Going into yesterday, Mason Miller had thrown 37 pitches on the season, 19 of them fastballs averaging 101 mph, whereas one other 17 had been sliders that elicited a 60.0% whiff fee. There was additionally one changeup. Delivered to Luis Arraez on a 1-1 depend, the ninth-inning providing was large exterior and brought for a ball.
Why did the San Diego Padres nearer throw his seldom-used changeup to the three-time batting champ on Wednesday night time? Low leverage was actually a issue; the Friars had scored 4 instances within the backside of the eighth to show a 3-1 lead into a far safer 7-1 benefit. It nonetheless represented an outlier for the 27-year-old flamethrower. Over the earlier two seasons, solely 2.3% of his pitches had been changeups.
I requested him about it when the Padres visited Fenway Park on Friday,
“A changeup is a good pitch, but I’m not going to feel comfortable with it if I’m not throwing it,” Miller informed me. “I’m picking my spots. There are certain guys it matches up well against. [Arraez] is a guy who isn’t going to swing and miss, so I’m not going to be hunting a strikeout. If I can get softer contact on it… any time you have a guy who isn’t fast and he puts it on the ground, that’s an opportunity for an out.”
Arraez didn’t kill any worms in his matchup with Miller, as a substitute lining a 2-1 fastball to proper area for a single. Not that it mattered. The righty proceeded to fan the subsequent three batters, one on a 101.5-mph heater, and two on nasty sliders. While these pitches had been pristine, the execution on his lone changeup was one other story.
“Terrible,” Miller stated of the pitch, which was 93.8 mph and had a 19.1-inch arm-side horizontal break. “It was up and away and simply not aggressive. It must be a strike, or shut sufficient to the zone to that it will get engagement and never a take. So, it was principally a waste pitch. I would as effectively have thrown a fastball to the display.
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“I think the movement profile is great,” continued Miller, referring to his well-executed changeups. “In a vacuum, it’s a good pitch. But I’m trying to kill the horizontal on it, so I can keep it on the plate and down, as opposed to one that runs way arm-side off the plate. The horizontal on the one I threw [to Arraez] was around 20.”
Miller recollects “pushing” the errant pitch — his lower-than-usual 6.3 toes extension suggests as a lot — and he thinks that his arm slot additionally dropped on that one supply. He additionally talked about that he has tweaked the grip of his changeup, prompting me to ask for specifics.
“I changed the seam orientation a little bit,” defined Miller. “I don’t pronate very well, so I’m trying to get the ball to move down without turning it over. It’s not a kick-change; I just moved my [middle and ring] fingers closer together. It’s similar, I guess, to Skubal’s changeup, how he splits the seams. I don’t have the same feel he does, nor the movement he generates with how he finishes it, but I am trying to emulate what he does by rotating the ball a little bit.”
He has now thrown three on the season. In closing out yesterday’s 3-2 win over the Red Sox in dominant style, Miller threw back-to-back changeups to Masataka Yoshida whereas fanning the facet on simply 11 pitches. The first was fouled off, whereas the second was a swing-and-miss for a Ok. After the sport, I went all the way down to the clubhouse to ask the identical query I’d posed to him the day before today: Why the changeups?
“It’s a good pitch and I liked the matchup,” stated Miller, kind of echoing what he’d informed me on Friday. “[The execution] was better, too; they were lower, which was good. I’m not trying to run it as much I did [17 inches], but if you get it in a good spot, that movement doesn’t matter as much. Like I said yesterday, I’m going to throw more of them.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Ken Griffey Sr. went 11 for 20 towards Jamie Easterly.
J.T. Snow went 12 for 21 towards Jamie Moyer.
Javier Báez is 12 for 21 towards Jameson Taillon.
Charlie Jamieson went 11 for twenty-four towards Ernie Shore.
Jamie Quirk went 6 for 11 towards Moose Haas.
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Sticking with the Padres, I requested Fernando Tatis Jr. how a lot he has modified as a hitter since we first spoke in his 2019 rookie season. According to the still-just-27-year-old San Diego outfielder, he hasn’t modified a lot in any respect.
“As far as knowing my strengths, and my business, I’m about the same,” Tatis informed me. “I go out there, be an athlete, and perform. I’ve learned things here and there, and made some tweaks, but nothing really special or different. You trust your tools.”
