DENVER -- The tangible heirlooms that Nolan Arenado left behind at El Toro High School in Lake Forest, California, include a state championship, some gaudy statistics and some great pictures, including a shot of him standing at first base, the initial position he played for baseball coach Mike Gonzales. But the most useful things are the Arenado stories told to the freshmen and sophomores, stories that the juniors and seniors have heard many, many times.
Like that time when El Toro was playing for a league championship in Arenado's senior year. The Chargers were down by a run in the seventh inning, and Arenado came to the plate with runners at first and second and nobody out, infield playing deep and respecting Arenado's power.
But Arenado squared and dropped a perfect bunt for a hit, and later, after one of Arenado's teammates ended the game with a hit, Gonzales found himself deflecting compliments for his gutsy strategy of asking his best hitter to move the runners along. Gonzales hadn't called for the bunt, and hadn't expected it; this was Arenado seeing where the third baseman was positioned and reacting.
"I was like, 'I didn't want him to bunt -- I'm not going to make this guy bunt,'" Gonzales recalled, laughing. "For him to trust his teammates that way, and to understand the game ... He just wants to win. He had so many unselfish moments."
Then there was the thing from the All-Star Game in 2016, at Petco Park, not far from where Arenado had grown up. In the seventh inning, Arenado batted against the Yankees' Dellin Betances and quickly struck out, one of three hitless at-bats. A few hours later, Gonzales' phone rang. It was Arenado.
"Coach, can I come down to hit in the cages tomorrow, with my dad?" he asked.
He explained to Gonzales that he didn't feel good at the plate, and he wondered if Gonzales would mind if they got together the next day at El Toro -- to take some batting practice, like they had in the past. Arenado wanted to recover a better feeling, before he got on a plane to rejoin the Colorado Rockies.
As a teenager, Gonzales recalled, Arenado was much like the way he is now with the Rockies, constantly on the move. Always with a bat in hand, or a glove, always pacing the dugout, always asking questions, always very curious, and on the field, he was like an NFL safety playing the infield. Once, a teammate got a big hit and Arenado charged out of the dugout enthusiastically, and Gonzales can remember a coach corralling him and pulling him back in.
"He played fearless," Gonzales remembered. "He had no fear for his body. Always sliding and diving. He'd never big-league it. It made our team a hell of a lot better, the way he played -- he raised the level of the other guys on the team."
Arenado and the Rockies will take on the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball.
• Julio Urias, who starts on the mound for L.A., has a reputation for having a great feel for the baseball -- to manipulate it, make different pitches work. Behind every success story, he said through an interpreter Saturday, there is a mentor. For Urias, it was his father, Carlos, who played semipro ball and from a young age began educating his son on the art of pitching -- the grips, the value of changing speeds, the art of pitching inside. Carlos Urias would catch and his father, Julian -- Julio's grandfather -- would stand in the box and tell him, yes, you need to pitch inside, you can't be afraid of hitting somebody. And standing in the box, Julian would wear a glove and if Julio threw too far inside, he would catch the pitch. The lesson of learning to pitch inside was far more important than fretting about whether he hit his grandfather.
News from around the major leagues
There is already significant concern among agents that the massive wave of contract extensions will effectively undercut the potential of a work stoppage, because now many players very important to the union because of their stature have a whole lot to lose if there's a lockout or a strike. The perception among some agents is that many of the extensions were driven by the anxiety of a possible work interruption, with the players moving to make team-friendly deals to ensure that they could guarantee a life-changing amount of money. Now that this is the case, the concern among agents is that some of these players might be more reluctant to surrender the money, if necessary, to support the union.
To put it another way: Key individual players now have more to lose, now that their extensions are on the books.
• One National League coach said recently that he thinks there will soon be a need for some of the offspeed pitchers who have been left behind, in the industry-wide push for high-velocity relievers. "It's pretty clear that hitters are learning how to catch up to velocity," he said. "They're doing more damage."
Soon, he believes, teams will begin to reach for pitchers with strong command of offspeed stuff, to combat the hitters who wreck fastballs. The coach simulated the motion of a right-handed submariner, and then a lefty slider specialist and said, "There will be more and more of this."
He's right in his observations about hitters increasingly catching up to velocity, with authority. Paul Hembekides, a researcher at ESPN, dug out the year-to-year leaguewide slugging percentage against pitches 95 mph or faster in velocity.
It used to be that a pitcher who could consistently generate fastballs 95-plus was the outlier. Increasingly, the pitchers who work at a much lower velocity, with great command, are the outliers -- the type that hitters rarely see.
