With the brand new batting velocity metric unveiled this week on MLB.com, a whole lot of sensible individuals have been thoughtfully dissecting it in hopes of determining what's helpful and what may not be. In his E-newsletter of The Advance Scout, Noah Woodward famous Freddie Freeman's skill together with his strategy to the ground, and the way the Dodgers first baseman is ready to be extra direct to the ball.
“He is ready to mix robust choice making with an adaptable swing in ways in which no different hitter can,” Woodward wrote. “You’ll be able to see that skill in his broad distribution of bat speeds.”
Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz is off to an unbelievable begin this season. He's hitting .270/.370/.503 with 9 residence runs, a 145 wRC+, and we've already seen his affect on the bases within the sequence opener. On Thursday, De La Cruz had 4 hits and 4 stolen bases, simply the second recreation at Dodger Stadium (Houston outfielder Gerald Younger was the primary, in 1987).
De La Cruz turned the primary particular person with 4 steals in a recreation towards the Dodgers since previous buddy Jayson Werth in 2009.
With 30 stolen bases via Friday — 13 greater than anybody within the majors — De La Cruz is on tempo to steal 108 this season, a quantity not reached within the majors since 1987, when Vince Coleman's 109 steals marked his third triple. digit-stealing season in a row.
Sam Miller in his Pebble Looking e-newsletter this week was in love with De La Cruz's audacity on the bottom paths, which harkens again to the model of the Eighties. “See somebody steal 100 bases (and even 80 foundation) with intention is tremendously thrilling analysis,” Miller wrote.
The final yr anybody stole even 80 bases was 1988, when Rickey Henderson (93 steals) and Coleman (81) did it.
Infamous grifter Frank McCourt, who dragged the Dodgers into chapter 11 earlier than promoting them for greater than a billion {dollars} in revenue greater than a decade in the past, now has a plan to purchase TikTok. I don't actually care what his plan is, nor has he earned any purpose for anybody to belief him, however my favourite a part of this story was Ben Smith at Semafor describing McCourt as a “tech critic.”
Sure, very like the current information of Hertz spokesman OJ Simpson passing away.