When watching a baseball game, we normally see a starting pitcher being removed from the game after 100 pitches. 100-pitch usually is considered a limit. The 2020 season was a shortened season. There is something interesting about the 100-pitch limit.
When I was watching a baseball game, a broadcaster indicated that one player, who’s from Asia, had difficulties in hitting pitches at 95mph or higher. Well, that’s interesting. So I went to the statcast website to check something.
Merry Christmas. Wish everyone a wonderful holiday. It means that this year is coming to an end soon. There’s no baseball on Christmas Day, however, there’s still something interesting about baseball on Christmas Day.
Bowman has been a very popular brand to hunt for top prospects. Bowman chrome is one of the cool bowman products for collectors to search for top rookies and prospects. Meanwhile, there are on-card autographs and several inserts. It’s always exciting to see some prospects make it into the big league and even become stars. But it could take some time.
Topps stadium club offers top-level photography and even many of my friends, who are designers, are amazed by those photos. This year, I didn’t miss this product. It’s guaranteed two on-card autographs in each hobby box and there are also several inserts. However, there are only a few numbered cards. This time, I got a black and white card of Mike Yastrzemski. It’s my first time to find black and white card from the Topps stadium club.
Going to a sports card shop is surely an interesting thing to do. You can pull baseball cards that are newly released, at the same time, you can also find something that brings you back to the past. I found a topps league leaders card, on the front is the 1999 NL strikeout leader Randy Johnson, on the back is 1999 AL strikeout leader Pedro Martinez. Each threw more than 300 strikeouts in 1999 and both of them are Hall of Famers.
2020 is almost gone. It’s not the usual year as we know. Baseball season was shortened and MLB winter meetings became virtual meetings. But there is still something normal, we see there are free agent signings, trades and rule 5 draft. Of course, it’s too early to evaluate and say if a trade is good or bad. But, it’s worthwhile to take a close look at some trades.
Expected ERA (xERA) translates xwOBA into the ERA scale. It’s not necessarily predictive, but it helps us compare to the pitcher’s actual ERA. ERA has some flaws and many factors could affect a pitcher’s ERA. xERA can give us a different way to evaluate a pitcher’s performance since it’s a translation of xwOBA and the amount of contact and quality of contact are taken into consideration.
Home runs are important elements in today’s baseball. Fans love to watch home runs in games. However, pitchers definitely don’t like to give up any home runs. We always see pitchers frustrated after giving up a homer. In 2020, there were 2304 homers during the regular season. And I went to visit the statcast website.
There are several companies that produce baseball cards. However, MLB granted Topps an exclusive license in 2009 and the exclusive partnership between MLB and Topps will run through 2025. If they extend the deal before 2025, the long-term partnership will be even longer. Since it’s an exclusive license, Topps is the one and only manufacturer to produce MLB baseball cards. However, we can also see baseball cards from other manufacturers.
Curveball, a pitch that is thrown slower, is mainly used to keep hitters off-balance. It’s widely used throughout baseball history and many pitchers have it in their pitch arsenals. To know more about curveball usage in the 2020 season, I went to visit the statcast website.
