they aren't going to trade Votto.

True, but I've never seen him as frustrated as he is right now. They legit look like a AAA team out there. He's got no back up in the order. I know his trade clause is tight, and he's the face, but that doesn't mean he won't go.

In the meantime, it looks as if LA has finally shaken off the early jitters and is above .500 and moving in the right direction. They still have some fixing to do, like Kenley, but it is positive. Not much room for error though. Just over 10% of the way and it's easy to create an insurmountable hole for yourself.

Matheny is the worst manager when it comes to using relievers.
It will be his downfall.

I figured he turn over all bullpen duties over to the new pitching coach, guess not. He will have to at some point or the GM/Owner will find someone who will.

Peraza went to the #2 spot under Price though (following the Suarez injury), all Riggleman has done is leave him there.

And under Riggleman, he's now 7/19 at the plate.
Maybe you reversed jinxed him lol

WTF was with trying to challenge that Bruce missed a base on the HR? He couldn't have more squarely hit each one if he was crawling.

The crew chief should be fired for granting that challenge.

Dodgers are broken still

After having watched that Twins/Reds game I'd say, at least they're better than the Twins, right now. Nothing like blowing 8 runs of offense by the 5th inning, and ending up allowing 15 to the Reds.

Pujols gets hit 3000.

32nd player in history. He's just the fourth player to have both 3000 hits and 600 homeruns (Aaron, Mays and ARod).

I remember when this used to be a big deal.

So happy for him. I really enjoyed watching him throughout his Cardinal career. Definitely the best hitter I've ever watched in person.

Dodgers rookie phenom, Walker Buehler, combines with 3 other relievers to throw a No Hitter!

Good night of baseball

Not sure he's at phenom level yet, but he's looking better and better with each start. Wish he was as young as Kershaw was when he came up, but I think he'll be alright. Wish Urias was healthy and dominating.

Poor Yadier Molina. Surgery and out for a month after a deflected fastball to the junk.

How bad has the Reds pitching been over the past two plus seasons?

Well, the best pitching, the Indians, accounted for a 53.2 WAR.

The next to last team, the Padres accounted for a 18.8 WAR.

The Reds accounted for a 1.7 WAR.

edit: The Reds have had an ERA of 5.05 over that time span. But that's only because of their good fielding. Their FIP is 5.16.

LA is so fucked now. Kersh is on the DL with a bitch of an injury. That's one that is going to be linger and be an issue. I think I'm ready to sell the season already. Incredible how this season has just been a continuation of the nosedive feeling after game 7. sigh.

Yeah, it must really suck to be a Dodgers fan and be out of first place for the first time in five years. The heart; it aches. :)

Maybe next we can hear how terrible the Red Sox fans have it since they lost a game or two last month. :)

Maybe he won't opt out?

/wishful thinking

Cause I fondly remember all that winning we did in the 90s and oghts. Did the MLB have to take control of your team cause it was so fucked up? Didn't think so.

::looks sadly at Expos cap sitting dusty on a shelf high in the corner::

lol

touche

The Reds pWAR was so bad last year, if you removed their worst starter and replaced him with the best pWAR pitcher in MLB last year, Chris Sale, their team pWAR would still be DEAD LAST.

The Mets just Metsed so hard, the whole of MLB is laughing at the Mets Mettsness

Yeah the reaction is certainly warranted since this has never ever happened before in a professional baseball game.

It's actually only been like two years since we've seen it.

You know how time flies.

James Paxton had already made a nice leap forward a few years ago when he adjusted his mechanics and boosted his already plus velocity a couple notches, and now it appears he's made another adjustment (pitching higher in the zone) which has resulted in a 7 IP/5 H/0 R/16 K game and now a 9 IP/0 H/0 R/7 K game back to back. If this change isn't just a blip, and if he can stay healthy (always an issue with Big Maple) he's just transformed himself into one of the elite pitchers in the game.

Robinson Cano out for 80 games for a drug ban.

I haven't been paying close attention and looked at the standings today...WTF happened to the Royals??

There's a Fansided article from before spring training that broke it down.
(c&p instead of linking cause I can't recall whose links break threads here)

Only 11 players on the 40-man roster when they won the WS are still with the club.

Drew Butera
Alex Gordon
Salvador Perez
Danny Duffy
Miguel Almonte
Raul Mondesi
Cheslor Cuthbert
Alcides Escobar
Kelvin Herrera
Terrance Gore
Paulo Orlando

Of those, only 7 were contributors to that title win.

