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1 Diaz working on pitch selection at Triple-A After impressive turn in Majors, Indians see potential in infielder By Jordan Bastian / April 24th, 2017 CLEVELAND -- Yandy Diaz put one of his best offensive skills on display on Opening Day. Rangers ace Yu Darvish sent a fastball just below the strike zone, and the Indians rookie shot the pitch into the right-field corner for a double. It was Diaz's first Major League hit and a look into his potential. That glimpse of Diaz's ability also served as a bit of foreshadowing for what was to come. During his 15-game stint with Cleveland, Diaz turned in an extremely unique offensive performance. He consistently hit the ball hard, but he frequently pounded pitches into the ground. In this age of exit velocity and launch angle, there was no hitter quite like Diaz out of the gates this season. Now back at Triple-A Columbus, Diaz's task is learning how to get more out of his swing. "There is plane to the swing," Tribe hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo said. "It's just he catches the ball very deep and he has the ability to accelerate to the ball very deep, which allows for low-trajectory, high-velocity balls off the bat. If there's one thing to work on with him, it's just balls in, catching them out front. Same swing." When the Indians optioned Diaz to Columbus on Friday -- clearing the way for Jason Kipnis to come off the disabled list -- the message to the rookie was simply to build on his Major League experience. Diaz turned in an underwhelming.236/.295/.255 slash line in his 61 plate appearances with Cleveland, but Van Burkleo and manager Terry Francona were nonetheless impressed. Diaz only swung at 16.1 percent of pitches outside the strike zone, representing the third-lowest rate among players with at least 50 plate appearances. According to Statcast, he also ranked 15th in the Majors with an average exit velocity of 92.8 mph (minimum 25 results). The biggest issue was that Diaz put so many balls on the ground. His average launch angle (minus-0.1) ranked last in the Majors. The Indians did not, however, send Diaz back to the Minors to work on swing changes to improve his angle on batted balls. Instead, Cleveland wants to see improved pitch selection and a better idea of when to attack inside pitches. Once Diaz improves that aspect of his hitting, the launch angle should improve naturally. "Yandy hit the ball hard, and he hit the ball hard the other way," Francona said. "For guys to do that, you know how often I say it, you've got to be doing a lot of things right to do that. I think with experience and at-bats, I think guys learn what they can get in the air, things like that. I [don't think] you try to change somebody's launch angle." Michael Brantley -- arguably the Indians' best pure hitter -- echoed Francona's take on the matter, too. The veteran outfielder said Diaz's launch angle should improve as he gains experience. "I'm all about learning counts, learning situations, learning pitchers' tendencies," Brantley said. "It's having the repetitions, so you're able to attack at certain points or getting mistake pitches, or learning what they're doing and not trying to do too much. I don't believe in lifting the ball in the air. "Launch angle means nothing to me. I believe in getting the barrel to the ball as consistently as possible anytime that you can." Jordan Bastian has covered the Indi Cleveland Indians pitcher Steve Delabar suspended 80 games for positive PEDs test Zack Meisel, on April 24, 2017 at 5:20 PM, updated April 24, 2017 at 5:41 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Indians pitcher Steve Delabar received an 80-game ban from Major League Baseball on Monday for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. Delabar, 33, tested positive for ostarine, a muscle-building (or maintaining) agent that is consumed orally. The right-hander, assigned to Triple- A Columbus during spring training, had not yet pitched because of the looming suspension. The Indians signed the veteran in mid-january to a minor-league deal with an invite to spring camp. Shawn Armstrong filled the lone vacancy in the club's Opening Day bullpen. Delabar hasn't traveled the simplest path during his professional career. The Padres selected him in the 29th round of the 2003 amateur draft. He toiled in the minor leagues, played independent ball and then broke his elbow in He spent more than a year away from the game, as he went to school, served as a substitute teacher and fell in love with slow-pitch softball. Eventually, the Mariners gave him another chance, and he broke into the majors in September He made the American League All-Star team with Toronto in That year, he posted a 3.22 ERA, with 82 strikeouts in 58 2/3 innings. Delabar has never duplicated that success, and bounced between the Reds' big-league club and Triple-A affiliate last season. "For the young kids who maybe get lost in what they want to do, sometimes it takes a little bit to figure out," Delabar told cleveland.com during spring training. "You see people who get into college and get their degree and they get out and they don't even use that degree, because they find something else that they're attracted to. Sometimes you don't know what you want and it takes a little bit of time to mature and find out what you really want." Cleveland Plain Dealer LOADED: Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros series preview, pitching matchups Paul Hoynes, on April 25, 2017 at 5:00 AM, updated April 25, 2017 at 5:03 AM CLEVELAND -- Here is the preview and pitching matchups for the Indians' series against Houston that opens Tuesday night. Where: Progressive Field, Tuesday through Thursday. TV/radio: SportsTime Ohio will televise the series. WTAM 1100 and WMMS/FM will broadcast it.

