A curious major-league fib, plus: Alcantara starting to round into form

New York Times

2 days ago

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New developments in the Tyler Skaggs case bring a former teammate's name into the proceedings. Plus: The curious case of the missing career, a Q&A with our player poll editor, and Ken says Sandy Alcantara is getting closer to being, well, Sandy Alcantara. I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
When Tyler Skaggs died in 2019, it shook the entire league. Every new detail in the nearly six years since has made the story a little more tragic, a little more shocking. Former Angels PR director Eric Kay is serving a 22-year prison sentence for his role in providing Skaggs with the opioids that led to his overdose.
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Now there's a civil lawsuit between Skaggs' family and the Angels organization, in which the family insists the team holds some responsibility in the matter.
Today, new information has come to light, further muddying the waters, and bringing another known name into the conversation: current Reds pitcher Wade Miley.
From that story, by Sam Blum:
'On May 30, the Angels filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the Skaggs's claims should be dismissed. It contained a deposition from the former agent for Skaggs, in which he testified Skaggs had told him he sometimes received prescription drugs from pitcher Wade Miley. Skaggs and Miley were teammates on the Arizona Diamondbacks at the time.'
It's a complicated case, made more so by the fact that 'hundreds of pages of testimony, including portions of confidential depositions from key witnesses, were also posted publicly to the court's online portal last week, apparently in error.'
Blum's piece has a lot more details. It's messy, it's sad and this much is sure: There's no happy ending to this story.
From my most recent column, with Eno Sarris:
The temptation is not to get carried away with Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara producing back-to-back quality starts for the first time this season. His opponents were the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates, the teams with the two worst offenses in the major leagues.
Marlins manager Clayton McCullough, however, saw a difference in what he called 'the quality of Sandy's throws.' So did a rival official who witnessed Alcantara's start in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
The official, granted anonymity for his candor, said, 'I walked away saying he is about three or four starts away from being the Sandy of old.'
If Alcantara continues pitching on five days' rest, as he has for the majority of the season coming off Tommy John surgery, he would make eight starts before the trade deadline on July 31. By that time, a reemergence as the Sandy of old could make him what many at the start of the season expected him to become — the best starting pitcher available.
'For him, the walk rate (early in the season) was so uncharacteristic. The ability to execute at a high level, which he was terrific at pre-injury, was not the same,' McCullough said. 'So while the stuff was very good — the velo was good, the shapes of his pitches were fine — his spray was just a lot larger, especially to left. I think it was just the finish to the throws.
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'A couple of bullpens ago, he really focused on being glove-side with his work and being intentional there. Which I think in turn has got him driving the ball through the mitt and finishing his pitches.'
Examining the shapes and velocities of Alcantara's pitches, his stuff has indeed mostly recovered since his surgery in October 2023. His changeup doesn't have quite as much drop, and neither does his curve, but his fastballs are mostly back, and overall his stuff is there. Stuff+ is a stat that sums up the physical qualities of his pitches, and most of his pitches are back to pre-surgery quality.
More here.
It's been a big week for 25-year-old Red Sox rookie pitcher Hunter Dobbins. Here's the timeline:
June 8: Dobbins tells Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Globe, 'If the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I'd retire.' But in that same story, he also says: 'Andy Pettitte and my dad were really good friends. … He was actually drafted twice by the Yankees. Signed with them his last year and then he got traded over to the Diamondbacks.'
That night, Dobbins picked up the win over the Yankees. Score one for the kid.
June 10 (Tuesday): Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes this article, in which he says, more or less, 'Nuh-uh.' He contacted members of the Yankees and D-Backs front offices from those days and found nothing on Lance Dobbins. There was also this:
'Pettitte, reached by phone, said neither he nor anyone he asked in his family remembers Lance Dobbins.'
Baseball Reference shows (the elder) Dobbins playing for three teams in 1996-97, but all of three were independent teams. The Diamondbacks did have minor-league teams in those years, ahead of the big-league team's inaugural season (1998). But I checked all of those rosters; Dobbins isn't on any of them.
Yesterday (the younger) Dobbins was given a chance to address the situation. His answer? 'I don't go and fact-check my dad.'
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In summary: This was the story he had been told; why would anyone think their dad wasn't telling them the truth? But — with the caveat that there might be some explanation yet to come to light — it sure doesn't seem like Lance Dobbins was drafted by the Yankees, nor that he played in the Diamondbacks org.
Stay tuned, I guess? In the meantime, Dobbins' next start is scheduled for Saturday. Against whom? The Yankees, of course.
Yesterday's Windup was all about our five anonymous player poll stories. Today, we have a Q&A with editor Kaci Borowski, who handles all the heavy lifting of making these things shine.
What has been the biggest challenge in making these successful?
One is that baseball players are, unlike their basketball counterparts, generally less inclined to speak on more controversial topics, so you really have to think about what types of questions they'd be likely to answer and shape those in a way that would get a good response.
The second is that it takes a lot of coordination to make this work. We have a large staff of national and local writers, and keeping the information organized takes some planning. There's just so much data. Truly mind-numbing amounts of data.
Do you have a favorite question we've ever asked? Least-favorite?
In 2019, we asked pitchers who they would least like to see charging the mound and vice versa for the hitters. The answers we got were really amusing and surprisingly honest.
My least favorite questions are, unfortunately, often the ones our readers ask for the most. We've tried to do the 'most overrated player' question a few times and the players don't really take to that one — we end up with a small sample size and a lot of names without a lot of justification. It can be a little awkward, and it doesn't always provide an enlightening outcome.
What's the question you can't ask, but wish you could?
I can't just be giving out free story ideas on main here, Levi. But out of respect and appreciation for the kind players who take the time and answer our poll honestly, I will give a response and go with one I think they'd never answer anyway: Which of your fellow baseball players pisses you off the most? They'd need to give specifics, though. I'd need quotes for sure.
How have you seen these evolve over the years we've been doing them?
One thing we've made a priority in these more recent polls is making sure we're talking to a wide range of voters with different backgrounds, years of league experience and primary languages so we can (attempt to!) better reflect the attitudes and perspectives of those who currently make up the sport. It's not a perfect exercise, but I think we've made some good strides.
Britt Ghiroli has an insightful one today: What do baseball families do to juggle school while parenting on a baseball schedule?
One day after the Giants placed third baseman Matt Chapman on the IL, catcher Patrick Bailey joined him. That hasn't stopped San Francisco from consecutive late-innings comebacks.
The Red Sox and Twins pulled off a trade, with Boston acquiring reliever Jorge Alcala for a minor-leaguer.
Tigers starter Jackson Jobe is having Tommy John surgery. The epidemic continues.
Hot birds vs. hot birds: The blue ones emerged victorious, sweeping the red ones.
Keith Law's Mock Draft 2.0 is here, with a new No. 1 pick.
There had been some suspicion that Jesús Luzardo was tipping his pitches. He made some adjustments, and held the Cubs to one run, striking out 10 in six innings yesterday. Speaking of which …
On the pods: On 'Rates & Barrels,' Eno, Jed and DVR discussed what info hitters might want from external sources when preparing for opposing pitchers. Prefer video? Here you go!
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The first Player Poll story, where we learned which teams and managers players do and don't like to play for.
*against the Rockies, though.
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