Welcome to a different version of 5 Issues I Appreciated (Or Didn’t Like) This Week. Between a trip, the All-Star break, the Commerce Worth Collection, and the commerce deadline, 5 Issues has been on a little bit of a summer time hiatus. Baseball itself doesn’t cease, after all; bizarre and pleasant issues occur whether or not I’m documenting them or not. However I nonetheless couldn’t shake the sensation that this week had an additional serving to of caprice. Balls took humorous hops. Good pitchers obtained shelled in sudden methods. Balks took heart stage. Leads modified fingers late, defenders kicked issues into excessive gear – there was a lot pleasant baseball this week that I struggled to slender it down to 5 issues. Seven issues simply doesn’t have the identical ring to it, although, so let’s shortly nod to Zach Lowe of The Ringer for the column inspiration and get going.
1. The True King of Contact
Writing about Luis Arraez generally is a bummer generally. Not as a result of he’s dangerous – he’s emphatically not – however as a result of merely mentioning his title reinvigorates the age-old argument between those that say there are too many strikeouts and those that insist that slug is within the air. Ought to everybody be doing what Arraez is doing? Is he an anachronism? Is he underrated? Overrated? He’s so good at what he does – and what he does is so completely different from what most good baseball gamers do – that these questions are frustratingly omnipresent in any dialogue about Arraez.
That mentioned, I feel I discovered an Arraez play that received’t divide the viewers. The secret’s for it to not contain a ball in play, a stroll, or a strikeout. Check out this magnificence:
Only a common play, proper? Matthew Liberatore misplaced his grip on a curveball and sailed it excessive, Arraez ducked out of the way in which, and all was proper with the world. However watch extra intently, and also you’ll discover that one thing is amiss. The ball bounces away wildly. Nobody appears to know the place it’s. The umpire is elevating his fingers as an alternative of remaining immobile. That’s as a result of Arraez made contact with the ball:
That’s actually superb. No look, falling away, one-handed; the person simply will get his bat on the ball. Certain, this was most likely pure luck, however I’m selecting to consider that there’s one thing larger at play. If any participant in all of baseball was going to make contact with a ball behind their again and above their head, who else wouldn’t it be? Even Arraez thought it was fairly humorous, jokingly whacking his bat and laughing it up with catcher Yohel Pozo:
Let me put it this manner. You don’t see quite a lot of guys make contact with a pitch that appears like this on a zone chart:
2. Fast Bats
That is the quickest pitch ever to be hit for a house run:
First, goodness gracious, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. That’s a formidable feat of hitting. Second, let’s simply marvel at this one for a second. The quickest pitch ever hit for a homer, and he pulled it! While you hear coaches discuss getting the bat head out in entrance of a fastball, they most likely aren’t referring to one of many hardest pitches Mason Miller has ever thrown. They’re speaking about cleansing up the trash, depositing shapeless 93 mph heaters within the pull-side bleachers. How on this planet was Gurriel early for this pitch?
To grasp, it’s important to see your entire at-bat. In a 1-1 depend, Miller introduced the warmth, and Gurriel fought it off:
Discover that he was fairly late on that 102 mph fastball. After all he was. Then Miller got here again with 104 away, and once more Gurriel managed to get his bat on it late:
On the following pitch, Miller hung a juicy slider proper down the center. However he was protected by his fastball armor – Gurriel was so equipped for the cheese that he was manner out in entrance of the slider, pulling it harmlessly foul:
After that dangerous slider, Miller wasn’t messing round; it was all fastballs on a regular basis once more. Miller reached again for 104, however Gurriel had by no means stopped sitting fastball, and this time he fouled it straight again:
I already confirmed you the following pitch. It was thrown at 103.9 mph. It ended up within the seats.
Gurriel’s residence run is an outlier. The subsequent-fastest Miller fastball hit for a homer? It was 103.2 mph, and that was poked down the alternative area line, an excuse-me swing juiced into a house run by Miller’s uncooked velo. The subsequent-fastest Miller pitch pulled for a house run? It got here in at 101.5 mph, a much less absurd studying on the radar gun. However main league hitters can time something for those who give them sufficient possibilities. Each successive Gurriel swing got here nearer to being on time, till Miller put his hand within the cookie jar as soon as too typically. That was a formidable feat of hitting – and of incremental enchancment. Oh, and by the way in which, for those who hit a house run on a pitch that onerous, I’d be upset for those who didn’t comply with it up with a candy bat toss. Corbin Carroll agrees:
3. Intentional Balks
The intentional balk has an extended and wealthy historical past, most of which occurred far outdoors the key leagues. Bob Wickman deliberately balked as soon as in 2005, however my actual introduction to the tactic was when Kenley Jansen tried it in 2019. He’d all the time disliked working with a runner on second, and he lastly did one thing about it by awkwardly tapping his foot on and off the rubber and pointing to 3rd base. Jason Heyward trotted 90 ft at no cost, Jansen picked up the save, and a method was reborn.
Over the following few years, I related the transfer with Jansen and Craig Kimbrel. Few different pitchers made a behavior of it, although. And the problem isn’t an absence of effectiveness. Intentional balks work! They get a runner off of second base and safely out of sign-stealing place. The disadvantage is basically aesthetic — assuming that specific run scoring or not isn’t essential, after all. Deliberately balking seems to be goofy, undignified even. Jansen and Kimbrel, each standouts within the area of awkward twitchiness on the mound, had no subject with it. While you’re a Corridor of Fame nearer, you’re permitted a specific amount of idiosyncrasy. However a setup man capturing the odd save? A rookie lengthy man mopping up? They’d by no means.
