#two of the best not only in the NL but in the whole MLB

[an-ivy-covered-summer]

your chicago cubs 2023 all-stars,

justin steele ⭐️ marcus stroman ⭐️ dansby swanson

[jimothystu]

hii!

how are you?

I saw you posts about the blue jays, and as someone trying to get into baseball, can you like maybe give me a rundown of how the league works and maybe an overview of the blue jays since thats the team Im probably gonna be rooting for? I'm trying to get into it but im completely new to the sport and im honestly a little overwhelmed.

p.s I love your blog!

-🦫

hiii! i'm decent!! i hope you are too :)

omg okay, i only got into baseball a couple of seasons ago, so i don't know like every tiny detail, but here's a little overview! i'm a little honoured you asked me kjnskdjnsda

i'm assuming you know more or less how a game of baseball is played, but if not lmk!

so. mlb first.

the teams are divided between east, central, and west. within each of those there is also the american league and the national league.

AL east: Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays

AL central: Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians (formerly the Indians but pretty much only old people still call them that), Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins

AL west: Houston Astros, LA Angels, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers

NL east: Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals

NL central: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals

NL west: Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, LA Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants

In the NL, pitchers used to have to bat as well as hit, whereas in the AL there was a designated hitter (DH) who was not in the field, but rather stayed on the bench until it was their turn in the lineup to bat (instead of the pitcher). This rule changed last season I believe, and pitchers are no longer required to bat in the NL, but they can still do so if they want (see Shohei Ohtani, an incredible pitcher and batter). Pretty sure that's the only major difference. The AL and NL distinction is used during the All Star Games where the best (objectively) players from across the league play a game: AL versus NL.

It used to be that teams played their division rivals more than other teams, but the MLB has a new schedule this year that is trying to make it so each team plays division rivals less and interleague teams more (e.g., instead of playing other AL east teams a million times, the Blue Jays will play more NL teams). This is to try and make things a bit more even in terms of who plays whom, and also will allow fans to hopefully see their favourite teams more regularly.

For baseball, unlike in, say hockey where there's just single games against teams at a time, MLB baseball has series, in which two teams play anywhere from 2-4 games back to back. There are winners and losers of each game, of course, but there's also the winner and loser of the series. Series that have 2 or 4 games can have a tie, though.

Like other professional sports, there is a final playoff stint for MLB. It happens in the fall. This site has a good rundown of the playoff format!

And here's a list of over 150 basbeall terms/phrases!

Onto the Blue Jays:

So, the jays are Canada's only MLB team and as a result they pretty much have an entire country backing them. They are very vocal and proud of this fact, and take pride in representing a whole country. So that's always nice!

There are some favourites on the team, especially on tumblr lol. These include:

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

1st baseman

Number 27

23 years old (24 on march 16)

One of the most talked about players

Great offense and defense

Born in Montreal but grew up in the Dominican

English isn't fluent, so he does interviews and stuff in Spanish via an interpreter

Father was an player (Vlad Sr)

Bo Bichette

Shortstop

Number 11

Turning 25 tomorrow!! (March 3)

Headbands

Florida man

Huge Justin Bieber fan

Father was in the MLB (Dante Bichette)

George Springer

Out fielder

33 years old

Number 4

Dad of the group but knows how to have fun

Is an actual dad

American

Was on the Astros during a cheating scandal and as such some fans of other teams bring that up a lot

Alek Manoah

Starting pitcher

Number 6

25 years old

American

Had an incredible debut against the Yankees in 2021

Tol

Intense on the mound but chaotic middle child energy off the mound

Matt Chapman

Best 3rd baseman in the league (in my humble opinion)

Number 26

29 years old

American

Egg (i.e. half the time he shaves his head)

SUCH a babygirl

Just so soft

Santiago Espinal

2nd baseman, but can also play shortstop if need be

Number 5

28 years old

American

Short king (5'10)

Besties with Bo

Pretty loose and fun in the dugout

Cavan Biggio

Utility player. I.e., can play multiple positions (third base, second base, and right field)

Number 8

27 years old

American

Besties boyfriends with Bo

Father was also in the MLB (Craig Biggio)

Danny Jansen

Catcher

Number 9

27 years old

American

Just had a baby!! (well his wife did)

Nickname is Jano

Sometimes also in the egg carton

Alejendro Kirk

Catcher

Number 30

24 years old

Mexican

Interviews in Spanish via interpreter

Shortest King (5'8")

People always say he's "not built like a catcher/athlete" (he's short and stocky and people are judgey)

Wife just had a baby!

Called Captain Kirk (after Star Trek)

Jose Berrios

Starting pitcher

Number 17

28 years old

From Puerto Rico

Constantly chewing on mouth guard

Adam Cimber

Relief pitcher (pitches in an inning or two after the starter has been taken out)

Number 90

32 years old

American

Super cool side-arm throw and a pretty glove

Cool tattoos

Mullet man

Jordan Romano

Closing pitcher, meaning he almost exclusively pitches in the last inning of play

Number 68

Local boy!! From Markham, Ontario. One of the few Canadian players on the team

Either has full caveman beard or babyface

Kinda lowkey always looks high

Tol and built like a twig

Kevin Gausman

Starting pitcher

Number 34

32 years old

American

Rocks a lot before he pitches (at risk of balking)

Whit Merrifield

Second baseman or outfielder

Number 15

34 years old

American

Came to the Jays last year and was a little controversial bc of uhhh vaccine stuff but it's chill now (i think)

Kinda just a Dude

Kevin Kiermaier

Outfielder

Number 39

32 years old

Huge uproar when he was signed this off season because of a stolen data card that Kirk dropped (read about it here if you want)

But is doing well in spring training so far so he's slowly being forgiven by the fans

This is not every player at all. If there are any that I didn't put and you wanna ask about, go ahead! I just did not want this post to be fucking massive, and I feel bad for taking so long as it is.

But yeah, I hope this helped somewhat! Again, I am still kinda new to baseball myself and do not know everything, but I'm always happy to help teach others about the Jays :D

[insidethegiftbasket]

Nationals (12-15) at Yankees (16-15)

Note From Evan: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, jabronis and jabronettes, and Yankee fans of all ilk, Sam and I are here to let you know that we now have a third contributor here at Inside the Gift Basket, and this is his first post. Everyone say hi to Julio and from now on you’ll have to bring on more cupcake to class to share with everyone. And with that, onto the good stuff.

Game 1: Friday at 7:05pm EDT on YES and MLBN – Jameson Taillon (1-2, 5.24 ERA) vs. Patrick Corbin (1-3, 8.10 ERA)

Game 2: Saturday at 1:05pm EDT on YES and MLBN – Corey Kluber (2-2, 3.03 ERA) vs. Max Scherzer (2-2, 2.54 ERA)

Game 3: Sunday at 1:05pm EDT on YES and MLBN – Domingo German (2-2, 4.32 ERA) vs. Joe Ross (2-2, 4.39 ERA)

Nationals Injury Report

SP Stephen Strasburg: 10-day IL (shoulder inflammation) – will miss series

RP Wander Suero: 10-day IL (oblique strain) – both he and Strasburg will throw in a simulated game Friday

RP Seth Romero: day-to-day (ribs) – will begin throwing next week

LF Juan Soto: day-to-day (shoulder strain) – should get some at-bats this series, may start at DH

Nationals Pitching

Strong starting pitching was a hallmark of the Nationals during their run of eight straight winning seasons from 2012 to 2019, culminating in a World Series victory the final year of the streak. While their core ace trio of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Patrick Corbin remains intact, only Scherzer of the three has continued to see success in 2020 and 2021, and the starting rotation as a whole has struggled, posting a 4.67 ERA (23rd in MLB). Strasburg has barely pitched as he has been plagued by injuries over the last year and a half.

Clay, NY native and childhood Yankees fan Patrick Corbin will pitch the opener opposite Taillon. In 2018 and 2019 Corbin was one of the better pitchers in baseball, finishing 5th and 11th respectively in the NL Cy Young Award race those years while frustrating batters with his trademark tailing-away slider. To say he suffered a World Series hangover may be an understatement:

What has gone wrong for Corbin? Even he and Nationals manager Davey Martinez aren’t sure as it doesn’t appear to be a physical or mechanical issue, and his velocity is close to the same as in his 2018-2019 peak.

There are a few possible explanations. One is that he’s lost some spin on his slider (from 2398 rpm in 2019 to 2218 rpm in 2021), and it has gone from one of the best single pitches in the game to basically league average, with opposing batters just not chasing it like they used to:

This means that Corbin has fallen behind on counts more than in the past, forcing him to go over the heart of the plate with his sinker to get strikes, and that pitch has been absolutely destroyed this year. It wasn’t a particularly great pitch for him in the past, either, but this year hitters are just teeing off on it (1.091 SLG).

Corbin is not striking guys out like he used to and is giving up hard-hit fly balls at an alarming rate. The average launch angle against his pitches has risen to a career-high 14.7° in 2021, and subsequently he has already allowed 7 home runs in just 23.1 IP. For the sake of comparison, he allowed 15 HR in all of 2018 (200 IP).

There are some encouraging signs as he has looked better lately after a cataclysmic start. He allowed 16 ER in 6.1 IP to the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in his first two starts of the season but has pitched to a 3.18 ERA in three starts (17 IP) since. He hasn’t exactly faced red-hot offenses in that span (Mets, Cardinals, Marlins), and the underlying numbers are still not all that great, but it’s progress.

Max Scherzer will pitch the second game in what could be a very good duel with the surging Corey Kluber. Now in his age 36 season, Scherzer is continuing to put up excellent numbers, and like in recent years, the key to beating him is the long ball. He has allowed a measly 27 hits all year in 39 innings pitched, but 7 of the hits have been homers. He doesn’t walk guys, so the Yankees’ best bet against him is to try to barrel up his occasional mistakes and knock them out of the park.

The finale pits RHP Joe Ross against Domingo German, with both pitchers posting remarkably similar numbers so far this season:

Rather like Corbin, however, Ross’ numbers are inflated by one very bad performance (10 ER allowed to the Cardinals on April 19), and he has pitched well outside of that game. Ross has been a mediocre pitcher most of his career, though, so it’s not like these numbers aren’t indicative of what to expect from him. His slider is his definitive put-away pitch (responsible for 15 of his 21 strikeouts), but his other offerings have been hit hard. He also has a strong platoon split (vs RHH: .241/.287/.394, vs. LHH: .297/.376/.474), so expect the Yankees to give most of their available lefty hitters a start in the series finale.

While the rotation has been disappointing, the Nationals’ pen has been a strength for the team in the early going. Washington relievers own a league-best .185 batting average against, admittedly aided by one of the better defenses in the league (league-leading 24 DRS), and offseason acquisition Brad Hand has been a stabilizing force at the back of games, having yet to allow an earned run this year.

Daniel Hudson, Austin Voth, Sam Clay, and Wander Suero (who is likely going to miss this series) have all posted solid numbers behind him, and their most-used reliever, Kyle Finnegan, threw an immaculate inning in their just-completed series with the Braves. Ex-Astro Will Harris was recently activated off the IL and has very good career numbers, though the Yankees have hit him well historically.

The one major blip is Tanner Rainey, who was one of their most important relievers the last two years but has struggled mightily so far this season. He is likely to be limited to low-leverage action until he gets his act together.

Nationals Lineup

A consistently strong offensive team during their 2010’s run, peaking in 2017 when they led the NL in team OPS, the Nationals have had to weather the departure of important contributors like Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon in recent years. While they still have a few dependably great hitters in the lineup, their offensive output in 2021 has been, at best, mediocre:

As a team they get a lot of hits (for 2021 standards, anyway), as their .247 batting average somehow actually leads the National League. However, they rarely draw walks and have not hit for power so far this year (outside of Trea Turner), resulting in a poor .696 team OPS and a marked difficulty putting up runs – they have yet to score more than 7 runs in any game this season and have been shut out five times. They are coming off a three-game sweep at home at the hands of the Braves in which they only scored six runs.

With Juan Soto battling a shoulder injury, Trea Turner has been their most important and all-around best position player:

While his numbers are a bit down from an outstanding 2020 (163 OPS+) that saw him finish 7th in the NL MVP race, he hits the ball hard to all fields, runs like the wind, and is a plus defender at shortstop. He has been a top 20 player in baseball this year in both bWAR and fWAR.

Antoher bright spot has been Josh Harrison, who signed with the Nationals as a reclamation project after seemingly forgetting how to hit sometime between 2018 and 2019; he has just about revived his career and been one of the team’s best hitters. The same cannot be said for his longtime Pirates teammate Josh Bell, who has been a nonfactor at the plate. While the Nats have been giving him (and the also-struggling Kyle Schwarber) plenty of opportunities to snap out of it, expect them to give more playing time to the hot-hitting Ryan Zimmerman at first base moving forward.

Lastly, keep an eye out for young phenom Juan Soto – he just came off the IL from a shoulder injury and pinch-hit a few times in the Braves series. According to the Nationals, he is ready to start hitting every day, but they are reluctant to let him play the field as his shoulder is not yet fully recovered and he should not be making throws. Luckily for them they are playing in an AL park this weekend, so he may get some starts at DH against the Yankees (which is, of course, bad news for us).

Yankees focus on: Wandy Peralta

LHP “Magic” Wandy Peralta came over from San Francisco (along with a PTBNL) in exchange for beloved backup OF Mike Tauchman, much to the chagrin of certain Yankees fans. Now in his 6th season, the 29 year-old Peralta has, on the surface, been largely unremarkable as a major leaguer to date, with a career 4.66 ERA and 1.477 WHIP. While he is coming off a solid 2020 in which he posted a career-best 3.29 ERA, he struggled to start this season in San Francisco and fell out of Gabe Kapler’s Circle of Trust™.

The raw numbers don’t jump out at you, but clearly the Yankees viewed Peralta as an interesting piece if they were willing to go so far as to part with Tauchman for him. After a bit of digging, it’s not hard to see why they found him appealing:

The underlying metrics have been impressive. In fact, his stuff has looked much better so far this year than it did in 2020, despite posting better standard stats last year.

It may be a microscopic sample size, but Peralta has looked promising in his first few appearances with the Yankees. The coaching staff has encouraged him to spam his wipeout changeup, to great effect:

While he has lost command of the changeup at times earlier in his career, it’s an incredible pitch when he’s throwing it well. So far this season: xBA of .109, xSLG of .133, and a -3 launch angle.

Last year his slider was a very good pitch, but this year it hasn’t been as effective, thus the Yankees have responded by ramping up his changeup usage and cutting back on the slider. In an ideal world, Peralta can learn to use them both effectively to pair with his plus heater. The raw stuff is there, and it always has been; the hope is that the Yankees’ coaching staff can get Peralta to harness his talent and potential.

With Tauchman playing well in San Francisco to this point and providing much-needed support for their banged-up outfield, this could be a trade that proves to be a win-win for both teams involved.

[bookdancerfics]

Baseball Jargon Glossary

This is specifically for my WinterHawk Big Bang fic, Love Pitch, but if anyone else wants to reblog this or needs to look something up then go for it. More complicated stuff (like OPS, WAR, or BABIP) won’t be listed because it either didn’t have relevance in the fic or I purposefully steered away from it in-fic because it’s complicated.

Everything’s listed alphabetically.