When gamers point out tweaks or changes, I sometimes really feel obligated to ask them to elaborate. I did so with the three-time All-Star, however once more, acknowledged adjustments have been few at greatest.
“It depends on how your body is feeling,” replied Tatis, who has 136 wRC+ over 2,973 big-league plate appearances. “You start growing into your body and feeling different stuff, so it depends on where you’re at, at the moment. You try to stay consistent, but you also try to improve.”
By and enormous, he is identical hitter, simply a little older and smarter.
“Yes,” Tatis replied with a snicker. “That’s a good way of putting it.”
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One extra fast Padres observe:
Prior to Friday night time’s sport in Boston, San Diego supervisor Craig Stammen informed reporters that whereas his workforce’s offensive output has been lower than stellar within the early going, the “expected numbers have been good.” I requested him if he might elaborate.
“I think just overall,” Stammen replied. “We’re hitting the ball hard and we’re making good decisions at the plate. That bodes well for our future. If we keep doing that, things are going to turn our way. Sooner or later, the expected numbers aren’t going to be expected, they’re going to be real.”
The Padres went into yesterday with the fewest runs scored and lowest wOBA of any workforce. Their BABIP was third from the underside, whereas their xwOBA was higher than that of 12 different groups.
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A quiz:
Ten gamers have grounded into 300 or extra double performs, and all however three are within the Hall of Fame. Two, Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols, aren’t but eligible (and can nearly actually be voted in as soon as they’re). Who is the lone non-Hall of Famer who has beforehand appeared on a poll and had over 300 GIDPs? (A touch: he logged 2,586 MLB hits and garnered simply 1.1% of help in his lone 12 months on the poll.)
The reply might be discovered beneath.
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NEWS NOTES
Early registration is now open for SABR’s 2026 Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, which can be held in Memphis from June 18-21. More info might be discovered here.
The unbiased Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks introduced on Thursday that they’ve signed Trevor Bauer. The controversial former MLB hurler went 4-10 with a 4.51 ERA with NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars final season.
Ken Clay, a right-hander who made 111 appearances whereas pitching for 3 groups throughout the 1977-1981 seasons, died on March 26 at age 71.A local of Lynchburg, Virginia, Clay toed the rubber for the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, and Seattle Mariners, going 10-14 with a 4.08 ERA over 353-and-two-thirds innings.
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The reply to the quiz is Julio Franco, who hit into 310 double performs over the course of his prolonged profession. If you guessed Rusty Staub, you get credit score for a shut name. “Le Grand Orange” had 297 GIDPs, in addition to 2,716 hits.
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Justin Steele missed all however the early weeks of final season on account of an elbow harm — the Chicago Cubs southpaw had an inner brace process a 12 months in the past this month — leading to his viewing video games from a vantage level apart from to which he’s accustomed. I requested him about that have once I visited the membership’s spring coaching facility in Mesa.
“I watched a lot of baseball on TV throughout the [rehab] process,” Steele informed me. “It was different. You see sequences a lot better. You see swings a lot better. You’re able to honestly see the strike zone, whereas when you’re watching from the dugout it’s hard to see where the pitches are ending up. It might look like a strike, but it’s five inches off the plate. You may also be having a casual conversation with a teammate, or you’re grabbing Gatorade or gum. I actually find myself more locked in when I’m watching from home. I’m able to pay more attention pitch-to-pitch, the details of the game.”
That being the case, did the left-hander discover himself watching much less like a fan, and extra like a pitcher, from the consolation of his sofa?
“It was a mixture of both,” replied Steele, whom the Cubs hope to have again on the mound sooner or later subsequent month. “My wife watches the games too. We’ll be watching together and I’ll be acting like she does, as a fan, reacting like a fan. I’d say the baseball player side of me is able to almost predict stuff, like what should happen here, or I’m thinking about what the pitcher should do. Say Matthew Boyd is pitching. I’m watching how he’s competing, how he’s getting outs. Maybe his changeup is really good that day, or his cutter is good. I’m watching that as a pitcher, but also as a fan.”
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Danny Coulombe had followers in thoughts once I lately requested for his ideas on the rule adjustments which have taken place since he first reached the majors in 2014.
