutting down on his sinker in favor of a four-seam fastball and mixing in more curveballs and changeups. It’s worked. Lefties are hitting the fastball for a .261 clip, but that’s an improvement over the .281 average against his sinker last year. Both his curve (.057) and change (.111) have been un-hittable by southpaws this season.

Multiple factors have helped Anderson become a better pitcher. His velocity appears to be up significantly, and while that could be misleading after MLB altered pitch tracking software, Anderson said he worked on strength training to improve his velocity this winter.

The result has been better effectiveness from nearly all of his pitches. His whiff rate on his fastball has risen, leading to a career-best 23.4 strikeout rate. His curveball has improved, and he’s using his cutter a lot more.

All three of those things have helped Anderson keep righties off balance this year. Anderson is one of those rare pitchers who actually performs better against opposite-handed hitters, likely due to his excellent changeup. Because of this, righties have hit him much better over his career. Prior to 2017, righties posted a .361 wOBA against Anderson. He’s lowered that to .305 this season.

Before his injury, Anderson was in the middle of a brilliant stretch, in which he posted a 1.56 ERA in June. While you could write that off as small-sample nonsense, Anderson also showed a change in his approach during that period.

As Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs pointed out, Anderson started standing in different spots on the mound when facing lefties and righties. He stands on the third-base side of the rubber with righties at the plate, and shifts to the first base side when facing lefties. Anderson wasn’t doing that in April. Even if you wanted to write off his June hot streak, that’s at least proof that he’s actively making changes in order to try and correct flaws.

Matt Garza also deserves an honorable mention here. After being written off during 2015 and most of 2016, he’s been effective in 2017. His numbers aren’t eye-popping, but he’s already produced as much value as he gave the Brewers in 2016, and he’s done so in 30 fewer innings. He’s become a solid third option, and the team needs that after both Junior Guerra and Zach Davies failed to build on their promising 2016 numbers.

Betting on Domingo Santana has paid off for Milwaukee. (AP Photo)

THEY EMBRACED STRIKEOUTS ON OFFENSE Striking out isn’t the worst thing in the world. It’s no different than popping out to short, really. Both plays result in an out.

The Brewers realized this, and have taken shots on some talented young players who have shown a major predilection toward whiffs. It’s not just Shaw or Thames, either. The team acquired Domingo Santana in a trade with the Houston Astros and picked up Keon Broxton from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Most importantly, though, they stuck both in their lineup and let them play. That’s been huge for Santana. He’s made strides with his strikeout rate in 2017. While he’s still whiffing 26.8 percent of the time, it’s been enough to make him a serious offensive threat.

Broxton hasn’t seen the same improvement, but his power and speed have turned him into a useful player. That’s a significant development, considering they picked him up for nothing.

While Jonathan Villar has collapsed this year, you could argue the Brewers employed the same tactic with him, and were rewarded greatly in 2016. As Villar shows, this can be a risky approach. But when it pays off, you can get superstar seasons out of guys who were thought to have limited value.

The Brewers still have Ryan Braun. (AP Photo)

THEY DIDN’T GO FULL FIRE SALE Stay with us on this one. While the Brewers parted with some significant talent in recent years, they never went the route of the Cubs or Astros. They kept enough valuable players around to at least make things interesting. They didn’t just deal Ryan Braun to clear salary. They waited, and now he could be a major factor for them in the second half.

The team could have tried to capitalize on the success of the number of players last winter, but chose to remain patient. In the cases of both Villar and Guerra, it hasn’t worked out, but both could get back on track in the second half. They were also wise to hold Anderson who, while under control for a long time, is already 29. To most rebuilding clubs, these players would have been shipped off for anything of value.

There are certainly benefits to both approaches. The Cubs won the World Series in 2016, and the Astros might be on the way to a championship this season.

But in the era of the second wild card, it’s not the worst idea for teams to take chances with talented players and hope for the best. While little was expected of the Brewers this year, they didn’t fully punt on the season.

The Brewers have every reason to flex in 2017. (AP Photo)

THEY’VE LUCKED OUT It’s always tough to attribute success to luck. It can be a dirty word to fans who think it means their favorite team is a fluke.

The truth is, every good team experiences luck in some way. The team took a lot of risks, and many of them paid off. They hit on Shaw and Thames, saw huge improvements from Nelson, Anderson and Santana and held firm on Braun. If one of those things went down differently, perhaps we’re not having this conversation.

The Brewers have found themselves in an enviable position of contending before anyone thought it was possible. Now, they’ll be faced with the delicate balance of trying to win the division without sacrificing significant future talent.

To do so, they’ll have to walk a thin line. That was always the case, but there’s a big difference between saying that in March and sustaining it into July.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

More from Yahoo Sports: • Cubs ‘reliever’ fools hitters with Little League-speed pitches • Sources: Pistons, Celtics make A-very big trade • NFL players invest over $800K in lemonade company run by 12-year-old • Nowitzki accepts massive pay cut to stay with Mavs

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