padres should be money next yr
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Yeah I'm just upset that I have to drop him in my h2h league where I own him. He's been consistently putting up points for me at the SS position and thats been really useful this season. I have Luis Arraez who I picked up and will use at SS the rest of the way but it was nice plugging in Tatis and getting double digit points every week almost. I'm in need of starting pitching in that league so I am trying to pick up a couple of SP off the waiver wire for the stretch run.Comment -
The padres are a few pieces from being competitive.Comment -
Vlad Jr. leaves Jays' game with sore left knee
TORONTO -- Toronto Blue Jays rookie slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. left Saturday's game against Seattle after two innings because of a sore left knee. Brandon Drury replaced Guerrero at third base in the third.
In the second, Guerrero cut in front of shortstop Bo Bichette to field Austin Nola's grounder and made an awkward throw across his body, too late to record the out. Nola later came around to score on a sacrifice fly.
The son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr. and a finalist in the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game in Cleveland, Guerrero leads AL rookies in hits (95) and doubles (22). He homered in Friday's win over the Mariners, his 14th. He's batting .274 with 54 RBI in 93 games.
Guerrero missed more than a month at Double-A New Hampshire last season because of a strained ligament in his left knee.Comment -
Brewers just hit their SEVENTH homer of the game in the top of the 14th inning.
It's 15-13 now, Brewers lead the Nats. (or is it Packers lead the Redskins?)
I'm really tired of this arena baseball age played with one of those old superballs.Comment -
MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian offers that the “expectation” is that Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel will be activated for Sunday’s contest with the Pirates. Signed this midseason to a 3-year/$43MM contract, Kimbrel got off to a rocky start in Chicago before a knee injury robbed him of participation in the club’s last 13 games. Through his first 14 appearances in blue pinstripes, the bearded hurler holds a 5.68 ERA across 12.2 IP. While the club is yet to announce his activation, Gordon Wittenmeyer points out that Kimbrel was on the team’s travel roster for their charter to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and is indeed expected to be activated from the injured list in time for the third edition of MLB’s Little League Classic (link).
Wittenmeyer also relays that Steve Cishek appears as though he’ll be ready to return from the IL on Tuesday after throwing another bullpen session Saturday. Both returns would be welcome news for Cubs skipper Joe Maddon, who has been tinkering with troublesome iterations of Pedro Strop, Kyle Ryan, Derek Holland, and Brandon Kintzlerin late-game situations.
More news from around the senior circuit…
- Saturday saw sidelined Nationals ace Max Scherzer throwing his second simulated game of the week, and MASN’s Mark Zuckerman reports that the legendary righty is on track to return on Thursday. “He felt good,” manager Dave Martinez told Zuckerman. “He’s a little bit ornery, but that’s a good thing. Now we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.” It hardly counts as high-level baseball journalism to say that the Nationals are going to need Scherzer in peak form in coming weeks. Sitting atop the tightly packed NL Wild Card race, Washington will play 11 games before season’s end against the Brewers, Mets, Cubs, and Phillies–four teams currently chomping at their heels for the right to play in the postseason play-in game. When healthy, the 35-year-old righty has posted typically ridiculous numbers, with a 2.41 ERA, 2.09 FIP, 12.66 K/9, and 1.67 BB/9 in 134.1 innings this year.
- Though the Braves lost Ender Inciarte to injury this weekend, it’s not all doom and gloom out of the Big Peach–as noted in an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Gabriel Burns, sturdy shortstop performer Dansby Swanson is ramping up baseball activities. The 25-year-old infielder has missed 22 games this year due to an incidental heel injury but was seen taking ground balls before Saturday’s game. Before being hurt, Swanson was putting together his most complete full-season at the plate, with 17 home runs and a 102 wRC+ in 100 games. His injury was partly responsible for the team’s signing of defensive specialist Adeiny Hechavarria, but the team would eagerly clear a place for Swanson at the team table if he were able to return by late August as currently expected. Atlanta holds a 4.5 game lead in the race for the NL East pennant.
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15-14, Hader blew the game then struck out 3 with game on the line and bases loaded.Comment -
Blue Jays just gotta shut em down at this point, why even risk it?Comment -
Will Orioles win one against the Red Sox... Lost 6 consecutive gamesComment -
Red Sox seek second opinion as Sale lands on IL
BOSTON -- Red Sox ace left-hander Chris Sale was placed on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with left elbow inflammation, raising questions about whether he will pitch again this season.
Team president Dave Dombrowski said Sale had an MRI, and the team's doctors said the results showed inflammation.
