Dylan Cease was one of my interview targets when the San Diego Padres visited Fenway Park last weekend, and as part of my preparation I looked back at what I’d previously written about him here at FanGraphs. What I found were three articles partially derived from conversations I had with the right-hander when he was in the Chicago White Sox organization. One, from 2020, was on how he was trying to remove unwanted cut from his fastball. A second, from 2019, was on how he’d learned and developed his curveball. The third, from 2018, included Cease’s citing “body awareness and putting your hand and arm in the right spot” as keys to his executing pitches consistently.
And then there was something from November 2017 that didn’t include quotes from the hurler himself. Rather, it featured plaudits for his performances down on the farm. In a piece titled Broadcaster’s View: Who Were the Top Players in the Midwest League, Cease was mentioned several times. Chris Vosters, who was then calling games for the Great Lakes Loons and more recently was the voice of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, described a high-90s fastball, a quality curveball, and an ability to mix his pitches well. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler (Lansing Lugnuts) and Dan Hasty (West Michigan Whitecaps) were others impressed by the then-promising prospect’s potential.
With that article in mind, I went off the beaten path and asked Cease about something that flies well under the radar of most fans: What is the relationship between players and broadcasters, particularly in the minor leagues?
“Obviously, the minors is a much more low-key scenario,” Cease replied. “It’s not the big stage, so it’s more homey. It’s not that the guys up here don’t feel like they’re part of the team — they do — but in the minor leagues it’s closer-knit. You might have 2,000 fans, so it’s more of a shared experience between you and [the broadcasters] whereas in the big leagues you might have a million people watching and listening. That’s more like a shared experience with everybody.”
Which doesn’t mean there isn’t a certain amount of bonding at baseball’s highest level. Big-league broadcasters might not have the same array of interactions with players as their multi-tasking minor-league brethren, but friendships are nonetheless formed.
“I was fortunate in Chicago,” said Cease. “I think Jason Benetti is one of the best in the game. I got to be around him for a couple years and it was cool to build a relationship with him. Of course, the guys here in San Diego are obviously great as well. There is a reason why fans like them, and we like them for much the same reasons. They have certain personality traits or are just likable guys.”
My asking what types of conversations he had with the now-TV voice of the Detroit Tigers segued into yet another off-the-beaten-path topic.
“A lot of non-baseball stuff, honestly,” said Cease. “Jason knows that I like art, so we would talk about art museums in certain cities, or maybe what I was working on (Cease has been painting, primarily with acrylics, in recent years). Things like that. He always showed interest in me outside of baseball, which was cool.”
Cease visits museums when he travels to various cities. New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art are among his favorites So too is the Art Institute of Chicago, which he has visited with former teammate Lucas Giolito. Cease enjoys a variety of genres, and as is the case for most museum-goers, his appreciation for individual works and artists tends to be visceral.
“I’m not into French Impressionism as much as, say, modern abstract,” explained Cease. “That’s one that I like, but I wouldn’t say I’m pigeonholed into one genre. I’ll see something and be, ‘Man, I really like that,’ or maybe it’s, ‘I think that’s a little overrated.’ I guess that’s just like any of us when it comes to art.”
Abstract-art luminaries that Cease respects but wouldn’t rank among his favorites include Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. As for artists who especially resonate with him, he listed a half dozen.
“I like [Joan] Miró a lot,” said Cease. “I like [Jean-Michel) Basquiat and [Vincent] Van Gogh a lot. I really like [Wassily] Kandinsky. I like some of [René] Magritte’s stuff. Gustaf Klimt is great, I mean, there is a wide variety that I like, and again, in different genres. There is a lot of great art out there to enjoy.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Jim Bottomley went 13 for 21 against Mule Watson.
Bob Watson went 10 for 22 against Bill Hands.
Bob Horner went 9 for 14 against Rollie Fingers.
Johnny Temple went 12 for 23 against Paul LaPalme.
Mel Ott went 13 for 26 against Ed Head.
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Bob Scanlan made 290 pitching appearances and threw 536-and-two-thirds innings over nine MLB seasons. He knows what it takes to set down professional hitters, a perspective he now shares as a pre- and post-game host and occasional in-game analyst for the San Diego Padres.
Chatting with Scanlan prior to a recent game, I learned that the hurler-turned-broadcaster’s attack plan included throwing what the batter was expecting to get.
“As a pitcher, there are times where you know that the hitter knows what you’re going to throw,” explained Scanlan. “He knows the pitch you’re going to throw, and he probably knows the location you’re going to try to get it to. In many cases, that’s absolutely fine, because you know that he knows what you’re going to throw.
