Category Archives: Rookies

April 4, 2021

Yabba Dabba Baddoo

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Akil Baddoo of the Tigers homered on the first pitch he saw in the major leagues:

Baddoo is the ninth player in franchise history to homer in his first Major League at-bat, a feat last accomplished by Sergio Alcántara on Sept. 6, 2020. Baddoo joins a short list of players to homer on their first big league pitch, last accomplished by Cubs catcher Willson Contreras on June 19, 2016.

No player on that list, though, arguably has a wilder story than Baddoo, a Rule 5 Draft pick out of the Twins’ organization who slugged his way onto Detroit’s Opening Day roster with a torrid Spring Training. Not only had Baddoo not played a game above Class A ball before Sunday, he hadn’t played a regular-season game since May 11, 2019.

MLB.com

Hoagy Carmichael wrote about Akil 60 years ago:

Baddoo’s home run was not enough, however, as the Indians beat the Tigers 9-3.

March 31, 2021

Missed Opportunity

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The Royals place shortstop Adalberto Mondesi on the illjured list. This provided the Royals cover for bringing up seasonal age 21 Bobby Witt, Jr., who hit .289/.325/526 in spring training. Alas, it’s not happening:

Mondesi was put on the injured list Wednesday retroactive to the previous day. Nicky Lopez was recalled from the club’s alternate training site in Arkansas after he was sent there following a poor spring training at the plate.

ESPN.com

If Witt comes up in three weeks, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) will have a very nice grievance against the Royals for service time manipulation. It also goes against the optimistic attitude the team generated this spring. The Royals could have made fans very happy, and kept the union at bay at the same time. We’ll see how this plays out.

March 9, 2021

At Witt’s Start

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Bobby Witt, Jr. may force the Royals to bring him to the majors quickly:

It’s in his speed, his glove, his power to all fields and pure sense of the game. Even his contagious aura and maturity, at least in part primed by being the son of a major-league pitcher, Bobby Witt.

KansasCity.com

Bringing him to the majors at the start of the season provides some good optics. The Royals set themselves up for this season to be successful. Breaking camp with Witt shows that the team is serious about that, going with their best team now rather than worrying about seven years from now. If Witt is the real deal, the Royals would make a tremendous offensive improvement at a position, SS, where offense is a huge bonus. With all the other off-season moves and Witt at shortstop, the Kansas City fans should be energized.

This is, of course, based on a small sample, but if Witt comes out of the spring continuing to hit well, this should be an obvious move for the Royals.

February 25, 2021

The Kelenic Rule

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Larry Stone writes about service time manipulation in the wake of comments about Jarred Kelenic by Kevin Mather of the Mariners.

That’s why the format for determining service time must be changed, as Boras told Times reporter Geoff Baker this week — to remove that temptation. There have been innumerable proposals for doing so, including Boras’ idea to use an independent panel to review promotion decisions that impact service time. Others include lessening the number of days needed to accrue a full season; making free agency based on age, not service time; and instituting a system of restricted free agency as in the NHL and NFL.

SeattleTimes.com

Or, just cut out service time altogether. Unless the system is “everyone is a free agent at age X”, the only system that would be totally free from manipulation is one of universal free agency. If every season with an MLB appearance counts as a season, players will be kept in the minors longer. If total time in professional baseball counts, players will be drafted at an older age. You’re a free agent whenever your contract is up is the fairest way to pay the players.

September 20, 2020

Houck of a Start

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Tanner Houck of the Red Sox makes the second start of his major league career and shuts down the Yankees for six innings. He allows one hit, which leads to an unearned run, his only run allowed in two starts. In his first eleven innings he allowed three hits, striking out eleven, but walking six. He gives Boston fans a glimmer of hope for the team’s 2021 pitching rotation.

Boston wins the game 10-2.

August 22, 2020

Another Tris

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Indians fans appear very excited about the debut of Triston McKenzie this Saturday evening. The first thing that strikes me about him is that he’s eleven inches taller than me, but weighs just five pounds more. He may be one of those pitchers whose pitches appear faster than than the radar gun indicates. His arms appear to be very long, so like Randy Johnson, his release point may be a bit closer to the plate than one might expect. There is less time for a fastball to lose velocity.