American League (AL) - the worst league (jk i’m kidding). unlike the National League, the AL has designated hitters. teams in the AL can face teams in the NL, but they’re more likely to have games with other AL teams

batting average - the number of hits a player gets divided by their number of at-bats. so a player who gets 2 hits in 5 at-bats would have a .400 average. if a player has the same number of hits as they do at-bats (this can happen in the beginning of the season) then their average is 1.000. the higher the average the better. an average batting average is .240-.270. a player is doing well if they’re batting .270-.299. anything over .300 is really good

side note: most pitchers don’t have high batting averages, but some do (see: Shohei Ohtani (Angels), who’s actually the designated hitter even when he’s not pitching). and surprise, Babe Ruth, the home run king, was both an outfielder and a pitcher. most pitchers have batting averages between .000 and .200

bench players (the bench) - players who don’t start the game, they’re literally on the bench until they get called in

bunt - a batter bunts by squatting into a pitch and holding their bat out horizontally. one hand grips the barrel of the bat while the other holds the regular handle. hitting the ball like this helps to control the pitch. done correctly, the ball will drop to the grass and roll towards third base

usually done to advance a runner already on base. even if it’s done correctly, the batter is typically out, so it’s used strategically

bunting a ball foul on 2 strikes means that the batter is automatically out, so you have to be really confident in your bunting skills to bunt on 2 strikes

some batters (fast ones) will occasionally try to bunt for a hit, as in they bunt with no one on base and attempt to outrun the throw. it can be a successful move, but is typically only done when the batter isn’t batting particularly well, and is also generally looked down on because it’s such a risky move

championship series - there’s one championship series per league, and they’re the third part of the postseason (post-division series, pre-world series). each series lasts seven games, or until one team has won 4 games (so a team could win the series in 4, 5, 6, or 7 games). the winners of each division series play each other based on league (so AL v AL, NL v NL). the winners of the championship series go on to the world series

clean-up - the fourth batter in a lineup. aka the four-hole. aka one of the best batters in the lineup. when the clean-up comes up to bat, something’s expected to happen

designated hitter (DH) - only in the AL. a hitter that takes the pitcher’s spot on the hitting rotation. supposed to make the game more interesting (imo they don’t, but opinions are opinions). when an AL team plays an away game with an NL team, they aren’t allowed to use designated hitters. when an NL team plays an away game with an AL team, they’re allowed to use the DH but not required. frequently used to prolong a player’s career because they don’t actually need to field, just bat

disabled list (DL) - an injured player can be put on the DL to make room for a healthy player on the 25 man roster. once the player returns to the roster, though, someone always has to go back down to the minors

divisions - every league has three divisions. every division has five teams (six in my fic to allow for the extra, fictional teams). the team with the most wins in each division wins the division title each season

division series - there’s two division series per league, and they’re the second part of the postseason (post-wildcard games, pre-championship series). each series lasts five games, or until one team has won 3 games (so a team could win the series in 3, 4, or 5 games). the team with the best league record plays the wildcard winner, while the other two division winners play each other

free agent - players not affiliated with any team. their contract ran out without them being re-signed

hit by pitch (hbp) - when the batter gets beaned by a baseball thrown by the pitcher. sometimes intentional (see ‘intentional hbp’) and sometimes not

intentional hit by pitch (intentional hbp) - they pop up every now and then, although a lot of the time no team or pitcher actually admits that they did it on purpose. other times they don’t even try to hide it (see: cole hamels (phillies) intentionally hitting bryce harper (nationals) to “welcome him to the big leagues” (side note: bryce paid him back by stealing home, which is pretty much the most epic thing he could have done in this situation))

honestly it’s been a part of baseball for so long that you really could argue about it all day, and it’s mostly seen as a way to pay players back (usually for watching a homer too long). but hitting someone is never meant to injure them. any intentional hbp’s should always be aimed at the thigh because it may bruise, but it won’t actually put them on the DL

in the hole - where the batter is before they go into the on-deck circle. aka there’s the batter at bat, the batter in the on-deck circle, and then the batter in the hole

Major League Baseball (MLB) - as high as a player can get in American baseball

Minor League Baseball (MiLB) - different affiliates of the major league teams. also known to house the “farm system”, aka up-and-coming players

Single A (A), Double A (AA), Triple A (AAA) - different divisions of the minors, the more A’s there are, the higher up players are and the better chance they have of making the majors. previously injured players (just off the DL) will typically play a few games here to readjust before heading back to the majors

National League (NL) - the best league (i’m not joking this time). unlike the AL, they don’t use designated hitters. teams in the NL can face teams in the AL, but they’re more likely to have games with other NL teams

no-decision - because pitchers’ wins and losses are recorded, no-decisions come into play in certain instances. they’re only used for starting pitchers

so: if a pitcher starts the game, but exits when the game is tied, they automatically get a no-decision because they didn’t give up more runs than the opposing pitcher

or: if a pitcher starts the game, exits while their team is in the lead, and the team then loses the lead, they get a no-decision because they weren’t responsible for the lost lead

or: if a pitcher starts the game, exits while their team is behind, and the team then gains the lead, they get a no-decision because they weren’t pitching during the comeback

even if a reliever is pitching when these instances occur, the reliever will be assigned the win or loss instead of the starter

on-deck circle - where the next batter stands and practices their swing

pinch hitter - a hitter who replaces someone else in the lineup

usually used to switch out pitchers

pinch runner - someone who replaces a runner on base. rarely used, especially since the person who gets replaced can’t return to the game

relief pitcher (reliever) - pitchers who usually only pitch one or two innings a game. they come in to close the game out and hopefully get the starter the win. long relievers can go for three to five innings

rosin bag - small white bags filled with rosin powder. they’re kept on the mound throughout the whole game, usually behind the pitcher, and pitchers use them to keep their grips on the baseballs

rotation - every team has a pitching rotation. if you’re lucky, this rotation has five strong starters. if you’re not lucky… well. things can get interesting. (apparently there was a 4 man rotation on a team this season? and they used the bullpen for the 5th “starter”? i can’t remember who it is but like… ouch). it’s called a rotation because the pitchers rotate on a schedule, so every pitcher pitches every fifth game

or they should. off days can cause trouble, because you want to keep the rotation but you also don’t want every starter getting an extra day off (this sounds good in theory but it actually disrupts their training: not good!), so sometimes what teams will do is skip whoever would have pitched on the off day and just keep going. this means that every pitcher (with the one exception) keeps their training schedule, and only one of them is disrupted instead of all five

save - a reliever gets the save if they pitch the final half-inning without giving up the losing runs. a save situation only occurs if the run difference is between 0-3 runs and the pitcher’s team is in the lead

Spring Training - starts in February and goes through March. players get invitations to come to Spring Training and try to make the major league team. they play games with other teams and train in preparation for the season (which starts in late March/early April), but there’s always those minor league players who get invited. this is their chance to show the team that they can make it in the majors

starting pitcher - one of five pitchers who start games on a rotation. top three starters are usually the best of the five, but the goal is to have a solid five starters

starters - not to be confused with starting pitchers, starters are the players who literally start the game. they’re not on the bench

walk - a pitcher walks a batter when they throw 4 balls in the same at-bat. the batter immediately takes first base

wildcard - if a team doesn’t win their division, they still have a chance to make the postseason: by being one of the two teams with the best records behind the division winners (this means that, technically, both wildcard teams could have better records than one or two of the division winners, because the division takes precedence over the record. it all depends on the division). if a team gets a wildcard spot, they then play a one game series against the other wildcard team before the division series begin. the winner of the wildcard game continues on to the division series, the loser is immediately eliminated from the post season

world series - there’s only one world series, and it’s the fourth and final part of the postseason (post-championship series). each series lasts seven games, or until one team has won 4 games (so a team could win the series in 4, 5, 6, or 7 games). the championship series winners play each other, and the winner of the world series is the final, ultimate winner. there’s nothing better than winning the world series

[junker-town]

In this photo, Mike Morse is hitting a grand slam without a baseball bat

In the first inning of a 2012 Cardinals-Nationals game, things got ... sort of weird

The image above is a screenshot of a video of a Major League Baseball game, taken on September 29th, 2012. It features Washington Nationals outfielder Mike Morse, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and home plate umpire Cory Blaser. The feet at the top of the screen belong to Nationals 3B Ryan Zimmerman.

Oh, and Mike Morse is hitting a grand slam. You might have some questions about that. Hypothetically, and in no particular order, they might be:

Why is everyone standing up?

Where is Morse’s bat?

How is it possible to hit a grand slam with first base open?

These are good questions! I will try to answer them all at once. Everyone likes a challenge.

This game matters more to St. Louis. The Nationals are 95-62, in first place in the NL East, and while they haven’t clinched the division they’re four games ahead of the Atlanta Braves with four to play. The Cardinals, meanwhile, are 85-72, which is the sixth-best record in the National League. In 2011, that wouldn’t be a great spot, but this is the first year that MLB has opened up the postseason to feature two wild-card teams; the Cardinals are currently in possession of the second of these, and attempting to fend off the 82-75 Los Angeles Dodgers. Blowing a three game lead with five left to play? Stranger things have happened, and the pressure is very much on.

Most of my memories of Kyle Lohse, who’s starting for St. Louis, are of him on the Minnesota Twins, and they’re not even memories of him per se. He’s just one of the dozens of interchangeable Twins pitchers that swum idly around as Johan Santana did things. They were, as far as I remember, all named Kyle.

Anyway, Lohse is pitching for the Cardinals, and, freed of his Minnesota shackles, he is having a great year: ferocious win percentage, good ERA, in fringe contention for the Cy Young. Morse, meanwhile, is having a less-great year, hitting for power but virtually never walking. He came into this game hitting .287/.319/.454, a far cry from his excellent 2011 season. Despite loading the bases with a walk to Adam LaRoche, Lohse should have the edge; right before Morse swings at a 0-0 pitch the announcers mention that he’ll be looking for a double play.

Flashback to the broadcast graphic again:

Right. So. What the hell happened here?

The bases are actually loaded when Morse steps to the plate. LaRoche is on first, having walked, as we mentioned. Ryan Zimmerman is on second after a double. Bryce Harper is at third. Lohse’s first pitch is a 0-0 fastball. Morse goes down and gets it. He’s a strong man, and despite the slightly awkward lunge, the ball carries off his bat and into right field. Carlos Beltran has absolutely no play. Bryce Harper trots home.

Here’s where things get confused. It’s not clear to me whether Ryan Zimmerman thinks that the ball was going to be caught or that it was a no-doubter home run, but he ends up staying at third base, jamming up the basepaths for everyone else. LaRoche has to hold at second, and Morse is basically hurtling right up his ass, having hustled for a double in case the ball stays in play.

Which it does. Or at least, seems to. The ball caroms off the top of the wall, a friendly bounce puts it in Beltran’s glove, Morse has to turn around and sprint to first base, and despite a pretty heroic effort doesn’t make it before Allen Craig applies the tag. For those scoring at home: single to right runners advance, tagged coming back into first base. Not a grand slam.

...

Except ...

... Except the ball clearly was over the wall before bouncing back into the field of play. By this point, instant replay is part of baseball, and the umpires confer for the review while the teams mill about. Said review does not take very long, and a home run is quickly signalled. The only problem is that with the running back and forth during the play itself plus all the aforementioned milling about, it’s no longer very clear which bases Morse and the rest of the Nationals have to touch.

The solution? Have everyone go back to where they started and reenact the home run trot. Morse, standing somewhere around shortstop, is asked to jog back to second, then to first. Then, as LaRoche arrives, Morse is sent back home. So here we’re being treated to a grand slam in reverse as everyone moseys on back to where they began.

The absurdity of the situation is not lost on Morse, who decides to have some fun with it. If he has to re-enact a grand slam, he might as well go whole hog, right? And that’s how Mike Morse ends up standing in the batters’ box without his bat to hit a grand slam after running the bases backwards. Baseball! It’s extremely normal.

Oh, I know everyone has one more question, so: yes, Mike Morse does have a connection to the Seattle Mariners. He made his major league debut with them back in 2005, was there for four years, and returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2013. Because, of course.

[halvedhab]

Can u teach me about the baseball? I need another sport to obsess over. Hockey is almost over and my life is empty without the sport :/

anon, I would be HAPPY to teach you about the baseball, since hockey season is over and I need others to join me in the hell that is B A S E B A L L.

so, without further ado, welcome to:

HALVEDHAB’S MLB PRIMER FOR HOCKEY FANS

this will be a very basic primer, aimed mainly at hockey fans who have never watched a baseball game and have no idea what they’re getting into, but once saw a gif of those Baseball Pants and thought, “hey, maybe…”

(x)

This primer will cover the basic rules of baseball, some baseball terms that you might hear floating around, some of the teams in the MLB, the difference between the National League and the American League, and some resources to continue you on your journey to becoming a Real Baseball Fan. :)

So, for starters, baseball might seem a lot slower than hockey to begin with. Where hockey is near-constant motion, baseball is a lot of standing around and pauses between pitches. Because baseball is so much slower-paced, I found hockey a lot more difficult to follow when I first started watching it! But what I like about baseball—and hockey!—is that anything can happen. If your team is down 4-0 in the 9th inning, there’s still a chance they can come back.

There was a pretty good baseball primer floating around a while ago with rules and positions, but the OP deactivated, so it’s no longer available. :(

Innings

Baseball games are 9 innings long, Each inning has a top (when the visiting team is at bat) and a bottom (when the home team is at bat). If a team is tied at the end of 9 innings, they get EXTRA innings until the tie is broken. (Longest baseball game ever? 33 innings. It lasted 8 hours. The longest one I’ve ever watched was 19 innings, and my team lost).

Hits

A player steps up to bat, gets three chances to hit the ball (three strikes, you’re out). A ball can also be fouled by hitting it over the foul lines. NOTE: fouls are…a lot more complicated than this, but for sake of simplicity and word count I’m sticking with this. Fouls count as strikes, unless the batter already has two strikes, in which case you can hit infinite fouls, and games take forever! 

A player can also be served a pitch that falls outside of the strike zone. This is called a ball. Four balls, and a player gets to walk to first base.

^ (the strike zone)

You’ll often see (on the scoreboard) or hear (from the announcers) a count referring to the number of balls or strikes a batter has. The first number is the number of balls, the second is the number of strikes. A 3-2 count is known as a full count, because another strike will result in an out and another ball will result in a walk.

(^ here is a Very Messy explanation of what you’ll sometimes see on a scoreboard)

If the batter hits the ball and the ball is caught before it hits the ground, the player is out. If the ball is caught by the baseman while he’s standing on the base and BEFORE the player has touched the base, the player is out. If the player is “tagged” by an opposing player while the player is holding the ball, he’s out. Three outs, and the teams switch places.

A single is when a player hits a ball and runs to first base. A double is when a player hits a ball and runs to second. A triple is when a player hits a ball and runs to third. Players can also attempt to steal bases between pitches.

Runs

A run is the baseball equivalent of a goal. If a player makes it around all the bases, this is called a run. A home run is when a player hits the ball so that they are able to make it safely around all the bases without being tagged—this usually means hitting it over the outfield fence, so that none of the outfielders can catch it. A grand slam is when a player hits a home run while all the bases are loaded. A walk off run is a home run that ends the game (i.e. a home run that gives the home team the lead in the bottom of the final inning of the game).

Fielding

These are the defensive positions in baseball. These players are tasked with trying to score putouts, or recording an out while the other team is up at bat. The numbers in the above diagram are used to score putouts. For example, if the shortstop catches a ball and throws it to first, that out would be recorded as a 6-3 out. You don’t get any points for scoring putouts, unfortunately.

A double play refers to making two outs in the same continuous play.

Pitchers

(my favourite pitcher, Marcus Stroman ^ )

Pitchers are the goalies of baseball. This is a true and real fact. They are kind of weird, usually aloof and amazing, but occasionally prone to emotional meltdowns and bad pitches. Teams usually have about 5 starting pitchers that they rotate between, and then a “bullpen” of relief pitchers to fill in for the rest of the game. A pitcher can be pulled and replaced if he’s having a particularly bad game, or if he’s not getting run support/defense, or if he’s just tired. A shutout in baseball is when a pitcher doesn’t allow an opposing team to score a single run. It’s very rare for one pitcher to start and finish a game.

Catchers can often be seen communicating with their pitchers through a series of hand signals.

Schedule

Whereas NHL teams only play 82 games per season, MLB teams play 162 games. MLB teams also play back-to-back games (which is why they rotate starting pitchers) and they play multiple games in a row against the same team (known as a series). If you win every game in a series, that’s a sweep! Baseball season begins in April and ends in October (or November, depending how long playoffs run).

The MLB

There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball:

But wait. What’s AL and NL?

The American League and National League

There are two different leagues within the MLB, if things weren’t confusing enough. They have slightly different rules, but the biggest rule is the designated hitter (or DH).

In the NL, pitchers get a turn at bat. In the AL, pitchers DON’T bat. Instead, a DH takes the pitcher’s spot at bat. The DH’s ONLY job is to hit—he doesn’t play defence (so he doesn’t have a position in the field).

When NL and AL teams play against each other, they play by the home team’s rules. So when an NL team plays at an AL team’s stadium, they have a DH. When an AL team plays at an NL team’s stadium, they have one of their pitchers bat.

(things get more complicated when you add things like pinch hitters and pinch runners, but we’ll get into that another time!)

The World Series is the equivalent of the Stanley Cup Final, and it always ends with a National League team playing against an American League team.

Which team should I choose?

Any one you want! There are plenty of reasons to pick a team, whether it’s physical proximity, or because the team is attached to an NHL team you like, or because they have a player you think is hot, or because you think they have the coolest mascot. There are a couple of teams up there I take some issue with for uh. moral issues. But otherwise have fun!

^ (it’s obvious who the cutest mascots are)

Underdogs (Teams that have never won a World Series): Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals.

The Winners: New York Yankees (27 WS wins), St. Louis Cardinals (11 WS wins), Oakland Athletics (9 WS wins), San Francisco Giants (8 WS wins).

The Classic Eight (Teams that have been around since the beginning): Atlanta Braves (originally from Boston), LA Dodgers (originally from Brooklyn), Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants (originally from New York), Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals.

Where can I watch?

MLB.com

There is an MLB Stream Reddit page.

Twitter often streams live MLB games for free.

