Jaden Hamm was surprised when he was selected by the Detroit Tigers in last year’s draft. That it happened in the fifth round wasn’t unexpected — he’d been projected to go in the three-to-five range — but the organization he would soon ink a professional contract with certainly was. The right-hander out of Middle Tennessee State explained it this way when I talked to him prior to a game at West Michigan’s LMCU Ballpark last month:
“I get a call [from my agent] and he’s like, ‘The Tigers are you taking you in the fifth,’” Hamm recalled. “ I was like, ‘What?’ He was like, ‘The Tigers.’ I was like, ‘I know who you said, but I didn’t expect that.’”
Subterfuge played a role in the surprise. Hamm had talked to Detroit’s area scout only a handful of times during his junior season, and while he went to the draft combine and had meetings with teams. the Tigers weren’t one of them. His best guess was that he was going to be drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, or Houston Astros. That none of them — nor any other team — pulled the trigger in time has turned out well for the Tabbies. Hamm has emerged as the second-best pitching prospect in Detroit’s system, behind only shooting star Jackson Jobe.
The numbers tell a big part of the story. In 99 innings with West Michigan, the 22-year-old (as of earlier this week) Hamm has overpowered High-A hitters to the tune of a 2.64 ERA, a 3.10 FIP, a 30.6% strikeout rate, and just 73 hits allowed.
Another part of the story are Hamm’s metrics, which include 20-21 inches of vertical ride on his low-to-mid 90s four-seamer. Learning how best to employ his heater is yet another part of how he’s gone from relatively unknown to a breakout prospect.
“I kind of knew what it was doing in college, but I’d always been taught to throw it at the knees, fastball at the knees,” explained Hamm, whom Baseball America recently added to their Top 100. “When I’d do that it would be riding to belt high. I wouldn’t [throw it up in the zone] with any intent. The catchers would always say it had some hop, and we had TrackMan, but I was at a mid-major and we didn’t really dive into the metrics. It was more like, ‘Throw your stuff in the zone and just try to get outs.’”
A spiked curveball is the righty’s go-to secondary. A 12-6 that he delivers from straight over the top — “I’m like a 6’5” release” — it serves as a good complement to his elevated heaters. Hamm volunteered that if he were to write a scouting report on himself, he’d be “a north-south guy” who occasionally throws a changeup or a slider.
The slider is new this season, while yet another pitch was tinkered with but subsequently scrapped. Hamm worked on a sweeper during his draft year — “it was coming up as the next cool thing” — but because it was too easy for hitters to recognize, he wasn’t getting many swings-and-misses on it. Going back to featuring his one-two combination not only got the whiffs back, it helped jump-start his appeal to scouting departments — one in particular.
“I started throwing the 12-6 more often and began getting more swings-and-misses, more rollovers, and stuff like that,” said Hamm. “I stuck with that the second half of my junior year, and that’s kind of when I flipped the script and kind of powered through and ended up finishing really well going into the draft.”
Again, one team in particular was captivated by the potential in Hamm’s north-south arsenal. Now that he’s adding an east-west weapon — his gyro-ish slider has been coming along well — the ceiling is even higher.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Deion Sanders went 6 for 10 against David Cone.
Reggie Sanders went 7 for 11 against Jerry Dipoto.
Eric Karros went 6 for 10 against Scott Sanders.
Cesar Geronimo went 6 for 9 against Scott Sanderson.
Heinie Sand went 3 for 32 against Doug McWeeny.
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What has been the best game of your life? I’ve asked that question to a number of players this season, with the first of dozen of the answers comprising a piece that ran here at FanGraphs in June. I’ve since included a handful of other responses here in Sunday Notes, and we’ll continue in that vein this week with Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman.
“I’m from Denver, where the baseball isn’t great, but I had a [seven-inning] game my sophomore year of high school where I had 18 punchouts,” recalled Gausman, who attended Grandview High School, in suburban Aurora. “It was against a pitcher who was a big draft guy in my area at that time, Tyler Sample. He was maybe a possible first-rounder, so everybody knew his name. He was a senior and I was a sophomore. It was kind of my coming-out party to scouts in my area. [Sample] did pretty well that day, too, but we won.
“In pro ball, I don’t know if there is any one game. I’ve had two outings with immaculate innings in the big leagues, which were kind of big for me. And I had a complete-game shutout. But outside of that, nothing crazy has been done yet. A cool thing about being a starting pitcher is that every time you take the ball you have an opportunity to do something special.”
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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 Chicago White Sox right-hander Jonathan Cannon.
“Last week, I had an at-bat against J.D. Martinez with a man on and two outs,” Cannon told me on Friday. “I threw him a really good changeup that he looked really bad on, and in my head I knew that I should probably go back to it. Instead I went with a fastball and kind of spray-missed it. The changeup was still wide open, but then I tried to land a sweeper and it was the wrong pitch call. It kind of backed up middle and he hit it out. It was one of those where it was like, ‘I knew I shouldn’t have thrown it, but I threw it anyway.’ I got punished for it.
