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History can take a long time to make and even longer to sort through. Other things happen pretty quickly, like Eury Pérez’s road to the big leagues. Meanwhile, Will Smith has become a superstar and Kenley Jansen has joined a fairly elite group of pitchers. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal – welcome to The Windup!
I used to see it and not say it
If there is life on other planets, I hope there will be a world where simply having a phenomenal idea is enough and there is no need for the complicated and often arduous process of executing it well. It really is one of the biggest design mistakes on our planet, if you ask me.
Take, for example, MLB’s 2020 announcement that they would be integrating Negro League stats into the official MLB stats registry. Before 1947, when Jackie Robinson made his debut with the Dodgers, some of the best players in the world simply weren’t allowed to play in the league because of their race.
They played at the highest level available to them. (And lest there be any purists who think only AL/NL stats should count, the league had previously recognized six other leagues as “major leagues”.)
But as Stephen J. Nesbitt writes in his article today, the process of integrating these stats will take a lot longer than most people thought when the announcement was made, and will likely be delayed even further since the league was unable to reach an agreement with Seamheads to to use their Negro Leagues database.
GO DEEPER
The Negro Leagues are big leagues – but bringing their stats together hasn’t been smooth sailing
All is not lost – the League will now be working with Retrosheet, but their database is being assembled by an army of volunteer heroes and may not be complete for five years or more.
At the time of the announcement, it was assumed that the integration of the statistical sheets was imminent. In reality, it can take almost a decade. If the league had just said that, it wouldn’t be so frustrating, but it took the league two months to realize it could be a lengthy process.
Ken’s Corner: “The sky is the limit” for Eury Pérez
In 11 seasons as a major league pitching coach with the Yankees, Royals and Mets, Dave Eiland has worked with several top pitchers. But right-hander Eury Pérez has the greatest talent of anyone he has coached, he said.
Pérez, who turned 20 on April 15 and is listed at 6’1″ and weighs 220 pounds, will make his major league debut for the Marlins on Friday. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranks him as the top pitching contender in the game. Eiland, Pérez’s pitching coach for the past two seasons at Double-A Pensacola, supports that sentiment.
“Good boy. I can’t say enough about him as a person,” Eiland said in a text message Wednesday night. “Obviously extremely talented. Very coachable. I’ll do anything you ask of him.
“Extreme body awareness for a young man of his size. Rules his body like he’s 6-2 and not 6-9. Four throws, all throws in any count. Wants to be great and works extremely hard for it. The sky is the limit…”
Eury Pérez at spring training. (Rhona Wise / USA Today)
For now, though, it might be best to tone down expectations. Pérez has pitched just 186 professional innings since the Marlins signed him from the Dominican Republic in 2019 for $200,000. He jumps straight out of Double A to the majors, largely out of necessity; Trevor Rogers and Johnny Cueto remain on Miami’s injured list.
The Marlins are an odd team. They lost 40 one-run games last season, the most since the Astros in 1975. On Wednesday, they improved their one-run game record to 12-0, the most consecutive one-run wins in the league Major League History. However, with an average of 3.39 runs per game, they are in last place of the majors in the points classification.
Pérez obviously can’t help the offense, but he’s the Marlins’ most exciting pitching candidate since the late José Fernández. Law warned, “Pitchers that size don’t have a particularly good health record.” But he also said, “There’s nobody among the underage with that kind of thing, deceit and the ability to throw a punch.”
The Marlins gave Pérez a particularly creative update on his promotion on Wednesday. Staff star Sandy Alcantara greeted the youngster with Eiland at the pitcher’s side in a video that showed Pensacola manager Kevin Randel Pérez on his office laptop.
“I have bad news for you,” Alcantara joked in Spanish. “I need to see your face every day now.”
If Pérez fulfills his potential, his face could become one of the faces of baseball for years to come.
You are living proof that dreams do come true
While doing a little research for tonight’s episode of the On Deck podcast, I took a quick look at the Dodgers’ team page on Baseball Reference and was a little surprised at what I saw.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the team leader in OPS was neither Freddie Freeman nor Mookie Betts. It wasn’t Max Muncy and his 12 home runs, or rookie sensation James Outman.
It was catcher Will Smith with a .329/.421/.605 (1,026 OPS) slash line — and that was before he hit a home run to open the last number in Wednesday’s 8-1 win over the Brewers 1.045 increase. On Wednesday, Smith trailed only Sean Murphy of Atlanta among catchers with at least 90 at-bats in the OPS.
But one number that sets Smith apart from the crowd is his strikeout rate. Of the 19 catchers on this list, only two have strikeout rates below 10 percent: Keibert Ruiz (8.3 percent) and Smith at a tiny 6.3 percent. Smith ranks third in fWAR with 1.3, trailing only Murphy (2.4) and Rangers’ Jonah Heim (1.8).
So it’s perfect timing for Fabian Ardaya’s profile of the Dodgers catcher, looking back on his college days in Louisville and his time in 2018 as a big league observer.
Do you need another appointment? Absolutely.
When Kenley Jansen got Travis d’Arnaud to end Boston’s 5-2 win over Atlanta with a slider on Wednesday, he joined elite company: he became the seventh pitcher in MLB history to record 400 saves .
Good timing again: Jen McCaffrey has a story this morning about how Jansen re-launched his career with the help of physical and mental therapy. Not only has this made him a vocal leader and enjoying the game again, but it has also returned him to being one of the best closers in the league.
After Wednesday’s save — his ninth this year — Jansen has a .77 ERA this year with 17 strikeouts and three walks in 11 2/3 innings.
If he continues like this, Jansen could climb further up the career list. It would take a pretty good year to pass all three of these guys, but here are the three pitchers ahead of him:
- Francisco Rodriguez (437)
- John Franco (424)
- Billy Wagner (422)
Shaking hands and high fives
Michael Brantley and Chas McCormick are the two latest reasons to wonder if there’s a problem with the Astros’ return-to-play protocols. Brantley was expected to play again this week, but as of Wednesday no one on the team could — or would — even say where he is.
The Mets won Wednesday, but they’re still fighting. Tim Britton and Will Sammon go back and forth to identify the biggest issues.
Part of Yankees batting coach Dillon Lawson’s job is to keep his batsmen in positive headspace. Maybe that’s why he’s – at least publicly – “not concerned” about the team’s offensive performance?
Speaking of fighting offense, things haven’t gotten any better in Cleveland.
We talked about Bryce Miller’s fastball earlier in the week, but now it’s the pundits’ turn. Here’s Eno Sarris with Corey Brock talking about the rookie’s arsenal.
Jim Bowden lists the biggest surprises of the year.
Nesbitt and I take a look at this weekend’s series and introduce our “Arms Race” game on tonight’s episode of On Deck.
And finally, check out this catch by Joey Gallo. The catch is impressive, but look how much ground it covered to get there! And then he threw it to first base to complete a double play! Nice.
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)