EB

If you’re holding disdain towards Kevin Long, one of the best hitting coaches to ever do it, because he didn’t play in MLB then idk what to tell ya

"Let's be just like the NBA," by far the worst cap system which has fans currently wondering if last year's Rookie of the Year is good enough for the Spurs to give a second contract to or if they should trade him now

K-BB%

1st time: 15.7% (14.5%)
2nd time: 12.4% (13.3%)
3rd time: 3.3% (11.4%)

Sample: 198, 186, 92 BF

Landen Roupp, 2025 wOBA (league average)

1st time through: .300 (.309)
2nd time through: .337 (.317)
3rd time through: .352 (327)

10, just enough to qualify for the default StatCast leaderboard

For the sake of comparison, Belt was 48th percentile sprint speed in the first year of tracking (2015). He stopped playing OF after 2019, largely due to injury concerns that had dropped his sprint speed to 15th percentile.

Some news for those of you that use my app: I’m rolling out an improved version with a ton of new features, including splits, customizable hitter & pitcher comps, plots on each page, updated SEAGER/damage/pitch models, sample size adjustments, and more.

py-players.streamlit.app

Eldridge's cup of coffee in MLB was 5th percentile sprint speed. Obviously that's only a handful of games and he suffered a hammy earlier in the year. But that's essentially where Stanton has been the last several years.

Spring Training is always the time to try it out. I suspect that they would've tried to keep him in the OF a bit longer if he could actually play there. Then again, can't be worse than Ramos, right?

You eat the defensive value because he's so good with the bat. But, man, that feels like a disappointing career trajectory with where he started. He was a +6 OAA glove in 2019 and +4 in 2021!

Soto's sprint speed was already down to 13th percentile in his age 26 season, through which he's posted a career -32 OAA and -41 FRV

I think he's a 1B very soon. Always felt like it was likely he'd have to move there before his deal was halfway over, but last year showed significantly more decline.

Bivens has options where Brubaker doesn't, teams tend to play it conservatively OD

I just don't think Gage is anything

My bold pick is that Birdsong wins the spot

Opening Day roster prediction at the start of camp

Even with the Kings being down several starters, it’s astonishing how much worse they are than a 15-40 team

With the disclaimer that I jotted this down at the start of the offseason and haven’t touched it since, some thoughts on Ryan Walker. Concern is tied to his SL (amplified by inability to generate in-zone whiff) and it’s real iffy if he can just turn a tide.

Building the worst group of relievers in the league and thinking that stifling Hayden Birdsong's development as a starter is a good fix is the type of thing that should lead to front offices being crucified on their way out the door

Just gross that "what if we convert a bunch of our AAA SP depth to the bullpen" is a real thought for the second year in a row

Tbh, I don’t think the discussion around the Devers trade package would look like this if the diverting trades weren’t as questionable as they are

(Also if Bello had a little more recognition as a legit SP spec)

It’s probably also easier if Arraez does his physical in AZ along with everyone else doing their routine checks instead of flying him to SF to do it

They’ll be able to clear two 40-man spots by moving Rodríguez and Foley to the 60-day IL starting Tuesday. I would assume they announce Arraez then and we’ll see if there’s a Kopech type signing in close proximity.

Incredible how much more fun it is watching the Kings young players than watching the veterans

Handing official NRIs to those guys speaks volumes to how they perceive potential 2026 impact from them. Neither Kilen nor Jordan got get one.

Furman and Davidson both got small stints at AA, and Harber is 24. Perform well at AA, and moving up to AAA makes them the next men up.

The other specs in the group were Bresnahan, Keyner, Kilen, and Jordan (who all got t100 votes from BA staff).

The position player NRI list was mostly AAA depth, with the exception of the three prospects they invited: Harber, Furman, and Davidson.

The Baggs Abrams piece had this intriguing note at the end when he was talking about a group of prospects that received trade interest: "With the possible exception of Harber, the Giants do not expect to graduate any of those prospects this season"

WBC rosters are being officially announced. As expected, Hiroya Miyagi made the Team Japan roster. Make sure to pay attention to his pitch data in particular.

It's going to be so great when they cap this all off by getting the #1 pick and taking Dybantsa over Peterson

He declined to make Keon a RFA so that he would have the room under the tax to sign Schroder.

It probably won’t take long for him to realize that Hunter will be more valuable as an expiring contract than as a Sacramento King.

His big acquisitions so far were for Schroder and Hunter, guys who haven’t been good since the last time he was a GM. The exact opposite thing you want to see.

Made a bad trade for a guy whose usage rate was higher than Evan Mobley's in Cleveland and I'm supposed to just accept that they didn't get good enough offers for Sabonis and will try again in the offseason?