MLB Daily Notes - May 26
A daily automated report of what happened yesterday in Major League Baseball, along with other recent trends and further analysis
Check out yesterday’s box scores here
The Daily Notes are the flagship resource of MLB Data Warehouse. Every morning, Jon breaks down the current goings on in the fantasy baseball world, and an automated daily report gets you up to date on key stats and trends. Become a paid subscriber at MLB Data Warehouse to get this unlocked in your inbox every morning!
Got a bunch of SUN yesterday. Swimming, canoeing, playing some ball in the yard, bike rides. Long weekends are really long. And now I come back to my real job and have a long list of stuff to do with Europe not having had the day off yesterday.
But we talk about baseball nonetheless. The Astros threw a freaking no-no!
Tatsuya Imai: 6 IP, 0 H, 2 SO, 4 BB
Steven Okert: 1 IP, 0 H, 1 SO, 1 BB
Alimber Santa: 2 IP, 0 H, 1 SO, 0 BB
So a 4:5 K:BB for the theree of them and a no hitter. Only 19 fantasy points for Imai. And this was Alimber Santa’s big leageu debut Which is really funny. He comes up to the Majors for his debut and gets thrown in there to throw two innings with a no hitter going. And then he delivers. Ice cold bro.
Imai had six whiffs, a 44.3% Strike%, and a 41.2% Ball%. So he was not very good by the numbers we like to look at. He has just a 5.1% K-BB% in his last three starts even after while he’s looked a little better.
He gave up just a .205 xBA last night, so he did pitch in a way that was tough to hit. But you definitely can’t take this as a sign that he’s definitely arrived or anything like that.
Brycen Mautz was called up by the Cardinals and threw three innings in relief. Four hits, two runs, two strikeouts. He had a 24% k% and a 13.5% BB% in AAA this year, but better numbers last year (29% K%, 7% BB%, 2.98 ERA, 1.11 WHIP). He was starting in the minors, so there might be a plan to get him in the Cardinals rotation this year. They could certainly use the assistance.
And the Athletics are calling up Gage Jump. He might immediately be their best SP. He was a second round pick in 2024 and has a 3.73 ERA with a 1.20 WHIP on a 20.9% K-BB% in 33 minor league starts since then.
If you look at this ratio this year, you won’t be impressed. But he’s pitching in the Pacific Coast League. So we should remind ourselves about how hard that is to do.
AVERAGE ERA BY LEAGUE (2024-2026)
Pacific Coast League (AAA) 5.36
California League (A) 4.82
International League (AAA) 4.77
Northwest League (A+) 4.35
Texas League (AA) 4.28
Midwest League (A+) 4.24
Flordai State League (A) 4.23
South Atlantic League (A+) 4.13
Major League Baseball 4.11
There are high elevations (the league average K% is 21.8% vs. the MLB’s 22.4%) and plenty of small ballparks that boost run scoring. So you have to factor that in.
Jump has this pitch mix:
He’s a six foot lefty with a 96mph fastball, so that’s good. He hasn’t been utterly dominant in AAA this year, but a 15% SwStr% with a 2.86 JA ERA is pretty great considering the league context. Maybe he’ll have a problem with homers in the Majors (41% GB%), but I think he’s a guy who should be added in deeper leagues just to see what happens.
Jacob Misiorowski continues to terrorize us in DFS. We have been on the fade at these $11,000 and $11,500 price tags, and I do think that’s right. Except it hasn’t been right. So it’s right, and it’s wrong. He has 100 strikeouts in 11 starts. That’s incredible. Only Dylan Cease (92), Cristopher Sanchez (86), and Gavin Williams (84) even have 80.
Is his fastball the greatest pitch we’ve ever seen in MLB history?
I guess the answer would have to be NO because he’s given up three homers on it. Four hitters have solved Misiorowski’s fastball for a homer.
Yandy Diaz
Chase Meidroth
Andres Gimenez
Only Meidroth’s was on a fastball above 100 miles per hour. And that was the first batter Misiorowski faced all season.
It’s pretty much simple enough to say that you can’t hit 100+ pitches. The league is hitting .230/.307/.316 with five homers, a 1.5% Brl%, a .133 xBA, and a .193 xwOBA against triple-digit velos.
The only five to go deep off 100+:
Zach Neto
Spencer Horwitz
Ramon Laureano
Oswald Peraza
Danny Jansen
And saying 100 is an insult to Misiorowski.
He’s three full ticks above Chandler. It’s probably the best fastball ever thrown in MLB history, I’ll just go there. What are you going to do to me? Is Nolan Ryan’s grandson going to come beat me up? I’m sure he could do that, but would he? Does Nolan Ryan have a grandson? Does anybody in the Ryan family read MLB Data Warehouse? I think I’m probably safe.
That was so many words before talking about Ben Brown. Shout out to me for the restraint.
→ 6.0IP 4H 1ER 1R 7K 2BB
19.3% SwStr%, 51.8% Strike%, 30.1% Ball%, 97.1 on the heater.
He started ramping up as a starter on May 8th. Since then:
→ 30% K%, 8% BB%, .275 xwOBA, 0 HR, 2.67 JA ERA
The curveball has a 32% SwStr% in this time. That’s so insane. For the year, it’s at 24.5%.
There’s a problem here. And that was that I dropped Ben Brown Sunday morning to stream a starter in his weekly head to head league. I really needed another quality start, and I got one from Andrew Painter. My plan was to immediately switch back from Painter to Brown at the day’s lineup lock. BUT, Stupid Ass Clint™ beat me to Ben Brown and now I don’t have him anymore. That’s what I get for going to church and lunch with my family on Sundays. I wasn’t quick enough on the trigger. And Clint is a big MLB DW guy, so he knew about Ben Brown’s greatness.
With that having occurred, and with the Cubs playing the PIRATES yesterday, I was really hoping for a Ben Brown blowup. But it didn’t happen because he and Misiorowski are obviously the greatest pitchers to ever live.
So I get to play the victim card once again. Everybody’s favorite card to play. If I did not pour my heart out every day on these pages, I would still have Ben Brown. Or maybe I should take some responsibility and not have taken the risk in the first place. But the victim card is a lot more fun in this instance.
Emmet Sheehan predictably had a strong home start against the Rockies. His home/road splits are wild this year.
An 18% K% on the road with a 4.08 JA SIERA. At home, it’s elite with a 33% K% and a 2.07 SIERA. Here are the biggest home/road xFIP splits from Fangraphs:
Sheehan’s 4.29 xFIP on the road isn’t all that terrible. So the question would be… are home/road splits legitimate? In some cases, they are. When you’re a Rockies, Reds, Giants etc. pitcher - there’s something there. Those guys in extreme park factor home ballyards. That’s not really the case with Sheehan.
And splits are never useful until you have a large sample size. You’re not going to get a signal from two months of games when you’re splitting them in half like this.
Sheehan has faced the Nationals, Rockies, Cardinals, and Padres on the road. Four pretty tough matchups this year.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense. When you look at his whole career:
→ at home: 3.53 xFIP
→ on road: 4.16 xFIP
Definitely a gap there. We expect most pitchers to be better at home over their careers. They’re more familiar with the mound, they sleep in their own bed, etc etc. But I think most of this in 2026 for Sheehan is randomness.
MacKenzie Gore and Jacob deGrom both being on the first list I showed is interesting. Arlington has been an awesome place to pitch, and we’re seeing that helping those two this year while they’ve scuffled on the road.