Kai Gronauer, former Minor League catcher for the New York Mets, evaluates Max Kepler’s season, but has some doubts about the future of the only German in the MLB.The 30-year-old coach of the Buchbinder legionnaires in the German Baseball Bundesliga talks to SPOX about the upcoming playoffs, the best Catcher in the league and why this season more homeruns have been beaten than ever before.
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SPOX: Mr. Gronauer, how do you see Max Kepler’s first full season at MLB?
Kai Gronauer: Super!The numbers are perfectly alright.I have read recently – I think it was even with you – that he doesn’t play against lefties that often, although he actually wants to do so.But that’s where the numbers are important.
SPOX: Has it established itself sustainably in the Twins?
Gronauer: I hope that he will continue to assert himself well against the strong competition in the outfield of the Twins.He can’t rest, has to keep working.And at the moment I find the outfield of the Twins a bit overcrowded.Maybe a trade will be made sooner or later.I don’t know how important Max is to the Twins.Maybe the day will come when the twins decide that Max is the most valuable trade chip for them to fill another gap.And then Max gets a chance somewhere else.
SPOX: That doesn’t sound completely convinced now…
Gronauer: Well, I think he’s still quite young, but one day he has to become one of the best punchesmen, otherwise he won’t be there.He’s got to get stuck in the upper midfield, but I’d trust him.He’ll be all right.
SPOX: The start of the playoff is imminent.What do you expect, who do you see in front?
Gronauer: I think my predictions in the SPOX panel at the beginning of the season weren’t that bad.I think I was wrong about the Giants, but I had the Yankees and Red Sox.The Nationals are back again.I found it pretty impressive what the Cleveland Indians did with their 22 wins in a row.That’s when you could really see what a deep cadre they have.That wasn’t just 20 people standing on the square.Everyone has made their own contribution.That was a strong performance.I also saw the Astros as one of the favourites, even though they had some injuries.For example, Star-Shortstop Carlos Correa has long been missing.But on the whole, I still think Houston is super strong.
SPOX: And what about the National League?
Gronauer: I don’t think the Nationals can really be on top of it.The Dodgers look pretty damn strong after playing a great season.
SPOX: Certainly.With their more than 100 victories…
Gronauer: Yes.They already had 85 victories on their account shortly after the All-Star-Break.
SPOX: This season was all about the home race: Never before have so many been beaten as this year.Do you have an explanation for this homerun explosion?
Gronauer: Of course, I don’t know exactly.Maybe it’s just a season in which a few happy circumstances have led to the balls continuing to fly.The stadiums are still relatively large.However, I know that players in high schools, Dominican Republic and Venezuela have caught up in one thing these days: training!The boys are physically stronger today.Those who come to the MLB today are much better trained than 15 or 20 years ago.The athletics in the game have improved a hell of a lot.The stronger a player is, the more the ball flies.
SPOX: But greater strength can’t be the only reason.
Gronauer: Right.There is also the fact that the overreviews have been criticized in recent years for being too deep strike zones.So the Umpire are trying to work on it.The result is that pitcher throw high strikes more often.And if they are hit, the balls will continue to fly.
SPOX: Could this have anything to do with pitch selection?The trend is towards off-speed pitches.
Gronauer.Exactly.The Yankees, for example, are now throwing 65 or more percent of off-speed pitches.Most hitters may not be so enthusiastic about it, as breaking pitches are harder to beat than fastballs.But if you make a mistake with the Breaking Ball, you will be penalized with a homerun rather than a fast ball.This has to do with physical laws.The racket is a little further out, the ball is at the top of the zone and when the ball hits the racket with the extra spin, the ball just flies on.Of course, if you throw more and more Breaking Balls, then you might attract more people, but there are more mistakes and then the ball will fly away.This is a factor that can contribute to more homeruns.But I can’t say whether that’s true or not.
SPOX: So we now have a few more explanations, but nobody knows for sure.
Gronauer: (laughs) That was just a statistic you confronted me with.I have had three years of statistics at the university and everything that is statistically recorded is in the past.Unless you have researched the cause, you can sum up these statistics beautifully, but you don’t know what caused it.It is precisely these causes that must be investigated.I have mentioned possible factors.It could also be that the pitcher’s got worse.But the pitcher throw harder and harder, so I can’t imagine that the pitcher has got worse.
Page 1: Max Kepler, the playoffs and the homerun explosion
Page 2: Pitck Clock, Mound Visits and the best Catcher of the MLB