Will Dallas Keuchel be a favorite of Braves NL East?

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So, the Atlanta Braves always have some money in reserve. Liberty Media's bean counters – the owners of the team that run the franchise more like a real estate company than a baseball team in recent seasons – have agreed to find $ 13 million to convince the company. free agent Dallas Keuchel to launch the rest of the Atlanta season.

The Braves started the season with high hopes in their young rotation, but even though Mike Soroka was brilliant (6-1, 1.41 ERA) and Max Fried was brilliant sometimes (7-3, 3.68 ERA) and veteran Julio Teheran has a rotation of 3.28, the rotation ranks 17th among the majors of the ERA. In his last eight games, the rotation recorded a worst score of 6.30 for the MLB, perhaps strengthening the urgency of signing Keuchel, while Mike Foltynewicz in particular continues to struggle.

Keuchel should strengthen this group and will certainly add depth once he is ready (he will participate in a physical session on Friday and start in Triple-A this weekend). The Braves could have turned to their rich arsenal of young starters, but this probably guarantees that Sean Newcomb and Touki Toussaint will remain in the pen for the moment and that this could eventually lead Foltynewicz to the pen too to solve his problems. of gopher ball.

Keuchel could also provide a necessary length to the games. The Braves struggled to get to the bottom of the game, averaging only 5⅓ innings per start. Keuchel recorded an average of six innings per start with the Astros last year and scored seven innings or more in 11 of his 34 starts.

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The surprising thing here is that the Braves outbid the According to rumors, the New York Yankees would attack Keuchel, believing that the team's payroll was already living up to Liberty Media's stringent budget requirements. Two additional factors may have played in the transaction. The Braves beat the Phillies in the East of the National League in just two games – so the addition of some extra wins that Keuchel could offer could be crucial to win the division – and the Phillies suddenly have a bunch of their own problems. With Andrew McCutchen for the season with a torn ACL and suspended Odubel Herrera, the team is struggling to fill the middle pack (rookie Adam Haseley is in the position at the moment, although he has played a few games over Double -AT). The Phillies could also have been a potential landing place for Keuchel.

As for Keuchel's performance, I think it's going to be a great addition. He had the highest ground ball rate among the qualifying starters last season, which compensates for the fact that he's not a big striker and that he's the type that every rotation needs this homer-happy season. After refusing the $ 17.9 million Houston qualifying bid and not getting the megadeal that he was hoping for the off season, he will be launching again for a contract, so that's the best deal he can get. he could come with a chip to the shoulder. With his experience in the playoffs, he is also the pitcher that every coach wants on the mound in a big game.

No one is going to run away with NL East, but I think it makes Braves the favorite now. In recent days, there may have been a five-game swing between McCutchen and Keuchel heading for Atlanta.

Your move, Phillies.

The triple doubles of Bell: The other day, I chose my annual alignment of Way Too Early stars and Anthony Anthony Rizzo was my first goal in the National League. I could have chosen Josh Bell. I could have chosen Freddie Freeman.

Fans of the New York Mets will insist that I should have chosen Pete Alonso. Whatever the case may be, Pittsburgh Pirates fans have said that Bell deserves only reserve honors. They are not wrong. Bell is have the best season:

Bell: .338 / .398 / .692, 18 HR, 56 RBI, 2.7 WAR / 2.2 fWAR
Rizzo: .278 / .387 / .556, 16 HR, 44 RBI, 1.8 WAR / 2.0 fWAR
Freeman: .307 / .393 / .580, 16 HR, 38 RBI, 2.2 WAR / 2.0 fWAR
Alonso: .265 / .344 / .605, 20 HR, 45 RBI, 2.3 WAR / 2.1 fWAR

Bell has the advantage over Baseball WAR baseball, but the four are essentially identical, although Bell also leads there (the totals of the war until Wednesday). My argument is that it's theStar The game – the emphasis on the star – and the two extraordinary months of Bell do not outweigh the long history of success of Rizzo and Freeman. Other fans have focused on "2019" and all that matters are the statistics of the current year. This is good. Different opinions are acceptable.

