Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 11/14/19

The Athletic | Evan Drellich & Ken Rosenthal ($): The Astros’ cheating scandal has only expanded its’ web, this time connecting AJ Hinch (obviously), Alex Cora, former bench coach, and Carlos Beltrán to the scene, where both of the latter two had a detailed role in devising the scheme of pitch stealing. It seems that big punishments are down the pipe from Rob Manfred after they investigate.

FanGraphs | Ben Clemens: It shouldn’t be a surprise, but the math around trading Mookie Betts doesn’t add up for the Red Sox. They would gain future wins, sure, but they’re still facing a juggernaut in the Yankees where they’d be much better suited to beat them in 2020 with Betts. They are also looking at ~$25 million in surplus value, which really only adds up to, say, a Paul Goldschmidt kind of package.

Baseball Prospectus | Rob Mains ($): If you were to convert a player’s OPS into FIP, Mike Trout made the average pitcher a 9.51 FIP pitcher, so basically Dan Straily. On the other hand is someone like Adalberto Mondesi, who turned pitchers into a 2.32 FIP pitcher. These comparisons add some needed context in feeling out how good (or bad) a hitter is.