The Brewers officially parted ways with third baseman Luis Rengifo today, releasing him a week after they put him on the “designated for assignment” list. They’d signed Rengifo to a one-year contract this past offseason (after he had played seven seasons with the Angels), but in 57 games (47 starts), he barely beat the Mendoza Line (.205 BA), and posted a -0.4 WAR.
I’d suspect that David Hamilton (who had been platooning with Rengifo) and Joey Ortiz will be playing at third going forward, now that shortstop prospect Cooper Pratt has been called up to the bigs. (Milwaukee is going to face a logjam in the infield in upcoming seasons, as their other top three minor-league prospects – Jesus Made, Luis Pena, and Jett Williams – are all primarily shortstops.)
This play was mentioned in another thread, but I think it’s worth posting here.
Last night in the the Cubs/Mets game, Pete Crow-Armstrong was on first base, with one out and a 3-2 count on the batter. Crow-Armstrong attempted a steal on the next pitch, which was ball four. The ball was thrown to the second baseman, who applied a tag on the runner. Crow-Armstrong was initially ruled safe, but the Mets challenged the call. And replay showed that he overslid the base while the tag was being applied, so he was ruled out.
The Cubs manager, Craig Counsell, argued that because the pitch was ball four, Crow-Armstrong was entitled to the base. Which is right, but he technically left the base and was then tagged out. The call, according to the rules, was correct.
Counsell was ejected. You can watch the video in this link:
The Brewers have won the first two games of this week’s series against the Reds; in each of the two wins, their pitching staff threw 2-hitters. Both starters – Brandon Woodruff on Monday, and Brandon Sproat on Tuesday – had identical stat lines: 6 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 10 strikeouts, 0 walks.
Yanks bring up Cabrera as McMahon goes on IL. It’s about time Cabrera came back. He plays his ass off, maybe not as good a fielder as McMahon but a more productive bat.
The Cubs have won the first three games of a four game set against the Mets. Dansby Swanson, who entered the series hitting around .190, has knocked in 15 runs in that span, including 7 in the first game of a doubleheader.
The Mets committed 6 infield errors in the third game. Each infielder had at least one error.
As a Yankee fan in Michigan, blackout rules force me to watch the Tiger broadcasts when the Yankees play Detroit. I had to mute because these guys have to be the worst broadcast team in the business. In one game they went on and on endlessly about the dirt cam that Chisholm covered up and the ground crew eventually removed. Then they can’t stop shilling for Dingler in the All Star ballot. Then a rookie gets a base hit in his first at bat and they couldn’t shut their yaps about it for the rest of the game. Tiger fans, how in the hell can you listen to these clowns? I grew up on Ernie Harwell on the radio and George Kell and Al Kaline on the television. Since then it’s been a parade of clowns on radio and tv.
Interesting. Their play-by-play man is Jason Benetti, who was the White Sox’ announcer for several years, until the Tigers wooed him away a few years ago. IMO, he’s excellent; this makes me wonder if it’s the color guy(s) who are bad, or if the producer or team is pushing certain stories.
That’s funny. I watched the Tigers’ broadcast of a Mariners game a week or two back. I thought they were terrible. I’m sure they’re nice people and all that, but really a strange and awkward broadcast IMO.
Probably a couple months too late, but Carlos Mendoza is out as manager of the Mets. As is often the case, it’s not mostly his fault. He can only put on the field the players that they gave him. The manager has to take the fall. That’s the nature of the business.
Being swept by the Cubs must have been the absolute last straw. Dansby Swanson was batting under .199 when the series started, and knocked in 17 runs over the course of those 4 games.
In the midst of what is shaping up to be their eleventh straight losing season, the Angels fired general manager Perry Minasian today, and are bringing in former Cardinals GM John Mozeliak as a consultant, to oversee baseball operations and the search for a new GM.
Minasian was in his sixth season in the role, and on the final year of his contract. The Angels lost a team-record 99 games in '24, and have a weak farm system and managerial churn (five in the last nine seasons), coupled with owner Arte Moreno’s unwillingness to do a complete rebuild.
In last night’s win over the Cubs, Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski recorded the fastest pitch ever thrown by a starting pitcher: 105.5 mph.
That breaks baseball’s previous record of 104.5, also by Misiorowski on June 12 of this year.
It’s also the third-fastest pitch ever since the pitch-tracking era started in 2008. Aroldis Chapman reached 105.8 in 2010 and 105.7 in 2016 and ties a pitch by Ben Joyce in 2024.
Interesting to note (to me, anyway) that the pitch last night was actually fouled off by Pete Crow-Armstrong.
I have a feeling the Blue Jays are waiting until after the All Star game to fire John Schneider. It would be weird to fire him before, as he has to manage the game.