I've already talked about this many times, and yes Greinke will be mediocre at home all year. He went from a nice pitcher's park in Dodger Stadium to a launching pad when the roof is open in Chase Field. I never would have drafted him in fantasy, but if anyone has him, trade him while you can still get value.
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David Ortiz delivers on promise to hit home run for young Red Sox fan
On Friday, David Ortiz told 5-year-old Maverick Schutte, who has a serious congenital heart defect, he'd homer for him. Later, Big Papi delivered.Comment -
Didn't Paul O'Neal hit two home runs for a dying kid once?Comment -
Ortiz a cool superstar, always liked him.Comment -
Rockies sweep the Diamondbacks. Three teams a top the NL west at .500Comment -
Baltimore Orioles: Shortstop J.J. Hardy is headed to the 15-day disabled list with a hairline fracture of his left foot, and is expected to miss about six weeks.Comment -
Arizona definitely a launching pad, Greinke and Miller not liking it.Comment -
Fat Panda probably out for the rest of the season. How fat is he going to get when he comes back?:http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15...oulder-surgeryComment -
Though the team has confirmed Sandoval will have surgery, they did not provide a timetable for his return. It doesn't sound like they'll release that information until after Sandoval undergoes his procedure, according to Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald.
Shoulder surgery is a pretty serious issue, though, and it seems likely Sandoval will miss significant time. It's unclear whether that means a little over a month, or the entire season at the moment. Both things are possible depending on the injury and the surgery required to fix it. Early indications are that Sandoval could be facing a lengthy rehab.
From a team standpoint, this doesn't really change the Red Sox's outlook all that much. Sandoval was beat out by Travis Shaw during spring training and wasn't getting a ton of playing time before the injury. He would have been a nice piece to have off the bench, but only if his performance improved.
[Elsewhere: This five-year-old looks and pitches just like Noah Syndergaard]
As of right now, it's just another sad story in Sandoval's short Boston tenure. The best way for Sandoval to work his way back into the good graces of the team and the fans was to perform on the field, and he won't have the chance to do that for a while now.
Given his performance and lack of conditioning, Sandoval already faced an uphill battle to win the fans over. Missing time will only make it harder for him to change that perception.Comment -
Felix Hernandez's crazy April:
There have been 2 games this year in which a team got one hit but still won.
Felix has been the winning pitcher & losing pitcher in those 2 games.
So how often since 1900 has any pitcher done that (in a one-hitter or no-hitter) in the same year? The answer, from the Elias Sports Bureau: Never!Comment -
St. Louis Cardinals lead the majors with 40 home runs hit, ahead of Colorado and Arizona.Comment -
Maybe he hires a personal trainer and cuts his eating?Comment -
The first month of the 2016 MLB season is in the books, and we’ve got movement in our 2017 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings. These rankings apply to players projected to reach free agency after this season, and the players are ranked based on earning power. In the middle of April, the Rangers unsurprisingly extended Adrian Beltre, so he’s off the list. To see the full list of 2016-17 MLB Free Agents, click here.
1. Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg was dominant in the season’s first month, carrying over his success from last year. By measure of wins above replacement, only Clayton Kershaw and Noah Syndergaard have been better. With a full season of good health, agent Scott Boras could look to push a seven-year deal for Strasburg past $240MM. An opt-out clause or two will surely figure in as well. Strasburg doesn’t turn 28 until July.
2. Yoenis Cespedes. Cespedes jumps up a spot after a huge April. In addition to seven home runs, he even managed to draw a few extra walks. A less streaky campaign than 2015, perhaps ending with around 35 home runs again, could net Cespedes the six-year deal that eluded him last winter. To take a shot at it, he’ll have to opt out of the remaining two years and $47.5MM on his current contract with the Mets.
3. Jose Bautista. Bautista continues to do his thing, hitting for power and drawing lots of walks. Last week, Jon Heyman tweeted that he believes Bautista will take less than his five-year, $150MM asking price but not less than $100MM. Something a bit north of $100MM on a four-year deal does seem plausible for Bautista, who told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe last month that he is willing to negotiate in-season with the Blue Jays.
4. Josh Reddick. Nothing out of the ordinary from Reddick in April. As a solid player who doesn’t turn 30 until February, Reddick could be a sneaky candidate for a five-year deal this winter. He told MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi that he’s not aware of any substantive extension talks with the A’s. In that column, Morosi had some interesting speculation about whether the Cubs could trade for Reddick this summer.
5. Carlos Gomez. Gomez is hitting .245/.303/.364 since June of last year, and I’ve dropped him three spots since our last rankings. The Astros’ center fielder is currently battling rib cage soreness and is trying to avoid the DL. For the Astros, Gomez just hasn’t looked like the player he was with the Brewers. Even if he performs to projections from here on out, which is a total unknown, Gomez could be limited to a four-year deal in the range of Alex Gordon’s $72MM. He carries further downside risk if this becomes a lost season.
6. Kenley Jansen. Business as usual for Jansen, who has allowed one run in his first ten appearances. If the save opportunities continue coming as they did in April, perhaps the Dodgers’ closer can top his career high of 44 saves. It would be interesting to see a reliever earn the second-largest pitching contract of the offseason. Jansen could make that happen with a precedent-shattering five-year deal.