Let’s Go Tribe likes his make up as well, given that he has not pitched much in the last two seasons due to injury. The post wonders about the Indians long-term plans for this pitcher, given that the opening was caused by a suspension, not an injury:

Getting a start here also means that the Indians are starting McKenzie’s clock, setting him up to be a free agent after the 2027 season if my napkin math is correct. It’s likely this is more than just a one-and-done for the young right-hander. Either it’s some kind of audition for a trade, a chance to prove he can stick in the rotation, or one outing before he’s sent to be another dangerous option out of the Tribe bullpen. But simply bringing him up for one start and sending him back down would be an odd move. The Indians are notoriously cagey with their roster management, so it could be a bit of everything and we won’t know until he’s already in his fourth start or out the door on his way to another team.

LetsGoTribe.com

This should be fun to watch tonight.

Note that 100 years ago, Tristam speaker led the Indians to their first World Championship. Cleveland should hope this Tris helps them to a century repeat.

August 17, 2020 August 16, 2020

Debut Dinger

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Keibert Ruiz debuts as the catcher for the Dodgers in Sunday’s game against the Angels. He bats ninth, and in his first plate appearance homers down the rightfield line against Julio Tehran. The ball hit the tarp over the seats in right, rolled up to the top, then down and under. It took the Angels crew a while to find the ball. When he returned to the dugout, A.J. Pollock shouts, “Baseball is easy!”

The Dodgers and Angels are tied at one in the top of the third inning.

Update: On the other side of the ball, Roel Ramirez debuts for the Cardinals and gives up four straight home runs.

Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez connected during a six-run inning, tying the big league record for consecutive homers.

Ramirez took the mound in the fifth with St. Louis leading 1-0. He struck out Luis Robert to start, but things went south quickly. After two singles, a caught stealing and a walk, Moncada smacked a three-run homer to right.

ESPN.com

At least it was memorable.

August 13, 2020

Tough Start

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Connor Brogdon makes his major league debut for the Phillies, entering in the top of the eighth inning with no one out and two men on. He faces Pedro Severino, and the 6′ 6″ pitcher throws a fast ball down the middle of the plate for his first pitch. Severino deposits it in the leftfield stands. Luckily for Brogdon, no Phillies were in the stands to boo. He gets the next three batters on two grounders and a strikeout to quickly banish the infinite ERA.

The Orioles lead the Phillies 9-2 in the bottom of the eighth.

November 11, 2019

Rookie Record Wins

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Pete Alonso hit a rookie record 53 home runs in 2019, and is rewarded with the NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year award:

Alonso is the first Rookie of the Year Award winner who led the major leagues in home runs outright, with 53. The Athletics’ Mark McGwire, the AL winner in 1987, tied for the major-league lead that year with the Cubs’ Andre Dawson, the NL leader, with 49. The Yankees’ Aaron Judge led the AL in home runs with 52 in 2017, the year he was named Rookie of the Year, but was second overall to current teammate Giancarlo Stanton, who led the majors that year with 59 in the NL for the Marlins.
Alonso was the only player named on every ballot.

BBWAA.com

Alonso received 29 of the 30 first place votes, the other vote going to Mike Soroka of the Braves.

November 11, 2019

Alvarez Wins Rookie Award

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Yordan Alvarez takes home the American League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award.

Yordan Álvarez is the 11th player to win the AL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year award by a unanimous vote and the first for the Houston Astros. The other unanimous choices: Carlton Fisk, Mark McGwire, Sandy Alomar Jr., Tim Salmon, Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, Evan Longoria, Mike Trout, Jose Abreu and Aaron Judge. There have been 13 unanimous winners in the National League.


Álvarez is the third Astros player to win the award and the second in the AL as he joins Carlos Correa, the 2015 winner. The only player to win the award during Houston’s 51 seasons in the National League was Jeff Bagwell in 1991. The Astros moved to the AL in 2013.

