Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 5/24/18

The Athletic | Ken Rosenthal ($): Even though Billy Beane leans heavily on his analytics department to make decisions, the decision to draft Matt Chapman was all based on scouting. That shouldn’t be surprising, really, considering how inaccurate scouting the stat line can be, but it’s always interesting to see how someone’s visual information (a scout’s) is still information in the same way we conceive sabermetrics.

The Athletic | Rustin Dodd ($): David Cone was interviewed by The Athletic’s Kansas City shop, and mainly focused on how he became a champion of sabermetrics on on-air broadcasts. I have personally been listening to Cone on the air for a few years now, and I can confirm all of this: he combines the day-to-day experiences of being a pitcher with all of the nuances of sabermetrics and being able to balance one instinct with the other, and in such a way it isn’t condescending and actually teaches the viewer.

Baseball Prospectus | Rob Mains ($): What makes a bad base runner? Mains focuses on Josh Bell and the factors that contribute to his own poor base running—hit advancement, air advancements, ground advancements, and good ‘ole stolen bases all contribute to base running runs.

FanGraphs | Jeff Sullivan: Colin Moran hit a home run on a pitch with a higher vertical location than any other home run hit this year. It indicates that not only is Moran changing his swing for a higher launch angle, but he is also targeting balls specifically higher in the zone to cut down on groundball rates even further.