Innholdsfortegnelse for 8-21 BEST TOOLS i Baseball America

ALBERT PUJOLS’ 600TH HOME RUN CAME AMID BARELY A SHRED OF NATIONAL BUZZ. There were 40,236 fans in attendance at Angel Stadium the night of June 3 when he launched a grand slam off the Twins’ Ervin Santana to reach a milestone attained by just eight other players in major league history. But the general sense of blasé surrounding the event suggested a big swath of the baseball-viewing public was either ambivalent or asleep. Milestone fatigue and the Pacific Time Zone can be a powerful combination in suppressing interest on a national scale. Inside the workaday bubble, the teammates and opponents, pitchers, hitters, managers and coaches who’ve watched Pujols perform for the past 17 years know what he brings to the equation. Padres bench coach Mark McGwire, who spent the…

DAY 1 ATLANTA GEORGIA SunTrust Park. Monday, Aug. 21, 7:35 p.m. Seattle Mariners vs. Atlanta Braves WHAT TO SEE: Start your trip off with a trip to SunTrust Park, the newest park in the big leagues. The Braves’ brandnew home has the amenities of a new park, including a zip line and a bar in right field, plus the park is surrounded by shops, bars and restaurants. WHERE ELSE TO GO: There are plenty of attractions not too far from the ballpark. Six Flags, the World of Coca-Cola and Centennial Olympic Park, which was constructed for the 1996 Olympics, are all located within 20-30 minutes of the ballpark. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get around because Atlanta traffic tends to be congested. WHAT TO EAT:…

BA publishes one prospect report online per month for all 30 organizations. Read more about the Angels’ Griffin Channing and the Yankees’ Chance Adams. BaseballAmerica.com/tag/prospect-report The White Sox think they found their center fielder of the future in late May, agreeing to terms with 19-year-old Cuban Luis Robert, who pocketed a $26 million signing bonus. Chicago believes it landed its right fielder of the future on July 13, when they acquired Eloy Jimenez in a trade package for Jose Quintana. The club’s left fielder of the future? The White Sox are sky high on 20-year-old Blake Rutherford, whom they acquired from the Yankees on July 18 in the deal that sent third baseman Todd Frazier and relievers David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle to New York. “We’re extremely excited around here,”…

Duke outfielder Griffin Conine deals with inescapable comparisons with his father Jeff, a 17-year big league veteran, but he forged his own path. BaseballAmerica.com/college Sluggers Alec Bohm and Greyson Jenista are roommates at Wichita State and two of the best hitters in college baseball. That leads to some shows when the Shockers are taking batting practice and, of course, a friendly game of one-upmanship. “There’s always a little friendly compe- tition, whether one of us knows it or not,” Jenista said. “The other one’s going to say something or make a joke. It’s always a lot of fun to be around him.” This summer, that competition moved to the Cape Cod League. But with the Shockers on different teams on the Cape—Bohm playing first and third base for Falmouth and…

Baseball America found 13 first basemen who signed nine-figure contracts. The average age at which those contracts began was 28. Here are the salary and performance trends: * In millions As it turns out, no player is immune to the effects of aging—not even future Hall of Famers like Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera. The Angels signed Pujols to a 10-year, $240 million contract following the 2012 season, when he was 31. He has produced roughly 14 wins above replacement during his six seasons in Anaheim, compared with nearly 66 WAR during the life of his previous eight-year contract. The Tigers’ Cabrera began playing on his eight-year, $248 million extension in 2016, and now this year at age 34 he is having his worst season. The same trend keeps repeating.…