There’s been an incredible growth in intentional balking, although. Due to the pitch clock and the disengagement rule, it’s simpler than ever to balk. You don’t even should look foolish! Step off the mound 3 times, as critically as you’d like, and the umpire will nonetheless name you for a balk.
Jansen deliberately balked earlier this 12 months, stepping on and off whereas gesturing Shohei Ohtani over to 3rd base. However that was only a warmup. In early July, the Guardians obtained in on the act. Cade Smith stepped off 3 times in opposition to the Astros with out even bothering to lob the ball over to second, sending Mauricio Dubón over to 3rd with out as soon as having to seem like an absolute goofball.
The Guardians are as much as two now after Nic Enright deliberately balked Jeff McNeil over to 3rd within the backside of the tenth inning on Monday. Once more, it wasn’t a type of intentional balks that makes you dig out the rulebook and ensure what a balk is. Enright simply calmly stepped off the mound just a few instances and had the umpire escort McNeil over to 3rd.
And that’s not even the most important intentional balk of the 12 months. That may be Héctor Neris in opposition to the Crimson Sox, and in his, the balk was a sideshow for some basic chirping and a mill-around session. Earlier than 50 grown males all mentioned “maintain me again!” to one another directly, although, Neris had hit on the brand new sizzling tactic of the second to maintain Trevor Story from relaying indicators.
I feel the intentional balk is right here to remain. Why wouldn’t or not it’s? It’s all the time made sense. The one factor holding pitchers again — aside from the prospect of a runner on third — was decorum and precedent. However now it doesn’t look foolish, so everyone seems to be doing it. Search for extra intentional balks, coming quickly to a stadium close to you!
4. An Even Weirder Balk
Now you can deliberately balk by stepping off the mound, the report for the least eventful balk goes to be a many-way tie between a bunch of fellows who take just a few measured steps to maneuver a runner up a base at no cost. However there’s no restrict to how eventful a balk may be, and Tyler Anderson simply submitted a powerful contender for essentially the most convoluted balk of the 12 months.
It begins with the disengagement rule and a quick runner. With Chandler Simpson on first base, Anderson tried two pickoff throws to maintain baseball’s quickest runner stationary. Simpson was emboldened by these two throws and went on first motion the following pitch, however Anderson, a wily veteran, pulled off the basic lefty redirect and turned his movement into a straightforward throw to first. Simpson was useless to rights:
Oops! Anderson is artful and misleading throughout the board, not simply in his pitching however in his protection too. That transfer turned Simpson inside out. All of the Angels needed to do was execute a rundown and Simpson can be out. It’s Baseball 101. However typically talking, you don’t apply rundowns in opposition to one of many biggest basestealers on the planet:
The important thing to that sequence was the second Nolan Schanuel went to use a tag on a flat-footed Simpson. Schanuel thought he’d timed it effectively, however Simpson was in a position to make the most of his planted ft and redirect his legs simply out of the way in which of the tag:
From there, it was only a matter of getting again to the bottom. After which, after all, slowly strolling from first to second. That was the third disengagement, in spite of everything:
That’s one of many weirdest balks you’ll see all 12 months, a 1-3-4-3-1 disengagement violation. Isn’t baseball nice?
5. Subsequent-Stage Pondering
Should you’re like me, one of many causes you watch baseball is the satisfaction of seeing elite athletes doing the little issues effectively. Truthfully, that’s half of what this column is. I really like easily turned double performs, deft footwork, intelligent baserunning reads, all of it. Runners deliberately utilizing the basepath to their benefit? I’ve written about it earlier than, and I’m nonetheless into it. That is nice work by Jahmai Jones:
A fast peek over his shoulder informed Jones that there can be a play on the plate, so he veered from his preliminary place in foul territory to dam off the simplest throwing lane residence. It’s not solely authorized, it’s clearly the proper choice. One of the simplest ways to get residence safely on a ball hit like that’s to make it actually troublesome for the third baseman to discover a clear path to the catcher. There was only one downside with Jones’ transfer: Edmundo Sosa can suppose on his ft too:
Blink, and also you’ll miss it. Sosa anticipated Jones turning into the basepath, so he as an alternative threw to the foul facet of it, the world Jones had simply vacated. His throw cleared Jones’ shoulders and hit J.T. Realmuto squarely within the glove with sufficient time to make a tag:
That’s nice stuff, glorious protection beating glorious baserunning. Actually, Sosa was relying on the superb baserunning. His throw was to the foul facet, as I discussed, however he made that call with out full certainty of what Jones would do. Check out Jones’ ft with the ball already out of Sosa’s hand:
Jones had already began the flip that might ship him all the way in which into honest territory, however he hadn’t accomplished it. If Jones had simply stored working down the road proper the place he was, the throw most likely would have hit him. Right here’s my finest guess for the place the ball was when it crossed his path on its flight residence:
That simply makes Sosa’s play even higher. He was so sure that his opponent would do the proper factor that he pegged the ball immediately at the place the runner was at the moment standing. Sub in an inattentive baserunner, and Sosa’s throw can be disastrous. However he learn Jones’ intention and saved a run. That’s heads-up protection from a spectacular defender, however I can’t even be mad at Jones. What are you alleged to do, not make the proper play? He simply obtained crushed by a good higher one.
