Nationals are great, racism is stupid, MLB Draft power rankings and more

It’s May, bullpen use is evolving, racism is stupid, Mike Trout has competition, plus MLB Draft power rankings, league leaders and more.

It is no longer April. The first month of the 2017 major league season is finally behind us.

Though they all came with the caveat of “it’s early,” and must always be wary of small samples, we learned quite a few things over the past 30 days. Among them, the Washington Nationals look like a legitimate World Series contender.

The Nats have one of the most potent lineups in baseball, which helped the team finish the month with the best record in the big leagues (17-8) and a five-game lead in the National League – the biggest in the majors. Washington scored more runs (170) than any team in MLB, and also led the big leagues in all three slash categories (.295/.369/.510), as well as doubles (58). The team ranked second in home runs (43).

According to Elias Sports, Washington became the first big league club to ever score 14 or more in five separate April games (three of them in the final week of the month). In the seven days prior to May 1, the Nats racked up 77 runs, which was more than the Kansas City Royals (63) scored all month.

Bryce Harper set a major league record with 32 runs scored in the month of April, and became the first MLB player in the modern era to cross the plate 30 times or more in the first month of the season. Ryan Zimmerman tied for the big league lead in home runs, giving him control of all three Triple Crown categories. Daniel Murphy also put up MVP caliber numbers in April, Trea Turner hit for the cycle, and Anthony Rendon capped the month with a 6-for-6 performance in which he hit three home runs set a team record with 10 RBI. Pitchers Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez also started strong.

Most preseason publications and talking heads expected the Nationals to win the division, so their April performance wasn’t a shock. Similarly, few were surprised to see the Cubs atop the NL Central, or the Orioles, Indians and Astros leading their respective divisions. The Yankees, who finished April tied with Baltimore in the AL East, and the NL Western Division-leading Colorado Rockies, who had the second-best record in the NL, were more unexpected.

The real shock came at the other end of the spectrum, with the Giants, Blue Jays, Mariners, Royals and Mets all in last place on the final day of the month. None was pegged a surefire division winner, but all were predicted to be in the Wild Card race. Fortunately, since we’re talking about the first month of a six month season, there’s still plenty of time to climb out of the cellar and push for a postseason spot. Things are off to a good start as those five teams were undefeated May 1. The Mets even beat the Braves to move into fourth place.

The Reds, Devenski, Bradley and others show the evolution of the bullpen

The way the Cleveland Indians used relief ace Andrew Miller in the postseason last year, as well as the expanded role Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman took on in the World Series, became the talk of the baseball world for much of the winter.

Tony La Russa and Dennis Eckersley are often credited with establishing the current ninth inning-only closer role, which has been standard practice since the early 1990s. Some pitchers, most notably Mariano Rivera, were called upon for more than three outs in special circumstances (primarily in the postseason), but that practice has been very rare during the regular season over the past two decades.

Also during that time, other relief roles have become standard. A team’s formal setup man usually pitches the eighth inning with a lead. There are now also seventh inning specialists, and of course, lefty specialists that are often called upon to get one or two outs against left-handed hitters.

Nevertheless, as Miller and Chapman can attest to, things are changing. First of all, baseball is coming around to the idea that a team putting its best reliever into the game in ninth-inning save situations alone isn’t the most efficient use of that pitcher. Furthermore, some teams are experimenting in order to try and find better ways to deploy their best relievers, and some pitchers are standing out for their ability to get hitters out in a variety of relief situations.

One team on the forefront of change, the Cincinnati Reds, had the worst bullpen in the major leagues in 2016. According to Fangraphs, 29 of the 30 MLB bullpens combined to produce a positive WAR last season. However, the Reds relievers were worth a combined minus-3.6 fWAR. It was one of the worst seasons ever for a major league bullpen. For comparison’s sake, a 3.6 WAR would have ranked No. 19 in the big leagues last season (just ahead of the Cubs), and the Reds bullpen was worth 3.6 losses instead of 3.6 wins.

As a unit, the Reds posted a 5.09 ERA, which ranked second worst in the majors and blew 25 save opportunities while recording only 28 saves. Cincinnati relievers ranked last in the National League in strikeout rate (20.3 percent) and posted the highest walk rate in the big leagues (11.4 percent). The Reds bullpen ranked dead last with a 5.34 FIP, which was 0.77 higher than the second-worst Phillies.