The rest are to the four winds

Johnny Cueto — Signed a six-year, $130 million free agent contract with the San Francisco Giants in 2016.
Wade Davis — Traded to the Chicago Cubs during the 2016-2017 offseason. Signed a three-year, $52 million contract with the Colorado Rockies in 2018.
Brandon Finnegan — Traded to the Cincinnati Reds during the 2015 All-Star Break. Still with the Reds.
Ryan Madson — Signed a three-year, $22 million contract with the Oakland Athletics in 2016. Traded to the Washington Nationals at the deadline in 2017.
Kris Medlen — Signed a one-year, $1.1 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2018.
Jason Vargas — Signed a two-year, $16 million contract with the New York Mets in 2018.
Eric Hosmer — Signed an eight-year, $144 million contract with the San Diego Padres in 2018.
Kendrys Morales — Signed a three year, $33 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017.
Ben Zobrist — Signed a four-year, $56 million contract with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.
Lorenzo Cain — Signed a five-year, $80 million contract with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2018.
Jarrod Dyson — Signed a two-year, $7.5 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2018.

Still in the league (minor league deals):
Edinson Volquez –Signed a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers in 2018
Chris Young — Signed a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres in 2018
Christian Colon — Signed a minor league deal with the Atlanta Braves in 2018
Omar Infante — Signed a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers in 2017.

Free agents:
Mike Moustakas — Free agent
Greg Holland — Free agent
Luke Hochevar — Recovering from season-ending surgery in 2016 and is still a free agent.

No longer in the league:

Jason Frasor — Traded to the Atlanta Braves in July of 2015. Retired after the conclusion of the 2015 season.
Alex Rios — Retired after the 2015 season.
Yordano Ventura — tragically passed away in January of 2017.
Jeremy Guthrie — Missed all of 2016 and retired after one game with the Washington Nationals in 2017.

FYI, Moustakas has since returned to the Royals.

They became the Royals again? :)

If this is the end of the line for Joey Bats, I'm really sorry to see him go. Early career really got derailed by poor Pirates management. That one season alone he was on about 5 teams because they couldn't be bothered to protect him in the rule 5 draft. Playing in Toronto really helped as well.

Teams are just starting to give Trout the prime Bonds treatment.

It's funny actually. Some teams do and sometimes don't. The Astros earlier this week were pretty careful with Trout, but he was actually in a bit of a slump. Plus, that series finished with Cole and Verlander, who will throw hard to anybody.

Tampa Bay came in and pitched to him, too. They got away with it for a game but then he tagged them for longballs two nights in a row. On Sunday, they finally gave him the Bonds treatment (and ironically only lost today).

Trout has been receiving progressively more walks the past two or three seasons.

I hope everyone read that ESPN article from last week detailing how Trout is having the best single season in history, by far. The whole thing was awesome but loved the detail on how his WAR actually went up during a few 0-fers.

Will link when I can if someone doesn't beat me to it.

I didn't see that. Would love to read it.

Liked what the rays did this weekend vs the angels, with the creativity in starting Romo for an inning

Was just reading about that. Fascinating idea.

Sorry for the holdup.

Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout is on pace for the greatest season in MLB history

Tebow is actually playing pretty decent in AA. Might make it after all.

He'll probably get a call up in September for PR purposes, but he's currently below league average in average and on base percentage. He's significantly higher in slugging, but there's nothing that's screaming MLB success.

No worries! I honestly shoulda just searched for it.

So if an NL team was to start a reliever like the Rays, what would be the ideal spot to bat the pitcher?

2/3rds

Probably depends on whether the team using the reliever to start is at home or on the road, and how many batters they want him to face, but in most cases, your actual "starting" pitcher is in there by the time the bottom of the order rolls around, so you're not really losing anything by just keeping him in the 9 spot (or 8th, if you swing that way).

I would think still 9th. Otherwise you would be chasing double switches all game.

In other news, Hanley Ramirez DFA'd by the Sox.

Color me shocked.

Wow. I guess we should have seen this coming as a possibility though when Pedroia was activated. Hanley is due $22 million next year if he accumulates enough plate appearances this season. I guess this just showed he had minimal trade value so they were just going to DFA him whenever it made sense roster-wise.

I figured they were going to finally move on from Swihart though, since he never plays and everything.

Yeah, they've mismanaged Swihart so much I thought keeping Hanley as the backup 1B/DH & not giving him enough PA to vest his 2019 option made more sense, but I also hadn't realized he was slumping after his hot start. Even if one of Leon/Vasquez gets hurt I don't get the feeling they'd play Swihart at catcher more than 1x/week anyway, but they're asking teams to treat him like a top flight catching prospect in a trade? Whatever, I'll go back to mostly ignoring the Sox until the Celtics are done.

not MLB related, but my daughter's high school rival pulled off the greatest hidden ball trick...

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/05/hig...-topeka-seaman