Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 7/30/19

FanGraphs | Craig Edwards: Noah Syndergaard has suffered from two things on the Mets (other than them being the Mets): poor infield defense, and an inconsistent slider. The former could very likely be cured by a new, better defensive team in the wake of the Marcus Stroman deal, and the latter has been mostly fixed by a more consistent and higher release point for his slider, combined with better recent velocity. Add all of that up and you get the value of what the Mets are hoping for, namely a top-30 prospect and significant pieces in exchange. We’ll see if the stars align.

Baseball Prospectus | Zach Crizer ($): Madison Bumgarner is still pretty young, if we can imagine, and there’s no doubting one team, if it’s not the Giants, will attempt to create a better version of himself. In all likelihood that involves an Astros-like development of better use of his cutter in place of the four-seamer.

The Athletic | Eno Sarris ($): For every star player available at the trade deadline, there is a cheaper, though riskier, alternative that have similar statistical profiles. Zack Wheeler stands up formidably against Noah Syndergaard, as does Shane Greene against someone like Edwin Díaz, to name a couple.