Other Resources

There’s a 1994 Ken Burns documentary miniseries called Baseball that takes you through the history of the MLB. It’s very long, but really interesting, and covers a lot of information if you’re interested in getting the background of the league and some of the famous players/teams of the past!

Pitch is also a very good television show that follows the fictionalized account of the first female pitcher in the MLB. Unfortunately, it was cancelled after one season. :(

Some good general baseball tumblrs: @gfbaseball posts nonstop gifs and @smellbaseball posts really cool baseball edits! (both of them are multi-team). But most baseball blogs on tumblr seem to stick to one or two teams, so it’s hard to recommend blogs without knowing what team you’re looking for.

The absolute best way to learn about baseball is to watch it! Pick a team or two, tune into a game and figure out what this whole mess is about.

Anyway! I hope some (or any of this) helped. And I hope I have sufficiently managed to convince you to watch this sport.

[bluemagic-girl]

Nationals seek relievers, possible starter at MLB trade deadline

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Nationals Supervisor Dave Martinez is common with the trade deadline and all the rumors that encompass it. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Article)

If any supervisor is fit to welcome new gamers in July, on the door stage of a pennant chase, it is Dave Martinez.

Martinez, now foremost the Washington Nationals, was once traded so normally that, close to 30 several years later on, he can not bear in mind the total specials. In 2000 alone, when Martinez was 35 and in the twilight of his vocation, he was moved a few periods in one time, ping-ponging from Tampa Bay to Chicago in Might, from Chicago to Texas in June, and at last from Texas to Toronto in August. All he had to do for the final just one was swap dugouts, since the Rangers ended up enjoying the Blue Jays when they despatched him down the hallway for a participant to be named later. Martinez then homered from them in his first at-bat.

“You seem at my youngsters today and they imagined it was the finest summertime at any time,” Martinez recounted Saturday at Nationals Park. “They received to go everywhere. My oldest son mentioned, ‘This is terrific. Appear at all the cities we have been to.’ I said, ‘I’m glad you like it.’ ”

If the Nationals strike a offer in the subsequent 3 times — with Wednesday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline speedily approaching — Martinez will relate to whoever walks into their clubhouse, bag in hand, lifestyle turned upside down by organization. But as of Monday early morning, with a a few-game sequence in opposition to the Atlanta Braves looming, Washington is an empty-handed buyer in a sluggish-drip current market. There is only one particular possibility to deal this period, with no waiver period in August, and sellers are holding out, golf equipment are nonetheless deciding upon a route, and the complete sport, Nationals included, is waiting around for a person to blink and induce the motion.

Will need a reliever? The only consequential moves have been Jake Diekman heading to the Oakland Athletics, and the Minnesota Twins obtaining Sergio Romo. Need a starter? The New York Mets, who lately appeared like surefire sellers, have that current market cornered following trading two potential customers to the Toronto Blue Jays for Marcus Stroman on Sunday evening. Want both of those? Great luck. Clock’s ticking.

[MLB trade deadline: Mets defy reason, acquire Marcus Stroman from Blue Jays]

“It’s a later-establishing trade market place,” mentioned Nationals Typical Supervisor Mike Rizzo two Sundays back, which nonetheless retains correct. “I really do not know if that is since of only the one trade deadline . . . especially in the National League, there are a ton of groups that are bunched alongside one another. But I do see it as a later-forming sector.”

Rizzo’s Nationals, atop the NL wild-card standings, 5 1/2 games at the rear of the Braves in the division, have demonstrated they’re really worth additional financial investment. They seriously need a reliever, or two, to patch up a bullpen that is unreliable at its very best, and whole-on unusable at its worst. They could use one more starter, to pad their shaky rotation depth, with Max Scherzer continue to sidelined and the other options — Erick Fedde, Joe Ross, Kyle McGowin, the hurt Austin Voth — not clicking.

And their bench is thinned by a blend of injuries and lagging effectiveness, with utility guy Adrián Sanchez hitting .174 in 23 plate appearances this yr, Ryan Zimmerman back again on the wounded record, and Matt Adams possibly heading there, much too, after getting struck by a pitch in his suitable foot Sunday. A further reliable reserve would not hurt. That just could not suit in the small-expression price range.

Washington is aiming to keep beneath the $206 million competitive equilibrium tax threshold, and is already up against it. Their projected payroll is all over $200 million before conclude-of-yr performance incentives kick in for specific gamers. Wiggle area is minimal. Rizzo experienced expressed self-assurance in some mixture of Fedde, Ross and Voth as his fifth starter. The bench could as a substitute be bolstered with a minimal-value cost-free agent signing.

With action limited, and teams normally secretive this time of yr, the Nationals have only been connected to relievers as of Monday morning. They were continue to in conversations with the Detroit Tigers concerning closer Shane Greene at the conclusion of final 7 days, according to a particular person with understanding of their designs, but there was not considerably traction. The Tigers yet again asked for leading prospect Carter Kieboom, right after they reportedly did the identical previously this month, and the Nationals weren’t budging on him. Washington has also kicked the tires on Sam Dyson, a 31-calendar year-old righty with the San Francisco Giants, and was at minimum frivolously interested in Diekman in advance of he went to the Athletics. But the Giants are not nevertheless positive if they’re marketing, their spring back into the wild-card race further complicating everyone’s designs.

[Juggernaut Dodgers, Yankees, Astros may be sucking air out of trade deadline]

So Rizzo will work, and Martinez waits, and the full league wonders what the race will appear like arrive Thursday. Martinez talks with Rizzo just about every day, but doesn’t zero any concentrate on the deadline. He now has 25 gamers to fret about. His club, built as it is proper now, has significant division online games to engage in. Still the reminders are hardly ever far away, that this week is significant in other means, way too, that the correct reliever could turn the Nationals into a accurate contender.

Chip Hale, Martinez’s bench mentor, keeps his phone volume up and his ESPN alerts on. Trade information, rumors, reactions, they all direct to a ding. Martinez was conditioned prolonged ago to ignore them, to enable the industry engage in out, to not worry about rumblings until finally they come to be some thing authentic. But he however appreciates the subsequent ding could indicate a ton for his group.

“It’s so humorous, from time to time individuals know far more stuff that is heading on than I do,” Martinez explained. “I do not fork out awareness to who’s receiving traded and who’s not. You listen to fans say, ‘Hey, you know you’re fascinated in so and so?’ I go, ‘Oh no, thanks for telling me.’ ”

Read much more on the Washington Nationals:

These Nationals never ever make it easy, and their pivotal matchup with the Braves is no diverse

Max Scherzer is ‘very doubtful’ for Tuesday’s commence towards Braves, Dave Martinez states

Stephen Strasburg shuts down the NL-very best Dodgers and lets the Nationals stay away from a sweep

Why Gerardo Parra’s final decision to not slide into dwelling may well have expense the Nationals

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[blackkudos]

Ernie Banks

Ernest Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1953 and 1971. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, and was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999.

Banks is regarded by some as one of the greatest players of all time. He began playing professional baseball in 1950 with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues. He served in the U.S. military for two years, played for the Monarchs again, and began his major league career in September 1953. The following year, Banks was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up. Beginning in 1955, Banks was a National League (NL) All-Star for 11 seasons, playing in 13 of the 15 All-Star Games held during those seasons. Banks was the Cubs' main attraction in the late 1950s, the National League Most Valuable Player in 1958 and 1959, and the Cubs' first Gold Glove winner in 1960.

In 1962, Banks became a regular first baseman for the Cubs. In the mid-1960s, Cubs manager Leo Durocher became frustrated with Banks, saying the slugger's performance was faltering. Durocher said he was unable to remove Banks from the lineup due to the star's popularity among Cubs fans. Between 1967 and 1971, he was a player-coach. In 1969, through a Chicago Sun-Times fan poll, Cubs fans voted him the greatest Cub ever. In 1970, Banks hit his 500th career home run at Wrigley Field. He retired from playing in 1971, was a coach for the Cubs in 1972, and in 1982 was the team's first player to have his uniform number retired.

Banks was active in the Chicago community during and after his tenure with the Cubs. He founded a charitable organization, became the first black Ford Motor Company dealer in the United States, and made an unsuccessful bid for a local political office. In 2013, Banks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contribution to sports. Banks lived in the Los Angeles and Chicago areas.

Early life

Banks was born in Dallas, Texas, to Eddie and Essie Banks on January 31, 1931; he was the second of twelve children. His father, who had worked in construction and was a warehouse loader for a grocery chain, played baseball for black, semi-professional teams in Texas. As a child, Banks was not very interested in baseball, preferring swimming, basketball and football. His father bought Ernest a baseball glove for less than three dollars at a five and dime store and motivated Banks with nickels and dimes to play catch. Banks's mother encouraged him to follow one of his grandfathers into a career as a minister.

Banks graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1950. He lettered in basketball, football and track. Banks' school did not have a baseball team; he played fastpitch softball for a church team during the summer. He was also a member of the Amarillo Colts, a semi-professional baseball team. History professor Timothy Gilfoyle wrote that Banks' talent for baseball was discovered by Bill Blair, a family friend who scouted for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League. Other sources say Banks was noticed by Cool Papa Bell of the Monarchs.

In 1951, Banks was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in Germany during the Korean War. He served as a flag bearer in the 45th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion at Fort Bliss, where he played with the Harlem Globetrotters on a part-time basis. In 1953, he was discharged from the army and joined the Monarchs for the remainder of that season, achieving a .347 batting average. Banks later said, "Playing for the Kansas City Monarchs was like my school, my learning, my world. It was my whole life."

MLB career

Early career

Banks signed with the Chicago Cubs in late 1953, making his major league debut on September 17 at age 22 and playing in 10 games at Wrigley Field. He was the Cubs' first black player; he became one of several former Negro league players who joined MLB teams without playing in the minor leagues. Larry Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt wrote that he "just was not the crusading type. He was so grateful to be playing baseball for a living, he did not have time to change the world, and if that meant some people called him an Uncle Tom, well, so be it."

During his first game for the Cubs, Banks received a visit from Jackie Robinson that influenced his quiet presence in baseball. Robinson told Banks, "Ernie, I'm glad to see you're up here so now just listen and learn ... For years, I didn't talk and learned a lot about people". Later, when Banks felt like becoming more vocal, he discussed the issue with teammate Billy Williams, who advised him to remain quiet. Williams drew the analogy of fish that are caught once they open their mouths. Banks said, "I kept my mouth shut but tried to make a difference. My whole life, I've just wanted to make people better".

In 1954, Banks' double play partner during his official rookie season was Gene Baker, the Cubs' second black player. Banks and Baker roomed together on road trips and became the first all-black double-play combination in major league history. When Steve Bilko played first base, Cubs announcer Bert Wilson referred to the Banks-Baker-Bilko double play combination as "Bingo to Bango to Bilko". Banks hit 19 home runs and finished second to Wally Moon in Rookie of the Year voting. Banks participated in a trend toward lighter baseball bats after he accidentally picked up a teammate's bat and liked that it was easy to generate bat speed.

In 1955, Banks hit 44 home runs, had 117 RBI and batted .295. He played and was the starting NL shortstop in his first of 13 All-Star Games that season. His home run total was a single-season record among shortstops. He also set a thirty-year record of five single-season grand slam home runs. Banks finished third in 1955 in the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) voting, behind Roy Campanella and Duke Snider. The Cubs finished with a 72–81 win-loss record, winning 29 of 77 road games. In 1956, Banks missed 18 games due to a hand infection, breaking his run of 424 consecutive games played. He finished the season with 28 home runs, 85 RBIs, and a .297 batting average. He made the All-Star selection as a reserve player but did not play in the game. In 1957, Banks finished the season with 43 home runs, 102 RBI, and a .285 batting average.

In 1958 and 1959, Banks became the first NL player to be awarded back-to-back MVP Awards, leading the league in RBI in both those seasons (with 129 and 143, respectively) . Banks hit a major-league-leading 47 home runs in 1958, while batting .313, third best in the NL. The following year, he hit .304 with 45 home runs. In 1959, the Cubs came the closest to a winning season since Banks' arrival, finishing with a 74–80 record.

In 1960, Banks hit a major league and NL-leading 41 HR, had 117 RBI, and led the NL in games played for the sixth time in seven years. He was also the first Cubs player to receive an annual NL Gold Glove award (for shortstop). On the eve of the 1960 World Series, Joe Reichler, a writer for the Associated Press, reported that the Milwaukee Braves were prepared to pay cash and trade pitchers Joey Jay, Carlton Willey and Don Nottebart, outfielder Billy Bruton, shortstop Johnny Logan and first baseman Frank Torre in exchange for Banks from the Cubs.

Move to first base

In 1961, Banks experienced problems with a knee injury he had acquired while in the army. After 717 consecutive games, he removed himself from the Cubs lineup for at least four games, ending his pursuit of the record for playing in the most consecutive NL games of 895 games set by Stan Musial. In May, the Cubs announced that Jerry Kindall would replace Banks at shortstop and that Banks would move to left field. Banks later said, "Only a duck out of water could have shared my loneliness in left field". Banks credited center fielder Richie Ashburn with helping him learn to play left field; in 23 games Banks committed only one error. In June, he was moved to first base, learning that position from former first baseman and Cubs coach Charlie Grimm. He was not selected to be an All-Star for the first of two All-Star games that season since 1959, when MLB started having two All-Star Games per season through 1962, but was selected as a reserve player. Banks was a pinch hitter in the second All-Star game.

The Cubs began playing under the College of Coaches in 1961, a system in which decisions were made by a group of 12 coaches rather than by one manager. By the 1962 season, Banks hoped to return to shortstop but the College of Coaches had determined that he would remain at first base indefinitely. In May 1962, Banks was hit in the head by a fastball from former Cubs pitcher Moe Drabowsky and was taken off the field unconscious. He sustained a concussion, spent two nights in a hospital, sat out a Monday game, and hit three home runs and a double on Tuesday.

In May 1963, Banks set a single-game record of 22 putouts by a first baseman. However, he caught mumps that year and finished the season with 18 home runs, 64 RBI, and a .227 batting average. Despite Banks' struggles that season, the Cubs had their first winning record since the 1940s. Banks, following his doctor's orders, avoided his usual off-season participation in handball and basketball, and began the 1964 season weighing seven pounds (3.2 kg) more than the previous year. In February, Cubs second baseman Ken Hubbs was killed in an airplane crash. Banks finished the season with 23 home runs, 95 RBI, and a .264 batting average. The Cubs finished in eighth place in 1964, losing over $315,000. In 1965, Banks hit 28 home runs, had 107 RBI, a .265 batting average, and played and started at first base in the All-Star Game. On September 2, he hit his 400th home run. The Cubs finished the season with a baseball operations deficit of $1.2 million, though this was largely offset by television and radio revenue, and the rental of Wrigley Field to the Chicago Bears football team.

The Cubs hired Leo Durocher as manager in 1966, hoping he could inspire renewed interest in the team's fan base. Banks hit only 15 home runs; Cubs finished the 1966 season in last place with a 59–103 win-loss record, the worst season of Durocher's career. From the time Durocher arrived in Chicago, he was frustrated at his inability to trade or bench the aging Banks. In Durocher's autobiography, he says:

 ... [Banks] was a great player in his time. Unfortunately, his time wasn't my time. Even more unfortunately, there was not a thing I could do about it. He couldn't run, he couldn't field; toward the end, he couldn't even hit. There are some players who instinctively do the right thing on the base paths. Ernie had an unfailing instinct for doing the wrong thing. But I had to play him. Had to play the man or there would have been a revolution in the street."

Banks said of Durocher, "I wish there had been someone around like him early in my career ... He's made me go for that little extra needed to win". Durocher served as Cubs manager until mid-1972, the season after Banks retired. In his memoir Mr. Cub, published around the time that Banks retired, Banks said too much had been made of the racial implications in his relationship with Durocher;; he said:

My philosophy about race relations is that I'm the man and I'll set my own patterns in life. I don't rely on anyone else's opinions. I look at a man as a human being; I don't care about his color. Some people feel that because you are black you will never be treated fairly, and that you should voice your opinions, be militant about them. I don't feel this way. You can't convince a fool against his will ... If a man doesn't like me because I'm black, that's fine. I'll just go elsewhere, but I'm not going to let him change my life.

The Cubs appointed Banks a player-coach for the 1967 season. Banks competed with John Boccabella for a starting position at first base. Shortly after, Durocher named Banks the outright starter at first base. Banks hit 23 home runs and drove in 95 runs, and went to the All-Star Game that year. After the 1967 season, an article in Ebony said Banks was not thought to have made more than $65,000 (equal to $466,871 today) in any season. He had received a pay increase from $33,000 to $50,000 between his MVP seasons in 1958 and 1959, but Ebony said several MLB players were making $100,000 at the time.

