IQ - Baseball Wiretap

Cespedes Thriving In Shadow Of Fellow Rookie Trout

Sep 12, 2014 5:16 AM

Yoenis Cespedes is enjoying a great season, but a majority of national attention has been received by fellow American League West rookie Mike Trout.

Trout is the obvious choice for AL Rookie of the Year and maybe even MVP, but Cespedes has meant a ton to the Athletics.

Oakland is 61-35 with Cespedes in the lineup, 12-22 without.

"Trout deserves all the accolades he's getting," manager Bob Melvin said. "But I don't think he means any more to his team than Yoenis means to ours."

MLB.com

Tags: Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, IQ

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Cubs Land Sleeper Prospect On Third MLB Contract

Jul 20, 2014 5:20 PM

The Chicago Cubs may have found a diamond in the rough in the form of Juan Carlos Paniagua, who they signed for $1.5 million in July.

The deal marked Paniagua's third Major League contract. He signed with the Diamondbacks in 2009, but the contract was voided because he signed the deal under an assumed identity. The pitcher then went through a similar issue after signing with the Yankees in 2011 due to fraudulent identification papers.

Paniagua made his second appearance for the Cubs on Sunday night, facing five batters across two innings of work.

"He was at 92-94 mph in his first inning and 93-97 in the second, with the velocity about as effortless as you can imagine," writes Keith Law.

"His slider was above-average, 83-87, very sharp with some tilt but more vertical than horizontal break. His changeup was below-average at 79-80 and if he'd told the hitters it was coming via semaphore it wouldn't have been more obvious."

Keith Law/ESPN

Tags: Chicago Cubs, IQ

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A's Have Best Record In MLB Since June 2

Sep 23, 2014 7:15 AM

The Athletics are 51-27 since June 2, the best record in the Major Leagues.

Oakland has gotten contributions for almost their entire roster during the hot streak and put themselves in the thick of the playoff race.

They have been even hotter as of late. They have won six in a row, eight of nine and 12 of 14. For the first time since the conclusion of the 2006 campaign, the A's are more than 15 games over .500.

MLB.com

Tags: Oakland Athletics, IQ

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Dodgers Have Completely Remade Top Of Order

Oct 5, 2014 7:44 PM

The Dodgers have made headlines for all the players they have acquired over the last month.

On Thursday night, the first four batters in their order were playing for different teams a month ago -- Nick Punto, Shane Victorino, Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez.

Los Angeles entered action on Friday 4.5 games back of San Francisco in the NL West. On July 15, they were just 1.5 games back of first place.

Tim Brown/Yahoo! Sports

Tags: Los Angeles Dodgers, IQ

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Orioles Head To New York Just Three Games Back Of Yankees

Sep 19, 2014 6:21 PM

The Orioles, who have won seven of their last 10 games, will battle the Yankees in New York this weekend in a series with major playoff implications.

With a win on Thursday night, Baltimore picked up a half-game on idle New York. They are now just three games back of first place in the American League East.

RealGM Staff Report

Tags: New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, IQ

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Bryce Harper May Sit Against Left-Handers

Jul 4, 2014 9:16 AM

The Nationals have considered sitting Bryce Harper against left-handed pitchers down the stretch.

"[Harper is] hitting around .250 and he feels like he probably should hit .400," manager Davey Johnson said. "Instead of trying to be a good hitter and hit line drives everywhere, that you did more so when you first came up here, he's now trying to juice the ball. That's normal with his ability."

Left-handers have been exposing Harper's weakness against off-speed pitches away. At one point in June, the rookie was hitting .366 (15-for-41) with two home runs, two triples, three doubles and four walks against lefties.

In 108 at-bats since then, he is hitting .167 against left-handers.

Washington Post

Tags: Washington Nationals, IQ, Stats

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Torii Hunter Thriving Since Move To Two-Hole

Jun 18, 2014 10:51 AM

Torii Hunter has thrived since the Angels moved him to the No. 2 spot in the batting order.

Hunter has raised his average from .238 to .296 in 62 games after the move in early June.

"I cut down my swing as far as swinging hard and trying to go deep like I usually do," Hunter said. "I cut my swing down and try to swing at strikes and take the base hit, and that's why I'm swinging a lot better."

MLB.com

Tags: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, IQ, Stats

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Nova Struggling With Location, Off-Speed Pitches

Oct 5, 2014 7:35 PM

Ivan Nova is 1-4 in his last eight starts. Nova surrendered seven hits and six runs in six innings against the White Sox on Tuesday night.

"He's struggled. There's no doubt the second half, he's struggled," Joe Girardi said. "He has not located like he did the first half, and his off-speed has not been consistent. You just got to keep working. That's all you can do."

Nova, who was 16-4 with a 3.70 ERA in 2011, is 11-7 with a 4.92 ERA this year.

Associated Press

Tags: New York Yankees, IQ, Stats

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Collins Understands Approach Nationals Taking With Strasburg

Oct 11, 2014 10:39 AM

Terry Collins understands where Nationals management is coming from in their polarizing decision to limit Stephen Strasburg's innings this season.

"I certainly understand the decision. It's hard for both Stephen and the club to shut him down," said Collins. "But if he's still around, if he doesn't have any more surgeries for the next four or five years, they'll look back and think it's a great decision."

So far, Strasburg has thrown 139 1/3 innings.

Strasburg is 14-5, with a 2.91 ERA and 173 strikeouts. The Mets faced him twice this season, losing on both July 25 (5-2) and April 11 (4-0). New York batted just .136 against him in the pair of games.

"Our game is changing," Collins said. "As we know, the health of pitching is the key. With all of the fact-finding things that are out there now, they're realizing that workload is part of the issue. So even though these guys are bigger and stronger than they were 30 years ago, some of that strength may be one of those reasons why guys are breaking down, because they're so strong. Those major muscle groups are so much stronger than the smaller muscle groups now that there could be wear and tear."

MLB.com

Tags: Washington Nationals, New York Mets, IQ

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Stanton's Home Run Sets Major League Record

Nov 8, 2014 10:39 AM

Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run at Coors Field on Saturday night that bounced into the players' parking lot.

Stanton entered the record books as the first player in major-league history to hit a home run in his first six games at any ballpark.

Stanton has now homered in each of his six games at Coors.

"That's pretty cool," he said. "Anytime you do something that no one's ever done in the big leagues, it's something pretty cool. I'll enjoy that one."

more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/19/2958339/stantons-long-homer-sets-an-mlb.html#storylink=cpy

Miami Herald

Tags: Miami Marlins, IQ

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Ciriaco Has OPS Of 1.204 Against Yankees In 2012
Pedro Ciriaco is hitting .500/.522/.682 with six RBI and three stolen bases against the Yankees.

Andrew Perna/RealGM

Acta Wants Indians To Improve Bottom Of Lineup
Manny Acta believes the Indians have placed too much emphasis on the top four hitters in their lineup, leading to too little production from the bottom of the order.

Cleveland Plain Dealer