This might be better suited for a Medium article, but I’ll say now I’ve been loving watching Javier Assad play and wish he got a bit more attention. He’s such a good story – a Cubs pitcher who was never that highly rated of a prospect coming up, finding success in the bullpen, and then becoming one of baseball’s best starters since the second half of last year. He’s also a Team Mexico hero, so much so that he has a mural dedicated to him in his hometown of Tijuana. I love this man and I implore you to take a look at what he’s doing right now because it is quite fun.
Is Elly De La Cruz Bringing Back the 100-Steal Season?
The last time MLB saw a player steal 100 bases was in 1987 when Vince Coleman swiped 109 bags with the Cardinals in the middle of a stretch where he led the league in steals six years straight. It seemed like the game had changed to the point where such a feat would never be possible again. Perspectives have changed, players have gotten better, and small ball has largely gone by the wayside.
That is until this year. On Thursday night against the Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz swiped four more bags to reach 30 stolen bases on the year. In May. At the time, such a feat left Cruz on a pace for 110 steals by the time the season was up. He did that while only being caught stealing five times. He’s since slowed down with no bases added to that total, but he’s still in good shape to potentially make history.
To emphasize how impressive a feat this is, let’s look back at other 100-steal seasons. Such high-steal years primarily belong to some of the greatest baserunners to ever play the game, like the aforementioned Coleman, Rickey Henderson, Maury Wills, Lou Brock, Tim Raines, Kenny Lofton, etc. However, even among those all-time greats, 100 steals is exceedingly rare. During the modern era (1900- ), only 14 90-steal seasons were recorded while only eight 100-steal seasons have occurred. Four players are also responsible for all eight – Henderson, Coleman, Wills, and Brock. Cruz would be the fifth if he can make it.
At only 22 years old, De La Cruz is quickly proving to be one of the most fun young players to watch on the diamond right now. In his first full season with the Reds, he’s hitting a very respectable .256/.352/.476/132 wRC+ with nine home runs. Even a year after Ronald Acuña Jr. created his own club after surpassing 40 long balls and 70 stolen bases, the young shortstop could still possess an unprecedented combination of power and speed. 30 homers and 100 steals isn’t out of the realm of possibility and all eyes will be on him from now on to see if he can turn that hypothetical into a reality.
Yu Darvis Reaches 200 Wins
I’m going to spoil it now. A Yu Darvish appreciation post is coming this week. He’s easily one of my favorite players in the game right now, and it only feels right to finally talk about him after such a major accomplishment.
At 37 years old, Darvish is now in elite company after notching his 200th win between MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The game in question saw him shut out the Braves through seven innings, marking his fourth straight start of no runs given up in five or more innings. He’s only the third Japan-born player to break the 200-win barrier, following in the footsteps of greats Hiroki Kuroda (203) and Hideo Nomo (201). I imagine he’ll handily beat both of those pitchers too, considering he signed a six-year extension last year to remain with San Diego through the 2028 season.
Darvish has long been one of baseball’s great arms, posting a 3.55 career ERA and 35.8 fWAR since his first season with the Texas Rangers. There are many other ways to quantify his greatness, like his eye-popping 10.63 career K/9, sixth best of all time, but it’s hard to deny the implicit skill and longevity required to notch 200 wins at the highest levels of competition. Among all pitchers, only 122 have managed to replicate the feat, many of whom are considered, at least, Hall of Very Good caliber.
With the way he’s pitching right now, it wouldn’t be surprising to me if we’re talking about Darvish in the Cy Young race as the year rolls on. He’s on a hot streak right now, lowering his ERA to 2.08 this year with a 2.65 FIP to boot. We’ll discuss him much more later this week, but for now, I’m just very happy to see him continue to dominate into the twilight years of his career.
Shota Imanaga Is Outpacing Fernando Valenzuela
From one Japanese star to another, let’s talk about Shōta Imanaga again. I promise not to lean on him too much for topics, but I’m still routinely stunned by what he’s doing at the major league level. Every time it feels like he can’t keep dominating at this level, he just goes out there and does it again.
