Pitching Grips

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images On Monday night, the Astros celebrated Memorial Day by no-hitting the Rangers. Throwing to catcher Christian Vázquez , pitchers Tatsuya Imai , Steven Okert , and Alimber Santa combined for the 18th no-hitter in a franchise history that dates back to 1962. According to the great Sarah Langs , not only is that the most no-hitters over that period, but the second-place Dodgers are a full five no-nos behind with 13. Imai was making just his sixth major league start. Santa was making his major league debut. There must be something in the water in Houston. I didn’t catch any of the game live. I saw a supercut that shows all 27 outs the Astros got. This is it. You don’t have to watch it to enjoy this article, and it’s seven minutes long, but I at least wanted to give you the chance to experience the game the way I experienced it. Several things jumped out at me at the beginning of the video. It starts with an establishing shot of Imai. He’s toeing the rubber bef...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon . Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Mason Miller ’s recent “struggles,” whether the Tigers will trade Tarik Skubal , and how different baseball would be if the Angels had traded Shohei Ohtani , plus (44:05) more than a dozen Stat Blasts. Audio intro : Beatwriter, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Audio outro : PJ Harding, “ Effectively Wild Theme ” Link to previous Miller banter 1 Link to previous Miller banter 2 Link to Miller sample 1 Link to Miller sample 2 Link to article about Grogu promo Link to Grogu promo Link to Triton Ballpark wiki Link to Yaddle at Wookieepedia Link to Ben on The Mandalorian and Grogu Link to Kimbrel blog post Link to MLBTR on Kimbrel Link to Heyman on a Skubal trade Link to Murray on a Skubal trade Link to Olney on a Skubal trade Link to Skubal bullpen sessions article Link to trade deadline date article ...

Joe Puetz-Imagn Images It’s hard to know what to expect from a pitcher returning from a serious injury. In addition to velocity and spin rate, pitching is also about rhythm and feel, and that can take time to come back after a long layoff. But there was little rust for Gerrit Cole to shake off when he made his season debut Friday night at Yankee Stadium. In his first major league start since undergoing Tommy John surgery on March 11, 2025, Cole silenced the first-place Rays, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out two across six scoreless innings. His only real trouble came in the first inning, when he gave up a leadoff single to Chandler Simpson and walked Junior Caminero to put two on with nobody out. After a Jonathan Aranda fly out, Cole picked the speedy Simpson off second base and then struck out Yandy Díaz looking at an inside fastball to end the inning. From there, he got in a groove. He averaged 96.1 mph with his four-seamer, and he threw 50 of his 72 pi...

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2:02 Jason Martinez : Welcome to the RosterResource chat! Reminder that you need a FanGraphs account (membership not required) to sign in and ask a question. It worked fine last week but please let us know if you have any issues. Here we go … 2:02 ankoalec : It sounds like Jared Jones will be able to return to the Pirates within the next week – what do you expect the rotation to look like upon his return? Does Chandler get sent down? Does Mlodzinski move back to a bullpen role, or maybe layer on with Jones initially if they want to build up Jones’ workload? Do they go six man? 2:03 Jon Becker : A Jones/Mlodzinski piggyback feels likeliest to me, at least for a turn or two. But if Chandler’s next start is yet another rough one then maybe they change course and send him down, because he’s just not throwing enough strikes and that’s taxing on the bullpen. 2:04 Yakety Sox : Thanks as always for these chats. Is Didier...

Matt Krohn-Imagn Images Expectations were generally quite low for the Minnesota Twins coming into the 2026 season after last summer’s fire sale that resulted in the departure of seven players from the 26-man roster, including Carlos Correa and half the bullpen. To defy those expectations this year, the Twins needed to wring as much performance as they could out of the talent that remained. In the early going, Ryan Jeffers did more than meet his projection, hitting .295/.408/.541 for a sterling 165 wRC+. At 1.7 WAR in just under two months, he was already nearing his career-best 2.3 WAR from 2023. Now, a broken left hamate bone will likely knock him out for four to six weeks, resulting in a lot more Victor Caratini in the lineup than anyone wants to see. The Twins also held onto third baseman Royce Lewis last summer. Part of that was because he was affordable and under club control through the 2028 season, but it was also because he took a major step backward last year and wouldn...