In the sabermetric era of baseball, the statistic “WAR” has become the overarching determinant of a player’s value. WAR, which stands for Wins Above Replacement, measures the value of a player’s production while putting it in terms of how many wins they generate above a replacement-level player. It is important to note that this replacement-level... Continue Reading →
A Deep Dive on Cooper Hjerpe – A Pitching Unicorn
However, I don't think that should be the case for the 2022 Draft. This is my analytical breakdown of why Cooper Hjerpe is the clear top college arm eligible in the upcoming draft class.
The Case of Ben Joyce
Tennessee has been utterly dominant this college baseball season. They've lost one series all year. They lead the nation in Home Runs, ERA, and WHIP and are at the top in runs scored, OPS, and K/9. Their schedule features sweeps against Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Florida, and Mississippi State (all of which were preseason top 10... Continue Reading →
The Hot Start No One is Talking About
Much of the conversation surrounding the National League East entering the season was focused on the Braves, the Mets and the Phillies. While many were expecting those three teams to be competing for the division, the early parts of the season have been less suspenseful than many were expecting as the Mets have gotten off... Continue Reading →
Shohei Ohtani’s Remarkable 2021 Season
While many were aware of Shohei Ohtani's two-way potential when he was posted by the Nippon-Ham Fighters back in the winter of 2017, few could have imagined it was possible for him to accomplish what he did during the 2021 season. It is certainly not unheard of for someone to enter pro-ball with two-way potential.... Continue Reading →
Draft Profile: Will Bednar
Image courtesy of Mississippi State Athletics Introduction Will Bednar was selected by the San Francisco Giants with the 14th overall selection in the 2021 Major League Baseball Rule 4 Draft on Sunday, July 11th. Bednar, the brother of the Pittsburgh Pirates David Bednar, saw his draft stock rise significantly following his dominant performance during the... Continue Reading →
Gators in Cleveland: Comparing Pitchers through Euclidean Distance
In the recent MLB draft, Cleveland drafted three pitchers from the University of Florida. These Gators are; Tommy Mace (69th), Jack Leftwich (216th), and Franco Aleman (306th). Here is the data for each of their pitches: After reading Rylan Domingues’ most recent article: Mathematically Discovering Jack Leiter’s MLB Pitch Comps, I reached out to learn... Continue Reading →
Dominic Hamel’s Unique Fastball
Dominic Hamel was drafted 81st overall by the New York Mets. The DBU right-hander posted a 4.22 ERA this past year, however, he mowed hitters down by striking out 13.4 hitters per 9 innings. Coming into drafts every year, we hear about pitchers that can blow away hitters with upper 90’s fastballs and can dominate... Continue Reading →
Draft Profile: Tommy Mace
This past season, BaseballCloud had the privilege to work with several college players who were selected in 2021's Amateur Player Draft. One of the players we wanted to highlight is Tommy Mace, hailing from Florida. He was recently selected by the Cleveland Indians in the second round (69th overall) in 2021's Amateur Player Draft. This... Continue Reading →
Mathematically Discovering Jack Leiter’s MLB Pitch Comps
In the months preceding the Major League Baseball draft, the buzz around the top draft-eligible pitchers start to come about. Baseball news outlets love to come up with Major League comps for these potential stars. And as fans we love to say “Oh this guy really reminds me of [fill-in the blank].” While this is... Continue Reading →
4-Year College Positional Rankings Based Off Draft Success & MLB Longevity (Part 1)
As someone who also follows college football, I always saw numerous articles and tweets about which university held the title of Quarterback University, or QBU for short. There would be a number of criteria that factored into such rankings, including how many players were drafted from the university at that position, and the success they... Continue Reading →
Plate Discipline and Hit Tools
As the Tigers focused on pitching during the early stages of the rebuild, it has started to make its presence felt at the Major League Level. The organization has now started shifting its focus to positional talent. While this has resulted in a lack of starting pitching talent in the farm system, there are now... Continue Reading →
College Baseball Preview: Projections, All-Americans, and More
College baseball is just hours away after a near year-long hiatus. Fans are of course excited, but coaches have been dealing with COVID-19 protocols, quarantine policies, and testing results for the past five months; so they’re also itching to start playing games that actually matter. Some schools unfortunately won’t get to start their season until... Continue Reading →
What Goes Into an MLB Draft Model: Batted Ball Profiles
Continuing down the unbeaten path of draft models; the last version of this was less than a week ago when I discussed a tricky metric in vertical approach angle. This time I'll be going over a rather broad pool of data. Batted ball profiles can be as simple as exit velocity and launch angle, or... Continue Reading →
What Goes Into An MLB Draft Model: Vertical Approach Angle
One of the more common terms used in the analytics community is 'model'. Whether it’s a model built to predict how much a specific metric can predict the future BABIP of a player, or looking at the best ways to predict run production; all models have one thing in common, using data to create a... Continue Reading →