2 Pitching matchups: LHP Dallas Keuchel (3-0, 0.96) vs. RHP Josh Tomlin (1-2, 11.66) Tuesday at 6:10 p.m.; RHP Lance McCullers (2-0, 3.38) vs. RHP Trevor Bauer (1-2, 6.35) Wednesday at 6:10 p.m. and Mike Fiers (0-1, 5.40) vs. RHP Corey Kluber (2-1, 4.28) Thursday at 6:10 p.m. Series: The Indians went 3-4 against the Astros last year. The Indians lead, 27-19, overall. Tuesday: Tomlin, coming off his first win of the season, will make his first career start against Houston. Brian McCann has three RBI against him. Keuchel is 3-0 with a 2.27 ERA in his career against the Indians. In his first four starts this season, he's allowed three runs in 28 innings. Brandon Guyer is hitting.600 (6-for-10) against Keuchel. Wednesday: Bauer, coming off his first win of the season, is 5-0 with a 1.97 ERA in five starts against the Astros. Norichika Aioki is hitting.385 (5-for-13) against Bauer. McCullers has never faced the Indians. This season he has 31 strikeouts, while allowing 22 hits in 24 innings. Thursday: Kluber has won his last two starts, including Friday's three-hit shutout over the White Sox. He's 4-3 with a 3.17 ERA against the Astros. Marwin Gonzalez is hitting.417 (5-for-12) with one homer and an RBI against him. Fiers is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in two starts against the Indians. Jose Ramirez is hitting.333 (2-for-6) against him. Team updates: The Indians are coming off a 5-1 trip through Minneapolis and Chicago. The rotation got every decision. The AL West-leading Astros have won nine of their last 12. The series will highlight two of MLB top young shortstops in Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa. Injuries: Astros - RHP Jandel Gustave (right forearm), RHP Collin McHugh (right forearm) and RHP David Paulino (right elbow) are on the disabled list. OF George Springer (left hamstring) and OF Jake Marisnick (concussion-like symptoms) are day to day. Indians -- RHP Cody Anderson (right elbow) is on the disabled list. Next: Seattle visits Progressive field for a three-game series starting Friday night. Cleveland Plain Dealer LOADED: Ties in baseball? That would be worse than kissing your sister: Going Deep Zack Meisel, cleveland.com CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Welcome to the another installment of Going Deep, a regular series in which we'll take a deep dive into a readerproposed topic. To have your question or comment covered (or, at least, to have it read), send an to zmeisel@cleveland.com. Include your first name and city. Not sure if baseball should change, but if MLB wants to cut out long, extra-inning games during the season, why don't they just play a 10th inning and allow ties? To make it more interesting, they could let managers reset the batting order and pitchers, allowing even players who have left the game to play -- sort of a "power play" inning. Pat, Mayfield Heights Of the Indians' 161 regular-season affairs last year, 12 required extra innings. That's 7 percent, a small portion, and that's one of the reasons why I am not in favor of the league's consideration of placing runners at first and second at the start of each additional frame. I can't even type the word "ties" without feeling a shiver sneak up my back. Many feel that baseball games last too long. How would those people feel about a game persisting beyond their comfort level and then ending without a winner? I'd rather see some sort of home-run derby determine the victor than have to compare the game's outcome to kissing one's sister (as the old adage goes). I've never understood the reasoning for permitting ties in the NFL. The overtime period should be timeless. Imagine if Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose had to squeeze into the same green jacket. Let's leave ties to spring training snoozefests and soccer matches. The Indians are averaging three hours and 22 minutes per game this season. So, in the time it takes you to read this article, you might miss two or three pitches. The power-play concept is interesting, but I'd prefer not to completely alter the rules to arrive at a verdict. (I'm not actually in favor of a slug-off.) The focus should remain on the deliberate nuances within any inning, not just those that come after the mandatory nine. Eight of the Indians' 12 extra-inning contests last season extended past 10 frames. Four of those eight went beyond 11. One went 16 innings. One went 19 innings. The marathon games are the outliers. And, frankly, they're often the most memorable. The Indians' 19-inning triumph in Toronto last summer served as a defining moment for the club. Trevor Bauer emerged from the bullpen to toss five scoreless innings. The Blue Jays turned to a pair of position players to pitch. The Indians' roster felt the after-effects of the game for days. Those games aren't the issues. It's the four-hour, nine-inning game that the Indians and Tigers slogged through a week and a half ago that should receive scorn. What has Cleveland done to fix its pitching? Well, nothing Jerry CrasnickESPN Senior Writer On April 15, when the Cleveland Indians' rotation was lugging around a major-league-high 6.79 ERA and Tribe fans were begging for Mike Clevinger to be summoned from Triple-A Columbus, pitching coach Mickey Callaway kept preaching the same message: He told his starters to keep doing what they were doing, even if the results appeared to be crying out for a Plan B. The pitchers said they felt good, and their stuff matched their upbeat self-evaluations, so Callaway kept assuring them that the numbers would get better -- and soon. "We normally don't look at how many runs we give up,'' Callaway said. "We ask ourselves, are we getting ahead in the count? Are we walking guys? Is our stuff there? Are the strikeouts there?... All those peripheral numbers were good. We were just giving up runs.

