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2 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Ken Rosenthal |Eno Sarris
The temptation is not to get carried away with Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcántara producing back-to-back quality starts for the first time this season. His opponents were the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates, the teams with the two worst offenses in the major leagues. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough, however, saw a difference in what he called "the quality of Sandy's throws." So did a rival official who witnessed Alcántara's start in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
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2 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Tim Britton |Aaron Gleeman |Eno Sarris
We're less than 50 days to Major League Baseball's trade deadline - so there are less than 50 days for front offices to determine how much they like what they see, how much needs to change and how to value that change in acquisition cost. This far out from July 31, it's easier to pinpoint what team needs exist (or might arise in the next seven weeks) than to hammer down what players might be available as solutions, let alone the proper ones.
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3 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Eno Sarris
This is an interesting part of the MLB season. We have enough of a sample to fold command metrics into the stuff metrics, and start using some results metrics to get a sense of how good a pitcher will be for the final two-thirds of the season. But there are also changes happening in front of us, as pitchers change their arsenals through the course of the season. Consider the Miami Marlins' Edward Cabrera, who really bumped up his sinker usage and leaned into the curve around the beginning of May.
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4 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Eno Sarris
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4 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Eno Sarris
This weekend's series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees will feature two of the three most expensive rotations in baseball - not two of the best, but maybe two of the most interesting. After huge investments from both teams, there's been a reversal of fortunes this year between the Dodgers and Yankees, at least when it comes to starting rotations.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Eno Sarris
Stuff alone doesn't make a pitcher, especially a starting pitcher who has to continue to be successful even when the hitter sees them a second and third time that day. Even if having good stuff can put you on the right pathway to success, there are all sorts of secondary concerns about how those pitches fit together, how those pitches will get lefties and righties out, and how many of those pitches can be relied upon when the pitcher is behind in the count - those things matter, too.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Eno Sarris
When Juan Soto steps to the plate this weekend in the Subway Series, he'll be missing something. Not the camaraderie of his former New York Yankees teammates, or the protection of any legendary right-handed hitters - research suggests that protection comes from people being on base in front of you more than who's hitting behind you - and certainly not any zeroes in the bank account. What he'll be missing is some bat speed. Soto's bat speed is down more than almost any other major-league hitter.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Eno Sarris
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Eno Sarris
In 2023, Juan Soto spent March and April hitting .202 with a good on-base percentage (always!) but not great power - only five homers and three doubles in 126 plate appearances. This, coming off a September in 2022 that saw him hit .220 with three homers and five doubles, might have led some to think there wasn't anything that legendary about his bat going forward. From May 1 to the end of the 2023 season, Soto hit .290 with a .418 OBP and a .548 SLG, built on 30 homers and 29 doubles.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Eno Sarris
We're a little over a month into the season. In terms of sample, it's not a lot. The smart play on most struggling players or teams is just to point to the track record, point to the expectations, point to the things that have been true longer than a month and expect those things to be true again. But it's also far enough into the season where some indicators are starting to show us signals. Some players and teams are already telling us that something is wrong.
