A more-consistent arm slot related to a move back to the third base side of the rubber has contributed to Cole Ragans’s success this season. The raw stuff was obviously already there. As Ben Clemens wrote back in March, the Kansas City Royals left-hander “looks like an absolute terror on the mound.” My colleague went on to say that if he “were designing a pitcher in a laboratory, he’d look a lot like Ragans.”
When I talked to the 2024 American League All-Star on the eve of the break, he told me that going into full attack mode following last year’s oft-reported velocity jump played a huge role in his emergence as a front-line starter. As he put it, “I kind of had to teach myself that I could get away with a little more of a miss compared to when I was throwing 90-91 [mph]. I have a good arsenal in my opinion, so I can just go after hitters.”
And then there’s the work he does in the laboratory.
“I use TrackMan in my bullpens, especially with the slider and the cutter, to kind of see where I’m at,” said Ragans, whose heater is now mid-to-high 90s. “The biggest thing for me is my release points, making sure that my pitches are in a tight cluster. I want everything coming out of the same tunnel. I don’t want to be throwing a fastball from this release height, and my slider from a lower release height.”
Ragans has “gone through phases” where that has happened, including earlier this year where he found himself dropping his arm slot “three or four inches” when throwing his slider. A change to where he stood on the rubber contributed to the undesirable difference. He moved from the third base side to the first base side during the offseason and remained there throughout spring training and for his first few regular-season starts.
“What I’d wanted was more horizontal approach angle, especially versus lefties with the curveball,” explained Ragans, who has a 3.16 ERA and a 2.67 FIP on the season. “Left on left, I’d kind of be coming from behind their ear. But doing that kind of messed up the feel of certain pitches, especially the slider; I was yanking it, making sure that it didn’t stay middle. We decided to move back to the third base side, and from there the slider got back to where it needed to be.”
Where it needed to be was coming out of the same slot as his high-octane fastball and other pitches, which makes one of baseball’s best arsenals even better. With the issue identified on video and subsequently corrected, the southpaw was back to looking like Cole Ragans.
———
RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Angel Pagán went 0 for 14 against Brad Ziegler.
Brett Gardner went 0 for 16 against Darren O’Day.
Julio Franco went 0 for 17 against Dan Quisenberry.
Marquis Grissom went 1 for 17 against Byung-Hyun Kim.
Ivan Rodriguez went 1 for 18 against Chad Bradford.
———
I ran a Twitter poll on the afternoon of Tuesday’s All-Star Game, asking how much of it people were planning to watch. There were four options, and the results strongly suggested that the Midsummer Classic — this year’s was the 95th — isn’t nearly the attraction it once was. Only 19% of respondents selected “all,” while another 15.9% went with “most.” The lesser-interest options fared much better. “Some” garnered 29.4% of the votes cast, and “none” topped the poll with 35.7%.
Viewership numbers were nothing to write home about. Per the Associated Press, “This year’s All-Stars drew 7,443,000 viewers on Fox, up 6% from the 2023 game but the second lowest for the event.” Moreover, the “3.8 rating and 12 share were down from a 3.9/12 last year.”
None of this is surprising. For a variety of reasons — inter-league play and regular access to most every game/team/player are the primary ones — the game has clearly lost much of its luster. The days of Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse (in 1970) and Carl Hubbell striking out five consecutive Hall of Famers he’d never before faced (1934) are long gone. As B.B. King famously sang, the thrill is gone.
———
Jerry Izenberg’s Larry Doby in Black and White: The Story of a Baseball Pioneer is one one of the best books to come out this year. Within its pages, the author tells of Doby, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, and Jackie Robinson all playing in the 1949 All-Star Game, which was held at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field.
“No Black man had ever been in an All-Star dugout before,” Izenberg wrote. “All four had been signed off Negro League rosters, but Doby was the only one whom baseball general managers had paid to sign; [Branch] Rickey and the Dodgers refused to negotiate or pay for their three. [Bill] Veeck, of course, paid the [Newark] Eagles for Doby.”
A not-unimportant part of baseball history that most fans probably aren’t aware of.
———
A quiz:
Of the 34 players to have hit 400 or more home runs since the start of the 1980 season, only three played exclusively for one team. Who are they?
The answer can be found below.
———
NEWS NOTES
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced on Friday that Kim Ng has joined its board of directors. The official announcement can be found here.
Jerry Walker, who pitched for the Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Athletics, and Cleveland Indians in a career that spanned the 1957-1964 seasons, died earlier this week at age 85. The right-hander went 11-10 with a 2.92 ERA for the Orioles in 1959, a year that saw him throw 16 scoreless innings to earn a 1-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Nelson Chittum, a right-hander who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1958, and for the Boston Red Sox in 1959 and 1960, died this past week at age 91. His career ledger includes a 3-1 record and a 3.84 ERA over 68 innings.