AMERICAN LEAGUE BEST HITTER 1. Mike Trout, Angels 2. Jose Altuve, Astros 3. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers BEST POWER 1. Aaron Judge, Yankees 2. Joey Gallo, Rangers 3. Miguel Sano, Twins BEST BUNTER 1. Jarrod Dyson, Mariners 2. Elvis Andrus, Rangers 3. Delino DeShields Jr., Rangers BEST STRIKE-ZONE JUDGMENT 1. Joe Mauer, Twins 2. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers 3. Mookie Betts, Red Sox BEST HIT-AND-RUN ARTIST 1. Jose Altuve, Astros 2. Elvis Andrus, Rangers 3. Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox BEST BASERUNNER 1. Mookie Betts, Red Sox 2. Jarrod Dyson, Mariners 3. Mike Trout, Angels FASTEST BASERUNNER 1. Byron Buxton, Twins 2. Jarrod Dyson, Mariners 3. Delino DeShields Jr., Rangers MOST EXCITING PLAYER 1. Mike Trout, Angels 2. Aaron Judge, Yankees 3. Mookie Betts, Red Sox BEST PITCHER 1. Chris Sale, Red Sox…

At the rate basebal is going, by 2020 teams will be signing international prospects on July 2 and trading them away July 3. In the never-ending quest to find an edge, the 2017 trade deadline continued a developing pattern. Teams are proving willing to dig deeper and deeper into other teams’ farm systems in an attempt to land a bargain—and to find prospects teams are willing to deal. Of the 59 minor leaguers traded this July, eight were in Rookie or short-season ball at the time of the trade. Another had yet to make it to the U.S., because he is pitching in the Dominican Summer League. It was a similar story in 2016, when seven players in short-season leagues were dealt in the month leading up to the trade…

The Quatro design offers a flexible outer shell and a stiff inner barrel. The outer barrel acts as a trampoline, with high flexibility for more performance off the sweet spot. For more, visit BaseballAmerica.com/gear Rawlings likes to think it has created a little something for everyone by expanding its array of BBCOR bats to three distinct lines. This summer, all three took on a new iteration, including what turned out to be the semi-surprise success of the brand-new Quatro. Launched this year, Rawlings offered the Quatro as the brand’s first composite BBCOR bat. Kyle Murphy, head of the Rawlings bat catego- ry, said Rawlings previously remained focused on aluminum because it performed better early in the composite game, but after years of research and development, the design team developed a…

DAY 1 KANSAS CITY MISSOURI Kauffman Stadium. Wednesday, Aug. 30, 7:15 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays vs. Kansas City Royals WHAT TO SEE: Start the trip off right with big league game. And enjoy some furry friends because it’s bark in the park night at Kauffman Stadium. Despite being one of the older big league parks—it opened in 1973—Kauffman offers a newly renovated and modern experience. WHERE ELSE TO GO: Check out the Royals Hall of Fame, located in the outfield and free of charge, to learn more about the heroics of Kansas City greats like George Brett and Bret Saberhagen. And since you’ve got all day before the game, make your way over to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, where decades of baseball history are on exhibit for all to…

Members of this year’s draft class, such as No. 1 overall pick Royce Lewis, will be able to compete with USA Baseball’s 18U National Team. BaseballAmerica.com/international The new Collective Bargaining Agreement includes language that specifically targets what Major League Baseball considers to be circumvention of the international bonus pools Per CBA language, under a heading labeled “circumvention,” no team or player may enter into any understanding, agreement or transaction, or make any representation, whether implied or explicit, that is designed to defeat or circumvent the provisions of the “international amateur talent system.” The CBA then lists “a non-exclusive list of conduct that will subject clubs (and club personnel) to sanctions.” Examples include: • Teams can’t pay or promise a player, his family, his trainer or the team/ federation representing him…

The latest Collective Bargaining Agreement was sent to clubs to be ratified in June, and it also was made public on the union’s Twitter feed. Baseball America examined the agreement and found some interesting additions that will affect the way teams spend both domestically and internationally. In the past, the CBA has instituted a luxury tax to charge teams that spend past a certain threshold on major league payroll. But that’s just money. This time the CBA includes draftpick penalties for big-spending teams. The new CBA adds two surcharge thresholds on top of the competitive balance tax that was included in the previous CBA. Spend more than $217 million in 2018 and a team will be hit with an additional 12 percent tax on top of the 20 percent, 30…