On Wednesday for Low-A Rancho Cucamonga, Dodgers prospect Reynaldo Yean pitched a scoreless inning, which has been the norm this yr for the 20-year-old righty from the Dominican Republic.
In 11 appearances for the Quakes, Yean additionally gave up one run in 10⅔ innings, with 19 strikeouts and a 47.5 p.c strikeout proportion. Nevertheless it was a particular pitch Wednesday that caught his eye, one which registered 104 mph.
Rob Hill, the Dodgers' pitching supervisor, identified how uncommon such a pitch is:
Excessive velocity searching is the norm in in the present day's recreation and has been for some time. Given the wave of high-profile pitchers getting damage this season, many individuals within the sport — together with Walker Buehler, who’s now again from his second Tommy John surgical procedure — have commented on the state of pitching well being and what options , if there’s, they may. be potential.
At FanGraphs, Kiri Oler gives one answer, to restrict the variety of innings a pitcher is allowed to throw based mostly on what number of throws they throw. Whereas that is in all probability too radical to really be carried out, the reasoning behind it’s a minimum of fascinating.
“Many pitchers really feel pressured to chase velocity and danger future accidents in favor of reaching the majors,” Oler wrote. “They may solely begin to differ their velocity and discover different methods to get out if a structural change requires a collective change in method.”
I believe my most popular repair is to restrict the variety of pitchers allowed on an lively roster to 12 or possibly even 11, forcing groups to rethink how they deploy their pitchers, i.e. not throwing at most effort for each pitch of each recreation. However even that’s certain to face pushback, and rightfully so, from the MLB Gamers Affiliation, as pitchers throughout the game will lose their jobs.
Earlier this week, Main League Baseball introduced a cope with Roku to stream 18 “Sunday Leadoff” video games, although not the entire video games are first on the schedule that day. The Dodgers have one such recreation, a 1 pm PT time begin on September 1 in opposition to the D-backs in Arizona.
The Roku deal is value $30 million over the three years of the contract, in accordance with Evan Drellich at The Athletic, who mentioned Thursday that MLB will obtain $8 million this yr, $10 million in 2025, and $12 million in 2026. with Peacock, who paid $30 million per yr in 2022 and 2023 earlier than his contract expires after final season.