——-
The answer to the quiz is Jeff Bagwell, Chipper Jones, and Cal Ripken Jr.
———
Back in June, I put together a piece titled Player’s View: The Best Game of My Life in which a dozen current big leaguers shared memories of their greatest individual performances to date, and not just at baseball’s highest level. Included were games from the minors, college, high school, and even youth leagues. I’ve since begun procuring accounts from other players, with plans to sporadically include them here in Sunday Notes. I’ll start with Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan, who shared one each from MLB, NCAA, and Little League.
“It would probably be my third big-league game [on April 10, 2022],” said Kwan, “We were playing Kansas City and I had a 5-for-5 day. I couldn’t even explain how it all happened. There were maybe two barrels out of the five hits, but everything was falling. That was a big day for me in affirming that I could play in the big leagues. We won the game, as well. It was exciting.
“When I was [at Oregon State University] we had a game my junior year, against LSU, who had knocked us out of the tournament the year before. I ended up working a nine or 10 pitch at-bat to lead off the game and hit a home run to give us a 1-0 lead. I don’t remember how the rest of the game went, but I remember that being awesome. That one really sticks out to me.
“When I was 12 years old, we were playing on a Little League field, my home ballpark, and I went 4-for-5 with four homers. On the fifth one, I flew out to the warning track and my teammates were cheering because I got out. That was a funny one, although I remember being a little bothered that my teammates were cheering that I got out. I was obviously just trying to win the game, but they were somewhere else with all that.”
———
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Hiroto Takahashi had yet another overpowering outing as he continues to be NPB’s most-enthralling pitcher not named Roki Sasaki. On Friday, the 21-year-old Chunichi Dragons right-hander threw eight scoreless innings while allowing just four hits with no walks and a dozen strikeouts. Takahashi is 7-1 with a 0.52 ERA over 86 innings on the season.
Darwinzon Hernández has a 2.00 ERA to go with 49 strikeouts in 27 innings for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. The former Boston Red Sox reliever has had at least one strikeout in all 27 of his appearances this season. Moreover, no NPB pitcher had previously gone more than 25 consecutive innings with at least one strikeout.
Maikel Franco went 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBIs on Monday as the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles routed the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 16-3. The erstwhile MLB infielder is slashing .271/.294/.441 with half a dozen dingers in his second NPB season.
Do Yeong Kim has 24 home runs to go with a .346/.417/.623 slash line and a 162 wRC+ in 411 plate appearances for the KBO’s Kia Tigers. The 20-year-old third baseman has stolen 29 bases in 32 attempts.
Haarlem Honkbal Week concluded on Friday with Japan beating a USA squad composed of junior college players in the championship game. The final score was 10-4. Japan went 7-0 in the tournament, whose participants also included the USA, Chinese Taipei, Italy, Spain, and the host team from the Netherlands.
———
A random obscure former player snapshot:
Dave Meier’s relatively-brief MLB career included being thrown out in all seven of his stolen base attempts (the record for most times caught stealing without a successful theft is held by Oscar Robles, who went 0-for-8). A native of Helena, Montana who played for the Minnesota Twins in 1984-1985, the Texas Rangers in 1987, and the Chicago Cubs in 1988, Meier logged 62 of his 70 big-league hits with the Twins, including his only homer, a three-run blast off of Chicago White Sox southpaw Floyd Bannister. Meier’s minor-league numbers were quite good. In 1,509 Triple-A plate appearances, he slashed .320/.386/.506 with 46 home runs across three seasons.
———
FARM NOTES
Dasan Brown is slashing .268/.370/.420 with six home runs, 17 stolen bases in 18 attempts, and a 127 wRC+ in 270 plate appearances for High-A Vancouver. A third-round pick in 2019, the defensively-gifted centerfielder from Oakville, Ontario is No. 23 on our Toronto Blue Jays Top Prospects list.
Cooper Ingle is slashing .332/.436/.517 with seven home runs and a 172 wRC+ in 243 plate appearances for High-A Lake County. A fourth-round pick last year out of Clemson University, the 22-year-old left-handed-hitting catcher is No. 25 on our Cleveland Guardians Top Prospects list.
Charles McAdoo is slashing .318/.400/.545 with 13 home runs and a 160 wRC+ in 345 plate appearances between High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona. A 13th-round pick last year out of San Jose State, the 22-year-old third baseman went unranked on our Pittsburgh Pirates Top Prospects list.
George Wolkow is slashing .271/.383/.519 with 10 home runs and a 149 wRC+ in 214 plate appearances between between the Arizona Complex League and Low-A Kannapolis. A seventh-round pick last year out of Downers Grove [IL] High School, the 18-year-old outfielder is No. 22 on our Chicago White Sox Top Prospects list.
