View from the catwalk: Predicting Joey Wendle

Rays Links

• Eno Sarris wrote about the Rays, saying that they look at a team that’s ready to compete in the near future. He also noticed that they appear to spend a higher percentage of their revenue on payroll than do the Yankees.
• Joey Wendle was a breakout star of the year, and Marc Topkin talked to his former Oakland teammates about whether they saw that breakout coming.
• Jeff Sullivan wrote about how good Blake Snell is.
• From Topkin’s notes, Dick Bosman is retiring, after a long run as a pitching coach throughout the Rays system.
• Kevin Kiermaier is out for the remainder of the season with a fractured foot, after being hit by a pitch. Matt Duffy is day-to-day with a quad injury.
• The Mesa brothers will work out for major league teams on October 5th. The Rays have one of the biggest available bonus pools, but not the biggest.
• Snell’s jersey is in Cooperstown.
• Tommy Pham hits the ball hard to center field.

Other Links

• Matthew Trueblood has previously written about the slider revolution. Now he notes that there’s one team really not following it: The Cubs, of Joe Maddon and Jim Hickey. Is it coincidence that the pair we thought was anti-slider back in 2009, still seems ant-slider now?
• Jason Hanelman examined the best batters of this season.
• Sheryl Ring wrote about tanking.
• Mike Bates wrote about Fred Merkle, and how we remember players.
• When base stealers get on base via the HBP, they are more likely to steal than if they got on base another way.
• In contrast to Blake Snell, who won a lot of games, the best pitcher in the National League did not win a lot of games.