Pitching Grips

Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images I went to the Nationals-Cardinals game on Wednesday afternoon at Nats Park to check in on the two rebuilding clubs early in the season. Washington has been in a perpetual rebuild for pretty much the entirety of the 2020s, while St. Louis just tore its roster down to the studs this past offseason. And yet, with Chaim Bloom installed as the new president of baseball operations, a deep farm system , and several young position players starting to come into their own, the Cardinals seem to be closer to their next winning season than the Nationals. That’s certainly how things played out on Wednesday, when the Cards beat the Nats, 6-1, to take two out of three in the series. St. Louis first baseman Alec Burleson , the team’s second-longest tenured position player, went 3-for-4 and knocked in three runs, and second baseman JJ Wetherholt made several slick plays in the field. Wetherholt, who entered this year as the 12th-ranked prospect in baseball, has reache...

2:03 Jason Martinez : Welcome to the RosterResource Chat! All 4 MiLB levels are playing, which means our MiLB Power Rankings Leaderboard is starting to look interesting. MiLB levels are cleaned up, for the most part, on the RR pages. Now we get to have a fun baseball discussion here … 2:03 Mike : Clemens or Roden…. Who would be your first baseman until the twins actually develop one? 2:04 Jon Becker : Unless I missed something about the Twins trying Roden back at first (I don’t think he’s played there since college) I’d have to pick Clemens by default. But it’s highly likely that their next good homegrown first baseman is someone who’s not playing first base right now. A lot of those guys get drafted as corner outfielders or third basemen and end up moving down the defensive spectrum. 2:05 Guest : What are your thoughts on Murakami right now? He had an amazing series against the Brewers, but has a .524 OPS a...

Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images The Blue Jays have lost another key player to injury. Alejandro Kirk left Friday’s game against the White Sox in the 10th inning after a foul tip glanced off his glove hand. He immediately dropped his glove, grabbed his thumb, and hustled into the clubhouse with trainers. The team after the game announced Kirk had fractured his thumb . No timeline for a return was given. Our injury log suggests batters with thumb fractures typically return in about four to eight weeks, although Kirk fractured the thumb on his catching hand, which could require a longer recovery. It’s the latest significant injury for the reigning AL champs, who lost Cody Ponce last week while fielding a grounder in his first start in the majors since 2021. Trey Yesavage , José Berríos , and Shane Bieber are on the injured list, as well, though each is in the “throwing” process of his rehab. Kirk entered 2026 projected by our Depth Charts to be the best player on the Blue Jays ...

Going into yesterday, Mason Miller had thrown 37 pitches on the season, 19 of them fastballs averaging 101 mph, while another 17 were sliders that elicited a 60.0% whiff rate. There was also one changeup. Delivered to Luis Arraez on a 1-1 count, the ninth-inning offering was wide outside and taken for a ball. Why did the San Diego Padres closer throw his seldom-used changeup to the three-time batting champ on Wednesday night? Low leverage was certainly a factor; the Friars had scored four times in the bottom of the eighth to turn a 3-1 lead into a far safer 7-1 advantage. It nonetheless represented an outlier for the 27-year-old flamethrower. Over the previous two seasons, only 2.3% of his pitches were changeups. I asked him about it when the Padres visited Fenway Park on Friday, “A changeup is a good pitch, but I’m not going to feel comfortable with it if I’m not throwing it,” Miller told me. “I’m picking my spots. There are certain guys it matches up well against. [Arraez] is a ...