3 "A lot of times guys can misconstrue a bad game for, 'I need to do something different,' when you know what? You just gave up some runs that night. It happens. When you start changing, you can't be consistent and you really start to struggle. The guys did a good job of sticking with what they know and making sure they focused on the little things. And here we are.'' One encouraging spin through the rotation doesn't guarantee a smooth ride for the 144 games left on the schedule. But as the Indians welcome the Houston Astros for a clash of division leaders Tuesday, Callaway's faith in the starting rotation -- and the underlying metrics -- appears to be well-founded. Dallas Keuchel is dealing, but how will he fare against the Indians in a series that might be an October preview? Plus the player, rumor, injury and roto asset you need to know in MLB's new week. The Astros had another strong week, but was it enough to hold off the red-hot Nationals? How high can the Yankees climb? See who made the biggest moves up or down after the third week. Since their early rough patch, Cleveland's starters look more like the group that helped lead the team to 94 wins and a World Series appearance in During a five-game win streak that ended with a 6-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, Josh Tomlin and Trevor Bauer logged a combined 1.53 ERA -- with six earned runs allowed in 35.1 innings. Like Callaway, the front office trusted that the malaise would soon pass. Even as Cleveland's starters bottomed out with that 6.79 ERA, they sported a major-league-high.351 batting average on balls in play, which suggested a lot of balls were finding holes. They also ranked second among MLB rotations with a 3.05 xfip, which estimates expected run production based on numbers independent of a pitcher's defense, an indication that they should have been faring better than the high run totals suggested. "We weren't reading into the numbers with too much concern, because these guys were all feeling so good and there was no degradation in their stuff or their command,'' said general manager Mike Chernoff. "When you dug a little deeper, you saw they all looked like the same guys they were last year.'' Teams coming off deep postseason runs inevitably encounter questions about the dreaded "hangover'' effect, but the Indians did not enter the 2017 season with a one-size-fits-all list of potential concerns. Carrasco and Salazar missed all or most of the postseason with injuries, so their biggest issue was health rather than mileage. Conversely, the Indians rode Kluber to the limit in October. He made three starts on short rest and threw a career-high 249 1/3 innings between the regular season and the postseason, so the staff wanted to make sure to strike the right balance between preparation and recovery for him heading into During the offseason, Callaway arranged a conference call with Tim Belcher, Jason Bere, Scott Atchison, Steve Karsay and Bruce Chen -- all former big league pitchers with the organization -- and solicited ideas that might help Kluber. The group discussed everything from Kluber's long-toss regimen and bullpen sessions to his projected spring training workload. Callaway relayed the suggestions to Kluber, who told him the only thing that really mattered was being ready by Opening Day. Once that was resolved, the Indians knew Kluber would tend to the particulars. "There's a lot in this game you can control and a lot you can't control,'' Chernoff said. "Corey takes care of everything you can control. This guy is thinking of preparation and recovery from the second he gets off the mound up until he's back on the mound five days later.'' Cleveland's starters still have some potential trouble spots to navigate. Tomlin hasn't generated many swings and misses with his 87.2 mph average fastball. Kluber has allowed five home runs in 27 1/3 innings. Bauer has looked good the first time or two through the batting order, but he has a ERA in the fourth through sixth innings. And Salazar has run up some big early pitch counts while striking out a whopping 36 batters in 22 2/3 innings. But they can take comfort in knowing the bullpen is still adept at protecting leads and cleaning up any messes they create. Andrew Miller and Cody Allen have combined to allow one run in 15 innings, and they've looked every bit as dominant as they did during the postseason. Miller even emerged unscathed from his stint in the World Baseball Classic -- an excursion that kept manager Terry Francona on edge throughout spring training. "It just goes