A look at Carlos Santana’s impressive exit velocity early in the season"One of the best things about Statcast is that it gives us something worthwhile to talk about in the first week of the season. Wins and losses are just as important now as they are in September Tim Anderson Jersey , but most individual player stats are worthless. You can’t tell much from the single statistic of hit or even a home run besides the fact that they probably hit the ball pretty well. The discussion starts and stops with “this thing happened” in each of those instances. Exit velocity is a whole different monster. Exit velocity is something that you can use on a case-by-case basis on its own to see what a player is doing — we can say without a shadow of a doubt that Carlos Santana has hit the ball really dang hard in his first few games. He might not for the whole season, but that’s okay. It’s more than just “he hit it,” instead it now becomes “did you see this fuckin guy hit a baseball 112.8 miles per hour, then follow that up with 108.3 miles per hour? Cripes!” I guess what I’m trying to say is: Our boy is back. Carlos Santana has made no secret about the fact he loves Cleveland, and is thrilled to be back with the Indians. Call it playing up the fans if you want, but at this year’s fan fest he told eager Tribe fans, “Last year I missed you guys. Right now, I’m so excited to be back to my natural home.” He had some equally rosy comments leading up to his free agency in 2017. Even after today’s game, where the Indians lost in devastating fashion to the lowly Chicago White Sox http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-paul-konerko-jersey , Santana’s bat came through as one of the few bright spots. He told reporters after the game he’s enjoying the game of baseball, when he wasn’t before. He attributes his hot start to feeling comfortable in both body and mind. How do you not love him? Through the Indians’ first five games, Carlos Santana’s bat has been the lone light in the darkness for the Francisco Lindorless Tribe (Hanley Ramirez and his pair of home runs is a distant second). Sample sizes are still extremely small right now, which means it’s easy to do something like take a blanket look at how Carlos has hit every ball that he’s made contact with. So let’s do that. March 2899.8 mph flyout vs. Jose Berrios95.2 mph flyout vs. Jose BerriosMarch 30111.8 mph single vs. Blake Parker88.2 mph flyout vs. Trevor May76.5 mph pop out vs. Jake Odorizzi83.9 mph groundout vs. Jake OdorizziMarch 31112.8 mph double vs. Martin Perez108.3 mph single vs. Martin Perez99.9 mph single vs. Martin Perez102.6 mph single vs. Michael PinedaApril 1106.4 mph single vs. Ivan Nova79.0 mph GIDP vs. Ivan NovaApril 3110.1 mph single vs. Nate Jones99.4 mph groundout vs. Carlos Rodon81.3 mph flyout vs. Carlos Rodon84.7 mph single vs. Carlos RodonGo ahead and file that under “not bad.”In the March 31 game — a loss to the Twins — Santana held the mark for the four hardest-hit balls among Indians batters. That speaks to be how bad the Indians lineup is, sure, but it also shows the kind of great contact that Slamtana is making now that he’s back where he feels the most comfortable. Entering play today, Santana ranked sixth in average exit velocity at 97 miles per hour, and fifth in hard hit percentage at 66.7 percent.Similar to the dearly departed Yandy Diaz, though Welington Castillo Jersey , Santana’s launch angle could use a boost as it sits at 10.2 heading into today (and his .500 batting average on balls in play probably isn’t going to stand forever).still, for this one fun little metric, in the silliest time of the year, Carlos Santana is doing something really, really well. Let’s enjoy that for a minute. BOSTON (AP) — Hyun-Jin Ryu is used to pitching in big moments and on big stages.Four years before being signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012, the South Korean left-hander was on the mound for his home country when it defeated Cuba in the gold medal game of the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.He added to that history in 2013, becoming the first South Korean-born pitcher in major league history to start a playoff game when he had the ball for Game 3 of the NL Division Series against the Atlanta Braves.Ryu could pass even more milestones during the Dodgers’ World Series matchup with the Boston Red Sox. He’s trying to become just the second South Korean-born player to win a World Series ring, joining Byung-Hyun Kim.He’ll be on the hill as Los Angeles’ starter for Game 2 on Wednesday night opposite Boston’s David Price. It will be Ryu’s next opportunity to get past his recent issues pitching on the road.Ryu had a 1.15 ERA in nine starts at home during the regular season, but it increased to 3.58 on the road. He’s also had some issues away from Dodger Stadium during this postseason.He pitched seven shutout innings in Los Angeles against the Braves in Game 1 of the NLDS. He had mixed results in his two NL Championship Series starts in Milwaukee. He pitched fine in Game 2 but got hit hard in Game 6 David Ross Jersey , yielding seven hits and five earned runs in the Dodgers’ 7-2 loss.“Obviously, it’s a stadium that I’ve pitched in the most, therefore I feel pretty comfortable pitching in Dodger Stadium. And having that run of success definitely builds more confidence,” Ryu said Tuesday through an interpreter. “I guess that’s the reason why.”Ryu said having better command of his pitches than he did against the Brewers will be a key to success against a stacked Red Sox lineup that features Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, who became the first MLB teammates to finish first and second in batting average and slugging percentage since 1904.“If I actually commanded my off-speed pitches to get ahead in the count, I think there would have been a different result,” Ryu said. “Obviously, tomorrow I’m going to use all the pitches I can throw.”Fenway Park can be imposing for any pitcher, especially those pitching here for the first time.Ryu said walking into the historic stadium and seeing the towering 37-foot Green Monster for the first time on Monday was humbling.“When I was in Korea http://www.chicagocubsteamshop.com/authentic-david-ross-jersey , I only saw Fenway Park through TV,” Ryu said. “It took me so long to actually get here at the Fenway Park. My initial reaction to the Green Monster is it’s very tall.”Ryu is in the final season of the six-year, $36 million deal that he signed in 2013. He becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2019.While Wednesday night’s start could conceivably be his last in a Dodger uniform unless the series extends beyond four games, Ryu isn’t concerned about his future at this point.“No, I don’t think about it at all,” he said. “My current focus right now is making sure that my team wins tomorrow’s game. So I don’t really have time to think about such things.”