Brad Boxberger was throwing aggressive strikes last night, and had me jumping out of my seat. Here are the payoff pitches for his two, tasty swinging strikeouts:
High Leverage! Rising fastball!
- The Rays are hosting a workshop for little league coaches, offering guidance from the training staff and Jim Hickey himself, followed by a Q&A with Rays players. It's free until the roster is full, and coaches can sign up here.
- Dock of the Rays took a statistical approach on scouting the minor league performances thus far in the system, and I'd call it a must read. His standouts include a bunch of guys that might otherwise fly under the radar but have had nice seasons thus far: A nice litmus test, how many of these names do you recognize?
1. Patrick Leonard
2. Dylan Floro
3. Corey Burns
4. Andrew Bellatti
5. German Marquez
6. Blake Snell
7. Nathan Gannon
8. Grayson Garvin
9. Adam Liberator
10. Ben Grisset
11. Jaime Schultz
12. Jacob Faria
If you answered more than six, you're paying attention, congrats! But you really should still read the deep dive.
- The search is on for the next MLB commish.
Sources: Rob Manfred, Tim Brosnan and Bob Bowman have all formally interviewed for the MLB commissioner’s job. Manfred heavily favored.
— Brian Costa (@BrianCostaWSJ) July 22, 2014
Manfred provided side-counsel to the owners during the '94 strike that ruined the Expos, so maybe he's the best guy for baseball's final expansion! He was named COO of MLB in 2010 by Bud Selig.
- Yesterday's comment of the day.
- And finally, some quick tweets:
ICYMI I created an Interactive Run Differential chart. It updates daily. Check it out here http://t.co/ehN4TY6JWU pic.twitter.com/VMzglIZkj8
— Daren Willman (@darenw) July 23, 2014
There is just one player in the AL with an OBP of at least .400. In 2000 there were 15.
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) July 23, 2014
So that crazy pulled-BABIP chart in Verducci's article, yeah, here's some data that disagrees: http://t.co/vvxwEI66x4
— Sky Kalkman (@Sky_Kalkman) July 23, 2014
Six game win streak under way. One more game in St. Louis tonight. Go Rays!