This year is a far different story. The Reds rank No. 7 in bullpen WAR (1.3) through the first month of the season, and Cincinnati relievers have the eighth best ERA (3.16) in baseball and third best in the NL despite pitching more innings (105.1) than any other team. The bullpen has also posted a 3.18 FIP, which ranks seventh overall and third in the senior circuit. Reds relievers have struck out 29.2 percent of the hitters they’ve faced this season, which leads the NL and ranks second in the majors, and have reduced their walk rate to 9.9 percent, which ranks 13^th overall.

What has spurred the turnaround? For one, relief pitching is easily the most volatile position group in baseball from year to year. Few relievers and fewer team bullpens are talented enough to produce outstanding results year in and year out. Nevertheless, Cincinnati has taken steps to ensure better results in 2017.

The Reds are also using their closer in an interesting way. Raisel Iglesias, who leads the club with four saves, has a 1.26 ERA in 14.1 innings across nine appearances. Iglesias has finished seven games, but entered in the ninth inning only twice – in his first two games of the season. Since, the 27-year old right-hander has been inserted into the game in the eighth inning six times, four times when the Reds were winning, once when Cincinnati was trailing, and once in a tie game. On April 15, manager Bryan Price put Iglesias into the game in the top of the fifth inning in a tie game. He pitched two innings and earned his only win of the season.

Price has also used Michael Lorenzen in a variety of ways, including as the setup man and as a long reliever. On April 10, Lorenzen entered the game in the game in the third inning, pitched three innings, and picked up a win. April 30, he entered in the bottom of the fifth and pitched just one frame.

Drew Storen, a former closer with the Nationals, has made 12 appearances and pitched at least one full inning in all of them. He has entered in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Astros posted the highest bullpen WAR in the major leagues (7.9 fWAR) last season, and one of the top performers was swingman Chris Devenski. As a rookie last year, Devenski posted a 2.16 ERA in 108.1 innings spread across 48 games. He made five starts, finished 16 games, and struck out 104 hitters while allowing just 79 hits and four home runs, posting a 0.914 WHIP. Devenski finished fourth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.

So far in 2017, Devenski has a 1.96 ERA in 18.1 innings across eight appearances, and has allowed eight hits and two walks for a miniscule 0.545 WHIP. He has pitched at least one full inning in each of his appearances, and has pitched as many as four frames in a game. Devenski has entered in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings so far this season, showing his versatility.

He’s also got great stuff.  Devinski has 34 strikeouts, and has struck out 51.5 percent percent of the hitters he has faced, which is the best mark in the majors among pitchers that have pitched at least 10 innings. Interestingly, Devenski has relied heavily on his changeup this year. In fact, as Travis Sawchik pointed out earlier this week for Fangraphs, Devenski’s changeup use (42.9 percent through Sunday) was far higher than his fastball (35.4 percent) in April. Last year, Devenski only used his changeup 31.4 percent of the time.

To date, Devenski is on pace for 114 innings as a relief pitcher, which is something that hasn’t happened in well over two decades. Padres reliever Greg Harris, and Blue Jays pitcher Duane Ward became the last two pitchers to throw more than 114 innings in a season in which they didn’t make a start when both accomplished the feat in 1990.

In Arizona, Archie Bradley is in the Devenski role, often pitching several innings. A former top prospect in the organization, Bradley made 34 starts for the Diamondbacks over the past two seasons, but posted a 5.18 ERA with the club. This year, he has made eight appearances out of the bullpen, and has a 1.13 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 16 innings.

The 24-year-old right-hander has allowed just nine hits and three walks, giving him a 0.750 WHIP, and like Devenski, has entered in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings at different points this season. Bradley has also added a new cutter to his repertoire, as Ben Lindbergh recently pointed out for The Ringer.

Bradley has pitched two innings or more five times, and though he has been a starter in the past, Arizona has balked at putting him back into the rotation despite the recent season-ending injury to Shelby Miller. Simply, Bradley has taken well to the bullpen. His velocity is up, his stats are great, and the impact he can have on a game at different points is valuable.

