Adored high school pitchers? III

Gray (No. 54) was drafted by the Athletics in the 1st round of the 2011 Draft from Vanderbilt University 

It’s been almost 17 years since the book Moneyball published. The book has changed baseball and sports in several perspectives. As I read the book again, these lines really capture my attention again, “The scouts adored high school players, and they especially adored high school pitchers. High school pitchers were so far away from being who they would be when they grew up that you could imagine them becoming almost anything. High school pitchers also had brand-new arms, and brand-new arms were able to generate the one asset scouts could measure: fastball’s velocity. The most important quality in a pitcher was not his brute strength but his ability to deceive, and deception took many forms.”

Adored high school pitchers? II

Kershaw was drafted by the  Dodgers in the 1st round of the 2006 draft from Highland Park High School

It’s been almost 17 years since the book Moneyball published. The book has changed baseball and sports in several perspectives. As I read the book again, these lines really capture my attention again, “The scouts adored high school players, and they especially adored high school pitchers. High school pitchers were so far away from being who they would be when they grew up that you could imagine them becoming almost anything. High school pitchers also had brand-new arms, and brand-new arms were able to generate the one asset scouts could measure: fastball’s velocity. The most important quality in a pitcher was not his brute strength but his ability to deceive, and deception took many forms.”

Adored high school pitchers?

Hamels was drafted by the Phillies in the 1st round of the 2002 MLB Draft from Rancho Bernardo high school 

It’s been almost 17 years since the book Moneyball published. The book has changed baseball and sports in several perspectives. As I read the book again, these lines really capture my attention again, “The scouts adored high school players, and they especially adored high school pitchers. High school pitchers were so far away from being who they would be when they grew up that you could imagine them becoming almost anything. High school pitchers also had brand-new arms, and brand-new arms were able to generate the one asset scouts could measure: fastball’s velocity. The most important quality in a pitcher was not his brute strength but his ability to deceive, and deception took many forms.”

Two-way players

A two-way player is one who can both hit and pitch. The most well known two-way player is probably the baseball legend Babe Ruth, who earned 94 wins and also hit 714 home runs in his legendary career.

Ozhaino Albies

Life without baseball is boring. Pulling some baseball cards is kinda something I can do to at least kill boredom. Most sports cards are delayed in this tough period. Baseball cards are not the exceptions. Since there are not many new baseball cards available, I decided to pull some old baseball cards. It’s what I got.

Building a dynasty

Maddux was the Ace of the Braves in the 90's

Stan Kasten became the Dodgers' President and CEO on April 2012. The Dodgers has led the league in attendance and also has won 7 consecutive division titles (2013-2019) and two National League championships (2017 & 2018). Also, Kasten became president of the Braves in 1986. From 1987-2003, the Braves won more games than any other teams in MLB and won 14 consecutive division titles (1991-2005), five National League pennants and the 1995 World Series.

The next Cy Young winner from the Cardinals?

Jack Flaherty (Topps A&J, 2018)

Chris Carpenter won the NL Cy Young award in 2005. In that season, he pitched 21-5 with ERA 2.83 and 213 strikeouts. It was the last time that a Cardinals pitcher won the Cy Young award. Last season (2019), Jack Flaherty finished the season strong, post all-star, his ERA was only 0.91 while WHIP was only 0.71. Batters truly had no idea on how to face him, hitting only .142 against Flaherty. Flaherty finished 4th in the Cy Young voting.

Marlins' first multi-year free agent deal since Jeter took office

Corey Dickerson (Topps A&J 2018)

Derek Jeter became the Marlins’ CEO after completing the deal in 2017. Jeter has his idea to build the team, however the Marlins had two disappointing seasons in 2018 and 2019, ranked 5th in NL East for 2 consecutive seasons and in total only won 120 games in 2 years. In January 2020, Marlins signed free agent Corey Dickerson, who was on the top 50 free agents list, a 2-year contract. The contract is the first multi-year free agent deal under the new Marlins ownership.

Sinker velocity sink?

Another time, I drafted Alex Wood in my fantasy team. Last time, I drafted him in ESPN fantasy in 2017, it was his all-star season, and I won in the league. In 2017, he earned 16 wins with ERA only 2.72. In 152.1 innings of work, he threw 151 strikeouts. Before the all-star game, his record was 10-0 with ERA 1.67. However, he only had 6-3 with ERA 3.89 post all-star. Batting average against him jumped to .262 from .174. Why did this happen?

Home Runs can’t guarantee to win the World Series

Red Sox won the world series in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018

Winning the World Series championship is the ultimate goal for every baseball player. It’s a long journey for the teams to reach the World Series. After playing 162 regular season games, you have to win the division series and league championship series to reach the final, by the way, the 2019 World Series Champions Washington Nationals even played the wild card game. However, it might still be a little bit far away to think of the World Series since we still don’t know when the baseball will return.

Trades to end the curse - Theo Epstein

Theo Epstein (Topps A&G 2018)

Theo Epstein is currently the President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs. In his baseball executive career, he led the team to win the world series championships three times, two (2004 and 2007) with the Boston Red Sox and one with the Chicago Cubs (2016). In 2004, Red Sox won their first World Series championship in 86 years, also in 2016, the Cubs won their first World Series championship in 108 years.

Launch Angle—the lower, the ?

Javier Baez (Topps Fire 2019)

“El Mago” Javier Baez is a 2-time all-star of the Chicago Cubs. In 2018, he hit .290/.326/.554 with 34 Home Runs and 111 RBIs and finished 2nd in the NL MVP voting. Meanwhile, his OPS was .881 and it was Baez’s first time to finish at least .800 in OPS. He became the core of the Cubs offense along with Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo.

3 works?

Mookie Betts (Topps Opening day 2020)

Earlier this year, Dodgers, Red Sox and Twins agreed to the framework of a deal that would send Betts and David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kenta Maeda to the Twins and Alex Verdugo and Brusdar Graterol to Boston.