Dial 187

Ronald Acuna Jr. – Atlanta Braves (4)
pic.twitter.com/B31ahdgbii

— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) April 27, 2023

On the Agenda

1. Bumps and Bruises
2. News and Notes
3. Pitching Streamers

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After allowing back-to-back home runs to Taylor Ward and Mike Trout, surely Jordan Lyles won’t hang a belt-high grooveball to Shohei Ohtani, will he?

Cue 415 feet of disagreement:

Shohei Ohtani's #5 home run of the season
4/23/2023 pic.twitter.com/saQecvdsiG

— ¹⁷⚾︎ ²⁷ (@TrouTanishow) April 24, 2023

On the Agenda

1. News and Notes
2. Bumps and Bruises
3. Closer Kumite
4. Streaming Pitchers

News and Notes

Justin Verlander threw a 3 IP/43 pitch simulated game on Sunday. If all continues going to plan, he’ll make a minor league rehab start on Friday and look to rejoin the Mets rotation on May 3rd in Detroit.

Guardians prospect Logan Allen, was dominant in his major league debut, allowing one run and striking out eight over six innings in a win over the Marlins on Sunday. Unfortunately, we won’t get a chance to see an encore until next Tuesday when he’s scheduled to take on the Yankees in New York.

Jacob deGrom taking on the Oakland Athletics is borderline NSFW content. After being removed from his last start with a sore wrist, deGrom allowed 2 R (1 ER) over six innings in a win against Oakland, allowing just three hits and striking out 11. His next start is currently scheduled for next Friday against the Yankees, as those rostering him surely look forward to again holding their collective breath with every (healthy) pitch.

Remember when Max Muncy was “terrible” for those 10 days, or so? Since going double-dong on April 10, Muncy has a .384 AVG, 24% BB%, and 10 HR, including three more over the weekend (and his third double-dong of the young season). I’m starting to think his slump is over.

After missing nearly a week with back issues, Amed Rosario returned this weekend with a vengeance, finishing a home run short of the cycle in a 7-4 win over the Marlins on Sunday. With his return, top prospect Brayan Rocchio was shipped right back to Triple-A after failing to play in his ~24-hour call-up. Weird, Cleveland. Weird.

Braxton Garrett turned in another solid performance on Saturday, allowing one run over 5.2 IP in a 3-2 win over Cleveland, and now has a 2.84 ERA for the year. But don’t start feeling too froggy; Atlanta awaits in his next start, as does their .37o wOBA vs LHP (5th) in 2023.

I think Max Fried is feeling fine. After pitching five scoreless innings in his return from the IL, Fried held the Astros scoreless for 6 2/3 on Sunday, striking out five and ending with a no-decision.

With the Red Sox game on in the background, I briefly thought I’d entered a deja vu glitch but that was just Masataka Yoshida hitting his second home run of the eighth inning on Sunday, following his tie-breaking solo shot with a grand slam that shut the door in a dramatic fashion.

Bumps and Bruises

Logan O’Hoppe has a torn labrum and is expected to miss 4-6 months. Boo. Urns.

M.J. Melendez hit a home run in the first inning on Sunday but was removed with lower back tightness in the 4th inning. Consider him day-to-day.

Sandy Alcantara was scratched from his start on Saturday with bicep tendonitis but claimed on Sunday that he’ll be good to go for his next scheduled start against Atlanta on Wednesday. Counterpoint: never trust anything baseball players, managers, or GMs say about injuries.

Yu Darvish left his Sunday start with what was later revealed to be a hamstring cramp. It’s not thought to be serious and Darvish is expected to make his next start on Sunday against the Giants.

Closer Kumite

Will Smith picked up the Save for the Rangers in their 5-2 win on Sunday, and it was Jonathan Hernandez who received (and blew) an opportunity on Friday. José Leclerc hasn’t allowed an earned run this season but also hasn’t received a Save opportunity since blowing one on April 11.

Brusdar Graterol picked his first Save of the year on Saturday, entering to face the top of the Cubs order in the 8th inning with a two-run lead and staying in to finish things off after the Dodgers tacked on two more in the 9th. Evan Phillips (paternity leave) is expected to rejoin the team for their series in Pittsburgh.

Bryan Abreu picked up his second Save in a row on Sunday, with Ryan Pressly unavailable after last pitching on Friday. No further update has been given on said unavailability.