As we progress into the summer months, it will fun to watch how pitchers like Iglesias, Lorenzen, Devenski and Bradley are used, and how managers across the majors deploy relievers with similar skillsets.

Three things we learned this week

1. People are still the worst

It’s no secret that racism still exists in the United States, and on occasion, an event occurs that pushes that fact to the forefront of the national consciousness. Sometimes, such an incident touches the sports world.

Monday night in Boston, Orioles outfielder Adam Jones was the target of racial slurs and had a bag of peanuts thrown at him. The episode reportedly resulted dozens of fans being ejected from the park, though Jones suggested stronger punishments were necessary to curb such behavior in the future.

Jones told reporters after the game, including USA Today’s Bob Nightengale and Jon Meoli of The Baltimore Sun, he has often been the target of racist remarks at Fenway Park. The Red Sox organization and the city of Boston itself – like many others throughout the country – has a checkered past when it comes to race relations. Monday’s unfortunate episode was the most recent example, and a very public one. The incident caught national headlines, and forced a statement from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

Tuesday, the Red Sox released a statement apologizing to Jones and the Orioles organization for the fan’s “inexcusable behavior” Monday, also saying the “organization and our fans are sickened by the conduct of an ignorant few.” The club is still reviewing the incident, but insisted such behavior will not be tolerated in Fenway Park. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said such racist actions “are completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in any of our ballparks,” in an official statement. On a more positive note, Jones received a large ovation Tuesday night.

Nevertheless, racism in and of itself is horrible. It has no place in America in general, or in a Major League Baseball ballpark in particular. Simply, no person or player should be subjected to racist taunts, ever. It is unacceptable and has no place in our society.

Be better, people.

2. Mike Trout has competition

It’s such a widely held opinion across baseball that’s it’s a borderline fact: Mike Trout is the best player in the major leagues. Trout has certainly done his part to hold on to his “Best Baseball Player on the Planet” status by hitting .364/.443/.707 with an American League-leading 36 hits, 1.151 OPS and 70 total bases through his first 27 games. The two-time AL MVP also connected for seven home runs, drove in 18 runs, and stole five bases over that period.

Trout is the prototypical five-tool talent. He hits for contact and power, plays great defense, has a strong arm and has very good speed. As a result, Trout has led the major leagues in WAR in four of the last five seasons, only failing to beat Bryce Harper (9.9 WAR, according to Baseball-Reference) in 2015 during which the Angels outfielder posted a 9.4 bWAR.

Naturally, because of their similar career paths and the positions they play, Harper and Trout were compared and their skills debated often early in their careers, and Harper has been widely been considered the player most capable of surpassing Trout’s production. The Nationals slugger is off to an excellent start this season and currently has a slight lead in WAR at the end of April according to Fangraphs. Through the first month of 2017, Harper has been worth 2.1 wins, with Trout tied with Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman for second with a 2.0 fWAR.

Harper and Freeman are both capable of giving Trout a run for his money in the race to be baseball’s best all-around player this season, but there are a couple of other names to watch as well, both in terms of this season and in years to come: Manny Machado and Francisco Lindor.

Machado got off to a slow start at the plate in 2017 and was hitting .225/.340/.449 as of May 2. However, Machado hit five home runs in his first 24 games – including a 470-foot bomb April 28 that ranked as the longest of the season, and is heating up. Since April 19, Machado has hit .289/.400/.556 with three long balls and eight RBI.

A two-time Gold Glover Award winner at third base, Machado also plays a tougher position than Trout and Harper, which adds to his value. The same can be said for Lindor, whose play at shortstop rivals gloved wizard Andrelton Simmons for best in baseball.

Lindor has also picked up his production at the plate, particularly in terms of power. He has seven home runs in 25 games in 2017 after hitting 27 long balls in 257 career big league games entering this season. The switch-hitter has posted a .306/.375/.622 slash to date, and ranks No. 7 in the majors with a 1.5 fWAR through the first month.

3. The Pirates won the lottery with Ivan Nova

It’s been a rough opening month for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The club is in last place in the NL Central, and lost its best offensive player, Starling Marte, to an 80-game PED suspension. However, if there is a bright spot so far for the Bucs, it’s pitcher Ivan Nova.

