Marty’s musings: ...and we wait

Welcome to ‘Marty’s Musings’, my weekly column of numbers summarizing the happenings in the baseball world. I am your guide for taking an analytic look at the news and notes throughout the game.

In today’s Musings, we take a look at the staggering numbers of unsigned free agents, Wade Miley finds a new home, and an old timer is appointed special advisor in Washington.

All this news and more in this week’s Musings.

News and Notes

100+ - Unsigned free agents in the sport. With pitchers and catchers set to report to Florida and Arizona in just one week, there are over 100 players who have yet to land their 2019 contracts. Shockingly, the top free agents on the board, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Dallas Keuchel still remain unsigned in what is undoubtedly a bad sign for labor peace heading into the next CBA dialogue.

88 - Year old former skipper, Jack Mckeon landed as a Special Advisor with Mike Rizzo and the Washington Nationals. McKeon managed on-and-off for 40 years, and played in the Minors from 1949 to 1959. In other words, he’s seen a lot of baseball’s evolution in his time.

2 - Major free agents the San Diego Padres are courting, in Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. San Diego’s most recent splash was a dud, in Eric Hosmer, but the team has an opportunity to sign a real impact bat and a ‘face-of-the-franchise’ with either Machado or Harper. Indications are that the Padres prefer Harper, but we’ll see how this plays out over the next week or two.

4.5 - Million dollar deal the Astros agreed to with Wade Miley. Miley is coming off a good numbers-season, in which he posted a career-best 2.57 earned run average. The numbers and stuff however does not back up the allowed runs, as his strikeout rate was the lowest in seven years (14.8 percent) his walk rate of 8 percent was not great, and he gave up an unsustainably low 5.2 percent of fly balls for homers.

1 - Position Shohei Ohtani will play in 2019: designated hitter. Coming off Tommy John Surgery, the Angels announced Ohtani will not be ready for Opening Day. It’s not a shocker of course, but it is disappointing that we have to wait for the two-way player to only DH for the season.

100 - Years’ old Jackie Robinson would have been last week. The baseball world celebrated Jackie’s birthday last week reminiscing of his amazing achievement on the field as a player and pioneer, as well as as a Civil Rights icon later in life.

52 - Days until Opening Day!