Be that as it may, Bell is one of the best stories of the season and after winning three doubles in Pittsburgh's 6-1 win over Atlanta, he leads the majors with 45 more base-line wins, 10 more than Cody Bellinger:

His "rhythm" stats are amazing: 48 home runs, 66 doubles, 149 RBIs, 120 points. He displays these RBI numbers in a composition that averages only 4.31 points per game, 21st in the majors. We can also imagine that he will continue Earl Webb's record of 67 doubles.

Even if Bell slows down a bit, he has a chance to have one of the best offensive seasons in the history of the Pirates. It should be noted that the Pirates only had two hitters of 40 victories in their history: Ralph Kiner, who made it five years in a row, from 1947 to 1951, and Willie Stargell, who did it in 1971 and 1973. the parks in which the pirates played. Forbes Field was 365 feet from the left field and 406 left-center – although the dimensions were reduced from 1947 to 1953 to 335 and 376 when the arenas were moved to the outfield (thus helping Kiner, a right-handed batter) . The Three Rivers Stadium was one of those cookie-cutter stadiums, and PNC Park has always been more of a pitchers park.

If we analyze the advanced parameters, Bell's 173 WRC + (until Wednesday) ranks 12th in the list of Pirates. Four of them belong to Honus Wagner from the era of the dead balloon. The best since the second world war:

Barry Bonds, 1992: 198
Stargell, 1971: 186
Stargell, 1973: 181
Kiner, 1949: 179
Kiner, 1951: 179
Brian Giles, 2002: 174
Bell, 2019: 173

The bonds reached 0.31 / .456 / .624 with 34 homers by winning the MVP title in 1992. He overtook Bell in OBP, but he also played in a league in which the average environment was 3 , 88, compared to the 2019 average in NL. from 4.71. So, Bell is not going to beat Bonds, but maybe he deserves to start the all-star game.

If Josh Bell can handle it, his potential breakthrough could be historic for the Pirates franchise. Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo

Cruel tweet of the day: Christian Yelich crowned his 23rd round of the Brewers' first win over the Marlins, which gave us this:

The home / road divisions of Yelich remain of the Coors Field type:

Home: .424 / .528 / 1.082, 18 homers in 25 games
Road: .259 / .370 / .474, 5 circuits in 31 matches

As a team, the Brewers divisions are not as extreme, with a .800 OPS at home and a .755 on the road (so Yelich is fundamentally responsible for the difference alone).

We have seen this before: Max Kepler played his second game in three games of his career – and this is his second time in Cleveland. All three won Trevor Bauer's 5 to 4 victory over the Twins. Here is the n ° 3:

The Indians took two out of three in the series, but Bauer's problems continue, just another dagger in the Cleveland rotation that is without Corey Kluber, Mike Clevinger and Carlos Carrasco after Carrasco was sent to the wounded list a few days ago with a blood disorder that will keep him away forever. Bauer has allocated less than four points just once in eight starts. He did not launch as badly as ERA suggests, but he was not able to get the outs by the time he needed it the most, his success rate did not improve. being only 55.5% (compared to 79.5% last season). Nevertheless, for the guy who confidently predicted that he would win the Cy Young Award, the results were disappointing.

As for the Twins, they continue to hit, while they are leading the majors with 117 runs at home – a pace of 311. They hit at the .510 speed. No team has ever beaten .500 in a full season (the 2003 Red Sox hold the .491 record). Meanwhile, Jose Berrios only allowed two hits in six innings to improve his score to 8-2 with a points average of 3.14. He could be headed for his second consecutive match of the stars.

With the Twins at the head of a comfortable 10.5, the Indians will have to find a way to get things moving before the break of the stars, minus the horses of the rotation. They have a good game from June 11 to July 7 against the Reds, Tigers, Rangers, Tigers, Royals, Orioles, Royals and Reds. They will then know if they have a chance of catching the twins. If not, look for them to become sellers – with Bauer perhaps on the trading market.

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