back to how prepared these guys are,'' Callaway said. "You see Andrew Miller at the start of a series, and he's buried in video and preparing for hitters that he probably could do really well against if he didn't prepare. That takes him to a new level of effectiveness. And Cody Allen does the same thing.'' During the Indians' current 6-2 run, the everyday lineup has taken strides toward greater stability. Jason Kipnis is back from a shoulder injury. Michael Brantley, who appeared in a mere 11 games last season because of shoulder problems, just played in four straight games for the first time this season. Edwin Encarnacion is getting warm, and Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez give the Tribe the most dynamic left side of the infield in the game. But everything begins with the starting pitching. That's been the mandate since Callaway took over as Indians pitching coach in "At one of our first meetings, I told our guys, 'When people talk about the Indians, I want them to talk about pitching,'" Callaway said. "The goal is to be prepared in every way -- physically and mentally -- and go out there and attack hitters. I kind of feel like our pitching staff -- especially our starters -- is the heartbeat of the team. If they're going good, we have a really good chance to succeed.'' The Indians refrained from panicking when the early numbers bordered on gruesome. Now that the rotation has restored a semblance of order, it's time for the rest of the AL Central to start worrying. Developing Diaz s swing by Jordan Bastian Michael Brantley cringed a little when the term was mentioned. Thanks to advancements in technology, a new wave of statistics have started to gain momentum in what is becoming known as the Statcast Era. One of the new metrics is launch angle. Brantley isn t one of its disciples. I don t believe in launch angle, Brantley said on a recent morning. When you say launch angle to me, it means nothing. It means getting the barrel to the baseball. That s all I believe in. Launch angle is the byproduct of a good swing. This brings us to the curious case of Yandy Diaz. We ll get more into what Brantley meant in a bit.

4 During his 15-game taste of the Major Leagues, Diaz s offensive performance was far more unique than his.236/.295/.255 slash line would indicate. The rookie ranked near the top of baseball in hard-hit rate, but at the bottom in launch angle. Pitches were rocketing off Diaz s bat, but were being pounded into the ground, especially the opposite way. The question then becomes: How can Diaz correct this? Now back with Triple-A Columbus, is there something he can work on to get more lift on the ball? It s easy to look at the -0.1 degree launch angle on his balls in play (lowest in the Majors among batters with at least 25 results) and think that a simple improvement in his angle would correct the issue. The Indians actually have no plans of instructing Diaz to alter his swing. In his specific case, it goes back to what Brantley said. Diaz s launch angle should improve naturally with better pitch selection and an improved understanding of when he should expect pitches that he can do more damage with to the pull side. There is plane to the swing, Indians hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo said. It s just he catches the ball very deep and he has the ability to accelerate to the ball very deep, which allows for low trajectory, high velocity balls off the bat. The more you catch the ball out front, the more you re going to catch it on that plane. According to Statcast, Diaz ranked 15th in the Majors (min. 25 results) with an average exit velocity of 92.8 mph on balls in play, entering Monday. He s the only hitter on that long list to have a negative launch angle. The closest right-handed hitter to Diaz on that list is Marcell Ozuna, who currently has an average exit velocity of 93 mph. On balls in play with an E.V. of 92+ mph, Diaz posted a 2.8-degree launch angle, while Ozuna turned in a 19.2-degree angle on the same types of batted balls. The MLB average for balls in play with at least a 92-mph exit velocity is 14.3 degrees. Here is a visualization of Diaz s launch angle on BIP with a 92+ mph E.V. The root of the issue, as Van Burkleo noted, is that Diaz let pitches travel deep into the zone before attacking. With that approach, Diaz has a great knack for staying on the ball and hitting it hard, but the result was a 19.1-percent pull rate (lowest in MLB among hitters with at least 50 plate appearances) and a 38.1-percent opposite-field rate (13th-highest