Demetrio Crisantes is slashing .372/.450/.525 with four home runs and a 154 wRC+ in 262 plate appearances between the Arizona Complex League and Low-A Visalia. A seventh-round pick in 2022 out of Nogales [AZ] High School, the 19-year-old second baseman went unranked on our Arizona Diamondbacks Top Prospects list.
Jackie Bradley Jr. is slashing .398/.473/.733 with 12 home runs in 184 plate appearances for the independent Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks. The 34-year-old former big-league outfielder has a 27-game hitting streak.
———
Bryce Rainer took questions from the media after being taken 11th-overall by the Detroit Tigers in last Sunday’s amateur draft, and there was a bit of Triston Casas in his answers. Much like the always-engaging Boston Red Sox slugger — Casa was likewise a first-round pick out of the prep ranks — Rainer came off as a combination of confident, refreshingly honest, and entertainingly quirky.
The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen led off the questioning by asking the 19-year-old shortstop out of Los Angeles’s Harvard-Westlake High School what it was like to hear his name called.
“I honestly don’t think there’s a word to explain how I felt,” Rainer replied. “If there is anything I could compare it to, I’d say it’s almost like a kid at Christmas… I’m still kind of in a state of shock, per se. It still doesn’t really feel real, but it’s been pretty cool.”
Rainer mentioned Santa Claus in his response, and regardless of how real old Kris Kringle truly is, the young infielder is indeed Detroit-bound. It’s not what he anticipated come draft day.
“I did not think it was going to be the Tigers,” admitted Rainer, whom Eric Longenhagen had projected to go the Chicago White Sox six picks earlier. “I’m going to be honest with you. We had some ideas. The draft’s crazy — crazy things happen — and time went on, getting phone calls, then it was ‘Tigers.’ I was like, ‘All right. Let’s go. Looks like I’m going to be a Tiger.’”
———
LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
Awful Announcing’s 2024 TV Broadcaster rankings are now out.
At Forbes, Daniel R. Epstein wrote about how MLB’s bonus pools restrict draftees’ negotiation leverage, especially for senior signs.
What’s next in the career of Shane Baz? Ryan Clark delved into that question at Pitcher List.
Gaylord and Jim Perry were the first brothers to start against each other in an American League game. Richard Cuicchi chronicled the July 3, 1973 contest for SABR’s Games Project.
The SABR Defensive Index ranking through July 14 can be found here.
———
RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
On June 23, Masataka Yoshida was slashing .228/.302/.316 with two home runs in 126 plate appearances. Since that time, the Boston Red Sox DH has slashed .313/.362/.453 with two home runs over 69 plate appearances.
On June 13, Colt Keith was slashing .215/.267/.277 with two home runs in 206 plate appearances. Since that time, the Detroit Tigers rookie infielder has slashed .311/.371/.585 with seven home runs over 116 plate appearances.
On June 1, Rowdy Tellez was slashing .177/.239/.223 with one home run in 142 plate appearances. Since that time, the Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman has slashed .321/.356/.575 with seven home runs in 118 plate appearances.
Rowdy Tellez’s three sacrifice flies on Friday tied a record that is now co-held by 12 players. The last player to log three sac flies in a single game had been Jose Lopez with Seattle in 2008.
Nelson Cruz had 464 home runs, a .513 SLG, a 128 wRC+, and 41.1 WAR.
Jose Canseco had 462 home runs, a .515 SLG, a 130 wRC+, and 42.1 WAR.
Lary Aaron played parts of two seasons in the Atlanta Braves organization and went 46-for-183 (.251) with one home run between the Gulf Coast League and the Low-A South Atlantic League. Drafted 776th overall by Atlanta in 1981, the Milwaukee native is the son of Hall of Famer Henry Aaron.
On today’s date in 1945, the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics played to a 1-1 tie before the game was called due to darkness after 24 innings. Each team used two pitchers, with Detroit’s Les Mueller going 19-and-two-thirds innings. Philadelphia’s George Kell, who later won a batting title with the Tigers, went 0-for-10 at the plate.
On today’s date in 2002, the Kansas City Royals walked off the Cleveland Indians 13-12 in 10 innings on a two-out, bases loaded HPB. Raul Ibanez, who had tied the game with a two-run homer in the ninth, was the player plunked.
Players born on today’s date include Jim Manning, who has the distinction of being the youngest player in Minnesota Twins history. Eighteen years old when he made all five of his MLB pitching appearances, in 1962, the Northern Michigan University product grew up in Trout Creek, Michigan (population 275), the same hometown as erstwhile big-league hurler Dick Pole.
Also born on today’s date was Mark Lemongello, a right-hander whose four big-league seasons included back-to-back years (1977-1978) with the Houston Astros in which he went 9-14 and allowed 20 home runs while making 30 starts. Originally in the Detroit Tigers organization, Lemongello’s minor league teammates included Mark Fidrych, Ron LeFlore, and John Wockenfuss.
