Prior to talking to him in Wrigley Field’s home clubhouse in late August, my knowledge of Ethan Roberts mostly consisted of his being a 27-year-old, right-handed reliever with limited big-league experience and a high spin rate. I also knew he’d had Tommy John surgery in 2022 as that was mentioned, along with his spin, when he was blurbed as an honorable mention on our 2023 Chicago Cubs Top Prospects list.
The 2018 fourth-round pick out of Tennessee Technological University has added to his résumé since we spoke and now has 27 appearances for his career, 18 of them this year. His numbers in the current campaign include a 2.66 ERA and 23 strikeouts over 23-and-two-thirds innings. Three days ago he tossed a scoreless frame against the Washington Nationals and was credited with his first big-league win.
Roberts learned that he spun the ball well upon entering pro ball. Not long thereafter, he learned that not all spin is created equal.
“It was my first time around technology,” explained Roberts. “I threw a bullpen and my fastball was spinning pretty high. It was spinning like 2,800 [RPMs] —right now it’s more 2,600-2,700 — and I actually throw it very supinated. It’s kind of like a natural cutter. But yeah, when I got on technology there, in Arizona [at the Cubs spring training complex], I was like, ‘I don’t know what any of this means, but thanks for telling me.’”
Which brings us to his spin characteristics, as well as to pitch classifications.
“We tried multiple times to get it to go straight, with different grips, different angles, and different X, Ys and Zs,” Roberts said of the fastball he grips as a four-seamer. “In the end, we kind of just adopted what I have. It’s like four vert, four horizontal, almost every time, so it’s pretty much a cutter. While it’s high spin, the spin efficiency is probably like 60 percent.”
His slider, which Baseball Savant classifies as a sweeper, is also high spin, It averages over 3,000 RPMs… regardless of what you choose to call it.
“I mean, I think they’re both the same,” Roberts said of the slider-or-sweeper question. “I guess everyone, in this new age, is calling the bigger ones a sweeper. But I do get anywhere from 15 to 22 inches. They taught me that slider in 2022. Before, the horizontal was probably 12 to 13 and I would get a few inches of negative. Now I’m getting probably an average of 18 inches of sweep with maybe two negative. We just made it bigger.”
Roberts told me that he is also throwing a two-seamer, which he began developing earlier this season. He’d only thrown a smattering of them in games at the time we spoke, one of which was “three vertical, 15 horizontal” while another was “seven and nine.” The need to develop consistency aside, having a third pitch that moves arm-side should only make him better.
“Pitches play off of each other,” said Roberts. “When I throw my slider and my cutter, they’re the same for a long time and then they split — one is shorter and the other is longer, and one is faster and other is slower. That’s my goal with the sinker. I want to be able to give hitters a different look.”
For Roberts, the looks include a lot of spin. Regardless of how you label his pitches.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Dick “Ducky” Schofield went 4 for 32 against Roger Craig.
Dick Schofield Jr. went 0 for 28 against Mark Gubicza.
Kirby Puckett went 4 for 32 against Danny Darwin.
Darwin Barney went 5 for 8 against Justin Verlander.
Roy Smalley went 10 for 27 against Rex Barney.
Roy Smalley Jr. went 10 for 27 against Glenn Abbott.
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Tony Cloninger went 3-for-5 with two grand slams and nine RBIs while allowing three runs in a CG win. Rick Wise threw a no-hitter in a game where he homered twice. Was either of these a better individual performance than what Shohei Ohtani did yesterday?
I asked that question in a Twitter poll Friday, on the heels of the record-setting Los Angeles Dodgers superstar’s 6-for-6 performance that included three home runs (the last of them against a position player), two doubles, two stolen bases, and 10 RBIs.
Surprisingly — at least to me — the poll elicited scant interest, with fewer than 100 people bothering to cast votes. Of those who did, two-thirds were of the opinion that Cloninger and/or Wise had the better performance. I agree with the majority. Moreover, I would rank Wise’s as the best of the three.
