Roto Riteup: June 2, 2016
The best pitch you’ll see from Wednesday:
The Red Sox are ridiculous, annoying, and bordering on unfair. Not only did Mookie Betts smash three home runs on Tuesday, his teammate Xander Bogaerts extended his hitting streak to 24 games, less than a week after Jackie Bradley Jr. saw his hitting streak snapped at 29. This is your top “must avoid” team for streaming, as their 126 wRC+ is now 10 points higher than the next best offense (Pirates, 116).
The Red Sox recalled Rusney Castillo and his .241/.302/.317 Triple-A slash-line, by the way, as Bradley’s off to the paternity list (congrats!, since I’m sure you read RR daily).
Jackie Bradley Jr.’s hitting streak came to an end at 29 games yesterday. Obviously, it’s a massive failing of John Farrell for changing his lineup position and not at all because getting a hit in 30 consecutive games is incredibly difficult. Nope, all Farrell. In any case, Bradley now owns the fourth-longest hitting streak in franchise history, and he hit .415/.488/.783 over that stretch. Not a bad month.
Xander Bogaerts is up next – he’s already at 19 games.
I once went to a Jays-Yankees game and sat near a guy in head-to-toe Red Sox gear. Tonight, I saw someone with a Timofey Mozgov Cleveland Browns jersey in Cleveland. I, myself, own a signed Andrea Bargnani jersey, an Eric Hinske jersey, and any number of other awful apparel and memorabilia items.
None of it is anywhere near as bad as this jabroni:
You’re doing it wrong, buddy. pic.twitter.com/FSdjWFikYv
— Chris Hrabe (@chrabe) May 25, 2016
Who hurt you, fam?
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Baseball is a veritable goldmine of “sliding into your DMs” highlights. I give you Mike Napoli:
You won’t find a finer slide than this, @MikeNapoli25! pic.twitter.com/nPjrZA3u3l
— Carlos Carrasco (@Cookie_Carrasco) May 25, 2016
Happy Wednesday.
Clayton Kershaw already has three shutouts this season. This is not actionable news, but, just, damn. He’s 7-1 with a 1.48 ERA and 1.38 FIP, striking out more than a third of batters he faces. How does someone this good somehow manage to get even better?
And yet, Kershaw didn’t even have the most amazing feat from Monday’s slate. We see you, Alfredo Simon.
You know what I’ll just never understand? Today’s a holiday in Canada, and the Blue Jays aren’t playing at home (or at all). In what world does this make sense? I know scheduling is incredibly complex and difficult, but this seems like a no-brainer, right? Instead, we’re left here to watch Game 4 of Raptors-Cavaliers. And you know who Mark Shapiro is rooting for…
Kris Bryant played three different positions on Wednesday, requiring three different gloves in the process. Weird things happen in a 13-inning game, and in Bryant’s case, it meant playing left, third, and first, and he’s now spent at least six innings at five different positions in his career (the corners and all three outfield spots). Hopefully Joe Maddon remains super-aggressive in this regard and Bryant becomes some sort of super-eligibility slugger.
Or the Cubs just stay weird. Either way.
When your third home run of the night is a walk-off grand slam, you can celebrate however you damn well please. With the nearby Golden State Warriors in the conference finals, Khris Davis opted to pay homage to Steph Curry with the pull-up on the third base line.
That ended a three-game hitless streak for Davis and pushed his wRC+ back above 100 (102). He’s hitting just .228 but has 11 home runs and 28 RBI though 37 games.
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