• Max Fried's stunning six-inning outing for the Braves illustrates Atlanta's great foundation of young pitching, and how they can apply those riches during the season. Fried's outing was something of a spot start, but he threw so well -- mixing a 97 mph fastball with a changeup in the mid-80s and a curveball about 73-74 mph -- that he'll stay in the rotation. As Atlanta assesses the likes of Fried, Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson, Touki Toussaint and others, the staff can go with the hot hand, or be generous with rest for Julio Teheran and others, in the same way as the Dodgers have been with their starting pitchers. Later in the year, during the pennant chase and the postseason, Atlanta could move a couple of the young starters into the bullpen.
Early in this season, the Braves' Triple-A rotation might consist of Wilson, Soroka, Kolby Allard and Toussaint. "The thing is -- all of those guys have real talent," said one evaluator.
• Long before Fortnite, the best winter game that a kid growing up in Randolph Center, Vermont, was called King of the Mountain. After the snow-plowing was completed in front of the four-room Randolph Center elementary school, the pile was about six to eight feet high, and the object for each of us was to hold the summit as long as possible -- to stand as the king of the mountain. Allen Chase was the strongest and most formidable in our school, but if he turned his back to fend off a climber, you could push him down the hill and assume the throne.
When we've had the conversation about who is the best pitcher on the planet, I think of it like King of the Mountain. From day to day, the identity of the BPOP might change, depending on who is hot, who is hurt, who is slumping. For many years, Clayton Kershaw held the title, succeeded in recent seasons by Max Scherzer.
As of today, this would be my top three:
1. Jacob deGrom: At this point, there's a clear delineation between deGrom and the rest of the field. This week, he could break Bob Gibson's major league record for most consecutive quality starts -- for the moment, they are tied at 26 -- and his level of domination is near-perfection. He has struck out half of the hitters he has faced this season, 24 of 48, and so far, he hasn't let anyone score, after leading the NL in ERA last season by more than half a run. His FIP is minus-0.29, which is probably the first time you've ever seen that particular statistic below zero.
By the way: If the Mets' rotation isn't interrupted in the next few days, deGrom will pitch on Sunday Night Baseball in Atlanta next weekend.
2. Scherzer: He had 300 strikeouts last year, in 220 ⅔ innings, which is insane.
3. Blake Snell: The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner held opponents to a .178 average last season, and in his first two starts this year, batters are hitting .182.
And who's the best reliever on the planet (BROP)? The Brewers' Josh Hader has whiffed 10 of the 17 batters he has faced, with one hit and no walks. But there is a close No. 2: the Rays' Jose Alvarado, whose fastball-slider combination gives hitters almost nothing to swing at, in movement and location. He has struck out nine of the 20 batters he has faced, walking two, and when the hitters actually make contact, it's mostly softly hit grounders -- the 23-year-old lefty has a 2-to-1 ground ball to strikeout rate. His average fastball velocity is 98.5 mph, with a slider at 92 mph.
• Through the Giants' opener on Friday, Joe Panik had seen 94 pitches in 25 plate appearances and had yet to swing and miss.
• Bruce Bochy has been in professional baseball more than 40 years, most of that in the big leagues as a player, coach or manager. But when he was asked to throw out the first pitch before the Giants' home opener Friday, it was a first for him in a major league park. "Overwhelming," he wrote in a text. "I was blown away. Will be one of my best baseball memories."
Bochy has thrown many thousands of rounds of batting practice from pitching mounds across the country, but he short-armed his first pitch to Pablo Sandoval, perhaps because of nerves, more likely owing to physiology. "Rotator cuff is torn," he wrote.
Baseball Tonight Podcast
Friday: Karl Ravech on the Cubs' early-season mess, Fried's gem and Terry Francona's decision to pull Trevor Bauer after seven no-hit innings; Jessica Mendoza discusses deGrom and Kenley Jansen's return to Colorado; Coley Harvey on the Yankees' injury situation.
Thursday: Keith Law on deGrom's dominance, an ump show episode and the Ronald Acuna Jr. deal; Sarah Langs and The Numbers Game; a tribute to ailing Braves manager Bobby Cox.
Wednesday: Boog Sciambi talks about Bryce Harper's epic return to Washington; Paul Hembekides dives into the numbers of the Acuna deal; The Power 10.
Tuesday: David Schoenfield on the war of words between members of the '86 Mets; Langs and The Numbers Game; Steve Buckley of The Athletic on Boston's lousy start.
Monday: Freddie Freeman talks about the talented Acuna; Tim Kurkjian discusses Christian Yelich's crazy start; Todd Radom with the Weekly Quiz and Cap Talk.