in MLB). Within that, one thing Diaz did exceptionally well was limit himself to pitches in the strike zone. He only swung at 16.1-percent of pitches outside the zone, marking the third-best rate in baseball (min. 50 PA). In the face of a low batting average, and a lot of hard-hit outs, Diaz stayed with his approach. That impressed Van Burkleo. During a young player s first experience in the big leagues, the temptation to tinker in the midst of a slump is strong. Diaz never gave in in that regard. I never saw him get anxiety or pressing, Van Burkleo said. That s nice to see that he s got the maturity to stay the course and trust his swing and trust that it s going to work out over the long haul. Over the long haul, Indians manager Terry Francona believes Diaz s approach will lend itself to improved pull-side power. Like Brantley, Francona said he did not believe in trying to do something different to create an improved launch angle. The manager said improvement in that area will come with experience. I know there s a big new push for the launch angle and stuff, Francona said. I love to see, like Yandy hit the ball hard and he hit the ball hard the other way. For guys to do that, you know how often I say it, you ve got to be doing a lot of things right to do that. I think with experience and at-bats, I think guys learn what they can get in the air things like that. I think if you try to change somebody s launch angle you hear that all the time now I probably have a differing opinion on that than maybe a lot of other people. I think you learn how to hit, and I think Yandy has a really good idea. There are a few examples of Francona s thought process inside Cleveland s clubhouse. One is shortstop Francisco Lindor, who is in his third season in the Majors now. If you look at his yearly progression, Lindor s fly ball rate is climbing as he gains experience. While this season remains in the small sample size category, Lindor s fly ball rate is up to 52.5 percent. That s a jump from 28.4 percent last year. Likewise, his groundbal rate has dropped to 29.5 percent this year, compared to 49.2 percent in 16 and 50.8 percent in 15. Along with those changes, Lindor s opposite-field percentage is also going down: 17.7 percent (2017), 25.3 percent (2016), 29.3 percent (2015). His launch angle to the pull side has also improved: 17.8 degrees (righty) and 15.9 degrees (lefty) in 17, compared to 2 degrees (righty) and 3.2 degrees (lefty) in 16. I m not trying to hit the ball in the air, Lindor said. I m just trying to swing at good pitches, swing at better balls in the zone, not trying to do too much, not trying to hit home runs. Whatever happens after that, happens. Another example is Jason Kipnis. Last year, the second baseman set career highs in home runs (23) and slugging percentage (.469). His spike in power stemmed from his altered approach on inside pitches. Per Statcast, Kipnis had a.743 slugging on pitches over the inner-third of the strike zone in 16, compared to.593 in 15. He s going to learn how to do it, too, Kipnis said. I think when you come up and you re trying so hard to not strikeout, you re trying so hard to put it in play and have a good at-bat, you don t take as many risks. You worry about just making good hard contact. He s obviously great at doing that. I think when he gets into hitter s counts and gets some favorable pitches, I think he s going to learn how to do a little bit more damage. That gets to the heart of what the Indians want Diaz to work on. Here is a look at the heatmap for balls in play by Diaz. Notice something? Diaz didn t do much damage on fastballs middle or middle-in during his time in Cleveland. His best skill was going the other way with low or low-and-away pitches. He showed that right out of the gates with his double into the right-field corner off Yu Darvish on Opening Day. The overall MLB average is.312 and the slugging is.539 on fastballs middle and middle-in this season. The average exit velocity on balls in play is 91.4 mph and the average launch angle is 14.4 degrees. Diaz had a great E.V. on such pitches (97.2 mph), but his launch angle was - 17 degrees. Here s a look at what Diaz did on middle/middle-in fastballs: Francona said the last thing usually to come for a young hitter in the Majors is the pull-side power. Diaz s current approach wasn t conducive for a lot of slugging percentage to left field. Van Burkleo said the rookie s swing plane will generate lift, but Diaz has to catch certain pitches out front, rather than letting them travel so deep into the zone.