Acquired from the Yankees at the 2016 trade deadline for two players to be named later, Nova is 8-4 with a 2.50 ERA in 16 starts with the Pirates, five of which have been complete games. Amazingly, Nova has only walked four hitters in 100.2 innings since joining the club. That’s more complete games than walks in more than 100 innings. Nova has actually has hit four batters over that span, but still, four walks!

This season, Nova is 3-2 with a 1.50 ERA in 36 innings across five starts. He has an NL best 0.750 WHIP after surrendering just eight hits and one walk. In his last start, Nova needed just 95 pitches to shut out the Marlins. He allowed only three hits and struck out seven in Pittsburgh’s 4-0 win April 29.

Also, as Pirates broadcaster Joe Block pointed out with research from STATS MLB, Nova has averaged just 12.1 pitches per inning so far this season. If the 30-year-old can keep up that pace, he would set a single-season record, passing Carlos Silva’s mark of 12.2 in 2005.

Of course, as well as Nova has pitched, the Pirates posted an 11-14 record through May 1. Though they are just two games out of first place, the NL Central is one of the most competitive divisions in baseball, and it will be very difficult for the Bucs to make it to the postseason.

The Pirates might play better overall the rest of the season, but if not, Nova could be a hot commodity come the 2017 trade deadline. Should Pittsburgh find itself out of the playoff race, it’s safe to say Nova would command more than two players to be named later this year.

Quotable

"“He was four hits shy of a double-double.”"

– SportsCenter anchor John Anderson, describing Nationals infielder Anthony Rendon’s 6-for-6, 10 RBI game Sunday

Anthony Rendon put together the best offensive performance of the 2017 season Sunday against the New York Mets, which also ranks as one of the best games in MLB history. Rendon had six hits – including three home runs – and a team-record 10 RBI in Washington’s 23-5 win.

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Rendon joined Walker Cooper as the second player in big league history to record six hits, three homers and 10 RBI in a game. Cooper, playing for the Cubs, was 6-fot-7 against the Cincinnati Reds July 6, 1949. Also, Rendon was just the fourth major leaguer since 1900 to go 6-for-6 in a game, and the 13^th to record 10 or more RBI in a single game.

Play of the Week

On April 28, Oakland A’s starting pitcher Kendall Graveman turned an unassisted double play. You don’t see that every day.

League Leaders

Each week we explore one advanced baseball metric in an effort to become better versed in the game’s modern terminology. This week, we dive into wOBA, or Weighted On-Base Average. wOBA attempts to rate a hitter’s run production by giving more emphasis to extra-base hits. Not all hits are created equal, and though “a walk is as good as a hit,” can commonly be heard coming from the stands at games at all levels (and is true in terms on on-base percentage), it’s not really true in terms of creating runs.

Therefore, wOBA gives the most weight to home runs, followed by triples, doubles, singles, hit batsmen and unintentional walks. For the formula and more detailed information about wOBA, check here.

wOBA

• Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals (.553)
• Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals (.521)
• Freddie Freeman, Atlanta Braves (.519)
• Eric Thames, Milwaukee Brewers (.511)
• Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (.472)

Thames was the most talked about player in April, but Zimmerman actually pulled to a late tie with the Brewers first baseman for the major league lead with 11 home runs. Zimmerman also hit .420/.458/.886 with 29 RBI and 22 runs scored. Harper has been nearly just as productive to date, hitting .391/.509/.772 with nine homers in April.

On the pitching side of things, we explored E-F last week, which subtracts FIP from ERA in an attempt to explain how much better or worse a pitcher’s performance actually is compared to his ERA, which can often be misleading. However, we’ve yet to explore FIP itself.

Fielding Independent Pitching attempts to estimate how well a pitcher performs when stripping out the defense behind him. Not all teams are created equal, and a pitcher with a slow-footed defense behind him may have a higher ERA than he deserves because his teammates allow too many hits to fall. For more detail on FIP, check here.