“I think I should have just doubled up on the changeup,” continued Cannon, who has a 4.53 ERA over 101-and-a-third innings in his rookie season. “He kind of hunts that middle-in fastball, or any breaking pitch that kind of backs up, and I’d already thrown him a couple of good sweepers that he took below the zone. That really isn’t like him, which tells me that he was looking for it. I probably could have thrown a changeup anywhere in the bottom half of the zone and he would have swung and missed at it. The fastball wasn’t the right pitch, and the sweeper definitely wasn’t the right pitch. And then you hang it. It was like, ‘Man, I should not have done that.’”
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A quiz:
In 1964, the Philadelphia Phillies led the second-place St. Louis Cardinals by 6.5 games on September 20, only to lose 10 consecutive games and ultimately the National League pennant. The losing pitcher in three of those games was a Hall of Famer who finished the season with 19 wins. Who was he?
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
The St. Louis Cardinals formally inducted long-time pitching coach Dave Duncan into the team’s Hall of Fame yesterday. Also inducted were right-hander Matt Morris and the late Whitey Kurowski, the latter of whom made five NL All-Star teams and won three World Series while playing for the Cardinals from 1941-1949.
Gary LaRocque, who has been been with the Cardinals since 2008, will reportedly retire at the end of this season. The 71-year-old LaRocque currently holds the title Assistant General Manager/Director of Player Development.
Wayne Graham, an infielder/outfielder who played briefly for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1963, and for the New York Mets in 1964, died earlier this week at age 88. Later a highly-successful college coach, the Yoakum, Texas native logged seven big-league hits.
Bob Blaylock, who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in parts of the 1956 and 1959 seasons, died last weekend at age 89. The right-hander went 1-7 with a 5.94 ERA over 50 innings. His strikeout victims included Henry Aaron and Ernie Banks.
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The answer to the quiz is Jim Bunning, who started on short rest down the stretch and was tagged with three losses from September 24-30.
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Which MLB team has most exceeded your expectations this season? I asked that question in a Twitter poll a few days ago, with the options being Cleveland, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and “other.”
The team that got the highest percentage of votes wasn’t exactly a surprise, but the margin of victory was larger than expected. The Royals garnered a whopping 58.2%, while the Brewers received 17.3%, the Guardians got 12.7%, and the remaining 11.8% went to “other.”
At the time the poll closed, the Royals sat in third place in the AL Central with a record of 76-65, 4.5 games behind the first-place Guardians, whose 80-60 record was tied for second best in the circuit. Meanwhile, the Brewers were 81-59 and in first place in the NL Central, a full nine games in front.
Has Kansas City exceeded most expectations this season? Without a doubt. At the same time, Cleveland and Milwaukee sitting firmly atop their divisions with two of MLB highest win totals wasn’t exactly expected either. At least not by yours truly.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Max Durrington will spend his winters playing with the Brisbane Bandits, having agreed to a three-year deal with the Australian Baseball League club earlier this week. Signed by the Oakland Athletics in July out of Tweed Heads, Queensland, the 17-year-old infielder is the son of former Anaheim Angels and Milwaukee Brewers infielder Trent Durrington.
Franmil Reyes set a Nippon-Ham Fighters franchise record earlier this week by recording a hit in his 25th consecutive game. The erstwhile MLB outfielder, whose streak ended at 25, is slashing .277/.332/.532 with 18 home runs over 292 plate appearances in his first NPB season.
Shugo Maki is slashing .272/.333/.470 with 19 home runs in 465 plate appearances for the Yokohama BayStars. The 26-year-old second baseman is poised to become the fifth player in NPB history to hit 20 or more home runs in each of his first four seasons.
Hiroto Saiki is 11-3 with a 1.64 ERA over 142-and-two-thirds innings for NPB’s Hanshin Tigers. The 25-year-old right-hander has allowed 100 hits and recorded 119 strikeouts.
Shota Suzuki has allowed just two earned runs over 43 relief appearances comprising 41-and-a-third innings for NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines. The southpaw, who has 37 strikeouts and five saves on the season, celebrated his 26th birthday yesterday.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Nyls Nyman spent his relatively brief big-league career with the Chicago White Sox, appearing in 120 games across the 1974-1977 seasons. He got off to a fast start, albeit one that was short in duration. Just 20 years old when he debuted on September 6, 1974, the Detroit native proceed to go 9-for-14, only to miss the remainder of the campaign after getting plunked in the elbow by an errant offering. It was all downhill from there for Nyls Wallace Rex Nyman, who totaled just 85 hits while wearing a White Sox uniform, all but 11 of them in 1975. His younger brother, Chris Nyman, got extended cups of coffee with Chicago’s South Side team in 1982 and 1983.
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FARM NOTES
William Bergolla is 24-for-76 with High-A Winston Salem since being acquired by the Chicago White Sox from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Tanner Banks at this summer’s trade deadline. The 19-year-old middle infielder is slashing .300/.359/.381 with two home runs in 357 plate appearances, all in the South-Atlantic League, on the season.
Jadher Areinamo is slashing .303/.351/.444 with 10 home runs in 465 plate appearances for High-A Wisconsin. Signed by the Milwaukee Brewers out of Venezuela in 2021, the 20-year-old left-handed hitter has split time between second base, shortstop, and third base.