5 It s about picking the right time to do it. It s understanding how to anticipate a ball in, Van Burkleo said. They re going to start throwing more balls in to a guy that s so efficient hitting balls away. They re going to say, OK, let s figure him out. Let s throw him in. You ve got to have an answer for that. Two springs ago, that was a major focus for Kipnis, who had earned the reputation of being a great opposite-field hitter. In the cage, Kipnis would set up the tee inside and out front and focus on attacking that type of pitch. The second baseman would also have Van Burkleo or assistant hitting coach Matt Quatraro flip balls to that specific area. The whole idea was to reinforce the idea of picking times to anticipate that pitch and attack it. It improves with experience, because people work on it, Kipnis said. He s got that kind of approach you teach when you re younger of letting the ball travel, seeing the ball, staying through it the other way. That s why you see a good strikeout-to-walk ratio with him. It s because he s got great hand-eye and great approach. I think what you want out of a guy like him is that, yes, he hits the ball extremely hard, but it might be a pitch right down the middle that a guy his size might be able to do more with than fire it at the second baseman. I ve had that problem before with certain stuff. I don t think they want to eliminate that aspect of his game by any means. I think they want to add to it in the sense that middle, middle in, instead of staying through it, trust yourself and throw the hands at it and do some damage with it to left field. Diaz had 15 balls in play with 100+ mph exit velocites, but none cleared the fence. The bulk of those hard-hit balls were singles to the shallow portion of the outfield or lineouts: There are hitters who are trying to get the ball in the air more these days. It s been called the Josh Donaldson School of Hitting by some. J.D. Martinez has been very vocal about it. Even this spring with the Indians, Richie Shaffer (at Triple-A Columbus) spoke at length about how he overhauled his swing to generate more fly balls. The general idea on that front is that a hitter s OPS is in the air. There is a lot of truth to that, but the Indians do not want Diaz to change much with his swing. It s all about pitch selection and knowing when to go on the attack. That is what Brantley means when he says he doesn t believe in launch angle. He doesn t believe in manipulating a swing in order to create more lift. The lift will come naturally with a better approach. Think of it this way: Pitchers can form bad habits if they re focusing too much on pitch velocity in-game. If a hitter gets too caught up in focusing on launch angle, Brantley believes it can have a negative impact. I m all about learning counts, learning situations, learning pitchers tendencies, Brantley said. It s having the repetitions so you re able to attack at certain points or getting mistake pitches, or learning what they re doing and not trying to do too much. Brantley is confident Diaz will get there. He uses the whole field, Brantley said. I feel like the longer you stay on baseball and continue to let it travel, the better chances you ll have to square it up. That s why he hit balls hard. He has a great thought process, a great plan and he s going to be a great Major League baseball player. JB RubberDucks 5, Rumble Ponies 2 Merryweather gets first victory of season, plays 6 innings vs. Ponies Akron Aeros With the old boss taking things in at Canal Park, the RubberDucks did what they do best. Former skipper David Wallace was in the stands and the Ducks beat the Binghamton Rumble Ponies 5-2 on Monday. Wallace, who managed the team to an Eastern League title last season, is now a special assignment coach in the Indians organization. But it was much of the same with Wallace in the park as the RubberDucks won their fifth consecutive game and sixth in the last seven. [Julian] Merryweather did a great job giving us 6 [innings], Ducks manager Mark Budzinski said. We got some big hits when we needed to and swung the bats pretty well tonight and played some good defense. [Shortstop Yu Chang] was all over the place. It was fun to watch. After three consecutive fantastic outings, Merryweather (1-1) picked up his first win of the season. Against the Rumble Ponies (7-8), formerly the Binghamton Mets, Merryweather retired the last 12 he faced. He gave up two runs one earned on three hits with one walk and six strikeouts. In his last three starts, he has struck out 21 and has a 1.45 ERA with a WHIP. What I loved about what he did tonight is he kind of used his fastball early, Budzinski said. They weren t getting to it so he kept throwing it. Later, in the second and third at-bats he started mixing in his off-speed stuff and kept them off-balance. The three outings have been almost a 180 from his Opening Day start in which he gave up five runs all earned with two walks and a strikeout in two innings in a 13-7 loss to the Bowie Baysox. For the 25-year-old it wasn t a matter of making a drastic change as much as it was staying with the process. It s really been trusting my stuff and trusting my delivery, Merryweather said. It s going out there with a plan. It s helped a lot to have a good scouting report and knowing how I m going to attack the lineup and focusing on that rather than focusing on my delivery as much.