Notable in Wise’s effort is that he threw his two-home-run no-hitter in 1971 against a Cincinnati Reds lineup that included Johnny Bench, George Foster, Hal McRae, Tony Perez, and Pete Rose. The Philadelphia Phillies right-hander retired Rose to complete the 4-0 win.
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“What has been the best game of your life?” is a question I’ve asked numerous players this season, with the first dozen of the answers making up a piece that ran in June. I’ve since included a handful of other responses in Sunday Notes, and we’ll continue in that vein this week with two members of the Chicago White Sox. As noted previously, “best game” isn’t just in MLB, or even professional baseball, but rather any time since they first put on a uniform.
“There was a game in college against USC where I had two homers and one of them was a walk-off grand slam,” said Andrew Vaughn, who grew up in Santa Rosa and starred at the University of California Berkeley before being drafted third overall by the White Sox in 2019. “Back in Little League, there was a game where my neighbor, Richard — we’re still good friends to this day — and I pitched against each other. I threw a no-hitter. He threw a no-hitter, but then had to come out because he’d reached his pitch limit. I was the next batter and hit a walk-off home run against the kid who replaced him. It was the only hit of the game.”
“I don’t know about individual games, but when I was 10 or 11 [years old] I had a tournament where I went like 19-for-21,” recalled Dominic Fletcher, who grew up in Orange County. “Something crazy like that. I was probably 10 or 11 years old, and this was a travel ball tournament. I think it was called Big League Dreams. There were probably some lucky hits in there, but yeah, it was something like 19-for-21. Outside of that, I might have had a couple of high school games where I hit two homers.
“In pro ball, I had a game in Double-A, in Amarillo, where the wind was howling out and I had a couple of homers, including a grand slam. It was Mother’s Day. Mom wasn’t there, though.”
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A quiz:
Which pitcher has started the most games for the Chicago Cubs over the past 50 seasons (since 1975)?
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
Barbara Gregorich is the winner of this year’s Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award. More information on Gregorich and the award can be found here.
Minnie Mendoza, a native of Ceiba del Agu, Cuba who played in 16 games for the Minnesota Twins in 1970, died earlier this month at age 89. A veteran of 20 professional seasons who was 35 years old when he made his MLB debut, Mendoza logged three big-league hits, two off of Mike Cuellar and one off of Sam McDowell.
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The answer to the quiz is Greg Maddux, who pitched for the Cubs from 1986-1992, and again from 2004-2006, with 298 starts. Carlos Zambrano is second with 282 starts, while Kyle Hendricks is third with 269.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Tokyo Yakult Swallows third baseman Munetaka Murakami went deep for the 29th and 30th time on Friday and now has 238 home runs over six NPB seasons (plus a six-game cameo in 2018 at age 18). Meanwhile, 26-year-old Yokohama DeNa BayStars second baseman Shugo Maki has hit 20 or more in each of his four NPB seasons. He has 97 home runs to go with a .298/.346/.516 slash line over 2,212 career PAs.
Rowan Wick is 5-1 with a 2.72 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 43 innings for the BayStars. The 31-year-old right-hander is in his first NPB season after pitching for the San Diego Padres in 2018, and for the Chicago Cubs from 2018-2022.
Yeong Hyun Park is 10-2 with 25 saves and a 3.67 ERA for the KBO’s KT Wiz. The 20-year-old right-hander has 85 strikeouts and 60 hits allowed in 73-and-two-thirds innings.
Ja-wook Koo is slashing .343/.416/.618 with 31 home runs and a 162 wRC+ in 560 plate appearances for the KBO’s Samsung Tigers. The 31-year-old outfielder has a .318 batting average to go with an .896 OPS and 165 home runs over 10 seasons.
Japan won its second straight U-23 Baseball World Cup title last weekend, beating Puerto Rico 5-0 in the championship game. The tournament MVP was Puerto Rico outfielder Edgardo Villegas, a 20-year-old native of Bayamon who plays at the University of Miami.