7. Edwin Encarnacion. Like last year, it was a rough April for Encarnacion. The Blue Jays’ designated hitter has shown many times he’s capable of going on a tear. Still, my confidence in a four-year deal for Encarnacion is wavering a bit. He’ll turn 34 in January.
8. Aroldis Chapman. Chapman’s 30-game suspension for a domestic violence incident ends a week from today, and he’ll presumably jump right into the Yankees’ closer role. He’s been working out at the Yankees’ minor league complex, taking some time last week to become a U.S. citizen. I expect Jansen to do better than Chapman in free agency, but Chapman should still land a huge contract if he stays incident-free until free agency.
9. Francisco Cervelli. Cervelli makes his first appearance in our top ten. The Pirates’ backstop has stepped it up a notch after a stellar 2015, and ranks fifth in the NL with a .438 on-base percentage. As it stands now I could see a four-year deal worth $60MM, and I think he could have a shot at five years if his offensive success continues. Quite the transformation for Cervelli, who will turn 31 shortly before the 2017 season.
10. Dexter Fowler. Like Cespedes, Fowler could find the contract that eluded him after another year back with his old team. So far in 2016, Fowler has been the best player in baseball. The Cubs’ center fielder boasts an MLB-best .470 OBP. Though he’s never approached four wins above replacement, Fowler already has two in the books after one month. If he stays healthy and productive, Fowler should be able to get a four-year deal in free agency.
Neil Walker and Michael Saunders are both pushing for a spot in our top ten after stellar starts to their seasons. Walker has already crushed nine home runs, and could reach 30 this year. Saunders is healthy and hitting after a lost 2015. Typically weaker against left-handed pitching, Saunders smacked three home runs off southpaws in April, including two off Drew Smyly. Colby Rasmus, Mark Trumbo, Martin Prado, and Rich Hill are a few others off to hot starts in 2016. Andrew Cashner drops out of our top ten after a lackluster April.Comment -
well finally the hammer went down on john danks..Total disappointment for yearsComment -
Guy was throwing mid 80's pumpkinsComment -
Jake Peavy continues to struggle for the Giants in a big way. In his last start, he lasted just two innings, the shortest of his career other than once leaving with an injury and once when he had an illness.
The Reds hit three home runs off him in the second inning to take a 6-1 lead,Comment -
- Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez will not be investigated by the league in connection to the civil lawsuit that has reportedly been filed against him by a Florida woman, reports ESPN’s Mark Saxon. Per Saxon’s source, Martinez’s case falls outside of the domestic violence policy’s jurisdiction, and beyond that, no police report was ever filed in connection with the matter. Martinez tells Saxon that he doesn’t consider the issue to be a distraction, noting that it’ll be handled by his agent and his lawyer.
- On the heels of a recent Ken Rosenthal report pertaining to Ryan Braun’s potential trade candidacy, Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron speculates on a handful of clubs that could make sense as a trade partner for the Brewers. The Red Sox, White Sox and Nationals, Cameron opines, are the three best fits for Braun, though there are reasons that each club would struggle to fit Braun into the books and onto the roster. Cameron makes a reasonable case for each team, noting that Braun would deepen Boston’s bench by pushing Brock Holt to a super-utility role, and he’d be an upgrade in Chicago as well, where Avisail Garcia is effectively a replacement-level placeholder on a win-now club. Cameron concedes that the Nationals are somewhat of a stretch, but it’s hard to argue with Braun serving as an upgrade over Jayson Werth and/or Ryan Zimmerman, and pairing him with Bryce Harper in the middle of the lineup would give the Nats an imposing middle of the order duo.
- The Pirates announced earlier this week that top catching prospect Elias Diaz would undergo surgery on his right elbow, but there were no further details and no timeline provided by the club. MLB.com’s Adam Berry adds some context to the report, tweeting that Diaz underwent a debridement of his throwing elbow and is currently expected to miss seven to nine weeks while recovering from the injury. While that’s still bad news for the organization, it’s fortuitous that Diaz’s ulnar collateral ligament remained intact and that he seemingly has a strong chance of returning before the 2016 season comes to a close.
- The Twins got a first-hand look at Luke Gregerson as he closed out an Astros win over them last night, but Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that Minnesota wasn’t far off from seeing quite a bit more of Gregerson. The right-hander tells Berardino that the Twins pursued him heavily as a free agent in the 2014-15 offseason prior to his signing with Houston. Gregerson, of course, wouldn’t comment on the specifics of Minnesota’s offer, but he did tell Berardino that the Twins came “pretty close” to Houston’s offer of $18.5MM over a three-year term. The tipping point for Gregerson, it would seem, may have been Houston’s willingness to let him serve as the team’s closer, which he said made their offer “hard to pass up.” Said Gregerson: “I think if the situation was a little different, I think it would have definitely been able to work out. I’m happy where I ended up.”
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who knows if he is really MLB ready
is he minor league ready and willing to take that assignment?Comment -
Last night marked the 20th time in 24 seasons the Rockies have scored 17+ runs in a game...
but only the 2nd time away from Denver. (The other: 9/25/11 in Houston)Comment