6 The evening was ripe with veterans doing their due diligence in the win. Third baseman Eric Stamets didn t notch a base hit in his second game with the Ducks (8-9) after being assigned from the Triple-A Columbus Clippers. The six-year minor leaguer grounded out to first to score Mike Papi in the second inning and had a sacrifice fly to score Eric Haase and give the RubberDucks the lead for good in the sixth. Greg Allen followed with a single to left to score Joe Sever (3-for-4, run). Allen came around to score on a wild pitch after stealing second and third. We have prospects here, Stamets said. We have guys coming up through the system that are fairly young, and we have guys that are experienced and have been here before. It s a good mix to have on any team. David Speer picked up his first save of the season, going 2 innings of two-hit ball with two strikeouts. Next up Game 2 of the three-game series with the Rumble Ponies at Canal Park will start at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday. The Ducks will send out right-hander Michael Peoples (1-1, 3.06) against right-hander Donovan Hand. Hand had a 1-2 record with a 7.16 ERA for the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s before being assigned to Binghamton. Zuppe: Discovering where launch angles and exit velocities truly fit in understanding baseball by T.J. Zuppe, Yesterday As someone who believes in the use of advanced metrics to help us better analyze baseball, I think those of us who regularly point to things like launch angle or exit velocity have to take some ownership for the recent backlash from the old guard. This is partially on us. Of course, there are some that will always turn their nose up to something new. Change takes a long time to implement, and those that aren t willing to buy in can often actually provide a healthy outlook to ensure we seek better ways to understand what we don t know or fully understand. Disagreement isn t bad. But a complete refusal to open yourself up to new ideas or at least accept that this is how we ve always done it isn t reason alone to continue doing it? That absolutely can be. But this isn t to chastise those that scoff at every tweet that includes a player s exit velocity, launch angle or defensive route efficiency. Because part of that negative reaction to every new piece of data falls back on those using it. Or in some cases, a failure to explain why. Data, in itself, isn t the enemy. In fact, it s far from it. The more information we have about anything sports or non sports only helps us arrive at more thoughtful decisions and conclusions. The bigger issue is how we use it. I m just as guilty as anyone. When MLB Statcast first started making their data available to the public, I dug in to see how the new toy could be used. With every home run, double or line out to the third baseman, we now had numbers to track everything. That ball was smoked at 106 mph! It had a launch angle of 21 degrees! It traveled a projected 437 feet! These were all fun things we could copy, paste and run to Twitter with to share with the fans. And some of our followers were just as eager to gobble up the new numbers and marvel at the fact that we could get them at all. But others just shook their heads and called us nerds. As it turns out, the naysayers had a point. What I failed to do at first and even probably still fail to do on occasion was provide valuable context as to why this information matters. Was 107 mph impressive? Was it an outlier? Was it average? Was it below average? With Statcast being relatively new, we had no previous understanding of what was noteworthy and what wasn t. We know a 100 mph release velocity from a pitcher is impressive. But launch angle? Exit velocity? We re still learning. So as a result, we just started throwing the number vomit everywhere. Stats for everything. In your face. Velocities, angles, percentages. You ll eat them and you ll like it! Let s think in terms of things we already understand and for which we have proper context. If I told you Dan Otero recorded a strikeout on a 90 mph fastball, you d probably yawn. If we informed you that Francisco Lindor hit a home run 413 feet, you d say, so what? We don t provide this sort of information because it really doesn t add much value to what we already know about the plate. Strikeout. Home run. Got it. Let us know when it s notable. But if in some way the information was odd let s say Otero somehow recorded a strikeout on a pitch at 60 mph or Lindor hit a ball 520 feet (!!) everyone could agree that the additional context was fun and provided some color to the commentary. When someone talks down about exit velocity or any other brand new statistic, it s largely because we have no context to understand what is worthy of consuming and what is just your average fly out to right field. And without that framing, we re just throwing a bunch of random numbers at our audience in an effort to offer something different. It s no wonder they re confused. An average fan can look at a ball scorched at 105 mph for an out and lofted 76 mph for a bloop hit and scratch their head over why this stuff even matters. And if I haven t done a good enough job explaining why, that s on me not them. So, let s start fresh. Hi, I m T.J. and I d like to help you understand why we care about exit velocity, launch angles and all sorts of new information. You re absolutely right about individual events of exit velocity. Unless we re examining a ball launched at 120+ mph in other words, something abnormal the actual data won t help us analyze the play much better than our eyes. We re all smart enough to realize a hitter

