Recent Sunday Notes columns have included soccer segments with Jake Burger (Tottenham Hotspur) and Tommy Kahnle (Bayern Munich) discussing their respective allegiances, as well as their thoughts on the World Cup. This week we’ll hear from Sean Doolittle. The Washington Nationals’ assistant pitching coach is a devoted fan of Leeds United.
“It really kind of took off in 2020,” explained Doolittle, who prior to joining the coaching ranks made 463 relief appearances while playing for four teams, primarily Oakland and Washington, from 2012-2022. “Harvey Sharman, our director of medical services — the head of our training staff group [with the Nationals] — was a “physio” at Leeds for 15 years before he came to the states. I learned a lot about the club from him. Before that I was more of a casual soccer fan, playing a lot of FIFA on Xbox.
“They were in the Championship,” continued Doolittle, referring to England’s second-tier league. “They started up before us after the shutdown, and I remember watching those games and kind of jumping on the bandwagon. They won and got promoted to the Premier League. I was hooked after that. It’s since been an up-and-down couple of years, but last season [a mid-table finish] was really fun.”
Doolittle told me that his Leeds allegiance “isn’t super-influencing” the way he has been watching the World Cup, although he is very much aware of how the team’s players — four in all — have been faring on the sport’s biggest stage. He cited how Gabriel Gudmundsson (Sweden), Ao Tanaka (Japan), and Crysencio Summerville (Netherlands) have all seen their countries eliminated, while Brenden Aaronson still has a chance to hoist a trophy with Team USA.
“Aaronson is actually from the town where I grew up [Medford, New Jersey] and went to the same high school, so it’s been fun to follow his career,” Dooittle went on to say. “And again, while I don’t know that my Leeds fandom has super-influenced the way I’ve been watching, I was absolutely gutted for Summerville missing his penalty the other night in the Netherlands-Morocco game. I loved watching him when he was with us.”
And then there is the elite striker whose Norway squad will take on Brazil later this afternoon.
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“Leeds was Erling Haaland’s team [growing up].” Doolittle said of the Manchester City star. “His dad, Alfie, played for Leeds, and Erling was actually born there. He had a big goal [Tuesday] against Ivory Coast. He’s obviously a great player.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Gary Roenicke went 3 for 4 against Jesse Jefferson.
William Contreras went 3 for 3 against Emerson Hancock.
Jay Bruce went 3 for 3 against Mike Adams.
Dick Allen went 3 for 3 against Roric Harrison.
Coco Crisp went 3 for 3 against Hayden Penn.
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Wilyer Abreu enjoys hitting against the Texas Rangers. Over 17 career games versus the AL West club, the Boston Red Sox outfielder has slashed an outrageous .436/.484/1.018 with five doubles and nine home runs in just 62 plate appearances. Skip Schumaker has certainly taken notice.
“It started last year on Opening Day,” the second-year Rangers manager told reporters on a recent visit to Fenway Park. “Rafael Devers was really struggling, and Abreu was the hottest hitter alive. Every time I’ve seen him since, it’s continuing to happen. He’s just a really good hitter… and he’s just coming into his own. His hit tool is real. And it has been louder against us. No doubt about it.”
Abreu was indeed scalding when the two teams met up in Arlington to start the 2025 season. While Devers was going 0-for-16 with a dozen strikeouts over the four-game set, Abreu was torching Texas to the tune of 7-for-10 with two doubles, two home runs, and five walks. This year hasn’t been nearly that extreme, but the Maracaibo, Venezuela native has nonetheless done damage. Over the three-game series at Fenway, he went 5-for-12 with a pair of two-baggers and one round-tripper.
I had a followup question. As not all teams attack every hitter the same way, have the Rangers maybe been going after Abreu in a sub-optimal manner?