Final seasons

Banks won the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1968, an honor recognizing playing ability and personal character. The 37-year-old Banks hit 32 home runs, had 83 RBI, and finished that season with a .246 batting average. In 1969, he came the closest to helping the Cubs win the National League pennant; the Cubs fell from first place after holding an  8 1⁄2 game lead in August. Banks made his 11th and final All-Star season appearance as a pinch hitter; it was his 14th All-Star Game appearance that season. Banks hit his 500th home run on May 12, 1970, at Chicago's Wrigley Field. On December 1, 1971, Banks retired as a player but continued to coach for the Cubs until 1973. He was an instructor in the minor leagues for the next three seasons and also worked in the Cubs' front office.

Banks finished his career with 512 home runs; his 277 home runs as a shortstop were a career record at the time of his retirement. (Cal Ripken, Jr now holds the record for most home runs as a shortstop with 345.) Banks holds Cubs records for games played (2,528), at-bats (9,421), extra-base hits (1,009) and total bases (4,706). Banks also excelled as an infielder; he won a National League Gold Glove Award for shortstop in 1960. He led the NL in putouts five times and was the NL leader in fielding percentage as shortstop three times, and once as first baseman.

Banks holds the major league record for most games played without a postseason appearance (2,528). In his memoir, citing his fondness for the Cubs and owner Philip K. Wrigley, Banks said he did not regret signing with the Cubs rather than one of the more successful baseball franchises. Banks' popularity and positive attitude led to the nicknames "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine". Banks was known for his catchphrase, "It's a beautiful day for a ballgame ... Let's play two!", expressing his wish to play a doubleheader every day out of his love of baseball.

Personal life

In 1953, after returning from military service in Germany, Banks married his first wife Mollye Ector. He proposed to her in a letter from Germany. Although he filed for divorce two years later, the couple briefly reconciled in early 1959. By that summer, they agreed on a divorce settlement that would pay $65,000 to Ector in lieu of alimony. Shortly thereafter, Banks eloped with Eloyce Johnson. The couple had twin sons within a year and a daughter four years after that. Ector filed suit against Banks in 1963 for failure to make payments on a life insurance policy agreed upon in their divorce settlement.

Banks was a lifelong Republican – and he also once stated that "I'm not goin' anywhere I'm not wanted" – prompting critics to claim that he was "soft" on Jim Crow; he ran for alderman in Chicago in 1963. He lost the election and later said, "People knew me only as a baseball player. They didn't think I qualified as a government official and no matter what I did I couldn't change my image ... What I learned, was that it was going to be hard for me to disengage myself from my baseball life and I would have to compensate for it after my playing days were over."

In 1966, Banks worked for Seaway National Bank in the off-season and enrolled in a banking correspondence course. He bought into several business ventures, including a gas station, during his playing career. Though he had been paid modestly in comparison to other baseball stars, Banks had taken the advice of Wrigley and invested much of his earnings. He later spent time working for an insurance company and for New World Van Lines. Banks began building assets that would be worth an estimated $4 million by the time he was 55 years old.

Banks and Bob Nelson became the first black owners of a U.S. Ford Motor Company dealership in 1967. Nelson had been the first non-white commissioned officer in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II; he operated an import car dealership before the venture with Banks. Banks was appointed to the board of directors of the Chicago Transit Authority in 1969. On a trip to Europe, Banks visited the Pope, who presented him with a medal that became a proud possession.

Banks was divorced from Eloyce in 1981. She received several valuable items from his playing career as part of their divorce settlement, including his 500th home run ball. She sold the items not long after the divorce. He remarried in 1984. In 1993, his third wife Marjorie was part of a group that met with MLB executives to discuss race relations in baseball after allegations of racial slurs surfaced against Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott. Banks married Liz Ellzey in 1997 and Hank Aaron served as his best man. In late 2008, Banks and Ellzey adopted an infant daughter.

Banks's nephew, Bob Johnson, was a major league catcher and first baseman for the Texas Rangers between 1981 and 1983. His great nephew, Acie Law, is a professional basketball player who attended Texas A&M University before playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Later years

Banks was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, his first year of eligibility. He received votes on 321 of the 383 ballots. Though several players were selected through the Veterans Committee and the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues that year, Banks was the only player elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He was inducted on August 8 of that year. During his induction speech, Banks said, "We've got the setting – sunshine, fresh air, the team behind us. So let's play two!"

The Cubs retired Banks' uniform number 14 in 1982. He was the first player to have his number retired by the team. At the time of the ceremony, Banks was employed as the Cubs' corporate sales representative. The team did not retire any more numbers for another five years, when Billy Williams received the honor. Through the 2014 season, only six former Cubs, along with Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson, have had their numbers retired by the organization.

Banks served as a team ambassador after his retirement, though author Phil Rogers says the team had never placed Banks in a position of authority or significant influence. In 1983, shortly after Wrigley sold the team to the Tribune Company, Banks and the Cubs briefly severed ties. Rogers wrote that after the sale, Banks was viewed as "something of a crazy uncle who hung around the house for no apparent reason", and that team officials anonymously told the press that Banks had been fired because he was unreliable. Soon Banks and the Cubs reconciled and he resumed making appearances on behalf of the team.

In 1984, when the Cubs won the NL East division, the club named Banks an honorary team member. At the 1990 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the first one held at Wrigley Field since Banks' playing days, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch to starting catcher Mike Scioscia. Banks was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. In the same year, the Society for American Baseball Research listed him 27th on a list of the 100 greatest baseball players.

In June 2006, Crain's Chicago Business said Banks was part of a group looking into buying the Chicago Cubs in case the Tribune Company decided to sell the club. Banks established a charity, the Live Above & Beyond Foundation, which assists youth and the elderly with issues including self-esteem and healthcare. In 2008, Banks released a charity wine called Ernie Banks 512 Chardonnay, the proceeds of which were donated to his foundation.

Banks was an ordained minister; he presided at the wedding of MLB pitcher Sean Marshall. On March 31, 2008, a statue of Banks ("Mr. Cub") was unveiled in front of Wrigley Field. That year, Eddie Vedder released a song called "All The Way", which Banks had asked Vedder to write about the Cubs as a birthday gift.

In 2009, Banks was named a Library of Congress Living Legend, a designation that recognizes those "who have made significant contributions to America's diverse cultural, scientific and social heritage". In 2013, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom with 15 other people, including Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. During the ceremony, he presented President Obama with a bat that had belonged to Jackie Robinson. Banks remained close to the Cubs team and made frequent appearances at their spring training grounds, HoHoKam Stadium in Arizona. Author Harry Strong wrote in 2013 that "the Chicago Cubs do not have a mascot, but they hardly need one when the face of the franchise is still so visible".

Ernie Banks was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 1970 in the area of Sports.

Death

Banks died of a heart attack at a Chicago hospital on January 23, 2015, eight days before his 84th birthday. Following a public visitation, a memorial service was held at the Fourth Presbyterian Church. Several well-known people spoke at the service, including Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and baseball personalities Joe Torre and Billy Williams. After the service, a procession moved from Downtown Chicago past Wrigley Field.

In the weeks after his death, a legal battle arose over Banks' estate and the disposition of his body. His estranged widow Elizabeth said that he had amended his will in October without her knowledge. The new will left all of Banks' assets to his longtime caregiver, Regina Rice. Banks had been diagnosed with dementia shortly before the change in his will. A Chicago funeral home sent Elizabeth a bill for $35,000 in funeral costs, but the bill went unpaid as Elizabeth challenged the legality of Banks' new will. In March 2015, the Chicago Cubs announced that they would pay the funeral home costs.

Banks was buried in Graceland Cemetery, just a few blocks north of Wrigley Field.

Wikipedia

[bthenoise]

Play Ball: Riley Breckenridge Talks MLB Opening Day Plus 15 Years of Thrice’s ‘Vheissu’

Photo by Julius Aguilar

As you are probably well aware, most musicians have passions outside of music. Some like to draw. Some like to skate. Others, like Thrice’s Riley Breckenridge, enjoy America’s national pastime -- baseball. 

Growing up watching the game at an early age and later playing it in high school and college, the Thrice drummer has always been drawn to the bright lights of the big league.    

“My earliest memories are watching baseball games with my dad,” recalls Breckenridge. “He had it on at the house all the time. I'd go play in the yard as a little kid and as soon as there was an opportunity to play organized ball I played.” 

Now, with Thrice currently out on the road celebrating 15 years of their beloved  LP Vheissu and MLB’s Opening Day right around the corner, we figured what better time than now to catch up with the soft-spoken Puig Destroyer member and talk all things baseball.   

To check out our Q&A with Breckenridge discussing World Series predictions, the Houston Astros cheating scandal and how well his Los Angeles Angels are going to do this year (plus a little insight into the Vheissu tour), be sure to see below. Afterward, make sure to grab tickets to see Thrice out on tour here.

MLB’s Opening Day is almost here. Any thoughts? 

Riley Breckenridge: I'm excited. The Angels made a great addition in Anthony Rendon. I wish they would have got some more pitching but they haven’t done that yet. So I'm cautiously optimistic about the Angels’ chances. As far as the game as a whole, I think it's gonna be a weird season with all the Astros drama. I don't think that's going away anytime soon. I don't think Major League Baseball handled it properly. Because of that, I feel like players feel like they're gonna have to kind of fend for themselves and punish them in their own way. I don't know if that's gonna come in the form of beanballs or dirty slides or protests or anything like that, but it should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

How do you think it should all go down in your opinion? Like if you were pitching, what would you do?

I don't know. I'm not a big fan of the beanball war. Even though they're entertaining, I don't think I would enter into that if I were a pitcher. The risk of hurting somebody and then shortening a career is just too frightening to me.  

What were your thoughts when you initially found out about the Astros sign-stealing?

Super disappointed. I mean, I genuinely liked the Astros. I have a friend who works in the front office there. So even though I'm an Angels fan and they’re a rival, I really liked watching that team. I mean Altuve, Bregman, Correa, George Springer... they got a lot of really cool, good young talent and it was awesome to see them be so successful so quickly. So to find out that it came by some shady practices is super disappointing.

Aside from stealing signs from second base, do you think other teams are cheating similar to how the Astros did?

Well if you listen to Major League Baseball, they would say outside of the Red Sox, no, the other teams are not. But I have to think that with the tools baseball gave teams to do the instant replay stuff, challenging calls and stuff, they gave them the tools to do this cheating and they didn't police it well enough. So I would be surprised if other teams weren't doing it because it would almost be foolish in a way even though it's unethical. But I think there's a lot of stuff that goes on in baseball that we don't really know about and we aren't privy to. There's a lot of insider secrets.

Do you think sign-stealing is worse than steroids?

That's a tough question.

Some players say if you know what pitch is coming, that's a lot easier than just being a super muscular dude.

Yeah, that's definitely true. I mean, if you're taking steroids, sure you're going to be stronger and you're going to recover from injury quicker and there'll be less wear and tear on you during a long season, but you still have to hit the ball or throw the ball. So yeah, knowing what's coming eliminates a huge challenge.

Okay, so we're gonna get some predictions from you now. Who’s your pick for the World Series this season? And if you say the Angels, we don't blame you whatsoever.

No, I'm gonna go Yankees and Dodgers. Barring any catastrophic injuries, they clearly seem like they're a level above everybody. I think the Astros are gonna have a tough season just because of all the drama. There's gonna be a tremendous amount of scrutiny and it's hard to play through that. Even if you're immune to that kind of stuff, it's still difficult. But yeah, Yankees and Dodgers. They're both stacked. The Dodgers look like an all-star team.

The Dodgers getting Mookie Betts from the Red Sox is just insane.

Insanity, yeah.

So what do you think will win between the two of them?

I would say the Dodgers but the Dodgers seem to be cursed. They make it pretty deep into the postseason every year and they just can't finish.

Clayton Kershaw can't seem to get it figured out.

Well now with the cheating stuff, how much of his postseason struggles can you chalk up to the other team knowing what's coming?

Wow, that's very true. Okay, how about MVP and Cy Young predictions?

AL MVP, I'm gonna go with [Mike] Trout again. He's just absurdly good at baseball. Unless he gets hurt, there's no reason to think he's not going to be even better this year than he was last year.

Especially with Anthony Rendon batting before or after him.

A better, healthy Shohei Ohtani too will be helpful. AL Cy Young, I would probably say Garret Cole. A full season with the Yankees is gonna be nuts.

We assume you're pretty bummed he didn't go to the Angels.

Very bummed, yeah. I mean if they needed one thing this offseason, it was like a front end starter and he's legit the best pitcher in the game and he was available. The Angels definitely had the money to throw at him but they just couldn't do it.

NL MVP and Cy Young: I think maybe [Cody] Bellenger again or [Christian] Yelich and Cy Young, even though he's on a terrible team, it would be a repeat again but Jacob deGrom. He's just too good. I feel awful for him that he's on a terrible team.

Some people think the Mets might turn it around this season.

That would be nice if they weren't the Mets. Like, I feel like they just have a thing where even if they're supposed to be good, they can't be good. That's kind of like the Angels too. I mean, every year I'm like, “I think they'll be decent this year.” And then they're like 81 and 81 every season.

So before we jump into your current tour with Thrice, how did you get into baseball as a kid? Did you play Little League?

My earliest memories are watching baseball games with my dad. He had it on at the house all the time. I'd go play in the yard as a little kid and as soon as there was an opportunity to play organized ball I played. Then I played through high school and through my first three years of college but quit to do the band thing. Then -- I stopped doing this a few years ago -- but I played in an adult men's league with a bunch of dudes that played in college and some guys that were in the minors for a little bit. So it was super competitive and it scratched that itch even though I'm way too old to do that [laughs].

Did your brother and bandmate Ed ever have a passion for baseball? 

He played. He played until like sixth grade. He had one season where he got hit a bunch and he was kind of getting into skateboarding at the same time. So he was like, “I'd rather injure myself on a skateboard than get injured by somebody throwing a ball.”

So just talking a little bit about these shows. You guys are celebrating 15 years of Vheissu. What has the tour been like so far?

It's been awesome. It's been really cool revisiting this record. It's a record that we're super proud of. And you know, 15 years after putting it out I still enjoy playing every song in the setlist. I can't say the same for other records. Like, we play some old songs and I'm like, “Ehhh I wish we would have done this different or that different or I'm not a huge fan of this chorus or something.” So it's been cool to play those songs. The crowds have been awesome. Our touring family is awesome. The bands that we're out here with are great. Holy Fawn is incredible. Drug Church, I loved before this tour started but getting to see them live every night is... they're so fun, and they're so good and they're so tight. Patrick, their singer, is such a good frontman. And then, the mewithoutyou guys we've known for 12 or 15 years and they're an incredible band. I'm bummed that they're putting an end to it but I'm stoked we get to do this with them one last time before they go away.

When you guys were rehearsing these songs again, were there any that were really challenging to learn again?

A lot of them actually. I mean, there were two. There's one album track and one b-side that we'd never played before. And then I think there were only like four songs from Vheissu that are in regular rotation in our sets. So a lot of it was like, “Oh man, we haven't played this in like 12 years or 15 years even.” Like, we played it on the first Vheissu tour and then we just put it to bed. So it's cool. It's challenging too because there's a lot of stuff going on. So there's like samples and guys are playing keys too. So we had to figure out the logistics of it all and track down some old samples. So it was challenging but it's been awesome.

Looking forward to the future of Thrice, what excites you most about the band?

Seeing where our brains go for this next record. It's always an exciting and scary time because I feel like we always have an idea of what we want to do and then people start sharing ideas and we get a little bit clearer idea of where the record is going to end up. And then by the time we're done writing and recording everything, it ends up being something completely different -- in a good way, though. So I'm excited to see where we end up with this one.

Do you think playing some of these more experimental songs every night might influence the future record in a way?  

I think so. I think it's been a cool exercise to go back to a record that was so important to us as far as branching out and trying different stuff. It's inspiring to get familiar with that stuff again and that way of thinking and then head into a brand new creative process. It's like, it's a better headspace than just kind of rolling from the last record to whatever comes next.

Since you guys have come back from your hiatus, you’ve been pedal to the metal releasing new music and touring nonstop. Is that how you guys want to keep going?

Yeah I mean, I think after this tour is over we're going to go away for a little bit. We're not really busy for the rest of the year. I mean, we have deadlines that we're trying to hit and stuff but it's a little more relaxed then maybe the last record cycle where we finished touring, we started writing immediately [and] we were like under the gun finishing songs at the very last minute so we could get into the studio and record. This time around, I think we're going to take our time a little bit more and enjoy being home for a little bit.

A break is very well deserved.

The only bad thing about not working and being at home is that when you're not working, you're not making money [laughs]. And stuff still costs money when you're at home. So we can't afford to go away for too long but we're gonna go take our time and hopefully come out with something good.

