Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 7/9/19

FanGraphs | Devan Fink: Barrel rate has a very good correlation with Home Run Derby performance, in the Statcast era at least. This was relevant to most rounds last night, but Vlad Guerrero Jr. was an exception as his small sample and poor-ish performance prevented that from holding true. He still won the night even without winning the derby.

Baseball Prospectus | Matthew Trueblood ($): Baseball is about to add a 26th roster spot, and that will be very well-utilized by front offices, but what about managers? If managers have no clue how to manage that spot and effectively waste it, it’s possible it’d be more useful (at the beginning) to use it as a rest spot and run with 25 men (I disagree, but interesting thought experiment).

The Ringer | Zach Kram: There are usual All-Stars like Nolan Arenado and Mookie Betts, and then there are the surprises. Josh Bell, James McCann, Hunter Dozier, and Ketel Marte are just some of the players who shocked in the first half.