“I think every team is different on how they pitch,” replied Schumaker. “I’m not going to tell you our theory on pitching, obviously, but there are pitchers who go more to their strengths or weaknesses. And then there is run value that [teams] really lock in on. It’s just a matter of what your strengths and weaknesses are based on run value. They attack you that way, and then our hitters will try to adjust to whatever they’re doing. I assume they are trying to figure out how we game-plan based on that.”
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A quick opinion on the first of two Willson Contreras ejections that happened in back-to-back games at Fenway Park this past week:
The second was deserved — ditto the ensuing suspension — but his getting tossed by the first-base umpire for tapping his helmet multiple times upon being ruled not to have checked his swing, resulting in a strikeout, not so much. As the volatile Red Sox slugger stated afterward, he neither uttered a word nor made eye contact with the arbiter. The reason given for his ouster was “disrespect.” Come on. As someone who is less critical of umpires than most, I found the ejection to be wholly unnecessary. Had blue simply ignored it, Contreras’s actions would have been forgotten in about three seconds… if even noticed. Is that not preferable to an umpire drawing attention to himself?
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A quiz:
Two catchers have won three MVP awards. Who are they? (A hint: one spent his entire MLB career in the National League, the other — for all but four games — in the American League.)
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
Single-day registration for SABR’s 54th annual national convention, which will be held in Cleveland from July 29-August 2. Featured speakers include Sandy Alomar Jr., Chris Antonetti, Carlos Baerga, and Kenny Lofton. More information can be found here.
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The answer to the quiz is Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella. Berra earned MVP honors playing for the New York Yankees in 1951, 1954, and 1955, while Campanella captured the award with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951, 1953, and 1955. If you guessed Johnny Bench, the Cincinnati Reds icon won a pair of MVP awards, those in 1970 and 1972.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Arndt Jorgens played in 307 games for the New York Yankees across the 1929-1939 series, an 11-season stretch in which the Bombers won the World Series five times. His contributions were limited. A backup catcher throughout his career, Jorgens logged just 176 hits over 836 plate appearances. Moreover, he didn’t make a single appearance in the Fall Classic.
His claim to fame is being the most recent Norwegian-born player in MLB history. One of only three — John Anderson and Jimmy Wiggs are the others — Jorgens spent his early days in Modum, a village approximately 25 miles west of Oslo, before his family moved stateside to Rockford, Illinois and then to Chicago. His humble output in the majors included four round-trippers. Jorgens homered twice off of Sugar Cain, and once each against Bump Hadley and Rube Walberg.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Taylor Hearn is 2-1 with one save and a 0.94 ERA over 28-and-two-thirds innings for the Hiroshima Carp. The 31-year-old left-hander is in his third NPB season after pitching for the Texas Rangers, and briefly the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Royals, from 2019-2023.
Lachlan Wells is 5-3 with a 2.77 ERA and a 3.96 FIP over 74-and-two-thirds innings with the KBO’s LG Twins. The 29-year-old left-hander from Newcastle, Australia pitched stateside in the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies organizations from 2015-2024, topping out in Double-A.
Brett de Geus was cited here just a few weeks ago, but he merits another mention. The 28-year-old, erstwhile MLB right-hander not only has a 1.22 ERA over 37 innings with the Mexican League’s Toros de Tijuana, he has punched out 47 batters and issued just one free pass.
Steven Moya leads the Chinese Professional Baseball League with 52 RBIs (no other CPBL batter has more than 34). The 34-year-old former Detroit Tigers outfielder — his last MLB season was 2016 — is slashing .275/.340/.500 with nine home runs for the TSG Hawks. Moya left the yard 25 times for the Kaohsiung City, Taiwan-based club a year ago, and 30 times in 2024.
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Earlier this week, I noticed that Daylen Lile had 358 plate appearances, just seven more than he accumulated in last year’s impressive rookie season. I also saw that his home run total was nearly identical and his walks and strikeouts were also quite close. What wasn’t close was his BABIP. A hefty .336 a year ago, it was now a below-league-average .280, contributing heavily to his batting average having slid from .299 to a lackluster .248 (his BA has since climbed to .259, his BABIP to .288).
