Recaps, Write-Up for Yesterday: 

Write-up for Yesterday: May 18, 2015

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(with apologies to Ogden Nash)

Hi, everyone! And welcome to Write-Up For Yesterday, BttP’s guide to what the heck happened yesterday in baseball. We’re not gonna just hand you some scores here, because we trust you know how to type the letters E-S-P-N into your internet machine. Instead, we hope to give you a fuller and richer understanding of important goings on from yesterday in baseball. The big stories, and the noteworthy performances-good and bad.

STORY LINES AND NEWS CYCLE EPHEMERA

BRUCE CHEN: A RETROSPECTIVE (KIND OF): In college I took an Intro to Asian American Studies course, the second of several Asian American Studies courses I would take at my university, which offered no such major or minor in the concentration but that was of no difference to me – I wanted to take the courses, they were preferable to other electives like, I dunno, rhetoric, or economics, or, god forbid, math. One of the components of the course was a month-long project undertaken either individually or with a group, to be presented, in public, near the end of the semester. My individual project was on the relationship between Asian Americans, access to education and the court system (Tape v. Hurley y’all); sure it maybe sounds deep but it was an undergraduate project and I rushed it to completion, not unlike most of my other college classes. Anyway, while some groups put on short plays, or gave a PowerPoint presentation, I hastily put together a poster board to be displayed at the end-of-semester, second annual Asian American Expo. This is a very long way of saying that Bruce Chen announced his retirement today and I will miss the last active Asian American Expo.

Favorite Bruce Chen Thing: In 2012, leading the league in starts with an 84 ERA+

My biggest regret about Bruce Chen’s career (not that someone other than Bruce Chen can have regrets about Bruce Chen’s career) is that he never went 5-for-5 in the NL East and never suited up for the Marlins. Maybe he can go become their manager.

Godspeed, Bruce.

(Disclaimer, I guess: I know Bruce Chen is from Panama, but in this context I’m using “Asian American” to refer to him as someone of Asian descent living in the Americas. The diaspora is real)

GENERAL. MANAGER: Speaking of the Marlins, they played their first game under new manager (and general manager) Dan Jennings. Ken Rosenthal writes that the Marlins could have considered any number of candidates of color, but instead went with an unorthodox, internal hire. Our own Nick Koss, however, says that innovation and advocates for a stronger connection between the front office and dugout, and is behind the idea. He’s just skeptical of the Marlins being the right team to perform this experiment right now.

MEANWHILE, Ichiro tied Babe Ruth’s career hit total and Japan noticed; while the Marlins lost 3-2 in 10 innings to the Diamondbacks.

KLUBER VS. SALE: In his last start, Corey Kluber pitched 8 innings and accrued 18 strikeouts. In the first inning tonight, Kluber struck out the side, giving him 21 strikeouts in his previous 9 innings. On the night, Kluber went 9 innings and had 12 strikeouts. Chris Sale, meanwhile, went 8 innings and gave up just 1 run for the White Sox, who came out the walk-off victors in 10 innings. The win puts the White Sox over .500 for the first time all season.

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? (emeritus): The Milwaukee Brewers are offering fans an opportunity to win tickets to the first public screening of The Selig Experience, which displays a utopian baseball society highlighted by decades of labor piece, nobody doing steroids, and all games ending in ties. My main question about this: any perks for Timeless Ticket holders? Might they get to sit in Bud’s chair?

SAM FULD CLIMBS A HILL: And saves the A’s win.

DAY GAMES FEEL SO LONG AGO: All the way back yesterday-day, the Blue Jays and Angels faced off in Toronto. Josh Donaldson said some not very nice things, but he hit leadoff, went 3-5, and the Blue Jays won 10-6 with their best four hitters occupying the top four spots in the lineup (with Jose Reyes out).

Also Jose Bautista did this.

 

(OTHER) TWEETS WE LIKED

I spent way too much time trying to do something like this on Play Index; should’ve just checked Chris Kamka’s Twitter for “hidden” 20+ strikeout games:

ARTICLES (and a podcast!) WE LIKED

Sam and Ben talked about this on Effectively Wild on Monday – Eugene Freedman writes about Barry Bonds’s collusion case at BP. Nathaniel Grow does the same over at Fangraphs.

Ben has a new one at Grantland, on Shelby Miller’s new pitch selection.

President Obama joined Twitter today and followed everyone except the Cubs. Brett Taylor at Bleacher Nation tempted the masses by writing a post and leaving the comments section open.

Of course we’ll listen to anything hosted by The Baron Of All Baseball Podcasts, Ryan Sullivan. Not only did Ryan host the most recent Banished to the Pen Podcast featuring Mike Ferrin, he also recorded the inaugural episode of THE Joshua Kusnick Experience, the new podcast venture with MLB agent Joshua Kusnick. Both podcasts are highly recommended.

 

TODAY’S BEST PITCHING MATCHUPS

There aren’t any. Ok, we can try. (ERA/FIP/DRA)

Jimmy Nelson (MIL – 4.22 / 4.35 / 3.71) vs. Anibal Sanchez (DET – 4.76 / 3.68 / 3.76)

That, dear readers, is the ONLY GAME on Tuesday with both starters in the top 100 in DRA. Now, some other pitchers near the top are pitching today, including Sonny Gray (#2), Johnny Cueto (#6), Aaron Harang (#9), and Michael Wacha (#19) but not against eachother, and usually against a far, far lesser opponent. It’s cool, check out one of them, or maybe one of the young guns like Taijuan Walker of the Mariners, or Aaron Sanchez of the Blue Jays, both starting tomorrow in their games.

 

 

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