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FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: David Hess is the latest pitcher to be pulled with a no-hitter, this time on just 82 pitches. He had worked in relief just three days prior, throwing half as many pitches, so maybe the outrage was overblown. Yet it was still disheartening to see in an otherwise meaningless game, and it’s becoming more and more common: it happened 11 times last season, six of which were in the early goings.
Baseball Prospectus | Rob Mains ($): The two kinds of service time manipulation—what was done to Ronald Acuña Jr., and what has happened to Byron Buxton—have happened to really only a select group. Teams either initially pull back the call-up date, or use the second year to make sure they gain just a hair under the required amount for two seasons collectively. But while it is selective, many of the players—Gleyber Torres and Lou Trivino, for example—where this is employed are very talented.
The Athletic | Eno Sarris ($): It’s early, but league-wide statistics have stabilized. The league already is setting strikeout records, exit velocity records, and a record low in fastball percentage. While your favorite player needs time to develop into a season narrative, the league has already developed theirs, and it looks like more of the same.
The Ringer | Ben Lindbergh: Christian Yelich, despite being the reigning NL MVP, was a major regression candidate, both because that is normal for MVPs but also because of his unusually high groundball rate last season. But he has seen his launch angle jump and he already has four home runs in six games, so it could very well be that he’s the rare player to beat that prediction entirely.