BBWAA.com

He posted a 3/4/6 slash line, .313/.412/.655, with 53 extra-base hits in just 313 at bats. If he had done that for a full season, he might have won MVP as well.

September 28, 2019 September 27, 2019

New York, New York

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Pete Alonso hit home run 52 on the season in the bottom of the first innings for the Mets against the Braves. That ties the Yankees Aaron Judge rookie record for home runs set in 2017.

The New York teams now hold three of the big four single season home run record. Roger Maris holds the record for AL home runs in a season with 61 in 1961, while Judge and Alonso own the rookie records. Barry Bonds, setting the MLB and NL records, played for San Francisco. Even that as a New York connection, as the Giants originated in NYC.

August 17, 2019

AA Meeting the Ball

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Aristides Aquino continued his assault on baseball Saturday evening, hitting another home run to bring his total to 11 on the season in just 58 plate appearances. The Reds slugger helped them to a 5-1 lead against St. Louis in the top of the sixth inning. Aquino’s slugger percentage now stands at .981. I look best slugging percentages since 1957, the start of the Day by Day Database, and found that there are very few high slugging percentages with that low a number of plate appearances. Barry Bonds .863 in 2001 is the highest; there is no slugger who got hot in a small number of PA, until you get down to Mark McGwire with .726 in 1993 in 107 PA. If the lower limit is dropped to at least 50 PA in a season, then Shane Spencer 1998 comes out on top with a .910 Slug. So it seems power plays out pretty quickly.

Aquino now owns 19 hits, seven singles and a double to go with his eleven home runs. That’s a pretty wild start, a home run every five at bats.

August 15, 2019 June 21, 2019

Another Strong Marlins Debut

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Zac Gallen pitched against the Cardinals in his first major league start, and helped the Marlins to a 7-6 extra-inning victory. Gallen held St. Louis to just one run in five innings, walking two and striking out six. He was dominant at AAA this season, going 9-1 with a 1.77 ERA, and great strikeout and walk numbers. He joins Jordan Yamamoto, another rookie addition to the Marlins rotation who is making a difference. Yamamoto has yet to allow a run in two starts. This team may be rebuilding faster than we imagined.

June 9, 2019

Crossing Yordan

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The Astros called up Yordan Alvarez after punishing AAA pitching in 101 games. He hit .306/.403/.615 at AAA, with 31 home runs in 442 plate appearance. He comes to the majors at seasonal age 22 and is off to a good start, with a home run in his second plate appearance. His two run shot gave the Astros a 2-0 lead over the Orioles in the fourth inning.

Alvarez is listed at Baseball Reference as a leftfielder and first baseman, but the Astros have him at DH today. He is 6-5, 225 pounds, and suspect that weight will go up as he develops more muscle. The depth of the Houston organization may pay off again.

May 31, 2019

Yaz II

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Mike Yastrzemski, leftfielder for the Giants, grandson of Hall of Fame leftfielder Carl Yastrzemski, hit his first major league home run this evening. The seasonal age 28 player is in his sixth game, and also hit his first triple in the contest. He now has six hits on the season, three of them for extra bases. The two hits tonight came against the Orioles, who controled him for seven seasons but never brought him to the majors.

April 26, 2019

Guerrero Debuts

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Valdimir Guerrero, Jr. leads off the bottom of the second inning for the Blue Jays versus the Oakland A’s. He grounds a 2-2 pitch to first base for an out. The crowd is so wild to have him up that they cheered the ground out.

The Blue Jays lead the A’s 1-0.

Update: A friend just mentioned that this game also features Justin Smoak batting against Mike Fiers.

Update: Smoak singles against Fiers in the third inning, 1 for 2 on the night.

Update: Sign at the park, “We’re so glady to finally see Vlady!”

Update: In his second at bat, Guerrero got a 3-1 pitch in the strike zone, and hit it very well. It looked like it might go out of the playing field, but Chad Pinder pulled it in a bit short of the wall down the leftfield line. I don’t think Guerrero has swung at a ball yet.