Ryan Ignoffo is slashing .327/.380/.447 with six home runs in 421 plate appearances between Low-A Jupiter and High-A Beloit. The 24-year-old catcher was drafted in the 20th round last year by the Miami Marlins out of Eastern Illinois University.
Trenton Denholm is 13-3 with a 3.16 ERA and 114 strikeouts in 136-and-two-thirds innings between High-A Lake County and Double-A Akron. The 24-year-old right-hander out of the University of California Irvine was taken in the 14th round of the 2021 draft by the Cleveland Guardians.
Welinton Herrera is 11-4 with a 3.43 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 60-and-a-third innings between Low-A Fresno and High-A Spokane. The 20-year-old left-hander was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Colorado Rockies in 2021.
Hyun-Seok Jang has a 6.14 ERA, but also 68 strikeouts and just 22 hits allowed in 36-and-two-thirds innings between the Arizona Complex League and Low-A Rancho Cucamonga. The 20-year-old right-hander was signed out of South Korea last summer.
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Francisco Lindor and José Ramírez were the subjects of a conversation I had with a fellow baseball scribe at Fenway Park on Friday night. Our discussion included my opining that the latter is on a Hall of Fame track, and while I didn’t say the same about the former, I’m of that belief as well. I’ve compared the former teammates’ numbers previously, and I’ll do so again now.
Lindor, who is 30 years old, has 6,074 plate appearances, 1,481 hits, 245 home runs, 182 stolen bases, a 120 wRC+, 53.8 fWAR, and 49.1 bWAR. He is a four-time All-Star.
Ramírez, who is 31 years old, has 6,006 plate appearances, 1,475 hits, 250 home runs, 237 stolen bases, a 128 wRC+, 50.0 fWAR, and 50.8 bWAR. He is a six-time All-Star.
Do both need to continue putting together strong seasons into their mid-30s to one day be enshrined in Cooperstown? They do, but neither is showing any signs of slowing down. I like their chances.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
At Defector, Michael Rosen wrote about Saberseminar and looking for friends among baseball’s most passionate nerds.
MLB.com’s Matthew Ritchie wrote about former Negro League pitcher Bill Greason, who celebrated his 100th birthday earlier this week.
SABR’s Games Project reached a milestone earlier this week with its 5,000th published article. Among the recent entries is Gregory H. Wolf’s chronicling of the September 2, 1968 contest in which Bob Gibson tossed a 10-inning shutout to earn his 20th win and lower his ERA to 0.99.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Luis Arraez has gone 36-for-99 with five walks and no strikeouts over his last 106 plate appearances stretching back to August 11.
Prior to this past Wednesday’s game, Cincinnati shortstop Elly De La Cruz was batting .261 with 61 extra-base hits, 61 walks, 61 RBIs, and 61 stolen bases.
New York Mets pitchers have 86 HBPs this season, the most in the majors. St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals pitchers have 37 HPBs, tied for the fewest in the majors.
Seattle Mariners batters have 99 HBPs this season, the most in the majors. Chicago White Sox batters have 38 HPB’s, the fewest in the majors.
Dave Philley went 10-for-13 as a pinch-hitter in September 1958, with hits in each of his last eight PH opportunities. The Philadelphia Phillies first baseman/outfielder also had a successful pinch-hit on August 31.
In 2016, the Atlanta Braves had 11 pitchers finish the season with one win, and 10 more finish with two wins. The team’s top winner that year was Mike Foltynewicz with nine.
On today’s date in 2002, the Seattle Mariners tallied eight runs, all on round-trippers, in the top of the 11th inning to beat the Kansas City Royals 16-9. John Olerud hit a three-run homer, Ben Davis a grand slam, and Mike Cameron a solo shot.
Pete Rose recorded career hit number 4,190, unknowingly breaking Ty Cobb’s record, on today’s date in 1985 as the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs played to a 5-5 tie at Wrigley Field. (SABR’s Game Project has the details.)
Players born on today’s date include Steve Hargan, a right-hander who pitched for four teams, primarily the Cleveland Indians, from 1965-1977. The Ball State University product’s best season was 1967 when he went 14-13 with a 2.62 ERA and represented Cleveland in the All-Star game. He also hit his lone big-league home run, a ninth-inning walk-off against Kansas City’s Chuck Dobson.
Also born on today’s date was Al Pardo, a catcher who saw action in 50 games with the Baltimore Orioles, and in three games with the Philadelphia Phillies, across the 1985-1989 seasons. One of four Spanish-born players in MLB history — Alfredo Cabrera, Bryan Oelkers, and Danny Rios are the others — Pardo logged 17 big-league hits, including a home run off of Joe Cowley.
The Snow Hill Billies won the 1937 Coastal Plain League championship, beating the Snake Henry-managed Tarboro Serpents in the finals. Led by manager Peahead Walker, the Billies played their home games in Snowhill, North Carolina, which according to the village’s website “is the smallest town in the United States to ever field a professional baseball team.”