Much of the discussion around Imanaga has been in the context of Fernando Valenzuela and his first full year in the majors. Like Valenzuela’s iconic 1981 season, Imanaga has begun the year on a historic pace to rival the old Dodgers ace. With his latest performance – a seven-inning shutout of the Pirates – he’s now officially on a better pace through his ninth start, dropping his ERA to 0.84. That is the lowest for any pitcher since ERA became an official stat and surpasses Valenzuela’s 0.91 ERA through the same point. It’s impressive even for non-rookies, as he places fourth in ERA through any pitcher’s first nine starts of the season behind only 2021 Jacob deGrom, 1966 Juan Marichal, and 2009 Zack Greinke.
Obviously, there are some caveats. In eight of Valenzuela’s first nine starts, he went for a full nine innings. That is almost unheard of nowadays and adds far more bulk onto his stat sheet than Imanaga. Moreover, underlying statistics show that the lefty is outperforming his expectations by a considerable margin. Still, it’s a special feat to see any pitcher on a pace like this, let alone a rookie arm who’s still getting used to the majors after crossing over from another country.
I guess it helps when you have by far the most valuable pitch in the game – a fastball averaging around 92 mph. That is still unreal considering the prevalence of velocity in the game, but its run value of 13 is on another level from the next most valuable – Tanner Houck’s slider at 10. At this rate, Rookie of the Year and Cy Young are firmly in consideration, assuming Imanaga can remain relatively close to this pace.
Ronel Blanco Earns 10-Game Suspension for a Foreign Substance
The Astros and cheating. Name a better combo.
I’m just kidding, but I was bummed when Houston’s starter Ronel Blanco was given a 10-game suspension and a fine after being ejected by Laz Diaz during a foreign substance check in his start against the Athletics last Tuesday. Blanco had been one of the best stories in baseball this year, enduring a lengthy journey from being a car wash employee in the Dominican Republic to a longtime minor leaguer, a relief swingman, and now, an ace. Umpire Erich Bacchus confiscated his glove after noticing a sticky substance in it and sent it off to the Commissioner’s Office for inspection. He’s expected to be back on the mound on Sunday.
At the time, Blanco and manager Joe Espada pushed back that the righty was just using rosin mixed with sweat. Blanco says he didn’t know that using such a mixture in his non-pitching hand was illegal, and may explain the whole scenario. The league, for its part, hasn’t said anything about what it found on his glove. Here’s what Bacchus thought about the glove when asked for comments after the game:
“Then when I went to go do his second check, going into the fourth inning, I asked for his glove. That was the first thing I checked. And I felt something inside the glove [he pointed to his palm as he said this]. It was the stickiest stuff I’ve felt on a glove since we’ve been doing this for a few years now. So, I brought the crew in. The crew conferred and then we went from there.
– Erich Bacchus, to reporters per MLB.com
As much as Astros fans won’t like to hear it, such an incident will naturally draw more scrutiny for them given that the sign-stealing scandal is still a relatively fresh wound. Whether jokingly or not, it’s hard to not immediately make the connection. It’s also hard not to begin questioning whether Blanco’s breakout this year is for real or aided by sticky stuff. Blanco came out of nowhere and has been an anchor for an Astros team dealing with some serious injury woes to their veteran rotation early on. After opening the year with a no-hitter (in just his eighth big-league start at age 30, no less!), he’s since dazzled with a 2.09 ERA in 47 1/3 innings.
It just sucks, frankly, to see this scenario play out, even if this isn’t a case of intentional cheating or rule-breaking. It’ll be up to Blanco now to prove that the improvements he made this year are legit.
Weekly Weird
We’ve all heard of and seen incidents where a batter is hit in the head by a pitcher when he lets one get away. However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a catcher nail a batter in the noggin on a routine toss back to the hurler. That’s exactly what happened in Monday’s match-up between the Phillies and Mets when Tomás Nido accidentally plunked Bryce Harper in the helmet while trying to get the ball back to Sean Manaea. The impact left Harper stunned for a moment and Nido almost dumbfounded at what he had just done.
I highly doubt that this was intentional by Nido, but it was very lackadaisical behavior to a laughable extent. Not hitting the batter as a catcher is such an easy thing to do. A little lower, and this accident becomes seriously scary as it could’ve led to a broken nose or worse. As it stands though, this moment is just so bizarre and stupid that it was a no-brainer to land on the Weekly Weird.
Bunting For Power 