Update: Guerrero leads off the bottom of the ninth in a 2-2 game and doubles down the rightfield line for his first hit. He is removed for a pinch hitter, as the Jays bunt to put a runner on third with one out.

Update: Teoscar Hernandez hits a sharp line drive, but right at the second baseman. Brandon Drury, however, follows with a home run to win the game! A nicely timed first hit for Guerrero.

March 22, 2019

Moving Money to the Youngsters

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The White Sox took some of the money they didn’t spend on Manny Machado or Bryce Harper and gave it to a prospect:

Highly regarded outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez and the Chicago White Sox have finalized a $43 million, six-year contract, a deal nearly double the amount of the previous high for a player under club control yet to make his major league debut.

The agreement announced Friday includes team options for 2025 and 2026 that if exercised would raise the total to $75 million over eight years.

Philadelphia had set the old mark last spring when it gave Scott Kingery a $24 million, six-year contract.

FoxSports.co

Jimenez is a power hacker who will play 2019 as a 22-year-old. He doesn’t strikeout or walk much, but posts a good OBP due to his high BA. He slugs over .500 thanks to a ton of doubles. It looks like he’ll bring a great deal of excitement to the south side.

By the way, if you want to reduce strikeouts in the game, this is the way to do it. Pay the good hitters who make contact a lot of money.

March 10, 2019

Guerrero Injured

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Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. suffered an obilque injury and will miss three weeks of action. This helps avoid a confrontation between the MLBPA and the Jays over service time. Given his minor league record, Guerrero is likely ready for the majors at age 20. If the Blue Jays kept him in the minors at the start of the season long enough so that he would earn less than a year of service time in 2019, the union would likely object. With Guerrero out three weeks now, the Blue Jays can easily say they want him to make up those three weeks in the minors.

November 12, 2018 November 12, 2018

Rookie Winners

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The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) gets a jump on the Rookie of the Year Awards:

Los Angeles – The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announced the winners in its rookie category Monday, with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Shohie Ohtani winning the 2018 IBWAA American League Rookie of the Year award, and Ronald Acuna Jr., of the Atlanta Braves, being selected as the 2018 IBWAA National League Rookie of the Year winner.

This is the tenth annual election for the IBWAA in the rookie category.

Election results are as follows:

AL Rookie:

1st Place: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – 451 points
2nd Place: Miguel Andujar, New York Yankees – 375
3rd Place: Gleyber Torres, New York Yankees – 176

NL Rookie:

1st Place: Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta Braves – 570 points
2nd Place: Juan Soto, Washington Nationals – 378
3rd Place: Walker Buehler, Los Angeles Dodgers – 77

Ballot tabulations by Brian Wittig & Associates, using the Borda Method.

The IBWAA was established July 4, 2009 to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as a digital alternative to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results being announced the following January.

I thought the vote would be much closer between Soto and Acuna, Acuna having more power, Soto doing a better job of getting on base, both producing a similar WAR. Someone who didn’t get any love was Joey Wendle of the Rays. He was one of the better defenders among the rookie finalists.

We know that these will be the top three in each league when the BBWAA announces their winners tonight at 6 PM.

August 25, 2018

Rookie Walk-Off

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The Royals won in happy fashion Friday night, in a season without very many happy moments:

Royals catcher Salvador Perez (El Nino) summed up the Royals’ 5-4 walk-off victory over the Indians on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium this way: “That was crazy. I think it was one of the best games of the season to me.”

And most inside a happy clubhouse felt the same after rookies Ryan O’Hearn (Brohearn) and Hunter Dozier (Doz) — who are close friends and work out in the offseason together — hit back-to-back opposite-field home runs off closer Cody Allen to launch this season’s Players’ Weekend.

It’s the first time in Major League Baseball history that two rookies hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning or later to win a game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

O’Hearn collected 13 hits so far in his MLB career, and six of them are home runs. He slugged .423 at AAA with 29 home runs in 869 PA. Dozier slugged .467 at AAA, but with more doubles power than home run power. Doubles power fits well in KC. Both are older rookies, so while they are off to nice starts, don’t expect them to be stars.

