I want interference ruled on Jeffrey Maier in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS, the home run overturned, and the game to be resumed at that point.
Yeah, bad idea to change a call decades after it happened.
Diamondbacks starting pitcher Corbin Burnes, who was pulled from this past Sunday’s game with pain in his right elbow, will be undergoing Tommy John surgery, undoubtedly ending his season.
An All-Star in each of the past four seasons, and winner of a Cy Young award in 2021 as a Brewer, Burnes had signed a six-year contract with Arizona this past offseason.
Not only that, but probably taking out a decent chunk of next year for him as well. Tough break for the D-Backs.
And Kimbrel was DFA’d one day later.
They also just designed him for assignment!
And after he pitched a scoreless inning for them Friday night.
The Braves work in mysterious ways.
Maybe they can coax Jeurys Familia out of retirement. Or if all else fails, buy Scott Blewitt back from the Orioles.
Bullpen done failed the Braves again Saturday. The Giants rallied for two runs off Pierce Johnson in the bottom of the 9th and beat Atlanta, 3-2.
If it looks like I’m enjoying the Braves’ slump, I am. 
No one in baseball is having a flukier year than Tyler Heineman, and it’s wonderful.
And in his place, Atlanta claimed Jose Ruiz off waivers from Philadelphia, where he’d compiled a 1-0 record with an 8.16 ERA in 14 1/3 innings.
As a Red Sox fan I am as pissed off as I can be right now. Annnd that is after they finally called up OF Roman Anthony, and then only because their RF Abreu went onto the DL, forcing their hand (he should have been up weeks ago).
Meanhoo another injury to 3B Bregman forced them to call up SS Marcelo Mayer to play third 2 weeks ago. These are his game logs over the past week:
- PA AB R H 2 3 4 RBI
- 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
- 2 2 1 1 0 0 1 1
- 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
- 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
- 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
In other words, his kindly manager Alex Cora keeps yanking him from games the first time a lefty reliever comes in (or doesn’t start him against a lefty in the first place). Classic catch-22, where he won’t ever learn to hit lefties in the majors if he never faces them. Awesome way to stunt the development of their 2nd-best prospect, even if he is only 1 for 7 against lefties this season.
Although he had a number of hard-hit balls, Caglianone struggled at the plate, going 2-21 in his first five games, which is a .095 BA.
In his sixth game, he went 4-4 and raised his average to .240.
Just ran across this clip from last night. You may not ever see a better home-run-robbing catch.
So how did the TIgers develop into one of the best teams in baseball?
The Tigers were nowhere even close to playoff contention at the All-Star break last year. They then managed to dominate and made the playoffs. Lost, but were there.
It’s not a huge change of players. Is it just that players were underdeveloped and playing in the MLB just go them to a new level in the second half of last year?
It’s pretty exciting for Detroit-metro area. We weren’t expecting a competitive baseball team in addition to our Lions also making good showings that past two years. Not to mention the Pistons went from worst up to making the playoffs this year. Alas, our old reliable Red Wings are the only team we have that is bombing out and not making the playoffs.
What started happening with the Tigers?
So often these “homer-robbing” catches would have remained in play and been mere doubles or triples (maybe an inside-the-parker), but that certainly was going to be a home run.
The Rockies just got swept (with two blowouts) by the Mets,
Good on the Mets as there is a tendency to not play 100% against poor teams (also I suppose for the poor team to want to play their best against a good team). In any sport.
Not “watching” the game tonight, yet the SF Giants just tied it 5-5.
If the Rockies lose, they will be on a pace to win less than 30 games.
ETA: Giants scored. 6-5
ETA again: That’s the final.
Rangers pick up Kimbrel
Milwaukee is calling up one of their top prospects, starter Jacob Misiorowski, who is expected to make his major league debut tomorrow against the Cardinals.
Misiorowski is a flamethrower (he had a pitch clocked at 103 mph last month); he has a 2.13 ERA and hitters have only hit .172 against him in AAA this spring, but he has historically suffered from control issues.
Meanwhile, Christian Yelich, who was hit in the wrist by a pitch on the 1st of June, is still being bothered by it. X-rays were (and still are) negative, but after playing through pain this past Monday, he’s been held out of yesterday’s and today’s games due to it.
The Blue Jays were 16-20 on May 7.
Since then they are 22-10.
I sure didn’t see that coming. It’s flukey, but they’ve put themselves in a playoff spot. This has happened mostly because they’ve started hitting - they were way under the AL average for runs scored as of May 7, but have now crept a little above it. The bullpen is still a terrible mess, but at least that’s fixable.
That said, the current plan is to start Bowden Francis against the Phillies this weekend. If they do that he will get shelled and they will lose. Francis has just been a blight; he is a game under replacement value, leads the league in losses, and all his stats are bad. He’s pitched 60 innings and given up NINETEEN home runs already, which even by modern standards is horrific. It’s too bad because he pitched well last year and earned a chance to be in the rotation in 2025, but the chance has been used up.
I really don’t see how one could expect things to change. I get that the team has basically no pitching talent at all in the minors - the Buffalo squad’s pitching stats are truly horrifying - but at some point ya gotta choose the best one, bring him up, and assume he can’t do any worse.
BLUE JAY MVP TRACKER
Alejandro Kirk, 39
George Springer, 37
Chris Bassitt, 24
Bo Bichette, 24
Ernie Clement, 23
Kevin Gausman, 22
Addison Barger, 22
Vladdy Guerrero, 21
Yes, I have a system, and you can apply it to your team!
- In every game your team WINS, assign “three stars,” based on who most helped the team win.
- For a first star, the player gets 5 points, for second star 3, for third star 1.
- For each game your team LOSES, only assign a third star for one point.
- You have the option to add or subtract extra points. Add ONE point for an extraordinary, very unusual performance - e.g. a player hits three home runs, or gets six hits, or drives in ten runs, or throws a no-hitter. Only one. You can also decide if the team gets the shit kicked out of it unusually badly to assign no points if really no one did anything.
If two players have the same number of points, the tie is broken by
- The player with the most first stars. If that’s the same,
- The player with the fewest points awarded in losses (the Loser Points, which should be a separate column for third stars in your spreadsheet.)
I’m not saying this system is scientific but I kinda like it and have been doing it for years.
A shoutout to our young White Sox players! Since their horrid April start, they have almost been playing .500 ball. They are young and enthusiastic, hustle, and have talent. In all honesty, I didn’t think we could improve enough to get fewer than 100 losses after last season’s debacle, but I think this team could lose as few as 95 games this season. We should definitely not be “sellers” at this year’s trade deadline.