Sports Info Solutions
Category: MLB
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When will the phrase “hit into the shift” become outdated?
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As a baseball fan, you hear it all the time on any MLB broadcast. As I was recently watching the Nationals play the Mets on ESPN, Curtis Granderson hit a groundball right into the heart of a “Full Ted Williams shift”, where Daniel Murphy, the second baseman playing in shallow right field, scooped it up…
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How has Mike Trout’s Glove Declined?
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“Five-tool player” is a term that gets thrown around in baseball circles a bit more than it probably should these days, but one player we can unequivocally agree who fits that mold is the man patrolling center for the Angels most nights: Mike Trout. The 24-year-old comfortably leads baseball with 42.5 Wins Above Replacement according to FanGraphs (fWAR) since 2012.…
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Shifting To A New Era of Baseball
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Shifting has become increasingly common in baseball and companies like Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) are at the forefront for bringing this information to light. Shifts are employed strategically by placing infielders in positions where batters have dictated with previous performance that they are more likely to hit ground balls and short line drives (GSL). In just 7…
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Adam Eaton is Quietly Becoming a Star
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Yes, you read that correctly. Adam Eaton, the minuscule 5′ 8″ leadoff hitter for the Chicago White Sox, is one of the best right fielders in all of baseball. Sounds crazy, right? Most think of Eaton as a solid, speedy outfielder for a White Sox team that has been rather underwhelming for the past several…
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Money Driven
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Major League Baseball teams are more invested in their players today than ever before. In 2015, player salaries jumped to an all-time high of over $3.5 billion, a raise north of $320 million (and over 10 percent) from 2014 alone. And now that they give out contracts of upwards of $30 million a year, teams are more protective…
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Quantifying 2016’s Most Dominant Pitches
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What makes a dominant pitch dominant? Sometimes all we need is the eye test. That upper-90s heater elevated above the letters for a whiff? Yep, that is dominant. That mid-80s slider thrown down and away to a right-handed batter for a hapless swing and equally hapless chopper? No doubt, that’s nasty. Perhaps that late-breaking cutter, fading changeup, hammer…
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Starting Pitcher Command Report: April 2016
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Major League Baseball officially flipped its calendar from April to May this past weekend, which means we’ve arrived at a juncture of the season—roughly 15 percent through 2015’s total plate appearances, if you want to get overly specific—where player performance, trends and adjustments can be dissected with a certain amount of legitimacy and conviction. So…
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The Story Nobody is Talking About
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Last week, Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story set the Major League record by hitting seven home runs in his team’s first six games of the 2016 campaign, passing hall of famers Mike Schmidt and Willy Mays, along with former Rockies great, Larry Walker, each of whom had hit six home runs in the first week of…
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Defensive Scouting Report: Maikel Franco
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Range and Positioning: Franco is able to read the ball off the bat very well, but often fails in completing the play because he is inexperienced and still learning to field the position. Franco’s range is a bit inconsistent, depending on his effort at attempting to make more difficult plays. Franco tends to play deeper…
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The Rise of Logan Forsythe
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Coming into the 2015 MLB season, Logan Forsythe was set to be the right-handed half of a second base platoon with Nick Franklin, a role that seemed to fit him well. He had been an above-average hitter against left-handed pitching but failed to finish a year with a wRC+ above 73 against right-handed pitching. From…