Pitching Grips

12:16 Eric A Longenhagen : Hey, chatters. We’ll get underway in 10 minutes, or so. Get your questions in. 12:27 Eric A Longenhagen : Okay, good morning everyone. Thanks for your patience. Quicker chat today due to a vet visit. 12:27 liljebbie10 : Do you think Seth Hernandez makes it to AA by the end of the year? Do you think he could debut by the end of next year? Is his upside Bubba Chandler but throws strikes more consistently? 12:29 Eric A Longenhagen : I think they’ll make him sustain success with Greensboro before promoting him, but I do think the end of next year (late enough for him to retain rookie eligibility in 2028) is possible. Don’t give up on Bubba throwing strikes yet, he’s too young to be this impatient and conclude he won’t. 12:29 dansanchez86 : Joseph Dzierwa real? 12:30 Eric A Longenhagen : To an extent. I think his ceiling is limited by his breaking ball quality. I don’t thi...

2:02 Jason Martinez : Welcome to the RosterResource chat! Last chat of June and then I’m sure we’ll all be heavily focused on trades for the next several weeks. As of now, 4 AL teams look like sellers (DET, KCR, LAA, BOS all 12+ games under .500) but still too early since they’re all within 5-6 games of a playoff spot. 3 NL teams (NYM, SFG, COL) are far enough out where they’re getting ready to sell. Should be a fun July. Here we go … 2:03 Phil : What’s your best guess as to the total number of Red Sox traded? Is it going to be a Bloomian tweak or a Cheringtonian purge? I’m kind of assuming Gray and Chapman are inevitable. 2:05 Jon Becker : I think closer to a tweak than a purge. I’m not even sure Aroldis gets traded because he has a vesting option for next year that’s all but certain to vest (he just needs 40 IP + a passed physical), and they’ll have to kick in some money to move Gray but he...

Pablo Robles-Imagn Images I ended up here by accident. I was writing about Steven Kwan yesterday, and I found myself on a leaderboard that contained all 3,658 qualified seasons for batters since 2002. That’s the first year Sports Info Solutions started tracking its reams and reams of granular data, so I spend a lot of time with the leaderboards set to that particular date range. If somebody is at the top or bottom of a column on that leaderboard, then they have earned a superlative. For example, in 2003, SIS credited Tony Batista with a 63.4% pull rate — the highest pull rate ever recorded! I have to believe it’s the highest of all time, too. How is it even possible to pull the ball 63% of the time? It certainly sounds impossible, but I believe the number to be true both because the second and eighth spots also belong to Batista, and because, well, do you remember Tony Batista’s batting stance? Yeah, that’s what you’d expect a guy with a 63% pull rate to look like. Batista’s offen...

Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images Fireworks season came early to Citizens Bank Park, where on Saturday evening the Phillies collected 17 hits — 10 for extra bases, including four home runs — in a 15-3 win over the Mets. Kyle Schwarber launched three of those homers, with two traveling more than 450 feet in the third inning, and by the time the fifth inning ended, Bryce Harper had hit for the cycle for the first time in his major league career. At the wrong end of that onslaught was Freddy Peralta , who was tagged for 10 runs in 2 2/3 innings. It was the worst start of his nine-year career, as well as a reminder of just how poorly the team’s offseason acquisitions have panned out. Saturday’s start began inauspiciously enough, with Peralta allowing a two-out solo shot to Harper in the first inning. After falling behind 2-0, he threw a 93.9-mph four-seamer inside, but Harper was nonetheless able to extend his arms and lift a 37-degree blast. In the second inning, Peralta surrendere...