“The pitch clock, I think we can all agree, has been good for baseball,” stated the veteran reliever, who, as I associated in a September 2021 Sunday Notes column, had delved into length-of-game particulars whereas taking a mission administration class in faculty. “A lot of that comes from living in a neighborhood with a lot of dads who love the game of baseball. They’ve all said that for their viewing purposes it’s a lot better to have a game that’s shorter. And for us [as players], we like to be home sooner. We don’t want games to last four hours.”
Colulombe went on to say he additionally likes the extra-innings rule, and just about all the others that MLB has enacted prior to now a number of seasons. He didn’t supply a particular yea or nay on the brand new ABS system, however he did deal with the most recent change.
“It’s been an adjustment, for sure,” stated Coulombe, who’s now with the Boston Red Sox, his sixth big-league workforce. “It’s been interesting. We had the game in Cincinnati with six calls being overturned, four in one inning. It was pretty crazy.”
The 36-year-old southpaw was on the mound for one of many profitable challenges to house plate umpire CB Bucknor’s ball-strike calls. The overturn got here as little shock.
“It was a fastball to Elly De La Cruz that was about an inch inside,” recalled Coulombe. “I knew it was a ball. I have a lot of late movement on my stuff, so I’ve got a lot of calls in the past. When he challenged, I was like, “Aaugh.” It’s a part of the sport now.”
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Hoikkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters left-hander Haruki Hosono threw a no-hitter towards the Chiba Lotte Marines on Tuesday. The 24-year-old, who had a 2.00 ERA over 45 profession NPB innings coming into the sport, fanned 12 batters and issued one stroll in his 128-pitch effort.
Fighters outfielder Franmil Reyes has began the season 7-for-17 with three doubles and two house runs. The erstwhile MLB slugger went deep 32 instances for the NPB membership a 12 months in the past.
Forrest Whitley made his NPB debut with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows earlier this week and allowed six hits and two runs over 5 innings in an 8-3 win over the Hiroshima Carp. The 28-year-old former first-rounder made 10 MLB appearances final season, 5 every with the Houston Astros and Tampa Bay Rays.
Caleb Boushley threw 5 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in his KBO debut earlier this week. The 32-year-old right-hander from Hortonville, Wisconsin joined the KT Wiz over the offseason after showing in 25 video games for the Texas Rangers final 12 months.
Hyun Bin Moon is 11-for-30 with 4 doubles and two house runs for the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles. A 21-year-old outfielder/second baseman who represented South Korea within the WBC, Moon slashed .320/.370/.453 with a dozen steals and 17 homers in 2025.
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Speaking to reporters in mid-March, Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone introduced up the potential for a number of of the membership’s promising younger arms initially pitching out of the bullpen upon reaching the majors. Whether that occurs or not, permitting flamethrowers like Carlos Lagrange and Elmer Rodríguez to get their toes moist in a less-demanding position makes a specific amount of sense. Some years in the past — no less than anecdotally, as I don’t have numbers to again this up — easing pitchers in was a extra frequent apply than it’s at this time.
I requested Boone why he thinks that’s.
“I don’t know that it doesn’t happen,” he replied. “I just cited two examples for us where it does. What are the examples of a guy not? It’s hard to answer that question.”
Boone went on to offer causes for why it possibly isn’t as frequent because it as soon as was.
“Some guys probably aren’t equipped to do it,” Boone stated. “Some guys may not present as coming up and impacting in way that makes sense to pull them out of a starting role. In a perfect world, you want guys to get some real innings, a baseline of innings. And you always want to dream on a starter if they can stay in that role.”
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FARM NOTES
James Tibbs III went deep thrice final night time for the Triple-A Oklahoma Comets is now 18-for-35 with 4 doubles, a triple, seven house runs and an 1.850 OPS on the season. The 23-year-old outfielder was acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers from the Boston Red Sox final summer time in change for Dustin May.
Alika Williams is 12-for-19 with three doubles, a triple, and a 1.562 OPS for the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. The 27-year-old center infielder within the Pittsburgh Pirates system has a 45 wRC+ in 208 plate appearances over components of two MLB seasons.
Rece Hinds is 12-for-30 with 4 house runs and a 1.400 OPS for the Triple-A Louisville Bats. The 25-year-old outfielder within the Cincinnati Reds group went 16-for-43 with 5 house runs and a 1.414 OPS in spring coaching.
