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The MLB Daily Dish is a daily feature we're running here at MLBDD and rounds up roster-impacting news, rumors, and analysis. Have feedback or have something that should be shared? Hit us at @mlbdailydish on Twitter.
Good morning baseball fans!
This would be a weird call, but the Indians are considering rolling with a three-man rotation for the postseason.
In what could be the start of a major shakeup, the Diamondbacks fired their vice president of baseball operations, De Jon Watson.
The Mets can’t afford to be without Yoenis Cespedes, and fans were worried after he left a game early. It ended up being nausea and dizziness.
Since being traded to the Pirates, Ivan Nova has been really really good.
Along with finding confidence in his sinker, Nova seems to have abandoned his slider again. He didn’t throw any in May and he hasn’t thrown it at all in September. However, the breaking pitch he’s still using, the curveball, has changed to become a bit more slider-ish. Nova is throwing it a little harder (up 1.5mph from April to September) and is getting less movement, especially horizontally. It’s tighter all-around.
Nova hasn’t been perfect with Pittsburgh. He still has the propensity to throw a lot of pitches from time to time, but it hasn’t been as bad as it was in New York. He threw a complete game on September 8 against the Reds and threw only 94 pitches—67 of them for strikes. Then during his next start, he threw 92 pitches in six innings on September 13 against the Phillies. But, he also recorded a season-high 11 strikeouts during that start against Philly—he had only four against the Reds.
Here is the MLB Week-in-Review, recapping all that was in the last week of the baseball world. While you are at it, here is the MLB Blog Review.
A roundup of news from around the American League West.
Addison Reed has turned himself into a lighter version of Andrew Miller.
More importantly, though, he’s been used in the fantastically valuable role of “multi-inning, high-leverage reliever,” similar to how… Miller’s been used since coming to Cleveland. Reed’s made 12 multi-inning relief appearances, with anaverage leverage index of 1.404. The only relievers with more multi-inning relief appearances and a higher average leverage index are Dellin Betances, Nate Jones, and Erasmo Ramirez. Reed’s being asked to pitch in highly important spots, and he’s getting as many outs as the Mets need. His role may not be quite as fluid as Miller’s is in Cleveland, but he’s been the bridge to closer Jeurys Familiathat the Mets so sorely lacked in the 2015 postseason.
A pair of long-limbed pitchers. A pair of former top prospects. A pair of messy mechanics, now streamlined and efficient. A pair of fastballs for strikes and sliders below the zone. A pair of baseball’s lowest walk rates, and most time spent ahead in the count. A pair of the game’s most dominant relievers, being used as such. Addison Reed isn’t quite at Andrew Miller’s level — it’s possible nobody is. But it’s remarkable how close he’s gotten.
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Today in Baseball History: In 1968, Mickey Mantle hits his last home run in the majors.