All stats were accurate as of Thursday, June 20.
Welcome to Giesler’s Grand Slam, a weekly column covering all the MLB has to offer. My name is Andrew Giesler, and I’m a sophomore from Los Angeles, California. I am an avid fan of all sports— especially baseball—and love to utilize both statistics and science to analyze sports more effectively.
Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s topics:
A look back at Willie Mays’s Career
The legendary “Say Hey Kid” Willie Mays passed away on Tuesday. He played 23 seasons in the MLB, most of which were for the San Francisco Giants from 1951 to 1972, before spending the final two years of his career with the New York Mets. When all was said and done, Mays retired with a batting average of .301 with 3,293 hits and 660 home runs. He was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, inducted in 1979, and had his No. 24 retired by both the Giants and the Mets.
His resume only sounds more ridiculously good from there. He made appearances at 24 All-Star games, won 12 Gold Glove Awards, won the National League MVP twice, led the National League in home runs and stolen bases four separate times, and, of course, won the coveted Commissioner’s Trophy in 1954. In 1999, he was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, receiving nearly 1.116 million fan votes.
This week, the baseball community mourns the loss of one of the greatest players in history, a man who also played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement. Mays started his baseball journey with the Birmingham Black Barons, transitioning to the major leagues a mere four years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. In 2015, Mays was bestowed with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Barack Obama, who said, “because of giants like Mays, someone like me could even think about running for president.”
What do injuries mean for the Dodgers?
This past Sunday, Mookie Betts hit the dirt after a 98-mile-per-hour four-seam fastball drilled his left hand in an at-bat against the Royals. The Dodgers (47-30) are leading the NL West by 9 games over the Diamondbacks and Giants; however, they will be without one of the best leadoff hitters in the league.
Posting an OBP of .405 so far in the 2024 season, Betts constantly puts Los Angeles in a position to score runs. With Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith waiting behind him, it is no surprise that the Dodgers have the second most runs (389) and RBIs (375) scored in the MLB. Betts has been crucial for the Dodgers offense, constantly putting himself in scoring position with a solid .488 slugging percentage and nine stolen bases.
Betts’s fracture will not require surgery. But the bad news is that this injury was on his glove hand. As a shortstop, batters will consistently fire hard-hit balls in his direction. The Dodgers must ensure Betts fully heals before coming back, for the risk of re-injury could lead to yet another devastating postseason loss for Los Angeles.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a dominant right-handed pitcher who LA plans to be a long-time starter, was put on the 15-day injured list due to a strained rotator cuff. Although not season-ending, this injury is a blow to the Dodgers’ rotation. With Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Joe Kelly, Brusdar Graterol and now Walker Buehler as well all out on the 60-day IL, along with Clayton Kershaw only making his minor league rehab start this past week, fans are left wondering how good a healthy Dodgers team could be.
The likely root of Yamamoto’s injury can be found in his June 7 start against the Yankees when he threw a season-high 106 pitches. The ball was flying out of his hand, effortlessly achieving a velocity in the high 90s. During his seven innings, he was able to throw his 19 fastest pitches of the season as well as 13 sliders—the most he’s thrown in the MLB so far. Although he was given a full seven days rest between his start against the Yankees and his next start against the Royals, Yamamoto still threw over 100 pitches in each of his past four starts. In his start on June 15, the workload finally caught up with him and he exited the Royals game after only 28 pitches. The Dodgers have to hope that their injuries will only be a minor setback, and will not cost them their most expensive postseason run yet.
Rockies robbed of a victory
On Tuesday night, the Colorado Rockies (26-49) and the Dodgers (47-30) played out an initially one-sided game. As the affair entered the ninth inning, the Rockies held a comfortable lead of 9-4. However, the Dodgers’ Jason Heyward’s grand slam narrowed the gap to a single run. With two outs and a 1-2 count, Colorado pitcher Victor Vodnik delivered a high fastball at which Teoscar Hernández check-swung, a moment that would significantly alter the game’s trajectory.
There is no direct rule for a check swing in the MLB; in fact, there is no rule for what is considered a swing at all. Being so vaguely defined, it’s no surprise that teams are letting up runs and losing games because of varying calls on checked swings. The general rule of thumb is if the bat crosses the plane of the plate or if the batter’s wrists break, he is said to have swung, and a strike should be called.
In the specific case of Hernández’s at-bat, the sequence of events was clear. His bat undeniably crossed through the plate and his wrists broke at the end of his swing. This obvious swing triggered a wave of protest from Rockies players, fans and manager Bud Black, who was ejected after his heated exchange with the first base umpire. Fuelled by his frustration, Vodnik’s next pitch was his fastest of the night, a fastball right down the middle. The outcome? A three-run homer by Hernández propelled the Dodgers to an 11-9 lead in the top of the 9th inning.
The controversy is yet another example of why the game’s rules should be more clearly defined on paper. An objective metric determining whether a batter swings is essential so that calls are consistent and teams stop getting the short end of the stick in decisions left to an umpire’s judgment.
A double play going into the weekend…
The first matchup to watch will be the New York Yankees fighting at home against the Atlanta Braves. The Yankees, who are tied with the Dodgers for second most runs in baseball this year (389), and are third in the league in team ERA (3.18), will look to prove why they should be considered the best team in baseball against a 41-31 National League foe.
Friday night’s matchup will see a pitchers’ duel between the Yankees’ Carlos Rodon and the Braves’ Chris Sale. Sale will try to keep his momentum going after a seven-strikeout outing against the Tigers. Rodon, on the other hand, will want to return to his typical rhythm after giving up seven runs through five innings.
Prediction: The Yankees will drop game one but win games two and three to take the series 2-1.
The second matchup will be the freeway series between the Dodgers and Angels. It will be the first time Ohtani faces the Angels in the regular season since switching teams, and he’ll hope to do better than he did against them in spring training.
Ohtani went 0-6 in that three-game series with two walks and two strikeouts. This series will also be the first time the Dodgers have to fill the hole in the rotation with Yamamoto’s absence. Fans will likely see a bullpen day, as Sunday’s probable starter, Tyler Glasnow, is on only five days’ rest and will not be moved up in the rotation.
Prediction: Despite not having Betts or Yamamoto, the Dodgers will still pull out a two-game sweep.
To keep myself honest, I’m going to keep track of my Double Play record each week. For now, we’re 0-0.