"There's going to be further evaluations,'' Dombrowski said before Boston's 4-0 win over the Orioles on Saturday. "We're in a situation where I don't know where it's really going to take us at this point.''
Asked if Sale would return to the mound this year, Dombrowski said, "I don't know one way or another at this point.''Comment -
Orioles are a bigger joke than the Jays.Comment -
As Gavin Lux continues to shred Triple-A pitching, it isn’t yet clear if the star prospect will make his Dodgers debut in 2019, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register writes. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman simply said “I don’t know” when asked about the possibility of a Lux promotion, as Friedman cited considerations like finding room for Lux on the 40-man roster while juggling the roster status of other players returning from the injured list. “I think more of our mental energy is being spent on how to configure our pitching staff (for the postseason) more than our position players that are doing pretty well,” Friedman said.
Lux entered today’s action hitting an unfathomable .415/.497/.768 over 191 plate appearances for Triple-A Oklahoma City (not to mention “only” a .313/.375/.521 slash line in 291 PA at Double-A before his latest promotion). While he has spent much of his pro career at shortstop, Lux has also seen a lot of action at second base, which would be his logical position both in the event of a September call-up and probably for the future, since Corey Seager isn’t leaving L.A. anytime soon. Then again, the Dodgers’ list of second base candidates is also long — Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez are expected to return from the IL on Tuesday, Jedd Gyorko and Kristopher Negron are utility options, and Max Muncy needs an everyday role if the Dodgers continue to deploy Cody Bellinger at first base. Interestingly, Friedman hinted that Lux could potentially join the Dodgers in a non-roster capacity in September, traveling with the team and learning the ropes of being a big leaguer without actually being on the active roster.
Here’s some more on some of the game’s stars of the future…
- There’s more clarity on a heralded youngster on Los Angeles’ other team, as the Angels currently aren’t planning to call Jo Adell up for his first taste of MLB action in September, Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times tweets. Prospect ranking outlets have Adell as a consensus top-four minor leaguer in the sport, though preseason ankle and hamstring injuries kept him from making his 2019 debut until May 24, and he has only a modest .233/.303/.317 slash line over 67 plate appearances in his first stint at Triple-A. As a result, the Angels look to give Adell more seasoning and some time at winter ball before looking to promote him to the majors. It has been widely speculated that Adell could be an everyday member of the Halos’ outfield as early as Opening Day 2020, as Kole Calhoun is a free agent this offseason.
- Could the Red Sox go with a youth movement at first base next season? Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe wonders if this could be the case, as since Mitch Moreland and Steve Pearce will both be free agents, the Sox could turn to either Michael Chavis or top prospect Bobby Dalbec. Abraham notes that while Chavis has played a lot of second base this season, the keystone is “probably not a long-term position for him,” and thus Chavis could be used at first base, in the outfield, all over the diamond as a super-utility player, or potentially even as an offseason trade chip to add pitching. A fourth-rounder for Boston in the 2016 draft, Dalbec (ranked 92nd on Baseball America’s list of the game’s top 100 prospects) has steadily climbed through the farm system and is now hitting well over his first two weeks at Triple-A. Dalbec was originally drafted as a third baseman, but has increasingly seen more time at first base thanks to Rafael Devers establishing himself at the hot corner for the Sox. While Devers and Xander Bogaerts have the left side of Boston’s infield locked down for the foreseeable future, the right side is much more in flux, between Moreland and Pearce possibly leaving and the continued uncertainty about whether Dustin Pedroia will ever be able to play again. The Red Sox are likely to explore the market for first base and second base options this offseason, and Chavis will certainly be in the conversation at either position, Dalbec could also be an important piece of the team’s puzzle for 2020.
- Orioles left-handed pitching prospect D.L. Hall has been shut down for the season following a left lat strain, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko reports (Twitter link). While the injury isn’t considered serious, Hall won’t have enough time to get back before the Orioles’ A-ball affiliate in Frederick completes its season. The 21st overall pick of the 2017 draft, Hall has a 3.46 ERA and 12.9 K/9 over 80 2/3 innings for Frederick this season, though with a troubling 6.0 BB/9. ESPN’s Keith Law ranked Hall 35th in his midseason top-50 prospects list and Baseball America has Hall 38th in their top 100 list, while MLB.com (62) and Fangraphs (63) are just a touch less bullish on his promise.