Long time reader Devon Young wrote me recently about the Royals and Orioles finishing the season with less than 50 wins, or under a .308 winning percentage.

Another way to look at it, is that there’ve been 16 teams under .308 from 1917-2017, with a dramatic drop-off after WW2 —

2003 Tigers
1962 Mets
1961 Phillies
1952 Pirates
1945 Phillies
1942 Phillies
1941 Phillies
1939 Phillies
1939 Browns/Orioles
1938 Phillies
1937 Browns/Orioles
1935 Braves
1932 Red Sox
1928 Phillies
1926 Red Sox
1919 A’s

& while looking all this up, I noticed the Phillies suddenly got good in 1949 , and it lasted several years. If they didn’t, then we might still have the Philadelphia Athletics, and the Phillies might’ve moved to KC or somewhere.

My reply was:

The history of baseball has been about:

Fewer innings for starting pitchers
Devaluing triples
Better competitive balance.

The Orioles and Royals are assaulting the latter.

I should have added higher fielding percentages as well.

August 10, 2018

Mullins Moves Jones

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The Orioles call up seasonal age 23 Cedric Mullins to play centerfield, moving Adam Jones to right.

And beyond just getting the call-up today, Mullins will bat ninth and play center field tonight in making his major league debut. Adam Jones moves to right field. He hasn’t played in right in a game since 2007.

Mullins said Jones has talked to him both about joining the team and playing in center.

“We have been in contact,” Mullins said. “Him being the team leader, he has been very supportive with me playing center field. We’ve had a lot of contact about it and he has guided me through that process. It’s huge. Coming from Adam, with 10 years under his belt. He’s been a huge veteran and team leader for all these years. Being in contact with him has been amazing.”

Mullins is batting .313/.362/.512 at AA, his power coming from doubles and triples. The ninth slot is a good place for him to start, serving as a secondary lead-off man.

Update: Mullins doubles in his first at bat.

July 7, 2018

Tucker In

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The Astros just get even younger as they call up seasonal age 21 prospect Kyle Tucker:

Houston manager AJ Hinch says ”our team got better by adding him to the mix” and he plans to play Tucker every day, in left field or right field. Hinch says as the season gets into its latter stages the team needs to see what Tucker can do after his strong showing in both spring ball and the minor leagues.

Leftfield is one of the weaker offensive positions for the Astros this year, although I would not call a .252/.328/.395 slash line terrible. Tucker is tearing up AAA with a .306/.371/.520 slash line at a young age, so the Astros may improve the position a great deal.

June 12, 2018

Young Gun

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Halos Heaven is excited that the Angels called up David Fletcher to the majors.

Fletcher has impressed at big league camp two seasons in a row in Tempe and this year he has been tearing up the Pacific Coast League.

He’s seasonal age 24, so he’s not exactly a young prospect. He hits well for average for a middle infielder. He gained power this season, so the Angels will need to see if that’s for real.

June 10, 2018 June 10, 2018

Palka Punch

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White Sox rookie Daniel Palka collected two doubles and drove in two runs to help the White Sox beat the Red Sox 5-2 Sunday afternoon. That raised his slugging percentage to .520. He now owns 33 hits on the season, 17 of them for extra bases. He’s doing a poor of getting on base, but he was okay in the minors so that may come around. Palka is an old rookie at seasonal-age 26. However his season goes, don’t expect much future upside. A player with a decent BA who collects a ton of extra-base hits is useful, however.

May 22, 2018

Up and Adames

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Willy Adames homers in his first major league game. The Rays shortstop took Chris Sale deep in the fourth inning. He didn’t show much power in the minors, slugging .414 for his minor league career. At AAA Durham this season, however, the seasonal age 22 player slugged .466, with five doubles, three triples, and four home runs in 173 PA.

The Red Sox lead 4-2 in the top of the seventh, with Mookie Betts hitting his 16th home run of the season.