Given the similar sample size, and with his batted-ball fortunes in mind, I asked Lile how he would he assess his season to date.
“It’s been up-and-down a little bit,” the Washington Nationals outfielder replied. “I’m a person that expects a lot from himself. I’m hard on myself, and hitting is the thing I think about the most, and do the most. I would love to capitalize on more situations for the team.”
Does he feel that he’s hit into some bad luck?
“I wouldn’t say bad luck,” said Lile, whose 99 wRC+ pales in comparison to last year’s 132. “Teams are doing their homework on me, just like I do on them, and I feel like they’re just attacking my weaknesses at the plate. I need to address that, and attack back with what I’m good at. I’m trying not to overthink anything. I know what kind of hitter, and player, I am.
“I feel like I’m making enough contact, but I’d like to be hitting balls harder,” added Lile, who has a 17.0% strikeout rate and a 6.4% walk rate. “I’m chasing a little bit too much instead of just waiting for my pitch; I need to do a better job of hunting pitches in the spots I want. I feel like I can hit everything they throw at me, so I’m getting myself out more than they’re getting me out. I need to shrink the strike zone a little more.”
Lile was accurate in his self-appraisal. His 37.1% chase rate is higher than all but 19 qualified batters. Last season, his chase rate was a more-disciplined 26.7%.
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FARM NOTES
Luis Guanipa drove home five runs in a losing cause as the Augusta GreenJackets (Low-A Atlanta) fell to the Salem RidgeYaks (Pittsburgh) on Thursday by a score of 16-10. Ranked 20th when our Braves Top Prospects list came out in March, the 20-year-old outfielder from Isla de Margarita, Venezuela is slashing .315/.375/.477 with nine home runs and a 128 wRC+ over 336 plate appearances. His ledger also includes 29 stolen bases.
Wednesday’s action included the Eugene Emeralds (San Francisco) scoring all of their runs in the fifth inning while outpacing the Vancouver Canadians (Toronto) 12-9. Jhonny Level had a walk and a two-run double in the frame. No. 3 on our Giants Top Prospects list with a 50 FV, the 19-year-old shortstop from Cumana, Venezuela is slashing .317/.375/.529 with 11 home runs and a 126 wRC+ over 339 plate appearances between Low-A San Jose and High-A Eugene.
Anderson Cardenas is 4-3 with a 3.08 ERA and a 32.3% strikeout rate over 38 innings for the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Arizona Complex League affiliate. The 20-year-old right-hander from Guanare, Venezuela was an honorable mention on our D-Backs Top Prospects list coming into the season.
Yhoiker Fajardo is 1-5 with a 3.73 ERA and a 31.0% strikeout rate over 60-and-a-third innings for the High-A Peoria Chiefs. Acquired by St. Louis from Boston as part of the Willson Contreras trade, the 19-year-old right-hander from Villa de Cura, Venezuela entered the current campaign ranked 33rd on our Cardinals Top Prospects list.
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Left on the cutting-room floor from my recent Sunday Notes passage on Louis Varland was his perspective on a pitch he throws sparingly. The Toronto Blue Jays closer has gone to his sinker just 2.9% of the time this season.
“I should maybe use my two-seam more often,” said Varland, who with 18 saves to go with a 0.96 ERA and a 35.9% strikeout rate hasn’t exactly struggled to get outs. “That would open up the zone more, especially to righties. Their approach would change. I predominantly throw spin and four-seams to them, so they tend to lean out over the plate, knowing that the pitch is most likely going to be on the outer half. Throwing to the inside of the plate more often would help open up the strike zone.”
The 28-year-old right-hander also shared a general observation on Uncle Charlie.
