Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 4/24/19

FanGraphs | Dan Szymborski: The Yankees have suffered an incredible bout of injuries, losing Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Didi Gregorius, and Luis Severino at exactly the same time. But the projections say they’re really not doomed, and if those players do in fact return they could still win 95+ games, which is a testament to the depth they built.

Baseball Prospectus | Shakeia Taylor: Tim Anderson was suspended for using the n-word, and it misses all the context of the word and its use in the black community. Not only is there the obvious reason that it is used—to reclaim a word often used in the opposite direction for violent effect—and its entanglement with black culture writ large. If baseball is going to co-opt black culture—using AAVE, rap lyrics, etc.—then they should at least understand how language is used in that milieu.

Tangotiger Blog | Tom Tango: As one climbs from 91 mph to 95 mph, pitchers obviously get more effective. But 94 to 95 actually causes a loss or stagnation, which means pitchers indeed sacrifice something to attain higher velocity. Velocity run values are also consistent with the sabermetric truism that relievers are better than relievers by a factor similar to their increase in velocity for pitching in short bursts.