Bench Coach Notes @benchcoachnotes

2/3 — The exercise: Using the 2022–2025 champions as a reference, I ranked this year’s playoff teams against all 30 MLB clubs and weighted four categories: 50% hitting — wRC+ 25% pitching — FIP−, entire staff 20% baserunning — BsR 5% fielding — FRV The picks: AL champion: Rays NL champion: Brewers World Series champion: Brewers 🏆 Milwaukee scored 88.8, ahead of the Dodgers (78.6) and Rays (76.2). Those are index scores, not championship probabilities. Yes, I deliberately left the 2021 Braves out of the reference group. They ranked 12th, 13th, 14th, and 13th in those categories… and won anyway 😂 They’re also the perfect reminder of how much this exercise can miss.

DYK: Luis Aparicio led the American League in stolen bases in each of his first nine seasons (1956-64). He is the only player to ever lead a league in any category for nine straight seasons. In 1984, Aparicio was elected to the Hall of Fame, becoming the first Venezuelan-born player to be enshrined in Cooperstown. #HHM

@Dodgers Kiké Hernández hits a home run once every ~35 AB in the regular season. In the postseason? Once every ~17 AB. He literally homers twice as often in October

Kiké Hernández has to be one of the biggest regular season-to-postseason performers in baseball. Career: Regular season: .235/.304/.402 — .706 OPS Postseason: .275/.341/.498 — .840 OPS AVG: +.040 OBP: +.037 SLG: +.096 OPS: +.134 And yes, I know this isn’t how sabermetrics works, but this is exactly why some people say, “Sabermetrics doesn’t work in October.” Some players just seem to become different animals in the postseason. That’s part of the magic of October

Ozzie Guillen had a career .287 OBP and .338 SLG. All big league hitters combined have a .286 OBP and .341 SLG in this postseason so far.

De acuerdo contigo en lo del PLA. Y sí, hoy los números favorecen a Moreno, tanto ofensiva como defensivamente. Pero Salvy aporta algo mucho más difícil de medir: liderazgo, manejo del pitcheo y peso dentro del clubhouse. Es debatible, en mi opinión, no creo que haya sido una decisión terrible

DYK: Ronald Acuña Jr. has the most stolen bases by any player in a 40-home run season. Acuña swiped 73 bags in 2023 when he slugged 41 home runs in the first 40/40 season in MLB since 2006. Acuña slugged his 200th career home run earlier this month. He became the fastest player (904 games) to reach 200 HR and 200 SB. Acuña also had 2 HR and 2 SB to help lead Team Venezuela to the 2026 World Baseball Classic championship. #HHM

Crazy stat

Ben Verlander @BenVerlander

4 weeks ago

I literally love Jose Altuve 🐐

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Aaron Judge will NOT be on the Yankees’ wild card roster.

Peter Bendix, Presidente de Operaciones de Béisbol de los #Marlins sobre Javier Sanoja: “su temporada fue increíble. Nos mostró que es un jugador de todos los días en Grandes Ligas y que podría ser una súper estrella”.

@MLB @Angels Including his injury-shortened 2021 😬

@MLB @Angels “Dad, how good was Mike Trout?” “Well, son, Ronald Acuña Jr.—an absolute beast—posted a 171 wRC+ in his 2023 MVP season. That would rank seventh among Trout’s seasons.”

3/3 — Setting the numbers aside, the Dodgers are still the team to beat in my eyes. Others I wouldn’t count out, even if this model doesn’t pick them: • Cubs: No. 1 in hitting AND fielding, but No. 28 in pitching. If their October arms outperform that ranking, watch out. • Red Sox: The offense doesn’t look strong enough, but that No. 4 pitching staff makes them dangerous. • Yankees: Will Judge take over this October and be the difference-maker, or will the young guys steal the spotlight and carry this team? • Braves: 20th in hitting, 15th in pitching, 7th in fielding, and 18th in baserunning — hardly the profile you’d expect from a 94-win team. Could they make this exercise look silly again, just like in 2021? Let the best time of the year begin! ⚾️🍿

1/3 — Who’s winning the World Series? ⚾️ October has a funny way of ignoring expectations. Regular-season MVPs can go quiet, while someone like Marco Scutaro or Kiké Hernández becomes the main character. But just for fun, I built a simple model using regular-season performance to make my picks. No crystal ball. Just four metrics, some subjective weights, and a prediction I’ll probably regret. 🧵

@DanielAlvarezEE Están fastidiosos con el tema. Les va a dar algo si Willson Contreras gana el Luis Aparicio, quien tiene bastantes chances y jugó la misma cantidad de juegos que Moreno.

100% de acuerdo. Será interesante ver cuánto pesa esto en el próximo CBA. A MLB le conviene tener más equipos vivos hasta el final; a la MLBPA, un formato que obligue a invertir más para clasificar. Y ojo: incluso con un todos contra todos en la Americana, esos mismos dos equipos seguirían peleando por entrar. Así que el problema va más allá de premiar al campeón divisional.

@BNightengale For anyone confused: the game will be played in Tampa because of the nor’easter hitting Boston. And by “like the other 28 teams,” he means the Cubs and Red Sox will also play their season finale on Sunday, instead of finishing a day earlier

A muchos parece haberles afectado negativamente el WBC —o al menos esa ha sido la explicación—, pero con Eduardo Rodríguez ocurrió todo lo contrario. Él mismo habló del enorme impacto que tuvo trabajar con Johan Santana. Y eso es justamente lo que deberían aprovechar los jugadores top cuando van al Clásico: compartir semanas con tipos como Johan Santana, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Cabrera, Jorge Posada, Víctor Martínez, Albert Pujols, etc. Son perspectivas y experiencias que difícilmente encuentras en un Spring Training normal

El Extrabase ⚾️ @ElExtrabase

a month ago

¡Qué temporada, Gualo! Enorme año para Eduardo Rodríguez. @JuegaEnLinea. ¡El lugar más seguro para divertirse! #Dbacks | #ElExtrabase⚾️🇻🇪

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Obviously deGrom What’s crazy is what 2021 could’ve been for him: 15 starts, 1.08 ERA, 373 ERA+, 4.5 bWAR, 0.55 WHIP. And maybe the craziest stat of all: he was hitting .364/.364/.394/.758. Such a shame he couldn’t finish that season

James Nolan @JamesNolanFS

a month ago

Which season is more impressive? Jacob deGrom’s 2018 season or Cam Schlittler’s 2026 season?

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