Pitching Grips

Tim Vizer-Imagn Images On Wednesday night, I sent Michael Baumann a Slack message asking him the first question in today’s mailbag: How many teams have never had a 30/30 season? “Phew,” he said. “That’s a good one.” I told him I’d be answering it, but I thought it was a fun bit of trivia and wanted to know what his guess would be. I was on my way back from my softball game, and I told him I’d look it up as soon as I got home. But Baumann was impatient. He proceeded to run the search himself and answer the question for me. “Thanks for doing the mailbag for me lol,” I said. He replied, “I had that thought. I just couldn’t help myself.” That’s the type of impulsive, obsessive behavior that drives us to answer your mailbag questions every week. Like you, we love all that is trivial, whimsical, historical, hypothetical, strategic, pedantic, gigantic, nitty, gritty, and silly about baseball. Your passion is our passion. Anyway, because Baumann couldn’t resist, part of the ...

David Butler II-Imagn Images Bryce Elder was thriving when he was featured here at FanGraphs in July 2023. Then in his first full season with the Atlanta Braves, the now 27-year-old right-hander was 8-2 with a 3.18 ERA, and he’d recently been named an NL All-Star. Killing worms was his M.O. Relying heavily on a sinker, Elder boasted a 53.6% groundball rate, which ranked fifth best among qualified pitchers. Then things slowly started going south. From August 2023 through last season, Elder was on the winning end of just 14 decisions while putting up a 5.53 ERA over 48 starts comprising 259 innings. The University of Texas product had gone from a burgeoning frontline starter to profiling as more of a back-of-the-rotation arm. Adversity has a way of begetting change, and much for that reason, Elder is no longer the same pitcher who struggled to record outs. The transformation has taken a bit of time — Rome wasn’t built in a day — but his current-season results are certainly pleasing ...

2:02 Jason Martinez : Welcome to the RosterResource Chat! With the new requirement of having to log in to ask questions, we are still having some technical difficulties. Please let us know (via twitter or bluesky) if this continues to be the case. For those of you who are in the chat, here we go … 2:02 procters1 : Mick Abel had his first rehab outing and it went well. He should be back soon. How does the Twins rotation shake out with his return? 2:03 Jon Becker : Should be a pretty easy swap with Abel in and Paredes/bullpen game out. It gets tougher when another starter like Rojas or Ober is back, but there’ll be plenty of time to evaluate others in the meantime because neither of those two has a timetable for his return. 2:04 Ragbrai : Who puts up better numbers the ROS, Baty or Winn? 2:06 Jason Martinez : I’d take Baty to have better numbers and Winn with a little bit more volume just because Baty might sit occasional...

Matt Marton-Imagn Images In 2024, the White Sox set a single-season record by losing 121 games, and last year, they went 60-102 under rookie manager Will Venable — their third straight season with at least 100 losses. Yet now, more than a third of the way into the 2026 season, the White Sox are one of only five AL teams with a record of .500 or better. At 34-31, they currently occupy the second Wild Card spot and are just 1.5 games behind the Guardians in the AL Central race. Our projection systems certainly didn’t see this turnaround coming, as the White Sox were forecast for a 67-95 record — worst in the AL by almost five full wins — with just a 1.1% chance of making the playoffs. In our preseason Positional Power Rankings, their starting pitching, all three outfield spots, and designated hitter all ranked among the majors’ bottom three . As of mid-April, the Sox appeared to be fulfilling their destiny of another forgettable season, having skidded to a 6-13 start while scori...

2:00 Ben Clemens : Hey everybody, welcome to the chat. 2:00 Ben Clemens : We’re trying out a new system where you’re required to log in to FanGraphs to ask a question. You don’t need to be a Member, but you do need to have an account, just like you need an account to comment on any article. We’ll see how it goes. If you have feedback, feel free to just leave it as a question, or you can send a note to support@fangraphs.com . 2:00 Ben Clemens : So if you’re having some login issues, try that, and if not, email us; we’re hoping to get this seamless sooner rather than later 2:00 jackberris : Do you believe in the Kumar Rocker semi breakout this year? 2:01 Ben Clemens : I had to look, and I have to be honest, I’m not getting breakout vibes here 2:01 Ben Clemens : like, maybe an ERA breakout. but blah xERA, blah FIP and xFIP, worse SIERA than last year, stuff looks close to unchanged, lower SwSt...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon . Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Shohei Ohtani’ s career-year pace, how often his number of times on base has exceeded his times on base allowed in his two-way games, and his awards outlook, discuss Aaron Judge’ s injury and the wide-open AL MVP race, and then (1:06:39) Stat Blast about the most former catchers in one game, Brayan Bello ’s woes as a starter, clustering a team’s plate appearances in one inning, perfectly parallel pitch counts for piggybackers, long-lasting low-WAR players, where in the batting order teams tend to go back-to-back-to-belly, players with the longest streaks of having a teammate in the World Series, the most times striking out looking, the best duos drafted consecutively, and more. Audio intro : Tom Rhoads, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Audio outro : El Warren, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Link to FG combined...