7 might have run into some bad luck on a ball struck on a line to the first baseman. And we know that the seeing-eye single had just as much to do about positioning as it did something positive from the batter. The same can be said for a ball being classified as barreled, a combination of exit velocity and launch angle. You probably don t need some baseball analyst to realize the ball blasted over the right field wall was, you know, hit pretty well. The only time, on an individual basis, this might be interesting is if we re able to demonstrate that a ball cleared the fence on something that typically results in an out. Again, we should only be focused on the outliers. But where this information can be useful and this is where a team like the Indians spends a lot of time caring and breaking down these sorts of numbers is over long periods of time. We can take a look at Michael Brantley s improving exit velocity by week and use that to understand where his shoulder is physically. We can see where Lindor s barrels rank among the rest of baseball to help us position how good his start has truly been (he s tied the most in baseball, by the way). We can examine Yandy Diaz s average exit velocity and compare that to his pull percentage and launch angle to help us explain why his hard contact didn t result in more hits. We can look at pitcher s spin rates to help us understand the production differences of two 95 mph fastballs. Have you ever wondered why two pitchers can throw at the same speed but generate different results? These numbers can help fill in the gaps. What about if a pitcher says he put a ball exactly where he meant to? What if he believes a hit was a fluke? Through things like Statcast or helpful tools like Baseball Savant or Brooks Baseball, we can now double and triple check those thoughts. Being able to confirm, one way or another, is a marvelous way to provide insight and analysis. We can look at things like hit probabilities, which are calculated by a combination involving exit velocity and launch angle, to see just how unusual a specific play was. We can examine heat maps to see if a pitch in a particular location was a mistake or a case worthy of tipping your cap to the opponent. Even the biggest detractor of exit velocity should be able to admit that hitting the ball consistently harder should lead to better results over time. That s the entire idea behind probability, no? If I offered you six-sided dice with ones on four sides, the odds of rolling ones is far greater than your average dice, even if they don t pop up on every toss. The more sample size we look at, the more we can find patterns for what is important and what is just random numbers thrown at the wall. It s the responsibility of those that use this sort of data, myself included, to regularly explain why certain things matter while shying away from using data just to prove we can. Otherwise, those that just see the numbers as useless have a point. My thought: we need less of the random Twitter revelations of common exit velocities and launch angles thrown in the average fan s face and more of a focus on the outliers and what information we can truly learn from. As we gain more of an appreciation for what s noteworthy, hopefully that will help us separate what is worth sharing from what s not. The key to learning is being prepared to admit what we don t know. Once we ve established that, we can lay the foundation for a better understanding of the game we all love. Astros' Dallas Keuchel inducing ground balls at unrivaled rate By Jake Kaplan Updated 8:28 pm, Monday, April 24, 2017 ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. - The season is young, but through four starts Dallas Keuchel's groundball rate exceeds his breakout 2014 season and Cy Young Award-winning 2015 campaign by a significant margin. Keuchel comes into his start Tuesday night against the Cleveland Indians having induced groundballs on 70 percent of balls in play, according to Baseball Info Solutions. While such a rate almost certainly isn't sustainable over a six-month season, it's just another sign of how well Keuchel has been commanding his pitches. Keuchel has been pounding the bottom of the strike zone, elevating sparingly. He said he didn't feel much of a need to work up in the zone until his last start, when he allowed just one run in seven innings against the Los Angeles Angels and actually lost a tenth of a point in his now-0.96 ERA. "I'm just trying to entice some early contact," he said. "If it's a groundball that's great, but outs are outs so if it's a fly ball that's fine as well. I'm not looking to have the highest groundball percentage ever in the history, but if that's the way I get outs than so be it." Keuchel led all qualified starters with a 63.5 groundball percentage in 2014 and ranked second to Brett Anderson (66.3) at 61.7 percent in The bearded lefthander fell to 56.7 percent in his struggle-filled 2016, which still actually tied with Jaime Garcia for second-best behind only Marcus Stroman (60.1). Keuchel's current major league-best groundball rate should normalize some as the season advances, but for comparison's sake only three others pitchers even exceed 60 percent through three weeks of the schedule. Lance McCullers is the next-best Astros starter at 57.6 percent. "It's his ability to command multiple pitches," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Keuchel's "skyrocketed" groundball rate. "I think most people will generally (look) right to his sinker. His two-seam fastball is really good, especially down in the zone. His angle is good. But a lot of it his breaking ball. "He can do anything he wants with his breaking ball when his fastball command is right. That tandem is very, very good. And then he mixes in the changeup and he's the complete pitcher that we've come to expect." Hinch said he thinks Keuchel has been as impressive in utilizing his pitches as he's been in the manager's three seasons with the Astros, a span that includes the pitcher's Cy Young campaign in "His sequencing and his ability to execute has been his calling card," Hinch said. Odds & ends

8 - Brian McCann's.872 OPS ranked second among major league catchers (minimum 50 plate appearances) behind only Miami's J.T. Realmuto (.902) coming into Monday's slate of games. - Carlos Correa's.588 OPS ranked 18th among major league shortstops entering Monday. - Mike Hauschild will start for Class AAA Fresno on Thursday in his first outing since the Texas Rangers returned the Rule 5 draft pick to the Astros on Saturday. - Astros top pitching prospect Francis Martes (0-0, 2.92) will make his next Class AAA start on Saturday. Houston Chronicle LOADED: