Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 6/30/18

FanGraphs | Jeff Sullivan: Willians Astudillo has been called up to the Twins, and he’s probably the strangest minor league player to make a debut: he had the lowest walk rate/strikeout rate combo of any player at any level he’s played at, and he’s a rare bat-to-ball oddity in an era of three true outcomes. It’ll be interesting to see if that holds up at the big league level.

Baseball Prospectus | Rob Mains: Hit-by-pitches are at a record high, and Mains would argue that between certain teams, this is probably not an accident. Whether it’s Yankees/Rangers, Pirates/Cubs, or Phillies/Pirates, knowing the highest HBP/game is probably useful when you want to toss out a pitcher out of the game knowing the usual stakes.

The Ringer | Ben Lindbergh: Free agency is already in trouble, but next offseason could likely spell doom. Even though most analysts thought a couple of years ago that Clayton Kershaw, Josh Donaldson, Bryce Harper, Dallas Keuchel, Matt Harvey, Manny Machado, and Jose Fernandez hitting the market at the same time would literally break the sport, we now have the sobriety that, well, a lot of these players have faded, unfortunately passed away, or just aren’t very consistent anymore. One would hope that at least Machado and Harper get their deserved pay day, but it could be yet another disappointing winter.