“Something that’s underrated in the game is that if a pitcher can master the high curveball that clips the zone, that’s an auto-take out of the hand,” Varland told me. “Especially with ABS. It jumps out of the hand, the hitter is like, ‘That’s a ball,’ and then it clips the top rail. That’s an effective pitch.”
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A random obscure former player snapshot, holiday bonus:
George Washington played in 128 big-league games, two of them on Independence Day in 1935 when the Chicago White Sox swept a double-header from the St. Louis Browns. The native of Linden, Texas was stationed in right field in both contests, batting fifth in the ChiSox lineup between Zeke Bonura and Luke Appling. A few months earlier, he’d singled off of Detroit’s Schoolboy Rowe in his first-ever MLB plate appearance. Washington was a Schoolboy nemesis. Of his 104 career hits, 10 came against the Tigers right-hander in just 25 at-bats.
Most of his success came down on the farm. Washington — his given name was Sloan Vernon — was a veritable beast with the bat in 1947. Playing for the Big State League’s Texarkana Bears, he batted .404 with 37 home runs and 143 RBIs.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
MLB Pipeline’s Benjamin Hill wrote about how the Iowa Baseball Camp for the Deaf empowers kids to dream without limits.
CBS Sports’s Matt Snyder presented us with his MLB mid-season awards.
Bleed Cubbie Blue’s Al Yellon concurs with Craig Counsell’s opinion that “a terrible rule” was behind a call that cost his club on the bases.
The Tangotiger blog has an informative entry on first baseman scoops.
MLB.com’s Michael Clair wrote about the making of Tim Lincecum, “the whirling dervish out of Washington.”
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
The New York Mets have played 13 extra-inning games (7-6) so far this season, the most of any team. The Los Angeles Dodgers have yet to play an extra-inning game.
Seattle Mariners pitchers have walked 224 batters, the fewest of any team. Their 80 home runs allowed are also the fewest of any team.
Los Angeles Angels and Minnesota Twins batters have hit 64 home runs in road games, tied for the most in the majors. Boston Red Sox batters have hit 34 home runs in home games, the fewest in the majors.
Josh Jung is slashing .381/.439/.590 at home and .238/.308/.349 on the road.
Carlos Cortes is slashing .237/.315/.330 at home and .326/.404/.547 on the road.
James Wood has played in 90 games and scored 77 runs.
Andrés Giménez has played in 85 games and scored 24 runs.
In 1988, David Cone crafted a 2.22 ERA, which ranked second lowest in MLB among qualified pitchers behind Joe Magrane’s 2.18. Cone’s won-lost record was 20-3. Magrane’s won-lost record was 5-8.
On today’s date in 1993, Rickey Henderson hit first-inning lead-off home runs for the Oakland Athletics in both ends of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians. Harry Hooper (in 1913), Brady Anderson (1999), and Ronald Acuña Jr. (2018) are the only other players to have led off both ends of a twin-ball with a round-tripper. All told, Henderson had 81 leadoff home runs in his career, the most in MLB history.
Larry Doby became the first Black player in American League history on today’s date in 1947. Three months after Jackie Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier with the National League’s Brooklyn Dodgers, Doby pinch-hit for the Cleveland Indians in a 6-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998.
Players born on today’s date include Bo Porter, an outfielder who played for three teams — the Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, and Texas Rangers — across parts of the 1999-2001 seasons. Two of his 27 career hits left the yard, the second of them an eight-inning, three-run homer off of Mark Mulder to give the Rangers a 3-1 win over the A’s on July1, 2001. Porter went on to manage the Houston Astros in 2013 and 2014, and is now the third base coach for the Los Angeles Angels.
Also born on today’s date was Doug Bochtler, who appeared in 220 games while taking the mound for four teams, primarily the San Diego Padres, from 1995-2000. A right-hander who worked exclusively in relief, Bochtler went 9-18 with six saves and a 4.57 ERA over 260 innings. He is currently the pitching coach for the Toledo Mud Hens, the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.