The Myrtle Beach Pelicans pulverized the Charleston RiverDogs 15-0 on opening night time of the the Low-A South Atlantic League season on Thursday. Cole Mathis, a 22-year-old nook infielder who was featured here at FanGraphs again in February, went 2-for-3 with a house run and three walks for the Chicago Cubs affiliate.
Four West Michigan Whitecaps pitchers mixed to strike out 16 batters and give up simply a pair of hits because the Detroit Tigers affiliate blanked the Lake County Captains 1-0 on opening night time of the Midwest League season. The Whitecaps had the most effective document within the minors final 12 months, 92-39.
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A random obscure former participant snapshot:
Marv Foley had one among his most memorable at-bats on at this time’s date in 1980. The left-handed-hitting catcher took southpaw reliever Tippy Martinez deep within the twelfth inning to offer the Chicago White Sox a 5-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles. It was one among simply 12 house runs Foley hit over components of 5 big-league seasons, the primary 4 of his campaigns coming with the South Siders.
Another memorable at-bat got here with the Texas Rangers towards the California Angels on September 30, 1984. Playing within the final of his 203 big-league contests, Foley was retired as a pinch-hitter for the ultimate out of Mike Witt’s good sport. His skilled profession didn’t end with the 4-3 grounder. The University of Kentucky product toiled in Triple-A for 2 extra seasons, then went on to turn into a longtime minor-league supervisor (and for 2 seasons, a major-league coach). Foley is the one supervisor to steer groups to championships in all the American Association, International League, and Pacific Coast League.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
Seattle Mariners broadcast analysts Angie Mentick is again within the sales space after struggling a stroke lower than two months in the past. Aspen Anderson has the story at Seattle Met.
Who are essentially the most stacked minor-league associates? Our buddies at MLB Pipeline gave us one for each organization.
Major League Baseball dates again to 1876, with the primary sport having taken place on April twenty second of that 12 months. John Thorn — MLB’s official historian — wrote about the long-ago contest between the Boston Red Stockings and Philadelphia Athletics, at Our Game.
Kia Tigers supervisor Lee Bum-ho breathed a sigh of aid after third baseman Do Yeong Kim — among the best younger gamers in Korea — prevented harm. Jee-ho Yoo wrote about it for Yonhap News Agency.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Mookie Betts had a 135 wRC+, 464 strikeouts, and 371 walks with the Red Sox. Since becoming a member of the Dodgers, Betts has a 137 wRC+, 464 strikeouts, and 368 walks.
Rickey Henderson hit 297 house runs and stole 1,406 bases.
Salvador Perez has hit 305 house runs and stolen six bases.
Fergie Jenkins surrendered house runs to all three of the Alou brothers (Felipe, Jesus, and Matty). He is the one pitcher to have executed so.
On at this time’s date in 1983, the San Diego Padres outscored the San Francisco Giants 16-13 to win a wild Opening Day affair at Candlestick Park. Garry Templeton hit the Friars solely house run, whereas Bob Brenly, Chili Davis, Darrell Evans, and Max Venable all went deep for the dropping facet.
Boog Powell signed a free agent take care of the Los Angeles Dodgers on at this time’s date in 1977. The longtime Baltimore Orioles slugger went to document simply 10 hits, none of which of the yard, in what was to be his remaining big-league season. Powell retired with 339 house runs and a 134 wRC+, in addition to 4 All-Star berths and a 1970 AL MVP award, on his ledger.
The San Francisco Giants bought the contract of Dale Long from the Chicago Cubs on at this time’s date in 1960. Primarily a first baseman over his 10 big-league seasons, Long is one among baseball’s few left-handed-throwing catchers, having twice gone behind the plate for the Cubs in 1958. Two years earlier he set an MLB document (since tied by Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr.) by homering in eight consecutive video games for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Players born on at this time’s date embody Rennie Stennett, a second baseman who noticed motion with the Pirates from 1971-1979, and with the Giants in 1980 and 1981. One of 81 native Panamanians in MLB historical past, Stennett tied a main league document on September 16, 1975 when he went 7-for-7 in a 22-0 Pittsburgh pasting of the Cubs. Four years earlier, he was a part of the primary all-Black and Latino beginning lineup in MLB historical past.
Also born on at this time’s date was Gene Crumling, a catcher whose big-league profession comprised six video games and one hit in 12 at-bats for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1945. Per his SABR BioProject entry, Crumling’s lone security got here off of Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx, who was making the final of his 10 MLB pitching appearances.