FIP (Qualified starters)

• Noah Syndergaard, New York Mets (0.99)
• Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox (1.14)
• James Paxton, Seattle Mariners (1.14)
• Mike Leake, St. Louis Cardinals (1.95)
• Jason Vargas, Kansas City Royals (2.05)

Syndergaard had strong traditional pitching metrics through the first month of the season, including a 3.29 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 27.1 innings, but as his FIP would indicate, the Mets starter is one of the best in baseball. Unfortunately, we won’t see Syndergaard on the mound for a while after he was placed on the DL May 1 with a partially torn lat muscle.

Chris Sale, James Paxton and Mike Leake are all pitching like Cy Young candidates, and Jason Vargas has been one of the brightest spots in an otherwise disappointing 2017 for the Royals.

Random MLB Power Rankings

Ranking the top 10 major league players drafted No. 1 overall (Career bWAR)

1. Ken Griffey, Jr., Seattle Mariners, 1991 (83.6)
2. Alex Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners, 1993 (117.5)
3. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves, 1990 (85.0)
4. Darryl Strawberry, New York Mets, 1980 (42.0)
5. David Price, Tampa Bay Rays, 2007 (32.6)
6. Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals, 2010 (23.4)
7. Adrian Gonzalez, Florida Marlins, 2000 (43.6)
8. Harold Baines, Chicago White Sox, 1977 (38.5)
9. Rick Monday, Kansas City Athletics, 1965 (33.1)
10. Bob Horner, Atlanta Braves, 1978 (21.7)

The NFL Draft wrapped up over the weekend, and the MLB First-Year Player Draft is scheduled to begin June 12. It’s therefore draft season, so why not take a look back at which top picks put together the best MLB careers?

Ken Griffey, Jr. is the only current Hall of Famer to be selected No. 1 overall. However, Chipper Jones is a near lock to be elected to Cooperstown soon, and despite steroid ties Alex Rodriguez will probably receive a Hall of Fame plaque eventually. As for the rest of the list, David Price, Bryce Harper and Adrian Gonzalez are all still active, and could push themselves higher before retirement.

Harper, Darryl Strawberry and Bob Horner are the only three No. 1 overall picks to win the Rookie of the Year Award Award and earn All-Star recognition. Rick Monday and Harold Baines are among the 21 No. 1 overall selections to earn at least one All-Star Game appearance during their big league careers.

Other active MLB players drafted No. 1 overall include Dansby Swanson (2015), Carlos Correa (2012), Gerrit Cole (2011), Stephen Strasburg (2009), Tim Beckham (2007), Justin Upton (2005), Matt Bush (2004), and Joe Mauer (2001). Correa has a great chance to become one of the greatest No. 1 overall picks of all time, and Mauer looked like a lock to become a Hall of Fame catchers before injuries hurt his production and he moved to first base.

The Minnesota Twins will have the first selection in the 2017 draft. It will be the third since the draft was enacted in 1965 that Minnesota has held to No. 1 overall pick.

Little League Home Run Alert

It’s the third consecutive week in which we’ve had an opportunity to highlight a “Little League home run.” Such events may be examples of terrible defense, but they sure are fun to watch.

Useless Info

Through May 1, the Chicago Cubs allowed 32 earned runs in the first inning of games – more than any team in the majors.

Tuesday marked the 78^th anniversary of Lou Gehrig taking a day off. After a then-record 2,130 consecutive games, the Hall of Famer did not play for the Yankees against the Tigers on May 2, 1939.

Bryce Harper’s 32 runs in April surpassed Larry Walker, who scored 29 in 1997, for the most by a major leaguer in the first month of the season.

Matt Kemp hit three home runs against the Mets April 29. It was the first time an Atlanta Braves hitter hit three dingers in a game since Mark Teixeira in 2008. Kemp also homered twice against the Mets April 6.

Rangers outfielder Carlos Gomez became the third big leaguer to hit for the cycle in 2017 when he turned the trick Saturday.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit a 435-foot home run April 28 that left the bat at 119.38 miles per hour, the highest exit velocity for a home run since Statcast began measuring such things.

Also on April 28, Matt Carpenter hit a walk-off grand slam for the Cardinals, becoming the first St. Louis hitter since Tom Herr in 1987, and just the fifth in franchise history, to do it.