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A random obscure player snapshot:
John Castino had a great glove, and if not burdened by a chronic back injury he likely would have had a long and prosperous career. As it was, the slick-fielding third baseman played just five-plus seasons, all with the Minnesota Twins, recording 648 hits and a 97 wRC+ over 666 games. His future looked especially bright early on. Castino shared American League co-Rookie of the Year honors with Toronto’s Alfredo Griffin in 1979, and the following season he batted .302 with 13 home runs. Gene Mauch and Brooks Robinson were among those who championed his defensive prowess at the hot corner.
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Adam Mazur didn’t impress statistically in his initial big-league opportunities. Over three separate stints spanning early June to late July, the 23-year-old right-hander made eight appearances for the San Diego Padres and allowed 28 earned runs in 33-and-two-thirds innings. But he did show enough potential to impress scouts for a rival team. With the trade deadline fast approaching, the Miami Marlins acquired Mazur as part of the six-player deal that sent Tanner Scott west.
The St. Paul, Minnesota native attracted the attention of amateur scouts in 2022 after transferring to the University of Iowa from South Dakota State, where he’d largely unimpressed. A stellar junior season with the Hawkeyes earned him Big 10 Pitcher of the Year honors and helped make him a second round pick. He attributes improved mechanics for his step forward in performance.
“It was the work I put in with my pitching coach at Iowa coming to fruition,” Mazur told me shortly before the trade to Miami. “It was mostly mechanical stuff, like staying in my back leg a little bit longer, making sure I wasn’t flying open with my front shoulder, and really just driving toward home plate.”
Mazur began this season in Double-A, was promoted to Triple-A in mid-May, then moved up on June 4 when an arm was needed in MLB. In July, our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen assigned him a 40 FV, writing that righty’s “arm strength and breaking ball quality ensure he’s going to be a useful big leaguer.”
Mazur has made eight Jekyll and Hyde starts with the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp since joining the Marlins organization. He has a 5.21 ERA over those outings.
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FARM NOTES
Angel Genao slashed .330/.379/.499 with a 150 wRC+ over 496 plate appearances between Low-A Lynchburg and High-A Lake County. The 20-year-old switch-hitting infielder in the Cleveland Guardians system had 38 doubles, four triples, 10 home runs, and 25 stolen bases.
GJ Hill had 20 home runs to go with a .267/.358/.528 slash line and a 139 wRC+ over 336 plate appearances between Low-A Fresno and High-A Spokane. The 23-year-old second baseman/outfielder in the Colorado Rockies system was a perfect 16-for-16 in the stolen base department.
K.C. Hunt went 8-3 with a 2.03 ERA, a 2.29 FIP, and 139 strikeouts in 102 innings across Low-A Carolina, High-A Wisconsin, and Double-A Biloxi. The 24-year-old right-hander in the Milwaukee Brewers system had a 7.67 ERA over 81 innings in four seasons at Mississippi State University before being signed as a non-drafted free agent last summer.
Nico Zeglin went 7-0 with a 0.95 ERA, a 2.19 FIP, and 90 strikeouts in 66 innings between Low-A Myrtle Beach and High-A South Bend. The 24-year-old right-hander in the Chicago Cubs system was signed as a non-drafted free agent in April.
Ian Seymour went 9-4 with a 2.35 ERA, a 3.30 FIP, and 162 strikeouts in 145-and-a-third innings between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham. The 25-year-old left-hander in the Tampa Bay Rays organization was featured here at FanGraphs in March 2022 following his first professional season.
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What has been the worst pitch you’ve thrown all year, and why was it so bad? I’ve asked that question to a handful of pitchers this season, the most recent being Baltimore Orioles right-hander Corbin Burnes.