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

MLB Energy Rankings: Week 10

http://tinyurl.com/y6h45mro Welcome to the Rotoworld MLB Energy Rankings, a weekly function that can run each Tuesday by way of the top of the 2019 common season. These rankings will not be fantasy-driven in any means, although I’ll embody nuggets of extra summary fantasy recommendation right here and there inside the person group write-ups. Who’s sizzling, who’s not — that kind of factor. Ship any and all complaints to me on Twitter: @drewsilv. Please imagine me once I inform you that I don’t hate your group. 1. Los Angeles DodgersDocument: 42-19Final Week: 2 Walker Buehler led the way in which in Monday evening’s 3-1 victory over the Diamondbacks, placing out 11 batters whereas yielding solely two hits over eight innings of one-run ball as Los Angeles gained its sixth straight sport. This group hasn’t suffered consecutive losses since dropping two straight towards the Cubs again between April 23-24. Every part is clicking. The mixed rotation ERA: 2.88. The mixed group OPS: .818. Cody Bellinger is at 4.7 fWAR by way of 58 video games, a near-historic tempo. He at present leads all certified main league hitters in batting common (.376), slugging share (.733), OPS (1.195), OPS+ (211), and whole bases (154). Is it too early to crown him the 2019 Nationwide League MVP? OK, sure, in all probability. 2. Minnesota TwinsDocument: 40-18Final Week: 1 Minnesota misplaced 14-Three in Thursday’s collection opener towards the Rays however went on to win the ultimate three video games of that four-game weekend set at Tropicana Discipline. Because it stands right here on Tuesday afternoon, the Twins are the one group within the AL Central��with a successful file, they usually’re up 11 1/2 video games on first place within the division, with the chance to additional bury the second-place Indians in a three-game collection this week at Cleveland’s Progressive Discipline. Nelson Cruz was activated off the injured listing Monday after lacking the second half of Could with a strained left wrist. The veteran slugger had an .862 OPS with seven house runs and 22 RBI by way of 35 video games when he landed on the IL on Could 14. 3. Houston AstrosDocument: 41-20Final Week: 3 Houston earned a three-game sweep of the Athletics over the weekend earlier than outlasting the Mariners by a rating of 4-2 on Monday evening in Seattle because the bullpen delivered six scoreless innings behind a shaky Corbin Martin begin. Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Wade Miley, and Brad Peacock get a lot of the love when individuals speak in regards to the Astros’ pitching employees, however how in regards to the aid corps? It is the one bullpen group within the majors with a mixed ERA beneath 3.00. Ryan Pressly has been particularly dominant with a 0.64 ERA and 32/2 Okay/BB ratio in 28 1/Three innings this season. Since becoming a member of the Astros final summer time, Pressly has a 0.70 ERA and 64/5 Okay/BB ratio in 51 2/Three frames. Editor’s Observe: Keep forward of the competitors from wire to wire with rankings, customizable projections, commerce evaluator, unique columns and extra in our Season Pass. And begin utilizing optimized lineups on Yahoo!, DraftKings and FanDuel with our DFS Toolkit!. 4. New York YankeesDocument: 38-20Final Week: 4The Yankees took two of three from the arch-rival Red Sox over the weekend and now have 20 wins over their final 27 video games, regardless of Giancarlo Stanton (shoulder, calf), Aaron Judge (indirect), Luis Severino (lat), Didi Gregorius (elbow), and Dellin Betances (shoulder) all sitting on the injured listing. James Paxton returned to motion final Wednesday after lacking 4 weeks with left knee irritation and threw 4 hitless, scoreless innings towards the Padres on 66 pitches. He’ll begin Wednesday in Toronto and may be capable to push nearer to 90 pitches. Acquired from the Mariners over the winter, Paxton boasts a 2.81 ERA and 59/15 Okay/BB ratio in 41 2/Three innings with New York. 5. Tampa Bay RaysDocument: 35-22Final Week: 5 Tampa Bay had its five-game successful streak snapped by the Twins on Friday and in the end misplaced the ultimate three video games of that four-game collection at Tropicana Discipline. However the Rays enter play Tuesday with the fourth-best run differential (+78) within the main leagues, due largely to a pitching employees that at present ranks first total in mixed ERA with a 3.10 mark. Tyler Glasnow is on the 60-day injured listing with a proper forearm pressure, however he lately resumed throwing and needs to be again across the center of July. Yonny Chirinos has helped decide up among the slack with a 2.78 ERA in 35 2/Three innings as a starter. He has a 3.91 ERA in 25 1/Three innings this yr as a reliever. 6. Milwaukee Brewers Document: 34-26Final Week: 8 Milwaukee slid again into first place within the Nationwide League Central standings over the weekend whereas taking three of 4 from the Pirates. Prime second base prospect Keston Hiura was optioned to Triple-A San Antonio on Monday in a considerably stunning transfer — the 22-year-old had batted .281/.333/.531 with 5 house runs by way of his first 17 main league video games — however the Brewers have Travis Shaw getting back from a strained proper wrist and did not need to quit on him regardless of a tough first seven weeks. Jimmy Nelson will likely be referred to as as much as pitch Wednesday towards the Marlins after lacking all of 2018 and the early a part of 2019 whereas recovering from a serious shoulder damage. 7. Philadelphia PhilliesDocument: 33-27Final Week: 6 Philadelphia suffered its fifth consecutive loss Monday evening at San Diego’s Petco Park, in a battle between the 2 highest-compensated gamers of the 2018-2019 offseason: Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. Harper has the higher total numbers this yr, however he went 0-for-Four with a strikeout on Monday whereas Machado blasted a sixth-inning grand slam as a part of an 8-2 blowout victory for the Padres. Aaron Nola suffered his first official lack of the yr in that one after permitting six earned runs on eight hits and three walks over 5 1/Three innings. Philly’s injury-riddled bullpen might use some upgrading forward of the July 31 commerce deadline, however there are bloated ERAs within the rotation as nicely. 8. Chicago CubsDocument: 32-26Final Week: 7 Jon Lester bounced again from three dreadful outings to ship seven innings of one-run ball in an 8-1 defeat of the Angels on Monday, however the Cubs are recent off a three-game weekend sweep by the hands of the arch-rival Cardinals they usually’ve misplaced 12 of their final 19 video games courting again to Could 15. This sudden downturn has allowed the Brewers to leap again into first place within the Nationwide League Central standings, and St. Louis is hanging round too. For some time there, earlier than Lester’s sharp outing on Monday, it was Kyle Hendricks holding collectively the Cubs’ rotation all on his personal. The best-hander went 5-1 with a 1.81 ERA and 37/5 Okay/BB ratio over 44 2/Three innings (six begins) in Could. 9. Atlanta BravesDocument: 32-27Final Week: 9 The Braves took two of three from the Tigers over the weekend, and their subsequent 10 video games are towards groups with dropping data: seven versus the Pirates, three versus the Marlins. After that may be a huge three-game set towards the Phillies, who at present maintain only a half-game lead over Atlanta for first place within the NL East standings. It is solely early June, however this appears like an important stretch for the Braves, who’ve had a really up-and-down 2019 season to this point. Now that the MLB Draft is underway and Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel are now not tied to draft-pick compensation, there needs to be heavy curiosity in each. Braves starters have pitched to a 4.16 ERA, and the group’s relievers maintain a mixed 4.41 ERA. 10. Colorado RockiesDocument: 31-27Final Week: 18 The Rockies have gained a season-high eight straight video games — all at house in Coors Discipline — and can now attempt to carry that momentum right into a pair of three-game street collection towards the Cubs and Mets. Nolan Arenado received off to a comparatively disappointing begin this yr, possibly on account of added inner strain after signing an eight-year, $260 million contract extension in late February, however he has posted an absurd .421/.472/.781 batting line with 10 house runs and 31 RBI in 28 video games for the reason that starting of Could. David Dahl has picked it up, too, with doubles in three straight video games and a .331/.383/.528 slash line for the season. Colorado’s offense is starting to blow up in predictable style. 11. Boston Crimson SoxDocument: 30-29Final Week: 10 Boston has cooled off considerably after occurring a tear between late April and the center a part of Could, however David Price earned a win at Yankee Stadium on Sunday for the primary time since becoming a member of the Crimson Sox, and the defending World Collection champions are actually again above the .500 mark with a comparatively favorable schedule main into the All-Star break. Value scattered two runs over 6 1/Three innings Sunday within the Bronx whereas retaining his season ERA at 2.83. Rafael Devers was simply named the American League Participant of the Month after batting .351 with a 1.021 OPS, eight house runs, and 24 RBI in 26 video games between Could 1 and Could 31. The file is not fairly, however the Crimson Sox are harmful. 12. San Diego PadresDocument: 31-29Final Week: 12Manny Machado broke out of his droop with a sixth-inning grand slam in Monday evening’s 8-2 win over the Phillies. Machado nonetheless has a comparatively weak .763 OPS for the season — which might be a five-year low — and the Padres as a bunch at present rank 24th amongst all 30 main league groups in runs scored. However there’s assistance on the way in which within the type of rehabbing shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., who batted .300/.360/.550 with six house runs and 6 stolen bases over his first 27 main league video games earlier than touchdown on the injured listing on the finish of April with a big left hamstring pressure. He started a minor league rehab project Monday at Double-A Amarillo and went 1-for-Three with a double, a stolen base, and two walks. 13. St. Louis CardinalsDocument: 30-28Final Week: 13No group was happier to see the calendar flip to June than the Cardinals. They went 9-18 in Could, after tallying a franchise-record-typing 18 wins in April. However an enormous three-game weekend sweep of the Cubs has St. Louis proper again within the thick of issues in each the Nationwide League Central and Nationwide League Wild Card standings. Adam Wainwright labored round a career-high seven walks to ship eight scoreless innings in Sunday’s finale versus Chicago. Kolten Wong lit it up all the weekend, rising from a dreadful month of Could to go 6-for-10 with two doubles, two RBI, and two runs scored throughout the three-game set. He additionally made a pair stellar defensive performs at second base. 14. Texas RangersDocument: 30-27Final Week: 19 The Rangers have gained 5 of their final six video games and are 13-5 since Could 15, however they’re going to should survive the subsequent couple of weeks with out breakout star Joey Gallo, who landed on the injured listing Sunday after struggling a strained left indirect throughout a plate appearances on Saturday. Gallo was already a longtime slugger — he hit 41 house runs in 2017 and 40 house runs in 2018 — however he is actually put all of it collectively this season with a .276/.421/.653 total slash line. Gallo is an enormous purpose the Rangers are second amongst all main league groups in runs per sport (5.67). Danny Santana, a profession .259/.297/.385 hitter on the huge league degree, might be going to should take common at-bats. 15. Oakland AthleticsDocument: 29-30Final Week: 11 The Athletics rattled off 10 consecutive victories between Could 16-27, however they’ve since misplaced 5 straight and are again beneath the .500 mark for the season. The bats have gone somewhat quiet, however Khris Davis was activated off the injured listing over the weekend and might clearly assist that trigger. He was out for 10 days with a contusion alongside his left hip and indirect — an damage that lingered for weeks earlier than the A’s lastly determined to close him down for an prolonged interval. Davis averaged 44 house runs per season between the 2016-2018 seasons, and he is on tempo for 33 this yr regardless of being hobbled for principally all of Could. There are additionally reinforcements on the way in which for the beginning rotation. 16. Cleveland IndiansDocument: 29-30Final Week: 16Cleveland misplaced three of 4 to the White Sox over the weekend to fall one sport beneath .500 and 11 1/2 video games again of the Twins for first place within the American League Central standings. It is going to take an incredible surge for the Indians to seize their fourth straight division crown, and having to tug that off with out Corey Kluber (arm) makes it a good taller activity. The excellent news is Mike Clevinger (again) has begun to make important progress and could also be cleared to go out on a minor league rehab project this week. Jose Ramirez confirmed some life towards the top of Could, however he’s 0-for-7 thus far in June and batting simply .206/.308/.313 with 4 house runs over 58 whole video games this yr. 17. Arizona DiamondbacksDocument: 30-31Final Week: 14 The Diamondbacks took two of three from the Mets over the weekend, however a five-game dropping streak preceded that they usually managed simply three whole hits in a 3-1 loss to the Dodgers on Monday. Generally, the D-backs have fared higher than anybody anticipated them to, however the lack of Luke Weaver will damage going ahead — he was identified final week with a gentle proper flexor pronator pressure and a gentle proper UCL sprain — and it appears possible that veteran ace Zack Greinke will likely be shopped forward of the July 31 commerce deadline. The 35-year-old is owed round $95 million on a contract that runs by way of 2021, but when Arizona is prepared to eat some money, there might be a pleasant haul of prospects on the market on the market. 18. Pittsburgh PiratesDocument: 28-30Final Week: 15 The Pirates dropped three of 4 to the Brewers over the weekend and are actually 4-10 courting again to Could 19, after they had been simply three video games out of first place within the Nationwide League Central standings. Nevertheless it might all be a lot worse, because the Bucs have a -68 run differential and a 23-35 pythagorean file. In different phrases, they’re fortunate to be simply two video games beneath .500. Josh Bell continues to shine — he is as much as 18 house runs and 53 RBI with a .332/.395/.681 total slash line — however he cannot carry the offense all on his personal. Pittsburgh’s hitters have mixed to slash .255/.314/.400 as a bunch, even with Bell’s numbers included. That mixed OPS of .714 ranks 22nd amongst all 30 groups. 19. Los Angeles Angels Document: 29-31Final Week: 21 The Angels have gained seven of their final 10 video games to climb close to the .500 mark and presumably into competition for an American League Wild Card spot. They’ve began to embrace the opener in Anaheim, which is wise technique for a group that lacks dependable beginning pitching. As an entire, the Angels’ rotation has produced a 5.51 ERA, — fourth-worst amongst all 30 main league groups. Andrew Heaney has offered a lift since lacking the primary eight weeks of the 2019 common season due to a left elbow subject. He struck out 10 batters over six innings Saturday towards the Mariners and owns a 4.09 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, and 18/1 Okay/BB ratio in two begins protecting 11 whole frames. 20. Chicago White SoxDocument: 29-30Final Week: 22 The White Sox have gained six of their final seven video games and might attain the .500 mark for the primary time since April 5 with a win over the Nationals in Tuesday evening’s collection opener in Washington. Lucas Giolito continues to appear like an rising ace with an 8-1 file, 2.54 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and 78 strikeouts by way of 67 1/Three innings (11 begins) this season. He struck out 9 batters and issued zero walks over 7 1/Three innings in his final flip by way of the rotation Sunday towards the Indians — a sport which the White Sox gained 2-0. Jose Abreu is tops amongst all American League hitters in RBI (50), regardless of a comparatively underwhelming .797 OPS. Is he nonetheless a commerce chip, or would possibly the Pale Hose be consumers in July? 21. New York MetsDocument: 28-31Final Week: 17 The Mets struggled on the street towards a few Nationwide League West opponents final week, dropping three of 4 at Dodger Stadium after which two of three towards the Diamondbacks at Chase Discipline. New York’s pitching employees at present ranks 19th within the majors in mixed ERA with a tough 4.60 mark, and the offense is 18th in each group OPS (.738) and runs scored. That is clearly not a recipe for fulfillment. Robinson Cano (quad) is predicted to be activated off the injured listing Tuesday, nevertheless it’s truthful to surprise how a lot of a lift he can present. The 36-year-old offseason commerce acquisition has batted simply .248/.287/.371 with three house runs and 13 RBI in 45 video games this season. 22. Cincinnati RedsDocument: 27-32Final Week: 20 The Reds sit in final place within the Nationwide League Central standings, however they’ve a greater run differential (+36) than the first-place Brewers (+18), the third-place Cardinals (+19), and the fourth-place Pirates (-68). Once they win, it is usually in blowout style. Once they lose, it is normally in nearer video games. For instance, the Reds beat the Nationals on Friday evening by a rating of 9-3, courtesy of a five-run outburst within the backside of the primary inning, however then went on to lose 5-2 on Saturday and 4-1 on Sunday. If they can not proper the ship and play to their true expertise over the subsequent five-to-six weeks, the Reds will in all probability be among the many most energetic sellers main into the July 31 commerce deadline. 23. Washington NationalsDocument: 26-33Final Week: 25 The Nationals swept a two-game set in Atlanta final week after which took two of three towards the Reds this previous weekend at Nice American Ball Park. Washington has gained 4 of its final 5 video games and 7 of its final 9. Do not name it a comeback? Max Scherzer was terrific in Sunday’s collection finale in Cincinnati, racking up a season-high 15 strikeouts whereas yielding simply three hits and one stroll over eight innings of one-run ball. And the Nats’ offense lastly gave him a little bit of run assist as his file improved to 3-5. Total, the Nationals are 3-10 this season in video games began by Scherzer, even if he leads all main league starters in strikeouts (117) and FIP (2.12). 24. San Francisco GiantsDocument: 24-34Final Week: 26 San Francisco snapped a seven-game dropping streak final Thursday in Miami, behind a pointy outing by starter Tyler Beede, after which took two of three from the Marlins over the weekend. However because it stands right here on Tuesday afternoon, the Giants are in final place within the Nationwide League West standings — 16 1/2 video games again of the first-place Dodgers — with a run differential (-76) that ranks third-worst amongst all main league groups, behind solely the Tigers (-96) and Orioles (-121). It is crucial that first-year president Farhan Zaidi will get a good haul of expertise for Madison Bumgarner (4.01 ERA, 1.189 WHIP, and 74/14 Okay/BB ratio in 74 innings) earlier than the July 31 commerce deadline.  25. Seattle MarinersDocument: 25-38Final Week: 23 Seattle had one of the best file in baseball on April 11 at 13-2, however this group has gone 12-36 since and hyperactive common supervisor Jerry Dipoto has already launched into promote mode. Anthony Swarzak was shipped to the Braves in late Could and Jay Bruce was moved to the Phillies on Sunday, with the Mariners protecting about 85 p.c of the remaining $21.6 million on a three-year, $39 million deal he initially signed with the Mets in January 2018. It seems like Edwin Encarnacion is perhaps the subsequent to go. He is owed round $20 million within the last yr of a three-year, $60 million contract he signed with the Indians again in 2017, however there needs to be heavy curiosity given his energy output. 26. Toronto Blue Jays Document: 21-38Final Week: 24 The Blue Jays have misplaced six straight video games and 10 of their final 11. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has turned it on with a .942 OPS and 6 house runs over his final 18 video games, however many of Toronto’s different bats have fallen right into a deep droop. When it comes to mixed group OPS, the Jays rank second-to-last for the season with a mark of .661, forward of solely the Marlins at .634. Randal Grichuk, signed to a five-year, $52 million contract extension again in early April, is batting .222 with a .282 on-base share by way of 241 plate appearances. Cavan Biggio, referred to as up on Could 24 after a powerful seven-week exhibiting at Triple-A Buffalo, is 5-for-23 (.217) by way of his first eight main league video games. 27. Detroit TigersDocument: 22-34Final Week: 27Detroit had the fifth total decide within the 2019 MLB Draft, which started on Monday evening, and went with outfielder Riley Greene from Hagerty Excessive College in Oviedo, Florida. Greene has been on the Tigers’ radar since he was 15 years old and was thought of one of the best prep hitter on this class, although there are some questions on his protection. The Tigers’ prime decide final yr, No. 1 total choice Casey Mize, has registered a dominant 0.89 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, and 65/10 Okay/BB ratio in 70 2/Three innings (11 begins) this season between Excessive-A Lakeland and Double-A Erie. Tanking isn’t any enjoyable within the current, nevertheless it’s the way in which fashionable baseball groups rebuild, and the Tigers appear to be getting some issues proper. 28. Miami MarlinsDocument: 21-36Final Week: 29 Drafting fourth total on Monday, the Marlins picked outfielder J.J. Bleday from Vanderbilt College. Bleday led all NCAA Division 1 gamers with 26 house runs throughout the 2019 common season and in addition produced a .353/.467/.739 batting line and 68 RBI throughout 62 video games. Thought-about one of the best pure energy bat on this class, he is a pure match for a Marlins group that at present ranks final within the majors in house runs (43) and slugging share (.341). After all, it is going to in all probability be not less than a few years earlier than we see Bleday in Miami. Derek Jeter and Co. additionally had two different picks on Day 1 and went with outfielder Kameron Misner from the College of Missouri and high-school shortstop Nasim Nunez. 29. Kansas Metropolis RoyalsDocument: 19-40Final Week: 28 If you have not caught on, we’re specializing in the long run this week with most of those bottom-of-the-barrel golf equipment. As a result of there aren’t many good issues to say in regards to the present on-field product. Kansas Metropolis had the second total decide within the 2019 MLB Draft and chosen high-school shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., a five-tool expertise who may need been in consideration for the No. 1 total decide had Adley Rutschman not torn it up this yr at Oregon State. Witt Jr., the son of 16-year main league veteran Bobby Witt Sr., gained the Excessive College Dwelling Run Derby at Nationals Park final summer time and in addition almost hit a ball out of Wrigley Discipline within the 2018 Underneath Armour All-American Recreation. The 18-year-old might be a fast-riser. 30. Baltimore OriolesDocument: 18-41Final Week: 30With the No. 1 total decide within the 2019 MLB Draft, the Orioles chosen catcher Adley Rutschman out of Oregon State College. There was some speak of the O’s presumably going with a participant who would not require the sort of signing bonus that Rutschman figures to command, as additionally they carry the 42nd, 71st, and 79th total picks, however Rutschman was simply too good to cross up. Labeled as “one of the best MLB Draft prospect since Bryce Harper” by Baseball America, the 21-year-old Rutschman is an incredible defender behind the plate and batted .418/.580/.764 with 17 house runs and 58 RBI over 56 video games this season for OSU. One thing to sit up for in Baltimore. Source link