“What I would do is throw what he was expecting, but in a little bit worse spot than he was anticipating,” continued Scanlan, who toed the rubber for six different teams from 1991-2001. “Not every hitter falls into that trap, but there are plenty of hitters that do. They see the ball coming out of your hand and gosh darn it, they guessed right. So, they go after the pitch. but it is actually six inches lower, or six inches further inside or outside than they expected. You can take advantage of their exuberance that way. Of course, there are times where you want to throw to different zones, or throw different pitches than they’re expecting, but if what you need is soft contact, that is one of the best ways to get it.”
Scanlan relied on soft contact throughout his career, largely by necessity. By his own admission, the 6-foot-7 right-hander wasn’t someone who could rear back and throw the ball by hitters. He averaged just 4.1 strikeouts per nine innings. Due in part to the approach he described, Scanlan “probably got more outs behind in the count than ahead in the count.”
I suggested to Scanlan that while the approach can be effective, missing an intended six-inches-worse spot can easily result in having to back up third base.
“Pretty much,” Scanlan replied with a laugh. “Or asking for a new ball from the umpire.”
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A quiz:
Three left-handed pitchers have logged 3,000 or more strikeouts. Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton are two. Who is the third?
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
Sean Aronson will make his MLB broadcast debut when he fills in on the Minnesota Twins radio broadcast from July 8-14. Aronson has been the play-by-play voice of the Triple-A St. Paul Saints since 2007.
SABR’s Cleveland chapter will hold a virtual meeting this coming Wednesday, July 10, with Keith O’Brien and Jacob Pomrenke discussing gambling in baseball, past, present, and future. More information can be found here.
Jimmy Hurst, an outfielder whose MLB career comprised 13 games and 19 plate appearances for the Detroit Tigers in 1997, died earlier this week at age 52 (per Baseball Player Passings). The Tuscaloosa native spent close to two decades in professional ball, including a season in Japan and seven more in independent ball stateside. One of his three big-league hits was a home run off of David Wells.
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The answer to the quiz is CC Sabathia. The southpaw passed the 3,000 mark in 2019, his final MLB season.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Arquimedez Pozo has one of the more unique names in baseball history. A Santo Domingo-born infielder whose career comprised 26 games — one for the Seattle Mariners in 1995, and 25 for the Boston Red Sox in 1996-1997 — Pozo had his most-memorable moment on July 28, 1996 when he hit a ninth-inning grand slam off of Minnesota’s “Everyday Eddie” Guardado. It was his lone home run, and one of just 14 hits he logged in a big-league uniform. Pozo also spent time in Japan and Korea, playing for the Yokohama BayStars in 1999 and for the Haitai Tigers in 2000.
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Adley Rutschman is an obvious choice at catcher for the American League All-Star team. Who most deserves to join him on the squad? I asked that question in a Twitter poll earlier this week, with the options being Ryan Jeffers, Logan O’Hoppe, and Connor Wong. (I didn’t include David Fry, as the multi-position Cleveland Guardian had caught just 124 innings.)
Perez won the poll by a clear margin, garnering 55% of the votes, while O’Hoppe received 17.8%, Wong got 14%, and Jeffers got 13.2%. Here is a snapshot of their respective stats going into the weekend:
Jeffers: .237/.324/.483, 14 home runs, 128 wRC+, 1.9 WAR.O’Hoppe: .280/.331/.476, 12 home runs, 126 wRC+, 1.7 WAR.Wong: .323/.379/.591, seven home runs, 133 wRC+, 1.8 WAR.Perez: .275/.344/.460, 14 home runs, 121 wRC+, 1.9 WAR.
In all likelihood, Perez will be getting an All-Star berth, and there may or may not be a third catcher. Jeffers, O’Hoppe, and Wong are every bit, if not more, deserving than the Kansas City Royals stalwart.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Greg Bird is slashing .321/.406/.602 with 18 home runs in 288 plate appearances for the Mexican League’s Charros de Jalisco. The 31-year-old erstwhile New York Yankees first baseman played for both the Frontier League’s Capitales de Québec and the Australian Baseball League’s Melbourne Aces in 2023.
Mexican League teams are batting a combined .286/.363/.445 this season, while the circuit’s pitchers have combined for a 5.28 ERA. Trevor Bauer is 10-0 with a 1.78 ERA and 117 strikeouts over 81 innings for Diablos Rojos del Mexico.
Natsuki Takeuchi threw eight scoreless innings on Thursday as the Seibu Lions outscored the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 3-0. The 22-year-old rookie southpaw is 5-0 with a 1.11 ERA over his first nine NPB outings.
Kensuke Kondoh is slashing .340/.447/.571 with 13 home runs in 309 plate appearances for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. The 30-year-old outfielder has a .309/.417/.455 slash line since making his NPB debut in 2012. When I recently asked Toronto Blue Jays left-hander Yusei Kikuchi about the toughest hitters he faced in Japan, he named Kondoh and Yuki Yanagita.
Byeong Hyeon Jo has a 3.63 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 44-and-two-thirds innings for the KBO’s SSG Landers. The 22-year-old right-hander has made all 46 of his appearances out of the bullpen.
