Friday Free For All #16

Hello and welcome to Free For All Friday.

Heading into Friday’s games, we have tight races in every division, except for the National League East, where the Braves are running away with it, and the National League West, where the Dodgers are, once again, dominating the competition. (Read Mark Simon’s post over on Sports Info Solutions about how the Dodgers significantly improved their defense over the last few months).

In Wednesday’s newsletter, I boldly declared that the Twins had the American League Central wrapped up, but the Guardians—now only 5 games back—said, “Hey Wendy. Not so fast.” Then the Guardians picked up pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, and Matt Moore off waivers from the Angels on Thursday, which could end up being a big upgrade to their rotation and their bullpen. More on that below.

Six teams are vying for three spots in the National League Wild Card race (Phillies, Cubs, Giants, Diamondbacks, Marlins and Reds). In the American League, whichever teams doesn’t win the East (between the Orioles and Rays) will almost certainly be a Wild Card team. The same may also be true for whichever teams don’t win the West (between the Mariners, Angels and Rangers). That leaves the Blue Jays and maybe the Red Sox still in Wild Card contention, although the Red Sox are fading and are 6.5 games back, after being swept at home by the Astros this week.

Buckle up, baseball fans.

What paid subscribers received this week

Only Monday’s newsletter was limited to paid subscribers because I sent out Wednesday’s newsletter to everyone on Tuesday afternoon once news broke of the Angels waiver wire fire sale. Monday’s issue was a deep dive on just how awful the Rangers’ bullpen has been this season.

Rangers fans can thank me for the reverse jinx, as Texas relievers came up big in Monday’s and Tuesday’s games against the Mets. But things reverted to the mean on Wednesday when reliever José Leclerc gave up a game-tying home run to DJ Stewart in the bottom of the 8th. Aroldis Chapman then hit Stewart with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th. Yikes. After leading the AL West all season, the Rangers are now in third place, one game behind the Astros and Mariners.

Angels unleash mayhem on . . . . the Twins?

The Angels putting six players on the wavier wire didn’t really shake up the NL Wild Card, as expected. Instead, the Guardians swooped in and were awarded the waiver claims Angels pitchers Lucas Giolito, Matt Moore, and Reynaldo López. At 64-70, the Guardians had the lowest winning percentage of any team in striking distance of a postseason berth when the waiver claims were decided on Thursday.

The Guardians’ move surprised me for two reasons.

Even if they can catch the Twins and win the AL Central, the Guardians are not a good baseball team and don’t stand to get very far in the postseason. Yes, I recognize that the postseason is a reset and once you’re in, you never know, etc. etc. But even with these three pitchers, Cleveland still has a below-average offense. Way below average. The Guardians have scored 545 runs this season. That’s the fifth lowest total. Only the A’s, Royals, Marlins, and Tigers have scored fewer runs.

The Guardians’ Opening Day payroll was less than $90 million, according to Cot’s Contracts, putting them on the list of lowest-spending teams, along with the Pirates, Rays, Orioles, Marlins, A’s, Royals and Reds. So it’s surprising to see them willing to spend additional money now. On the other hand, Cleveland will pay Giolito, Moore, and López a combined $3.72 million, according to MLB Trade Rumors. Surely even a small market team can afford less than $4 million in additional payroll for September.

All of which leaves the Twins screaming “What the f*ck just happened??”

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The Reds also cashed in on waiver claims

There must have been something in the water in Ohio on Thursday . . . .

Cincinnati—fresh off losing two out of three to the Giants this week—started the day with a slightly worse winning percentage than San Francisco. That gave the Reds priority on waiver claims for outfielders Hunter Renfroe (waived by the Angels) and Harrison Bader (waived by the Yankees). Neither Renfroe nor Bader has hit much this season but Bader will be a significant defensive upgrade to the Reds’ outfield.

Braves-Dodgers Throwdown

The two best teams in the National League play a four game series this weekend in LA. The series features the two best players in the NL—Mookie Betts and Ronald Acuña Jr.—and their supporting cast of All-Stars. These two teams are so stacked with talent up and down the lineup and the pitchers aren’t half bad either.

The Braves lead the Dodgers by 5 games in the race for the best league record, which will determine home-field advantage in the National League Championship Series, should those teams meet on that stage. And frankly, if they don’t meet in the NLCS, it will be a disappointment (even for this die-hard Giants fan) because these two teams are so far and way better than every other team in the NL.

The Braves took the first game Thursday night in a wild affair. Atlanta got out to a 7-1 lead, powered by Acuña’s grand slam in the 2nd inning. Acuña also stole his 62nd base this season. He is the only player in MLB history to hit at least 30 home runs and steal at least 60 bases in a season.

Thursday also was Acuña’s wedding night. Yes, you read that right. Acuña tied the knot with his longtime partner Maria Laborde in the morning and then wreaked havoc on the Dodgers at night.

But, like they always do, the Dodgers chipped away, thanks to two Mookie Betts home runs, one in the 5th and one in the 7th. With the Dodgers down 8-7 in the bottom of the 9th, with two on and one out, Max Muncy juuuuuust missed barreling up a home run to walk it off. Then Braves closer Rafael Iglesias struck out Kiké Hernandez to seal the win for Atlanta.

The next three games should be excellent baseball viewing.

Expanded rosters

Gone are the days of 40-man MLB rosters for the last month of the season. Starting today and through the remainder of the regular season, MLB rosters expand from 26 to 28 players.

Some teams will use expanded rosters to bring up high-performing prospects and give them a taste of major league action. The Royals are calling up infielder Nick Loftin; the Mets are calling up infielder Ronny Mauricio; the Yankees are calling up outfielder Jasson Domínguez and catcher Austin Wells; and the Cubs are calling up outfielder Alexander Canario. And given that the Angels gutted their roster this week on the waiver wire, LA will be calling up infielder Kyren Paris.

If you’re team is out of the playoff hunt, it’s a good time to get excited about what next year’s roster might look like.

Automatic strike zone

My kids and I were recently discussing whether MLB should go to an automatic strike zone. And that had us wondering whether the strike zone we see on MLB Gameday really shows the differences between strike zones, depending on how tall the batter is. We captured the Gameday strike zone for Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge, because, well, of course we did. Those two players have a 13” differential in height.

Here’s what we found.

Yeah, that’s a different strike zone!

That’s all for this week. Go watch some baseball and enjoy the weekend.

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