[babiesjeep44-blog]

30 resolutions: A pledge for every team in '19

Happy New Year! The grand illusion of New Year's celebrations is that they make us believe that, somehow, the future will be better than the past, that no matter what bad things happened last year, next year will be different. It doesn't often happen that way … but many of us are optimistic and hopeful. The New Year is also the time of resolutions, some of which we may actually keep. 

So, in the spirit of optimism that the New Year brings, today at the Thirty, we give each MLB team one resolution for 2019. What went wrong in 2018 might be fixed in 2019, if they can just stick to these resolutions. As with most resolutions, it's easier said than done. But there's nothing wrong with hope.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST

Blue Jays: Let's make Vlad Jr. feel at home

The Blue Jays have a markedly aged lineup (half of which is over 30) for a team that doesn't have a ton of hope to compete for a title this season. But 2019 will forever be known as "The Year Vladamir Guerrero Jr. Landed in Toronto." It'd be nice to let Vlad Jr. work his way into MLB shape rather than have to feel like the franchise's immediate savior.

Video: Montoyo excited by Guerrero Jr.'s potential

Orioles: Let's not lose 115 games again

The Orioles are starting completely over; it's going to be a while. But not losing a franchise-record number of games seems like a good place to start, right? The Orioles aren't contending this year, but signs of progress would be nice.

Rays: Let's get to the playoffs

With all the smart moves the Rays have made this offseason, and with all the strategic inventiveness they've displayed, it's time to see some results. Steamer has the Rays as the ninth-best team in baseball and the second AL Wild Card team. The Rays have missed the past five postseasons. It's time to shock the world again.

Red Sox: Let's win another one

The Red Sox have done just about everything else in the last decade-plus, but there's one thing they haven't done since 1915-16: Win two in a row. The last team to win two World Series in a row was the Yankees. That's a record the Red Sox would love to take away from them.

Yankees: Let's go get Manny Machado

The match is perfect in every way, both good and bad. Manny has said he's waiting until 2019 to sign. Let's get this done and make the prophecy complete.

Video: Manny Machado visits with New York Yankees

CENTRAL

Indians: Let's get home-field advantage in the AL Division Series

Even with the improvements in Minnesota and Chicago, Cleveland is still the class of the division. The Indians need to take advantage by winning enough games to at least have home-field advantage in the first round, if not the entire playoffs. There are many wins to be had in this division. The Indians need to get them.

Royals: Let's get two prospects in the MLB Pipeline Top 100

The Royals are going young and building for the future, but they don't actually have a great farm system set up right now. Brady Singer, No. 60, is the only Top 100 prospect they have right now. This is the year to make sure you get yourself some more.

Tigers: Let's see some vintage Miguel Cabrera

It has been two full seasons since we saw a healthy, raking Miggy. This is a Hall of Famer right in front of us. It'd be a gift to get to see him be that again.

Video: Beck on expectations once Miggy returns to Tigers

Twins: Let's get four 30-homer hitters

Signing Nelson Cruz was the perfect move for a team that needs to up its power game. You don't need to squint to see Cruz, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler and Miguel Sano all hitting 30 or more. If that happens, this is a Wild Card team at the very least.

White Sox: Let's see Eloy Jimenez establish himself

The phenom prospect should be up by June, at the latest. If he can even approach the freshman season that, say, Ronald Acuna Jr., put up, the White Sox have a cornerstone star for the rest of the prospects to filter in around.

WEST

Angels: Let's get Mike Trout a playoff win

As long as he doesn't have one and he's still in Los Angeles, this is the resolution. Or else he likely won't be there much longer.

Video: Guardado on the latest between Angels and Trout

Astros: Let's get a fourth (or third!) starting pitcher

At this point, they essentially have everything else.

Athletics: Let's get Matt Chapman an extension

He's a player you build around, the fans love him and you have a new ballpark you're trying to hype up. Get your budding superstar locked in.

Mariners: Let's get the fans something to tide them over

The Mariners made smart moves this offseason, but they were clearly steps backwards in the short term for a team that still has the longest postseason drought in baseball. There are better times ahead, but those long-suffering fans deserve something to make them happy. (Yusei Kikuchi was a nice start.)

Rangers: Let's get Joey Gallo's average up to at least .220

Gallo's a valuable hitter at .206 and .209. Imagine what he'd be if he hit about 10 points higher.

Video: TEX@SF: Gallo hits 440-ft. homer on 98.2-mph heater

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST

Braves: Let's get some of those pitchers up and healthy

Mike Soroka, Kyle Wright, Touki Toussaint, Luiz Gohara and Bryse Wilson are all top 100 prospects who are close to ready for the big leagues right now. Get three or four of them going at the right time, and watch out for the Braves.

Marlins: Let's see some progress, any progress

After the initial ugliness of their outfield selloff, Derek Jeter and company have made some quietly rational and smart long-term moves. But no one will believe it until they start to see it on the field.

Mets: Let's make Brodie look smart

Guess who Steamer has as the 10th best team in baseball and the second NL Wild Card team? The Mets! If that happens, they may bronze their new GM outside of Citi Field.

Video: DiComo on Van Wagenen's first 2 months as Mets GM

Nationals: Let's be the 2001 Mariners

All right, so maybe the Nats don't win quite that many games. But if the Nationals are looking for a team to emulate that lost a superstar and rebounded to be even better than before, that's the one.

Phillies: Let's get another star so the fans don't tear this place apart

The Phillies went into the offseason willing to spend "stupid" money, and yet they still don't have any major superstars (with apologies to Andrew McCutchen and Rhys Hoskins). Can they get one if Harper and Machado don't come?

CENTRAL

Brewers: Let's steal the Cubs' mantle

The Brewers won the NL Central last year, even if it still seems like the Cubs won it. If the Brewers win another one, no one will ever be able to dismiss them as a fluke or a result of a Cubs' dropoff: They'll be the new captains now.

Cardinals: Let's get to the postseason

No need to overthink this one. The Cardinals have missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons, the longest stretch for the franchise since 1997-99. They've invested substantially in this year's team. The stakes couldn't be more clear.

Cubs: Let's get this Joe Maddon situation resolved, one way or another

One would have thought that bringing a World Series trophy to Wrigley Field would get you a lifetime contract, but there have been clear differences between Maddon and his front office in the last two years. The Cubs will either double down on Maddon after this year, or go another direction entirely.

Video: Maddon talks about his current contract with the Cubs

Pirates: Let's Get Mitch Keller up to Pittsburgh and have a truly scary rotation

Jameson Taillon, Chris Archer, Trevor Williams and Keller: Is that potentially the best starting four in the division? Maybe the whole National League?

Reds: Let's plate 800 runs

The rotation is still going to be an issue, but with the lineup additions and a fully healthy Joey Votto, the Reds could potentially get to 800 runs for the first time since 2005.

WEST

Diamondbacks: Let's find a new home for Zack Greinke

The D-backs are cleaning house, and the best way to truly clear some payroll and maybe bring in some talent, would be dealing Greinke. If he's old-school Greinke for the season's first three months, some contender will eagerly come calling.

Video: Gilbert on possibility of D-backs trading Greinke

Dodgers: Let's get over the hump this time

Losing two straight World Series is … not fun. The Dodgers do not want to be baseball's Buffalo Bills.

Giants: Let's give Farhan Zaidi some room

The Giants won three World Series in five years, giving their fans unbridled joy in the process. Now the bill is coming due. Now is not the time for sentimentality. Zaidi is one of the smartest men in the sport. Let him do what he's here to do.

Padres: Let's let everybody know we're coming

The Padres are stealthily, studiously building something intriguing out there. But fans -- and the rest of baseball -- need to see some forward movement to start believing. With the D-backs and Giants taking a step back, this would be a terrific season to show it.

Rockies: Let's get Nolan Arenado signed

He's the face of the franchise and its recent resurgence. Let's get this done.

Video: Bridich, Rox communicating with Arenado about future

Will Leitch is a columnist for MLB.com.

Source: https://www.mlb.com/news/new-years-resolutions-for-every-mlb-team/c-302281316

[marilynngmesalo]

Hall of Famer, pioneering manager Frank Robinson dies at 83

Hall of Famer, pioneering manager Frank Robinson dies at 83 Hall of Famer, pioneering manager Frank Robinson dies at 83 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Crowding the plate, fearsome and fearless, Frank Robinson hammered his way into the Hall of Fame.

His legacy, however, was cemented that day in 1975 when he simply stood in the dugout at old Cleveland Stadium — the first black manager in Major League Baseball.

Robinson, the only player to earn the MVP award in both leagues and a Triple Crown winner, died Thursday at 83. He had been in failing health and in hospice care at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. MLB said he was with family and friends at the time.

“Frank Robinson’s resume in our game is without parallel, a trailblazer in every sense, whose impact spanned generations,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

Robinson hit 586 home runs — he was fourth on the career list behind only Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays when he retired and now ranks 10th. An MVP with Cincinnati and Baltimore, he led the Orioles to their first World Series championship in 1966.

We are saddened by the loss of Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer, 2-time MVP and MLB’s first African-American manager. He was 83. pic.twitter.com/tYDZGMWAfd

— MLB (@MLB) February 7, 2019

“Frank Robinson and I were more than baseball buddies. We were friends. Frank was a hard-nosed baseball player who did things on the field that people said could never be done,” Aaron posted on Twitter.

“Baseball will miss a tremendous human being,” he said.

An All-Star outfielder in 12 seasons and a first-ballot selection to Cooperstown, Robinson also was a Rookie of the Year, a Gold Glove outfielder and a bruising runner.

But his place in the sport’s history extended far beyond the batter’s box and basepaths.

Robinson fulfilled his quest to become the first African-American manager in the big leagues when he was hired by the Cleveland Indians. His impact was immediate and memorable.

The Indians opened at home that year and Robinson, still active, batted himself second as the designated hitter. In the first inning, he homered off Doc Medich and the crowd went crazy, cheering the whole April afternoon as Cleveland beat the Yankees.

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The Reds, Orioles and Indians have retired his No. 20 and honoured him with statues at their stadiums.

Robinson later managed San Francisco, Baltimore and Montreal. He became the first manager of the Washington Nationals after the franchise moved from Montreal for the 2005 season — the Nationals put him in their Ring of Honor.

More than half the major league teams have had black managers since his debut with Cleveland.

Robinson later spent several years working as an executive for MLB and for a time oversaw the annual Civil Rights Game. He advocated for more minorities throughout baseball and worked with former Commissioner Bud Selig to develop the Selig Rule, directing teams to interview at least one minority candidate before hiring a new manager.

For all he did on and off the field, Robinson was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2005.

Brooks Robinson, a fellow first-ballot Hall of Famer, said he spoke to his Baltimore teammate and longtime friend a few days ago.

“He was the best player I ever played with,” he said.

Frank Robinson was the only player to have 7 seasons with an OPS of .950+ from 1959-1969.

That’s more seasons than Mays, Mantle, Clemente, Aaron. pic.twitter.com/VyIVsZURla

— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) February 7, 2019

Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre played against and worked with Frank Robinson for years.

“He was a tough nut,” Torre recalled at the owners’ meetings in Orlando, Florida. “He never lost that feistiness, which puts a smile on your face … He was always that guy that commanded a lot of respect and he had a presence about him.”

Born Aug. 21, 1935, in Beaumont, Texas, Robinson attended McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, and was a basketball teammate of future NBA great Bill Russell. But it was on the diamond, rather than court, where fame awaited Robinson.

“We all know we lost one of the Greats,” Russell tweeted.

Starting out in an era when Mays, Aaron, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams were the big hitters, Robinson more than held his own over 21 seasons — if anything, many who watched Robinson felt he never got his full due as an all-time great. He finished with 1,812 RBIs and hit .294 — he played in the World Series five times, and homered in each of them.

Robinson was the only player to hit a ball completely out of old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore and once connected for grand slams in consecutive innings of a game. But he didn’t just slug away, as evidenced by a .389 on-base average boosted by 1,420 walks against 1,532 strikeouts. Extremely alert on the bases, he had 204 steals.

