Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 5/30/18

FanGraphs | Travis Sawchik: The Angels are a wild card contender, and they are also last in wRC+ against right-handed pitching. Luckily they have a player called Shohei Ohtani who is good at hitting right-handers, so if they used him more in those situations, they could improve substantially in that regard without having to add another platoon bat.

Bill James Online | Steven Goldleaf: Developed here are general principles to live by when building up a losing team, mostly as a discussion about bad teams of yesteryear that spun their wheels for decades at a time. The general rules are to always get younger, acquire the best players available, and to keep a generally high turnover rate to constantly find new options. Teams of that era seemingly turned over, but held on to mediocre players for too long and acquired older players as well. I would assume decision-making like that has largely ended in the sport.

The Hardball Times | Luis Torres: Our own Luis Torres tackles the Wellington Castillo suspension, and the science behind erythropoietin, Castillo’s PED of choice. What makes his choice interesting is that even though there are legitimate medical uses for said drug, usually for anemia, it actually might be ineffective as an endurance PED, as tested in clinical trials with cyclists. Considering this is the first EPO suspension, and its effects might only be placebo, then it might be worth revisiting such a long suspension for what is only a PED in policy only.