Morning Mound Visit: Rachel Balkovec promoted to manager of Low-A Yankees affiliate

Ryan Pavich | Pinstripe Alley: Over the weekend, the Yankees promoted Rachel Balkovec to manager of the Tampa Tarpons, their Low-A affiliate. Balkovec joined the Yankees organization as a minor league hitting instructor in 2019, and has been working in MLB since 2012.

Justin Choi | FanGraphs: It’s no secret that right-handed batters tend to do worse against right-handed pitchers. The same is true for lefties and Southpawed counterparts. It also shouldn’t be surprising that hitters put the ball on the ground more often when at a platoon disadvantage, but why that’s true is a bit on the weird side.

Rob Mains | Baseball Prospectus $: Looking at leaguewide trends year-to-year can offer some valuable insight into where the game’s heading. Rob Mains dug into the data to find a handful of interesting tidbits about the 2021 season only to have 2020 mess up whatever narrative he was trying to construct.