Starting this afternoon, Major League Baseball games will officially count for the 2021 season standings.
After a 60-game short season in 2020, baseball looks to drive us just a bit closer towards normalcy. Yes, there will still be abundant COVID protocols in effect, and yes – fan attendance will be restricted. But for most of us, the sun feels just a bit brighter today.
A large number of our fantasy baseball drafts and auctions this year were shifted to virtual venues. Aside from a larger online presence, the vast majority of fantasy baseball players had a somewhat normal draft season. Remember last year, when we essentially had two distinct baseball draft seasons (in February/March as well as in June/July)? Hopefully the 2021 season will proceed without major interruptions.
April 1, 2021
It has been a few years since I did a bold predictions piece here on Rotographs. It is typically a fun piece to do and people like them, but I have found that I am so focused on drafts and other content at this time of year, that I just run out of time. Forgive me if I am not as bold as I should be as it has been a while since I have done one of these, but I hope you enjoy them!
1. Christian Yelich hits above .220.
You like bold? I got you! Yelich hit .205 in the shortened season and had some troubling signs in his underlying numbers in terms of his contact and swing percentages. However, Yelich stated that he was affected by not being able to watch video in game and that should be resolved this season. He is crushing it this spring which is also a very good sign.
April 1, 2021
Things are a little different this week, as we present a special 2021 season preview edition of the podcast. No listener emails (but keep ’em coming!), no special guest, no Moment of Culture, just me and the wonderful Ben Clemens walking you through every division and every team. Does it take nearly three and half hours? Of course it does. Is that a problem? Of course not! It’s a podcast, there are no limitations.
Music by late 70s/early 80s Boston-based cult art-punk legends Vitamin.
Have a question you’d like answered on the show? Ask us anything at chinmusic@fangraphs.com.
April 1, 2021
A.J. Hinch’s first Opening Day as a player was on April 1, 1998. There were butterflies, and not for that reason alone. Catching and batting seventh in the Oakland A’s lineup, Hinch was making his big-league debut. I asked him about it during a recent Zoom call.
“I remember going into the game nervous on both ends,” admitted Hinch, who was 23 years old at the time. “I had to face Pedro Martinez in his first American League start, with the Red Sox, and I had to catch Tom Candiotti, who was a knuckleballer. I knew that the catching was going to be easier than the hitting.”
April 1, 2021
Leading 3-1 and one out away from being a World Series Champion, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías faces Tampa Bay Rays infielder Willy Adames. The first two pitches of the at-bat, fastballs resulting in a swinging strike and a called strike, clock in at 94.9 mph and 94.1 mph. The last pitch of the at-bat (and subsequently the World Series) comes on the third pitch. Urias fires a third straight four-seam fastball, this time for a called strike three at 96.7 mph. This may not feel particularly fast in a day and age in which some pitchers consistently hit 100 mph, but for Urías, there was a little something extra behind that final pitch. Of the 682 four-seam fastballs that Urías threw in 2020, this pitch was the fastest. While it may have been a coincidence that his hardest-thrown pitch was also in the most important situation, I suspect the significance of the moment was a key factor.