Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 12:43PM Rodriguez has had big pushes to the finish before. Two seasons ago, he had a two-homer, seven-RBI game in his final game of the season, against the Rays, to finish with exactly 30 home runs and 100 RBI. Last season, he finished with 30 home runs, thanks to five dingers in his final nine contests.
What’s to watch with Rodriguez’s return?
Source: ESPN.com
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 11:21PM ESPN's Stats & Information team examines the recent struggles of Mariano Rivera.
Yankees closer Mariano Rivera has had some significant issues in his last two appearances for the Yankees and one of the reasons for this is an issue he’s having with his trademark pitch.
As Bill Chuck noted a few weeks ago, in a piece on BaseballAnalytics.org, that Rivera’s cutter was not as sharp as it had been in previous seasons.
Source: ESPN.com (Mark Simon)
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 12:07PM ESPN takes a close look at Dan Uggla's performance along with supporting heat maps:
When Uggla was going bad, he couldn’t make contact with sliders from right-handed pitchers. He only was putting about one-third of his swings in play. Now, he’s putting half of his swings against sliders from righties into play and doing major damage. When making contact with a slider from a right-handed pitcher during the streak, he’s 11-for-22 with five home runs. And to tie back to the previous note, four of those have come on sliders on the outer-third.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 09:28AM Shields, 3-8 with a 4.91 ERA for his career against the Yankees, has been among the very best pitchers in baseball in 2011. He allowed three runs in 19 innings against the Yankees at home last season and has been nearly duplicating that effort against everyone in 2011.
Monday, May 16, 2011 at 08:51PM ESPN.com takes a close look at Josh Johnson and his breaking ball:
When hitters do make contact, they don't hit the ball well. Johnson has induced 24 ground balls with his curve/slider combo. That has yielded a total of one base hit. And the only player to get that hit? It took the best hitter in baseball to do it-- Albert Pujols. That's a pretty good statement as to where Johnson is at this point in 2011. It will be a challenge for the Mets to overcome tonight.
Source: ESPN.com (Mark Simon)