Craig Kimbrel picked up his second Save of 2023 on Saturday but don’t worry my little José Alvarado’s, that was just because you have continued your dominance by picking up three Saves in the previous four days. Alvarado now has a 0.87 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 10.1 IP, only allowing a run in one of his 10 appearances.

After José Quijada collected one Save on Friday and blew another on Saturday, it was Carlos Estévez who picked up his third Save in a 4-3 win over Kansas City. I’ll continue to want no piece of this closer carousel.

Streaming Pitchers

Streaming Pitcher(s) for Today

José Suarez, LAA vs OAK – If not now, when? But if it’s not today, Suarez’s spot in the rotation might start slipping away.

High Risk: Colin Rea, MIL vs DET

Streamer(s) for Tomorrow

Eric Lauer, MIL vs DET – The Tigers have been one of baseball’s worst offenses but they’ve been particularly bad against left-handers, with a .244 wOBA against them that is 30th (and 25 points lower than 29th) and a 32% K% that’s a whisper short of last. Eric Lauer is left-handed…See where I’m going here?

I mean, this whole thing:

Max Scherzer has been ejected from today's game for using an illegal foreign substance on his glove

(via @SNYtv)pic.twitter.com/zjPSL2RJcf

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 19, 2023

On the Agenda:

1. Various News and Notes
2. Closer Kumite
3. Streaming Pitchers

Read the rest of this entry »

In Soviet Russia, sometimes Nimmo finds you:

BRANDON NIMMO ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! pic.twitter.com/by3zPkR7jt

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 16, 2023

On the Agenda:

1. News and Notes
2. Pizza Throw Day?
3. A Day of Duels
4. Streaming Pitchers

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Once there was FanGraphs – and it was good. But then came Stuff+ and things were even better. Granted, it also came with Pitching+ and Location+ but we’re going to use Stuff+ as our initial Guidestone today, considering the quickness of its stickiness in the face of our early season samples. Read the rest of this entry »

12 wins were calling:

Pete Fairbanks always looks like he just got frightening news on his glove phone. pic.twitter.com/66dJhEWbwk

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 13, 2023

Pete Fairbanks closed it out and Taj Bradley won his major league debut, pushing the Rays streak to 12 wins. Bradley struck out eight and allowed 3 ER over 5 IP in the 9-7 win over Boston. His four-seamer averaged 96 mph and generated a 33% SwStr%. His counterpart, on the other hand, was roughed up again – Chris Sale allowed six runs (5 ER) on seven hits over four innings in the loss. Sale now has an 11.25 ERA over his first three starts, lining up to face the Angels next Monday. Read the rest of this entry »

The Bloodline comes to MLB:

Sean Manaea and Blake Sabol became the first Samoan pitcher and catcher pair to start an MLB game 👏

"It's amazing. There's not too many of us Samoan baseball players. To form a battery like that is incredible for all of us." – Manaea

(via @MLB) pic.twitter.com/SUHpjyRLko

— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) April 9, 2023

On the Agenda

1. IL Apocalypse
2. Easter Dongs
3. Monday Morning FAAB Attack: Wiemer Business
4. Streaming Pitchers

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We’re only a week in, so our time is probably better spent on things other than hemming and hawing about hitters having good and bad starts. One week of games probably shouldn’t be changing our opinions of anyone but it can be useful to get an early handle on how and where players are being utilized. Things are going to change (and drastically!) but I like to take a long look at early-season lineups in order to get a rough handle on what managers are considering as their best bets for everyday lineups.

With that in mind let’s take a spin around baseball and see what can be gleaned from early lineups and possible platoons situations, starting with the National League. Read the rest of this entry »

That’s one:

JORDAN WALKER'S 1ST CAREER HOME RUN! pic.twitter.com/xxi9sVba1G

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 5, 2023

On the Agenda:

1. Quick Hits
2. The IL Cometh
3. Closer Kumite
4.  Happy Coors Day!
5. Streaming Pitchers

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We first had to suffer our yearly winter of the damned, with little news and less ball, waiting for the K(umite)FL to finally release the national consciousness, retreating to lick their wounds and find new bodies. And while we did get a small respite from the WBC coming around to whet the appetite early, we still had to suffer six more weeks of no MLB baseball after Rob Manfred again emerged on Valentine’s Day to see only a shadow of his baseball heart. Read the rest of this entry »