“Teoscar Hernández hit a three-run homer off of me on a backup curveball,” the four-time All-Star and former Cy Young Award winner said of the August 28 gopher he surrendered to the LA Dodgers slugger. “It was probably the fifth curveball of the AB. It was one of those things where I tried to do too much. I tried to make it more nasty than it already is, and it backed up on me. He homered, which was the difference-maker in that game.
“It still had good shape to it, it just came out of the hand more arm-side than the curveballs before that,” continued Burnes. “Had I just thrown the same curveball, I’d probably have gotten a ground ball, or maybe another foul ball that would have kept me in the at-bat. But again, I tried to do too much.”
His having mentioning both good shape and “backed up” prompted my asking for further clarification. That struck me as counterintuitive.
“My curveball, good or bad, whether it backs up or not, has good shape to it,” replied Burnes. “But if I yank from the front side too early, my release point is just a little different. It spins, with good shape, right down the middle rather than in the down-and-away quadrant. I’ve become pretty good over the years of knowing how the ball should come out of the hand, so it’s not necessary how it spins, it’s what goes on before that. Occasionally I can rip a curveball harder and make it better, but in that game, in that scenario, it didn’t. It was middle-in and he hit it.”
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf wrote about three Pittsburgh Pirates who have rebounded to finish the season strong.
MLB.com’s Julia Kreuz wrote about Luis De Los Santos루이스 and four Toronto Blue Jays prospects.
Emily Waldon talked to speedy Detroit outfield prospect Seth Stephenson for Tigers Minor League Report.
Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein wrote about how Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez has successfully bridged the gap between Royals eras.
MLB official historian John Thorn featured Justine Siegal in his Pioneers series at Our Game. The founder of Baseball For All, Siegal was honored in 2022 with SABR’s Dorothy Seymour Mills Award for Lifetime Achievement in Women’s Baseball.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Baltimore’s Anthony Santander has 99 RBIs. The last Orioles switch-hitter with 100 or more RBIs in a season was Bobby Bonilla, who had 116 in 1996.
The Arizona Diamondbacks have 33 sacrifice hits this year, the most in the majors. They have 64 sacrifice flies, also the most in the majors.
Gerrit Cole recored his 2,246th career strikeout on Friday, moving him into a tie with Eddie Plank for 61st place on the all-time list. Cole has thrown 1,947-and-a third innings. Plank, whose Hall of Fame career spanned the 1901-1917 seasons, threw 4,495-and-two-thirds innings.
Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller had 1,486 career plate appearances. He scored 99 runs, drove in 99 runs, drew 100 walks, and had 100 sacrifice hits.
Jamey Carroll and Birdie Tebbetts finished their respective careers with exactly 1,000 hits. Carroll combined to score and drive in 825 runs. Tebbetts combined to score and drive in 826 runs.
Roberto Clemente and Tommy Lasorda (who went 14-5 with a 3.51 ERA) both played for the Montreal Royals in 1954. So did International League legend Rocky Nelson, who along with having multiple monster seasons at the Triple-A level saw action in the 1952 World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the 1960 World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
On today’s date in 1975, Adrian Garrett slammed a pinch-hit three-run homer off of Goose Gossage in the bottom of the 16th inning to give the California Angels a 3-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. Frank Tanana threw a career-high 13 innings for the winning side.
On today’s date in 1962, Boston Red Sox left-hander Billy MacLeod was tagged with the loss in a 4-3, 12-inning defeat to the Washington Senators while allowing the only earned run of his brief two-game big-league career. Three years later, MacLeod went 18-0 with a 2.73 ERA for the Double-A Pittsfield Red Sox.
Players born on today’s date include Dave Sax, who slugged his only big-league home run — Toronto’s Jimmy Key gave up the gopher — on yesterday’s date in 1986. The older brother of Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Steve Sax logged all 16 of his career hits with the Red Sox.
Also born on today’s date was Urban Shocker, who won 20 or more games for the St. Louis Browns each year from 1920-1923. The right-hander, who later had 19- and 18-win seasons with the New York Yankees, was known for his spitball.
