Christopher Morel

The Pittsburgh Pirates were walked off by the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, but they feel like they should still be playing.Manager Derek Shelton and multiple Pirates players took issue with home-plate umpire Chris Conroy's safe call on Cubs third baseman Christopher Morel's game-winning single. Cody Bellinger was ruled on the field to have successfully slid home and the call was upheld after a review to give the Cubs a 1-0 victory. Christopher Morel delivers the Wrigley Field walk-off! pic.twitter.com/DqBZ61cv5r MLB (@MLB) May 18, 2024 The Pirates were insistent, however, that Joey Bart tagged Bellinger before the ball popped out of his glove. Bellinger appeared to knock the ball loose as he slid through home. Cody Bellinger was ruled safe on this play that won the game for the Cubs.Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/rb0IJGN7Fu Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) May 18, 2024 "I don't think he (Bellinger) did it intentionally, but you can see (Bart) had a firm grip of the ball until Bellinger made contact," center fielder Michael A. Taylor - whose 124-mph throw home on the play was the hardest by any outfielder this year - said postgame, according to Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. "In my eyes, he was out right there and MLB made a mistake.""I'm not a guy that lives for excuses ever, but if I was in the wrong there, I'd stand right here and tell you, you know what I mean?" Bart said. "I felt like I did the best I could to make that play. Michael made a hell of a throw and we just didn't get the benefit of the doubt."Shelton concurred with his players' assessment as he broke down the play for reporters, stating Bart presented the ball to Conroy as evidence of the tag when it was dislodged."My interpretation is that Joey presented the ball," Shelton said, per SportsNet Pittsburgh. "And I mean, there's another runner on base, so he's presenting the ball to show the umpire that (Bellinger's) out. So you see him secure, you see tag, you see him take the ball out, and then there's contact with Bellinger. The way, again, I see it is, that's voluntary that he's taking the ball out, and that it's a tag."Pittsburgh has now dropped seven of its last 11 contests and sits 6.5 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central.Copyright © 2024 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Christopher Morel hit a line drive up the middle to seal the Chicago Cubs' 1-0 walk-off victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Saturday s Cubs-Pirates game was truly a pitchers game between Bailey Falter and Sh ta Imanaga. Falter pitched a gem, going 7.2 innings and allowing three hits, zero runs and two walks while striking out two Cubs batters. As for Imanaga, he tossed seven scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out seven. That left the game tied,...

On Sunday night, Major League Baseball unleashed a new avalanche of data on the baseball world.Having long since tracked and quantified numerous characteristics of ball flight, both as pitches and hits, MLB turned its Statcast system toward the movement of the bat itself. Baseball Savant now publishes eight new measurements, such as "bat speed," "swing length," and "blasts."But will the new data challenge existing beliefs or mostly march in lockstep with them? We explored some initial insights to understand just what this new content drop means for those who play, analyze, and enjoy the game.Bat speed is (almost) kingOne takeaway is much of the data lines up well with the scouting eye. Baseball is a game of physics. Power is the result of the mass of the bat times acceleration. Acceleration of the bat is important. We've known that since the days of Babe Ruth. Ted Williams also trumpeted the need for bat speed. Now fans have a way to know who has the fastest bat and how that impacts their production.Through play Sunday, hitters with an average bat speed one standard deviation (4.5 mph) or better from the MLB median of 71.3 mph averaged a wOBA of .321, which is 10 points higher than the MLB average.Hitters one standard deviation or more below the median swing speed had a wOBA of .260. Tim Warner / Getty ImagesGiancarlo Stanton, Oneil Cruz, Kyle Schwarber, Matt Chapman, Ronald Acu a Jr., Christopher Morel, and Aaron Judge are the only hitters with average swing speeds of 76.5 mph and above - two standard deviations better than the average.(To determine bat speed, MLB removes bunts and the slowest 10% of a hitter's swings for the calculation.)The list has some past MVPs (Acu a, Judge, Stanton), possible breakout hitters (Morel, Cruz), and, bafflingly, Chapman. Bettmann / Getty ImagesGood teams swing fastSome of the best-hitting teams have the quickest bats. The Atlanta Braves rank first in team bat speed; the Baltimore Orioles are third.Some of the worst have the slowest. The Chicago White Sox and Toronto Blue Jays rank 29th and 30th, respectively.The Pittsburgh Pirates represent a confounding outlier. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r

Morel (toe) will start at designated hitter and bat cleanup in Tuesday's game in Atlanta.