Welcome to June!!
I subscribe to MLB TV on Roku and I’ve noticed they have a daily recap show of about 45 minutes or so with highlights and recaps of all the previous day’s action. It’s pretty decent and a way to get caught up quickly without having to deal with ESPN.
I wouldn’t mind at all if the A’s scheduled earlier games to get more national exposure in Las Vegas. I’m sure every commercial will be gambling related.
But, with my current job, staying up late for Pacific time zone baseball ain’t happening during the week for me.
Yanks at Dodgers tonight. A 10:10 start for us on the East Coast. Both have 34 wins so far.
Watching Cubs vs Padres and San Diego looks ridiculous like a 1990s Taco Bell. I’d much prefer the brown and yellow uniforms.
Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who hasn’t pitched for a year, as he attempts to come back from a surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, has suffered another setback: he hasn’t been able to participate in any rehab exercises at all for the past month, due to continued nerve issues when he undertook exercises, even those that didn’t involve his arm.
As per this article in the Washington Post (gift link below):
The A’s lost again and are on a pace to win 32 games all year.
At the other end of the spectrum, and also in the Obscure Stats category, the Rangers have outscored their opponents by 143 runs in 57 games. That’s the best run differential by any MLB team through 57 games since the 1939 Yankees were +160.
The A’s, conversely, are now back to having been outscored by a margin of more than two to one, which is something no team from 1901 on has ever done in a full season.
Alek Manoah blows up in the first inning against the Astros.
He must have picked that up from the Cheatstros’ playbook.
DeGrom needing Tommy John surgery. He’s done.
The article on ESPN notes that, while the Rangers’ GM did say that deGrom will be having surgery on his UCL, he didn’t specify if it would be Tommy John surgery, or another type of surgical repair (perhaps the “InternalBrace” procedure that Niners QB Brock Purdy recently underwent).
Regardless, deGrom had already undergone Tommy John surgery in 2010, as a rookie. Having to do so again certainly isn’t a good sign at all. And, of course, this is in his first year of a big, five-year contract with the Rangers.
DeGrom’s reaction, per ESPN:
“This stinks,” said an emotional deGrom, according to the Dallas Morning News. “It’s not ideal. But at least we know what it is now. I want to get it fixed and will set a goal to be back before the end of next year.”
Sounds like a major procedure is in the offing.
Wonder when Chris Sale will graduate from the IL to being shut down for the season (he has shoulder “inflammation”).
It’s now being reported that DeGrom will have Tommy John surgery. Again.
The Blue Jays finally sent Manoah to their spring training complex to try to fix him.
I have been calling for this for at LEAST three weeks. It was apparent to me, and apparent to every single person I know with a solid understanding of the technical aspects of baseball and how pitching works, that Manoah was no longer able to pitch in a professional baseball league. He simply had no command at all, none, and his mechanics were horrifically inconsistent. Why this is the case I cannot tell you for sure; it could be a hidden injury, could be that he gained weight, could be Steve Blass Disease, could be something else, but he looked amazingly terrible, start after start.
And yet they sent him out there, every five games. The odds Manoah was going to survive pitching against Houston were zero. He had no chance at all. The Blue Jays have basically no good backup options in AAA but all the starters there STILL had a better shot than Alek Manoah did.
In a season where the Jays have shown a weird propensity for unprofessional behaviour, this really tops it. I don’t know if running him out there start after start when something was obviously wrong was an idea championed by the manager or pitching coach or GM, or all of them, or if they had arguments about this or didn’t. What I do know is that all three of those men had to have known Manoah could not pitch in the majors, and yet he was sent out there to humiliate himself. Whether this decision was political or whether those men are in deep denial about what’s happening I don’t know and don’t care; what they did was a professional failure of unforgivable proportions.
Yanks lose opener to White Sox and send Aaron Judge & Nestor Cortes to the IL.
Judge is a toe injury suffer in breaking through the wall in LA.
Nestor has shoulder strain. He won’t throw for at least 10 days.
Oakland spanked the Pirates in Pittsburgh last night, 11-2.
The victory ended a 15-game road losing streak for the A’s. With a record of 13-50, they are almost on a pace to win 34 games this season.
And Oakland - Pittsburgh today commenced with Oakland scoring seven runs before the Pirates could get a second out. The last two of those runs scored on bases loaded walks, which is the #1 cause of stroke and heart disease in baseball management. I guess Oakland wishes they could play the Pirates more often.
I laughed - out loud. Thank you, I really needed that after my day.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland…