Appreciate Fernando Rodney's Arrow

Pitchers are odd little creatures. They have their walk-in music, funky windups; they mess around with physics and have their own little celebrations. Especially closers.  They have some fun celebrations.

They do this thing called save games. They finish the ninth inning in a sorta-close game and rack up this stat called The Save. As long as said closer doesn't blow the lead, they get that save. Anyone can do this. Even 3 innings in a blowout win qualifies. But the important part is how you finish.

Admittedly, closer walk in music is a whole science, determining the right tunes to hype up the crowd. From ACDC's Hells Bells (Trevor Hoffman) to Abba's Dancing Queen (John Smoltz), the whole science of closer music can impact every genre. But a nice walk in song means nothing if you can't close the deal. And how you are after you close the deal is far more important.

Normally what occurs is a little celebration, some handshakes and the occasional fist bump, or - in Dennis Eckersley's case - a pump. Some pitchers decide to remain stoic and show little emotion. But not in the case of Fernando Rodney.

Fernando Rodney is a unique pitcher. From an objectively odd hat tilt to an interesting career trajectory, Rodney is unique. He is well traveled due to one of two reasons. Either teams don't like him to lock him up long term to be a closer, or teams fight over the arrow.

Rodney has fired his arrow after every save, or sometimes when he gets pulled. The Arrow is the sign to celebrate, that Rodney has done his job. The team has won, and Rodney finished the game. Though the celebration is widely known in baseball circles, Rodney is the sole pitcher to use it.

Please note that the following italicized portion follows the highest of journalistic standards:

The Arrow is irresistible for MLB teams. Rodney travels year to year because every team wants him, and Rodney wants everyone to experience the power of his archery skills. Teams reportedly fight over him at the trade deadline, according to sources such as Theo Epstein, Terry Francona and many others. During the trade deadline (according to the aforementioned), teams reportedly send an intern each to a Hunger Games-style simulation to determine who will get Rodney. Of course this very well may be false, but is far more interesting than the reality: Rodney is a mediocre pitcher.

Fernando Rodney was just called to the majors by the Nationals.  Hopefully we'll see even more archery in the future.

May your pennants, and arrows, fly forever.

-Prentiss and Ryan

Fiers on Fire Since No-No

Mike Fiers managed to pitch the first no hitter of the 2019 season, and the second of his career, joining luminaries such as Justin Verlander, hall of famer Roy Halladay, and Homer Bailey. Since then, Fiers has been much better for the Oakland A's.

Fiers started off the season with several up-and-down performances, with his April 7th performance against the Astros, the team Fiers threw his first no hitter for, marking the beginning of the stretch of bad games culminating with a 3.1 inning, 6-run start on April 20th, raising his ERA to 8.28, the highest of the season excluding the one game sample after opening day. Combined, his next 2 starts were 12 innings and 5 runs, barely satisfactory performances. On May 7, Fires threw his no hitter against the Cincinnati Reds and began to heat up.

Few thought Fiers, with his 6.81 ERA pre-No Hitter, could keep up his performance. But, magically, he did. Since (and including) May 7, Fiers has been on a hot streak. With a 66% strike rate, Fiers has only allowed 10 extra base hits. The former Tiger has posted a 2.51 ERA and has not lost a game. Posting 32 strikeouts to only 15 walks has helped make Fiers one of the A's best starters during this time. Will he keep it up?

May your pennants fly forever.

-Prentiss

The Next Man to Hit .247

Khris Davis is famous for hitting 0.247, as he’s done it four straight seasons.  He’s a power-hitting DH playing for the Oakland Athletics and led Major League Baseball with 48 home runs last year.

A quick note: while Davis’ batting average has held steady over the aforementioned seasons, the major league average has actually gone down.  That means Davis has technically been improving his batting average!

A player has burst onto the scene in 2019 who has a very similar offensive profile to Khrush.  I’ve collected some statistics (some basic and some not) and laid them out for you below:

Clearly, our mystery player and Davis share numerous power and plate discipline traits.  Their xwOBAs on contact are both extraordinary compared to the MLB average. They’re both relatively slow but have power to all fields, which they utilize by hitting the ball to center field often.  But while they make amazing contact on pitches thrown to them, the two sluggers have trouble making contact in the first place (see their strikeout percentages).

If you pay attention to baseball news, figuring out our mystery player’s identity shouldn’t be too difficult.  For everyone else: our man is Mets rookie first baseman Pete Alonso.

While the 24 year old is not currently hitting 0.247, that future looks bright.  We’ll see how it goes!

May your pennants fly forever.

-Ryan

Trying to Steal Rickey Henderson from the Hall of Fame

When many of us think about Rickey Henderson, we think of the blazing speedster who is the Stolen Base King of the MLB. He is often, deservedly so, called the greatest leadoff man of all time. Leadoff men historically have been base stealers, and Henderson is one of, if not the best base thief of all time. If we removed any ability to steal bases for Henderson, what would he be as a player?

He would still be a first ballot Hall of Famer. While many look at Rickey Henderson as a mere base stealer, he was an extremely well rounded player who does not get his respect.

Henderson posted an OPS+ of 127 over 13,346 plate appearances. His longevity and durability is matched only by a few in history: Hank Aaron, Pete Rose and Carl Yastrzemski being the only players with more plate appearances. Although hitting wise he does not stack up with greats like Aaron and Barry Bonds, he still fits comfortably in the next tier of OPS+, surrounded by players such as Eddie Murray and Yastrzemski, who admittedly took a hit in career averages due to playing a long time past their peak.

Henderson’s slash line was .279/.401/.419/.820. Extending this line over the length of his career, he racks up over 3,000 hits and has over 500 doubles and just shy of 300 home runs. Although Henderson is in the top 25 all time for singles, he had deceptive power delivered from his frame and batting stance.

As illustrated in this picture of him while on the Blue Jays, his stance shrunk his strike zone. The resulting smaller zone and potential for an extra base hit off of Henderson led to him getting walked 2,190 times, second behind steroid user healthy breakfast-eater Bonds. Although Henderson had some power, he was not as feared of a hitter as those surrounding him on the all time walk list, sluggers such as Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, Frank Thomas and Jim Thome. When you add in the fact the fact that pitchers did not want to give Henderson a free base due to his stealing abilities, his total becomes even more impressive.

Henderson’s defense is generally unheralded as well. He has 65 career Total Zone Runs, which although they do not balance out the 97 lost due to his playing of left for the most part, is still really impressive. At the tail end of his career, he was certainly less mobile than his younger self that saved 13 runs in CF in 1985, but was still adequate. He was a poor fielder, but the glove was balanced out by his bat and base running. Being able to field a position, especially heading into his 40s, granted the Mariners, Mets, Padres, Red Sox and Dodgers far more versatility compared to penciling him in at DH due to no speed.

Speed was a major part of Henderson’s game, racking up an incredible 144 runs gained from base running according to Baseball-Reference. This gave him 14.4 more wins, assuming a 10 Runs-1 win ratio. Henderson’s career Wins Above Average is 69.0, at aand WAR ofis 111.2. Lets conveniently subtract any runs gained from his baserunning. That calculation leads to a WAA of 54.2, and a WAR of 96.8. These are comfortably above hall averages. Now although Henderson would most likely not hold the record for career runs once his steals are removed, he still is an insanely valuable player even without stealing a base.

May your pennantly fly forever.

-Prentiss