Robinson played the game with grace, yet was known as fierce competitor who combined hard work with natural talent. He planted himself near the plate, yielding to no pitcher, and didn’t seem to care about being brushed back or getting hit by a pitch 198 times.

“Pitchers did me a favour when they knocked me down,” Robinson said. “It made me more determined. I wouldn’t let that pitcher get me out.”

And opposing pitchers noticed.

“Frank Robinson might have been the best I ever saw at turning his anger into runs. He challenged you physically as soon as he stepped into the batter’s box, with half his body hanging over the plate,” Hall ace Bob Gibson once wrote.

“As a rule, I’m reluctant to express admiration for hitters, but I make an exception for Frank Robinson,” Gibson wrote.

Robinson carried a similar philosophy as a baserunner, unapologetically sliding spikes high whenever necessary.

“The baselines belong to the runner, and whenever I was running the bases, I always slid hard,” Robinson declared.

Robinson broke in with a bang as a 20-year-old big leaguer. He tied the first-year record with 38 home runs for Cincinnati in 1956, scored a league-high 122 times and was voted NL Rookie of the Year.

Robinson was the 1961 NL MVP after batting .323 with 37 homers and 124 RBIs for the pennant-winning Reds, and reached career highs in runs (134) and RBIs (136) in 1962.

All-time hits leader Pete Rose joined the Reds the next year.

“He had a huge influence on me when I first came up in ’63,” Rose told The Associated Press by phone. “Frank was a really aggressive, hard-nosed player, and it rubbed off on everybody. Frank was the one who took me under his wings, so to speak. … Frank consistently talked to me about playing the game the right way,” he said.

Robinson was an All-Star, too, in 1965, but Reds owner Bill DeWitt decided Robinson was an old-ish 30 and time to make a move.

That December, Robinson was the centerpiece in what would ultimately be one of the most lopsided trades in baseball history, going to Baltimore for pitchers Milt Pappas and Jack Baldschun and outfielder Dick Simpson.

Robinson became an instant hit with the Orioles in 1966 as the unanimous AL MVP and a Triple Crown winner.

On May 8, he became the only player ever to hit a home run completely out of Baltimore’s home park, Memorial Stadium. The drive came against Cleveland ace Luis Tiant and the spot where the ball sailed over the left-field wall was marked by a flag that read “HERE” that remained in place until the Orioles left for Camden Yards in 1991.

Robinson batted .316 with 49 home runs and 122 RBIs during his first season in Birdland. He then homered in the first inning of the 1966 World Series opener at Dodger Stadium and capped off the four-game sweep of Los Angeles with another homer off Don Drysdale in a 1-0 win in Game 4.

Robinson hit two home runs against Rose and the Reds to help win another crown for the Orioles in 1970.

All told, Robinson was an All-Star in five of his six seasons with Baltimore, reaching the World Series four times and batting .300 with 179 home runs. The cap on his Cooperstown plaque carries on O’s logo.

Pappas went 30-29 over two-plus seasons with the Reds, Baldschun won one game in 51 appearances over two years with Cincinnati and Simpson hit five home runs as a part-time outfielder for the Reds during two mediocre seasons.

Robinson was traded to the Dodgers before the 1972 season. He played for the California Angels in 1973 and was dealt to Cleveland late in the 1974 season.

His managerial debut came 28 years after Jackie Robinson broke the MLB colour barrier as a player.

“Every time I put on this uniform, I think of Jackie Robinson,” Frank Robinson said as he began his new role.

Jackie Robinson’s widow, Rachel, and daughter Sharon paid tribute.

“Frank Robinson was a dear friend and realized one of Jack’s great hopes, becoming baseball’s first African-American manager. He was remarkable and made us all feel proud for his many contributions to baseball and to society,” they said together in a statement.

Robinson had coached for the Orioles and worked in their front office when he became their manager in 1988 after the team opened at 0-6. Things didn’t get much better right away as Baltimore went on to lose its first 21 games and finished 54-107. The next season, the O’s went 87-75 and Robinson was voted AL Manager of the Year.

Tough and demanding, he went 1,065-1,176 overall as a big league manager.

A no-nonsense guy, Robinson also had a sharp wit. That served him well in Baltimore where, in addition to being a star right fielder, he was the judge for the team’s Kangaroo Court, assessing playful fines for missing signs, uniform mishaps and other things he deemed as infractions.

At the time, the Orioles had a batboy named Jay Mazzone, whose hands were amputated when he was 2 after a burning accident. Mazzone capably did his job for years with metal hooks and became good friends with Robinson.

Some players, though, initially weren’t sure how to treat the teen.

“Frank Robinson broke the ice,” Mazzone said. “He was running his Kangaroo Court and calling a vote among the players, whether to fine somebody or not.”

“It was either thumbs up or thumbs down,” he recalled. “After the vote, he said, ’Jay, you’re fined for not voting.’ Everybody laughed. After that, I was treated just like everybody else.”

Survivors include his wife, Barbara, and daughter Nichelle.

There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements. The family said in lieu of flowers, contributions in his Robinson’s memory could be made to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, or the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C.

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[thegloober]

Revisiting the MLBTR Archives: November 2013

RAB Live Chat

Zelous! (Hannah Foslien/Getty)

Welcome to November. The offseason’s first month. And, since we’re in a new month, it’s time to go back in time to make our regular run through the MLB Trade Rumors archives. The transactions and rumors pick up now because, well, it’s the offseason. Not much happens in September and October.

The 2013 Yankees went 85-77 and could’ve been a whole lot worse. They missed the postseason and went into the 2013-14 offseason needing everything. Starters, relievers, infielders, outfielders, a catcher … you name it. The farm system was thin and the core was aging. And Robinson Cano was a free agent. That was a pretty big deal. Time to dive into the five-year-old hot stove talk.

November 1st, 2013: Yankees Re-Sign Jeter To One-Year, $12MM Deal

The Yankees announced that have re-signed shortstop Derek Jeter to a one-year deal worth $12MM. Jeter, who is represented by Casey Close of Excel Sports Management, had a $9.5MM player option on his previous contract, but this deal will override that option. 

This was the time the Yankees gave Derek Jeter a raise simply because he’s Derek Jeter. There was no other reason. Injuries limited Jeter to 17 games in 2013 and the Yankees, who were supposedly planning to get under the $189M luxury tax threshold in 2014, could’ve let Jeter exercise his $9.5M player option and been done with it. Who was signing a soon-to-be 40-year-old Jeter after the season he just had? Instead, the Yankees reworked his contract and have him an extra $2.5M just because he’s Derek Jeter. It’s good work if you can get it.

November 3rd, 2013: Yankees Interested In Infante If Cano Signs Elsewhere

Though the Yankees remain the odds-on favorite to employ star second baseman Robinson Cano for the foreseeable future, GM Brian Cashman has reached out to Omar Infante as a fall-back option, report George A. King III and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. Cashman was vague when approached for comment by the Post, and there is no reason to believe that this report indicates any change in Cano’s status.

Cano was, obviously, the best second baseman on the free agent market that offseason. Infante was second. He hit .318/.345/.450 (118 wRC+) with the Tigers in 2013 and it was so very far out of line with the rest of his career. His first full big league season was 2004. He hit .282/.320/.410 (95 wRC+) from 2004-12, then he had that big 2013 season. Infante timed his career year quite well.

The Yankees were on Infante pretty much all offseason and especially so after Cano went to Seattle. He eventually signed a four-year deal worth $30.5M with the Royals and you’d have thought the Yankees missed out on peak Joe Morgan the way the media and a portion of the fan base reacted. Infante went on to hit .252/.295/.337 (74 wRC+) in 2014 and .220/.234/.318 (43 wRC+) in 2015. Kansas City released him midway through 2016, the third year of his four-year deal. Bullet dodged.

November 4th, 2013: Yankees Make Qualifying Offers To Cano, Granderson, Kuroda

The Yankees made qualifying offers to Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, and Hiroki Kuroda, according to a team press release.

A formality. The qualifying offer was only $14.4M that offseason. I remember there being some speculation the Yankees could pass on giving Granderson the qualifying offer after he missed so much time with injuries in 2013, but that never made much sense. Worst case scenario is he takes it and you get 33-year-old Granderson for one year and $14.4M? Not bad at all.

Given their free agent signings and losses, the Yankees had a very busy and complicated 2013-14 offseason when it came to draft pick compensation. Here’s how it all broke down:

Yankees forfeit 18th overall pick to sign Brian McCann.

Yankees gain supplemental first round picks for losing Cano and Granderson.

Yankees forfeit the Cano and Granderson picks to sign Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran.

Kuroda re-signed with the Yankees, so no draft pick compensation.

The Yankees signed three qualified free agents and lost two qualified free agents. Their first pick in 2014 was No. 55 overall, which they used on Jacob Lindgren. He appeared in seven games for the Yankees in 2015 and was non-tendered following the 2016 season after getting hurt. Lindgren hasn’t pitched since. He’s with the Braves and is currently rehabbing from his second Tommy John surgery.

November 5th, 2013: Yanks Made Preliminary Inquiry On Brandon Phillips

Preparing themselves in the event that Robinson Cano signs elsewhere, the Yankees have placed a preliminary call to the Reds on Brandon Phillips, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Cincinnati’s asking price for Phillips is said to be “way too steep” according to Heyman.

Among trade candidates, Phillips was probably the most discussed Cano replacement. He had a down season in 2013 (90 wRC+) and the Reds were good at the time — they lost the 2013 NL Wild Card Game and were planning to contend in 2014 — so they were never serious about moving him. A few years later reports surfaced that the Yankees and Reds had a deal in place for Phillips at some point (I think at the 2014 trade deadline), but he used his no-trade clause to block it. Phillips blocked a bunch of trades over the years. He didn’t want to leave his Cincinnati and hey, that was his right. But there was a lot of Phillips chatter during the 2013-14 offseason. A lot.

November 6th, 2013: Five Teams Showing Early Interest In Grant Balfour

Grant Balfour is expected to sign with a new team as a free agent this offseason after three excellent years with the A’s — two of which came as the team’s closer. According to the latest from Susan Slusser at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Yankees, Tigers, Rockies, Rays and Angels have all expressed interest in the hard-throwing Aussie.

Balfour was dominant with the Athletics from 2011-13, throwing 199.1 innings with a 2.53 ERA (3.40 FIP) and a bunch of saves. He agreed to a two-year, $15M contract with the Orioles and then the O’s backed out over something they saw during his physical. Everyone laughed because the O’s are notoriously stingy with their physicals, and hoped their team would sign Balfour on the cheap. The Rays scooped him up for two years and $12M and … he broke down the next year. Threw 66.2 innings with a 5.00 ERA (4.32 FIP) on that contract and was done for good by the middle of 2015. The Orioles had this one right.

November 8th, 2013: Yankees Making Tanaka A Top Priority; Won’t Pursue Ervin Santana

The Yankees are planning to make Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka a “top priority” this winter and are considered the team to beat in bidding for the 25-year-old, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports … The Yankees are not expected to be in the market for Ervin Santana, he adds, as they don’t feel that he would fit well in New York. 

Given their Japanese free agent activity at the time (or lack thereof), it was easy to be skeptical of the Tanaka rumors. The Big Erv stuff was completely believable. He’d been complaining about the new Yankee Stadium for years and years. And why wouldn’t he? Santana has allowed 29 runs in 39.1 career innings at the new park, postseason included. Granted, he faced the Yankees in those 39.1 innings, but still. Santana wound up with the Braves on a one-year deal and had a nice 2014 season (3.95 ERA and 3.39 FIP) before going to the Twins the next year.

November 11th, 2013: Minor Moves: Crotta, Richardson, Blue Jays

The Yankees signed outfielder Antoan Richardson to a minor league deal and invited him to their Major League Spring Training camp, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. 

Antoan Richardson! Richardson spent pretty much the entire 2014 season with Triple-A Scranton, where he hit .271/.380/.364 (114 wRC+) in 93 games. The Yankees called him up in September to be their designated pinch-runner and he appeared in 13 games. Richardson will forever be the answer to a trivia question: Who scored on Derek Jeter’s walk-off single in his final home game? It was Yankees legend Antoan Richardson.

? Jose Pirela started the bottom of the ninth with a ground ball single, Richardson pinch ran, Brett Gardner bunted him up to second, and Jeter punched a Jeterian single to right to win the game. The 2014 season pretty much stunk. Jeter’s farewell was really cool though.

November 13th, 2013: Feinsand On Freese, Yankees, Ellsbury, Beltran

The Yankees are talking to the Cardinals about a deal for third baseman David Freese, a source tells Feinsand (via Twitter).  The Cardinals could theoretically part with Freese since they can move Matt Carpenter to third base and use Kolten Wong at second.  Freese, 30, would give the Yankees a solid plan B in the event that Alex Rodriguez’s suspension is upheld.

It amazes me that David Freese has never been a Yankee. He’s been available a bunch of times over the years and, once Alex Rodriguez became a full-time DH, the Yankees had a revolving door at third base for a while. Basically from 2011 until Chase Headley arrived in 2014. And yet, Freese was never a Yankee. Seemed like such a natural fit. A relatively low-cost third baseman who the Yankees could promote thanks to his championship pedigree. Never happened. I thought a marriage was inevitable.

November 13th, 2013: Latest On Brian Wilson

General Manager Brian Cashman told reporters, including Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger (on Twitter), that you can rule out the Yankees signing Brian Wilson after his agent told the team he won’t shave his beard.  

So silly. I mean, Wilson’s free to do whatever he wants. He had plenty of suitors, so he was getting paid either way, but imagine telling the richest team in baseball you’re not interested because you want to keep that stupid beard? Wilson signed a cheap one-year deal with the Dodgers in 2013 as he rehabbed from Tommy John surgery, then, after looking good in 18 late season appearances, they gave him a new one-year deal worth $10M. He had a 4.66 ERA (4.29 FIP) in 2014 and has been out of baseball since. Wilson is now beardless and he races cars.

November 14th, 2013: Yankees Notes: Morales, Cano, Jeter, Trades

The Yankees are interested in Kendrys Morales, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reports.  Despite Morales’ history of leg injuries, Yankees scouts feel the switch-hitter could add first base depth behind Mark Teixeira in addition to taking regular DH at-bats. 

Morales had a pretty good year in 2013. He hit .277/.336/.449 (119 wRC+) with 23 homers for the Mariners. That’s not great for a DH, but it’ll work. I don’t remember whether the masses wanted the Yankees to sign Morales though. Mark Teixeira was coming off basically a lost year with his wrist surgery and there was no obvious in-house first base replacement/fill-in. Morales eventually signed a one-year, $12M deal with the Twins and hit .218/.274/.338 (72 wRC+) in 2014. Ouch. Teixeira stayed mostly healthy that season. His primary backup? Kelly Johnson.

November 15th, 2013: Mutual Interest Between Yankees, Javier Lopez

There’s mutual interest between the Yankees and left-hander Javier Lopez, agent Barry Meister tells Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger. The two sides have had preliminary discussions and plan to have more substantial discussions later in the offseason once the Yankees have had time to address their biggest issues.

The Yankees were set to lose Boone Logan that offseason and they were looking for another lefty reliever. They eventually settled on Matt Thornton, who was fine, then was let go on a trade waiver claim in August so the Yankees could save money and give Rich Hill a look. Lopez was one of the best left-on-left matchup guys in baseball with the Giants from 2010-13 and he returned to them on a three-year deal worth $13M. He was fine. Declined a little in his mid-to-late-30s but was fine overall. Everything was fine.

These days, I’m not sure a guy like Lopez sticks around all that long. Those one or two-out left-on-left guys are a dying breed. Teams use their bullpens so much now that using a roster spot on a guy who only gets one or two outs doesn’t make sense, even if they are high leverage outs. Four lefty relievers made at least 60 appearances and averaged no more than two outs per appearance this year (Luis Avilan, Jerry Blevins, Andrew Chafin, Tim Hill). Back in 2013, just five years ago, eight guys did it.

November 17th, 2013: Minor Moves: Valaika, Whiteside, Wheeler

The Yankees signed third baseman Zelous Wheeler to a minor league contract.  Wheeler split time between the Orioles’ Triple-A and Double-A affiliates in 2013, posting a .275/.354/.414 batting line.

Zelous Wheeler! The Yankees called him up in July 2014 because Yangervis Solarte was struggling big time and they wanted to try someone else. Wheeler hit .296/.367/.467 (132 wRC+) with Triple-A Scranton that year, and, in his second big league at-bat, my dude went deep.

? Come for the Zelous Wheeler dinger, stay for the Phil Hughes cameo. Wheeler went up and down the rest of the season and finished with a .193/.230/.298 (46 wRC+) batting line in 62 plate appearances.