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Giants going to wrigley......Winds blowing out? any overs?Comment -
Let's face it, Red Sox are not going to the playoffs.Comment -
There's been over 50 occurrences where a position player appeared in a relief role.Comment -
Red Sox ace Chris Sale will not require Tommy John surgery after meeting with Dr. James Andrews, report says
Sale's timetable to return is uncertain
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Twins' Cruz returns, will play through torn tendon
MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota Twins slugger Nelson Cruz was reinstated from the injured list Monday after the minimum 10-day stay and will play through a ruptured tendon in his left wrist.
Cruz ruptured the tendon Aug. 8, and the Twins feared he would miss significant time. But the team later learned he could play with the injury, and he has told the team he is pain-free.
"We haven't really had a hint of a discussion related to discomfort, related to anything associated with his wrist," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He's seemingly in great shape. He's ready to play. He's been adamant about that."
The 39-year-old Cruz is hitting .294 with 32 homers and 76 RBIs for AL Central-leading Minnesota.
The Twins optioned right-handed reliever Zack Littell to Triple-A Rochester to make room for Cruz on the roster.Comment -
Tough one for twins tonight, decent Sox bullpen.Comment -
Considering his age, contract status and performance, there is no question that Boston’s Rafael Devers is on the short list of most valuable third basemen in the game. That Devers has reached this point isn’t something which would’ve shocked many observers back when the Red Sox promoted the then-touted prospect to the majors in July 2017. However, his production was closer to average than excellent over his first season-plus in the majors. That’s not a knock on Devers, who was – and still is – incredibly young for the level. This season, though, the 22-year-old has overcome his age to perform like one of the absolute best players in baseball.
Devers went off on the Orioles on Sunday, collecting four hits in five trips to the plate, including a home run and a pair of doubles. Just a few days earlier, he victimized Cleveland for six hits in as many attempts, notching a ridiculous four doubles. The left-hander now owns a .332/.380/.596 line with 27 home runs across 546 PA this season. We seldom cite RBI here at MLBTR, but the fact that Devers has piled up 101 is mighty impressive, too.
Among all position players, Devers ranks fifth in fWAR (5.5) – tied with multiple players, including Astros third base superstar Alex Bregman – and ninth in wRC+ (147). That’s the output of an elite player, not to mention a far cry from the 1.0 fWAR and 90 wRC+ Devers recorded over 490 trips to the plate just a year ago.
How did Devers go from there to here in such a short period of time? It starts with his strikeout rate. After fanning in roughly 24 percent of plate appearances in each of his first two campaigns, Devers has slashed the number to 16.1 this year. He’s only walking in the 7 percent range, which was the case from 2017-18, but drawing free passes at a below-average rate stings a lot less when you seldom strike out.
Devers’ downtick in K’s has come in spite of a more aggressive approach, believe it or not, as he has swung at a higher number of pitchers in general while making far more contact outside the zone. He put the bat on the ball in the neighborhood of 63 percent between 2017-18, but he’s all the way up to 70.9 in ’19. Furthermore, Devers has held his own against every pitch hurlers have thrown at him, evidenced by his production versus fastballs (.422 weighted on-base average/.405 expected wOBA), breaking balls (.357/.302) and offspeed offerings (.437/.411). Devers’ success against offspeed pitches has helped him get past his woes against lefties, who held him to a ghastly 63 wRC+ a year ago. He’s up to a much more respectable 109 in that department versus southpaws this season.
Meanwhile, after sitting in the low .190s in previous years, Devers’ ISO (.264) has gone through the roof this season. Considering pitchers can’t seem to get anything past him anymore, that’s no surprise. While Devers has hit fewer fly balls this season, he has also amassed fewer grounders at the expense of more line drives. That’s a recipe for success, especially when you rank 17th in baseball in average exit velocity on liners and flies (96.9 mph). Similarly, Devers sits 18th in percentage of balls hit at 95 mph-plus (49.2). As you’d expect, then, he’s a Statcast darling overall, also ranking near the pinnacle of the sport in expected weighted on-base average (89th), expected slugging percentage (92nd), expected batting average (96th), hard-hit rate (96th). The “weakest” figure of the bunch is Devers’ xwOBA, but his .376 (compared to a .405 real wOBA) is still fantastic and a 71-point increase over last year’s .305.
To be sure, a likely unsustainable .359 batting average on balls in play has nudged Devers’ numbers upward this year. But a high BABIP isn’t anything new for Devers – who, aside from last year, has regularly logged marks well over .300 since his professional career began in 2014. Even if Devers’ BABIP does drop going forward, the Red Sox should still have one of the most coveted players in baseball on their hands. In a season that hasn’t gone the defending champions’ way, Devers has clearly been a bright light, and with one more pre-arbitration campaign remaining and four more years of team control left, he could be a Boston standout for a while longer.Comment