The Yankees sold Wheeler (at his request) to the Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan following the 2014 season and you know what? He’s still over there mashing. Wheeler hit .264/.332/.414 with 13 homers in 103 games this year. Last year he hit .271/.342/.493 with 31 homers in 153 games. Huh. Rakuten gave him an extension and a couple million bucks last year. Good for him. Wheeler’s only 31 too. Still has a lot of baseball left to play.

November 18th, 2013: Yankees Interested In Jhonny Peralta

The Yankees are now expressing interest in Jhonny Peralta, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter). Peralta would provide the Yankees with insurance should Alex Rodriguez miss significant time with a suspension or in the event of a Derek Jeter injury. He has extensive big league experience at both shortstop and third base.

It was kinda funny Peralta was being mentioned as suspension insurance for A-Rod when Peralta himself was coming off a suspension. He was one of the players who accepted the 50-game suspension for his ties to Biogenesis. Peralta wound up with four years and $53M from the Cardinals. His numbers from 2014-17 are pretty much the classic aging curve for middle infielders from age 32-35:

2014: 120 wRC+ and +4.6 WAR

2015: 105 wRC+ and +2.0 WAR

2016: 91 wRC+ and +0.0 WAR

2017: 27 wRC+ and -0.5 WAR

Imagine if the Yankees had invested $80-something-million in Infante and Peralta from 2014-17 to replace Cano and hedge against Jeter and A-Rod? Lordy.

November 19th, 2013: Yankees Won’t Wait For Cano Before Pursuing Other Free Agents

Reports have indicated that Robinson Cano is willing to wait until January to get the deal that he’s looking for, but don’t expect the Yankees to exercise similar patience. Yankees president Randy Levine told Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News that the team is interested in five or six free agents and doesn’t plan on waiting for resolution on the Cano front before making offers.

November was loaded with “Cano wants $300M+” and “the Yankees and Cano are far apart” rumors. There was a daily update, it seemed. Levine coming out and saying the Yankees were ready to move forward with other free agents was designed to a) put some pressure on Cano, and b) let everyone know the Yankees were open for business. Remember, they missed the postseason in 2013, and they were desperate to improve the team. There was some thought the club would hold off on everything until Cano’s deal was done. That definitely was not the case.

November 20th, 2013: Minor Moves: Twins, Pirates, Cabrera, Ely, Alfaro

The Yankees announced that they traded right-hander Ben Paullus to the Padres for utility man Dean Anna.  Anna, who recently celebrated his 26th birthday, posted an .892 OPS in Triple-A last season.  Paullus, 24, worked his way up to Advanced-A Tampa last season.

Dean Anna! He made the Opening Day roster in 2014 and had a very short stint with the Yankees. Twelve games and 25 plate appearances. Anna spent most of the season with Triple-A Scranton. I do remember two things though. One, Anna pitched for the Yankees. Two runs in one inning. And two, he drew an eight-pitch go-ahead bases loaded walk in the 12th inning at Tropicana Field.

That was Anna’s last plate appearance as a Yankee and his second-to-last plate appearance as a big leaguer. The Yankees send him down a few days later and then released him after the season. The Cardinals signed him and he appeared in one game with them in 2015. Anna’s been bouncing around Triple-A ever since. He hit .271/.367/.341 (106 wRC+) with the Phillies’ Triple-A team this year, so I suppose he could get back to MLB at some point.

As for Paullus, he threw 81 innings after the trade, only one of which was above Single-A. He got hurt and has been out of baseball since 2016.

November 22nd, 2013: Brian McCann Closing In On Deal With Yankees

The deal is for five years and $85MM and has a sixth-year vesting option that could boost the contract’s value to $100MM, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. The deal is simply pending a physical, Rosenthal adds in a second tweet.

The first of several big free agent signings that offseason. McCann was a priority. The catching was so bad in 2013. So incredibly bad. I mean, look at the Yankees’ catcher ranks that year:

AVG: .213 (26th in MLB)

OBP: .289 (23rd)

SLG: .298 (29th)

OPS+: 70 (26rd)

WAR: +0.9 (23rd)

It is very hard to win with catching that crappy. McCann hit .256/.336/.461 (118 wRC+) with the Braves in 2013 and ZiPS projected him for .258/.340/.451 (113 OPS+) in 2014. Going from the Chris Stewart/Francisco Cervelli/Austin Romine catching trio to McCann was one of the single biggest upgrades any team could make during the 2013-14 offseason. Gary Sanchez was still years away and the Yankees needed outside help behind the plate.

McCann fell well short of his ZiPS projection in 2014, hitting .232/.286/.406 (94 OPS+) overall, but he was still a pretty substantial upgrade behind the plate. He was better in 2015 and 2016 (102 OPS+) before the Yankees shipped him to the Astros. McCann was definitely a bit of a disappointment offensively but he was a lot better with the Yankees than I think he gets credit for. He was a big upgrade — on both sides of the ball, it should be noted — over what they had. The signing didn’t really work out as hoped though. Doesn’t that always seem to be the case?

November 25th, 2013: AL East Notes: McLouth, McCann, Orioles, Saltalamacchia

The Yankees are interested in Nate McLouth writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, but more as a backup plan to primary targets such as Carlos Beltran and Curtis Granderson.

Man did we get a lot of McLouth mailbag questions back in the day. What about trading for him? What about signing him? What about trading for him now? Every offseason. It started with McLouth’s breakout 2008 season (121 wRC+ and +3.8 WAR) but he never came particularly close to those numbers again. His dead cat bounce year with the Orioles in 2013 was .258/.329/.399 (100 wRC+) with 12 homers, 30 steals, and +2.2 WAR. That’s about as good as it got after 2008. The Nationals gave him two years and $10.75M and received 79 games and -0.1 WAR in return. Imagine if the Yankees would’ve let Granderson walk, lost out on Beltran, and signed McLouth to plug into the outfield? Gosh.

November 27th, 2013: AL East Notes: De Jesus Jr., Lavarnway, Infante

The Yankees paid a good amount to sign Cuban lefthander Omar Luis last year and they’ll be making him available in this year’s Rule 5 draft, writes Ben Badler of Baseball America.  The Yanks initially signed Luis for a $4MM bonus but when an unexpected issue popped up in his physical, they negotiated that figure down to $2.9MM.  It may be a long shot that any team will draft Luis, however, given how far away he is from contributing.

Luis was the last big money prospect the Yankees signed before the international spending restrictions kicked in and he was a total waste of money. He allowed 66 runs in 99.1 pro innings, almost all in rookie ball, and walked (75) nearly as many batters as he struck out (86). I can’t find any record of the Yankees releasing Luis, but he hasn’t pitched since 2015, so I assume he’s out of the organization.

November 30th, 2013: Pirates, Yankees Nearing Chris Stewart Trade

The Pirates are on the verge of acquiring catcher Chris Stewart from the Yankees, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney (Twitter link).

Stewart was a goner either way, with or without the McCann signing. He was slated to earn seven figures through arbitration and, rather than non-tender him, the Yankees were able to send Stewart to the Pirates for a player to be named later. That player: Kyle Haynes, a righty who spent a few seasons in the farm system as an organizational arm before being released. Stewart spent four seasons in Pittsburgh and slugged .298.

November 30th, 2013: Cano Asking Yankees For Nine Years, $250-260MM

Cano asked for a nine-year deal at $28MM per year, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney, a $252MM total that would match Alex Rodriguez‘s first free agent contract.  He also wants a tenth year vesting option at $29MM.  Olney says the Yankees are in the $170MM range, leaving a gap of around $80MM. 

This was the first time we heard an actual dollar figure from the Yankees. Cano’s camp had been saying $300M total and $30M annually for weeks and weeks. This was the first time the Yankees’ offer was reported. Also, the fact they were at $170M indicated they were not offering ten years. It wasn’t until after Cano signed with the Mariners that we learned the Yankees capped their offer at seven years and $175M. That’s a gap of three years and $65M. It was a bummer to see Robbie go. I wish he could’ve been a lifelong Yankee. But the Mariners made it very easy to say goodbye with that offer.

RAB Live Chat

Source: https://bloghyped.com/revisiting-the-mlbtr-archives-november-2013/

[placetobenation]

After months of ups and downs, highs and lows, cheers and boos for your favorite (or not-so-favorite) teams, the 2018 Major League Baseball season winds to a close with the World Series. This year’s edition is the 114th Fall Classic, with the American League champion Boston Red Sox squaring off against the National League representative Los Angeles Dodgers.

One of the most wonderful things about baseball is its unpredictability and how just one bounce, one strong throw, one great pitch, can turn around an at-bat, an inning, a game, and even a World Series.

There’s no doubt we will see some magic on display over the next few games.

The 2018 World Series will be the first October meeting of the Red Sox and Dodgers since 1916.

History:

The 2018 World Series represents the 13th American League pennant for the Red Sox and gives the team a chance to pick up its ninth World Championship. The team’s most recent World Series win came in 2013 when Boston defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, four games to two. Boston’s first World Series appearance came in the inaugural “modern” version of the event, a best-of-nine showdown between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903.

For Los Angeles, this is the team’s 23rd pennant in the National League and a World Series win would net the team its seventh title. Despite a great deal of recent success, the Dodgers’ last World Championship win came 30 years ago in 1988 with a win in five games over the Oakland Athletics. For the Dodgers, their first World Series was in 1916, when the team was known as the Brooklyn Robins, where they lost four games to one, to…of course, the Boston Red Sox!

This is the first Fall Classic meeting between the two franchises since that 1916 matchup. 

In 1916, the Dodgers were called the “Robins” and the team was based in Brooklyn. Also, Boston employed some guy named George Herman Ruth.

How They Got Here:

The Red Sox won the American League East by eight games over the New York Yankees, with Boston posting the best record in baseball at 108-54. In the American League Division Series, Boston toppled the Yankees three games to one. They went beat the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series four games to one.

The Dodgers triumphed in a Game 163 playoff against the Colorado Rockies to win the National League West with a 92-71 record. In the subsequent National League Division Series, LA defeated the Atlanta Braves three games to one before toppling the Milwaukee Brewers in a fantastic seven-game National League Championship Series.

Series skipper Alex Cora (13, L) and Dave Roberts (30, R) are former teammates with both the Dodgers and Red Sox. Now they face off in the Fall Classic for the first time.

Breakdown:

Boston dominated on offense, leading the majors with 5.41 runs scored per game (876 runs scored; 829 runs batted in). The team also led MLB in hits (1,509), doubles (355), average (.268), on-base percentage (.339), slugging (.439), and total bases (2,550). A real juggernaut here, folks.

Offensively, the team was led by right fielder Mookie Betts, designated hitter JD Martinez, and a superb supporting cast of shortstop Xander Bogaerts, third baseman Rafael Devers, and left fielder Andrew Benintendi. Lineup-fillers Mitch Moreland (at first), Jackie Bradley, Jr. (in center), Eduardo Nunez (at second*), and backstop Sandy Leon each have their merits, but it’s the stars that drive this lineup.

Depth is also important in the postseason and while Boston’s bench does not inspire fear, there are guys capable of giving Cora late-inning flexibility and delivering big hits when needed. Veterans Brock Holt, Ian Kinsler, and Steve Pearce could all come in handy.

*Boston is leaning towards putting Betts at second during National League games in Dodger Stadium in order to get Martinez in the lineup as the right fielder. It’s a ding on defense at both positions, but the offensive uptick may be worthwhile.

JD Martinez’s first season in Boston has been an unqualified success for the former Tigers slugger.

Los Angeles was first in the NL, and fifth overall, with 4.93 runs scored per game on 804 runs scored (756 batted in). The Dodgers had 1,394 hits, including 296 doubles and a second-in-MLB 235 home runs. The team slashed .250/.333/.442 for an NL-leading .774 OPS which trailed only the Yankees and Red Sox. It’s a strong-but-not-spectacular offense.

There is power up-and-down the lineup, led by surprise breakout Max Muncy’s 35 round-trippers. With a resurgent Matt Kemp (21 homers) and the versatility of Cody Bellinger (25), Enrique Hernandez (21), outfielders, Joc Pederson (25) and Yasiel Puig (23), along with catcher Yasmani Grandal (24), along with Justin Turner (17), Swiss Army knife Chris Taylor (17), and midseason pickup Manny Machado (13 homers in LA), the Dodgers boast a lot of power throughout the lineup, but no true superstars like Betts or Martinez. Still, a hot week from one or two of these sluggers could carry the team.

Max Muncy came seemingly out of nowhere to lead the Dodgers with 35 home runs and help the team capture another pennant.

The Dodgers have versatility all over the place with a very athletic squad, giving manager Dave Roberts a lot of options for who to play where and when. The bench bats include backstop Austin Barnes*, infielders Chase Utley and Brian Dozier, and outfielder Alex Verdugo. That is not including a couple of the above-mentioned starters who will likely be rotated in-and-out.

* Barnes is the nominal starter at this point because of his superior defense, but Grandal accrued 518 regular-season plate appearances, so expect to see them both behind the dish for LA at some point, with Barnes getting the bulk of the time overall.

Advantage: Boston Red Sox

On the pitching side of things, the BoSox were seventh overall with a 3.75 ERA and hits allowed (1,305), with 1,558 staff strikeouts against 512 walks. Advanced stats have Boston’s moundsmen just a hair worse with a 3.82 FIP, but overall the team still posted a solid 117 ERA+. In a time when “starter” or “reliever” has never been more blurry, the Boston starters posted a 3.77 ERA in 871 ⅓ innings, while the bullpen made a 3.72 ERA in 581 1./3 frames. If the Red Sox have a weakness, it’s on the mound late in games.

Sox starter David Price had been 0-8 in his career postseason ledger before Boston’s Game 5 win over Houston.

The Red Sox’s rotation of Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, and Nathan Eovaldi is a strong and capable unit, although every hurler listed has some kryptonite. The goal for the Dodgers should be to try to break into the Boston bullpen early and often.

Speaking of the Boston bullpen, closer Craig Kimbrel was fantastic with a 2.74 ERA and 96 punchouts in 62 ⅓ innings. The rest of Boston’s crew was, less than good, I guess. “key” setup men Joe Kelly (4.39) and Matt Barnes (3.65) both posted ERAs more in line with middle men than elite arms, while Brian Johnson (4.17) and Heath Hembree (4.20) were both serviceable. The second-best Sox reliever is probably Hector “Who?” Velazquez (3.18 in 85 innings) or Ryan Brasier (1.60 in 33 ⅔) frames.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers’ strength is, as usual, pitching. A staff ERA of 3.38 was second in MLB to Houston, while the team had a 3.60 FIP to go with a 115 ERA+. The team as a whole struck out 1,5656 batters (good for third in MLB) against just 422 walks. LA’s starting staff logged a 3.19 ERA in 894 ⅔ innings, while its bullpen had a 3.72 mark in 581 ⅓ innings. As with Boston, the Dodgers have a good bullpen, but it also the team’s weakest point.

This World Series will mark Clayton Kershaw’s FIRST-EVER start at Fenway Park.

Staff ace Clayton Kershaw turned in a fine, but injury-shortened season this year, but actually rose his career ERA with a 2.73 mark. Backed by fellow lefties Rich Hill and Alex Wood, along with rookie standout Walker Buehler, Kenta Maeda, and Ross Stripling, Kershaw is looking to shake his rep as a “poor” postseason pitcher (4.09 ERA in 28 games). Los Angeles has more starting depth than Boston, and in a short series where traditional roles often get tossed aside, it could prove a difference maker for the Boys in Blue.

LA’s relief corps is led by Kenley Jansen, the closer who had a down year with a 3.01 ERA. Along with key lefty Scott Alexander, fellow port-siders Hyun-Jin Ryu and Caleb Ferguson, as well as righties Dylan Floro, Pedro Baez, Daniel Hudson, Josh Fields, with another name or two from the starters already listed, this is a very deep bullpen. As long as Roberts resists the urge to use every tool in his kit and doesn’t get too cute with over-management, the Dodgers have a potential edge here.

Advantage: Boston on starters; Los Angeles on bullpen

On defense, both teams display flashes of greatness but are solid-not-special around the field. Both teams largely are made up of good defenders who make their living with the bat. While Boston features a fantastic center fielder in JBJ, and a great right fielder in Betts, any change to that alignment (i.e., putting JD Mart out there) is giving up outs in the field for potential at the plate.

The Dodgers do not have any standouts on defense, but the athleticism and versatility of the team, in particular Bellinger, Muncy, Hernandez, and Taylor, provide the team with great gloves when needed.

Advantage: Push, unless Martinez trots out to right field, or Kemp makes his way to center field.

Prediction:

This is going to be a great series either way you go, with a pair of perennial contenders slugging it out. The “advantages” given here are mostly slight ones, and it could simply come down to a hot hand, a poor managerial decision, a shit replay call, or any number of small things which decide this year’s World Series.

Let’s go LA in seven.