On this date in 2002, history was made as there was no designated hitter used in a full slate of games for the first time since 1972, as Leo Panetta of National Pastime writes.  That’s because that day saw 14 inter-league contests all played in National League parks. Here’s this week’s look around the baseball blogosphere..
- The Point Of Pittsburgh says the Bucs should rush Jameson Taillon.
- Camden Depot reflected on the Orioles’ offseason moves.
- Rumbunter looked at what the Pirates are doing to be a better road team this year.
- Reviewing The Brew spoke with Brewers prospect Wei-Chung Wang.
- RSN Stats dug into the Red Sox’s power outage.
- Section 215 notes that the Phillies have had a lot of negative WARs since 2012.
- The Beanball feels that the Mets can improve from within, but refuse to.
- Yankees Unscripted says the ’pen could look different when Andrew Miller returns.
- Bronx Baseball Daily reviewed the Yankees’ 2015 draft.
- Blue Jays Plus looked at Toronto’s draft.
- BBST MLB would like to direct your attention to Billy Burns.
- Inside The Zona looked at the early returns on the Didi Gregorius trade.
- Grading On The Curve evaluated the Astros’ draft.
- Blogging Mets has an idea of how a Ryan Braun deal with the Mets could work.
- Grading On The Curve ran down the Mets’ top 10 midseason prospects.
- Fantasy Pros ran down some of the more interesting closers in MLB.
- Nolan Writin looked at one of the Rangers’ draft picks.
- Outside Pitch wants people to stop whining about the Royals.
- Innings Eaters looked at Ben Zobrist’s trade value.
- Did The Tribe Win Last Night feels for Lonnie Chisenhall.
Please send submissions to Zach at ZachBBWI@gmail.com.
Napoli has been in hot and LONG cold streak worse than 2y ago so far this year. Unfortunately? The hot streak this year only lasted a little over a week. As for Hanley Ramirez? He was hammering the ball, until hurting his shoulder end of April, had 10HR then. He dropped nearly 50pts off his BA and has only now began hitting with authority again. nagging injuries, like fouling that ball off his knee in Baltimore, which took him out of a game in the last Oriole series.
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The Red Sox have been embarrassing to watch these past few weeks. I still had hopes they can battle back to .500 and possibly compete. However being 8 games back and looking at how they are playing and their team chemistry tells me they are about done.
It also looks like they’ve made two big mistakes with the Sandoval and Porcello contracts. Hanley was fine offensively until he got injured but his defense in left is horrendous. Once Ortiz retires he needs to DH.
Sox need to cut Ortiz….
Dh Hanley permanently…
Trade Swihart & Margot plus pieces for Hamels….
Put Jackie Bradley back in Center…
Move Betts to Left….
Pray it rains when Miley Pitches…..
Sign Zimmerman or Cueto in off-season…
Find another 1st baseman….let Nap’s walk…..
A Hamels trade would be one of the worst trades of Red Sox history. Why would you trade away Swihart, who still can become a great catcher along with Margot for a season that is already lost?
Ummm cuz you’ll have Hamels for the next 4 SEASONS…..
What about Margot, Vazquez and Brian Johnson for Cole Hamels? I think that’ll work for both sides.
I think that’s a deal Boston would accept 7 days per week and twice on Sunday. As a Phils fan, feels a bit light.
2 top 100 prospects and good young catcher? As a Phillies fan, I’d be willing to settle for that. I know Vazquez is injured, but he has a good chance of getting back to somewhere near what he was.
That’s exactly how I feel about it, that it would just be settling for an offer.
To me, there’s a big difference between getting 2 top-100 prospects and neither being top-50. One is more of a consensus 60-100 prospect according to BA, BP, and MLB (Margot) and the other is a borderline top-100 only making the cut at 82 on BA (Johnson). Of course, things change in season. Add in Vazquez recovering from TJS and it’s an easy pass for me.
Now if it’s July 31 and that is the best offer on the table, I’d have to think long and hard about it. I could find a Margot+ package worth doing, but that one doesn’t do it for me at the moment.
Agreed….You have to ask yourself this..how many light packages do you think The Rays were offered for 1+ year of Price before they got what they wanted. IMO any deal that doesn’t start with an MLB proven player is too light.
Yes, however as a Sox fan I wouldn’t be too excited about trading Vazquez, especially if Swihart’s bat allows him to play at 1st
“Blogging Mets” could not be more biased.
His suggestion is Jon Niese, Michael Cuddyer, Rafael Montero and Kevin Plawecki for Ryan Braun.
Plawecki and Montero for Braun is not a horrible offer. One more piece could get it done
Braun really hasn’t been that Tier A player that he was in 2011 in a while. I don’t see the Mets deal a top 80 prospect, plus Montero, plus 2 other notable MLB pieces in exchange for Braun, whos owed 100M for the next 5 seasons.
Not trying to sound like a red sox hater but boy there gm needs to be fired. I know the love fest esp. and certain media outlets have with the port little engine that could known as the “red Socks” but this team deserves such negative press. They just spent approx. 140 million on cuban imports, all of which look like bad signings. Yan Moncada stats in single A look like the 20yo is over matched. Castillo who is 28yo looks like he should be sent down. I think this team was constructed so poorly but they continue to get a free pass. Every Red Sox prospect is the next big thing and when they spend a boatload of money they are excused and if you ask Larry Luchino he will do everything in his power to convince you the Red Socks are small market team and the big bad evil empire is stealing every teams players. Look at the Red Sox how they are constructed and how over hyped there homegrown players are and that speaks volumes on why this organization with there high payroll should be labeled a failing big market team. 2009 was an aberration with a ton of luck after the Dodgers helped them shed salary. This is simply the Worst team money can buy?
Every team has their share of overhyped prospects. Dom Brown was once a top-5 prospect in all of baseball (and ranked higher than Mike Trout) and you see where that’s gotten him. It happens all across baseball, Boston is not alone. Prospects are a gamble and developing them is not an exact science.
Moncada is 20, in his first year in the US, and you’re ready to judge him after 20 games at single-A? And Castillo has a little over 100 PA’s in MLB, a little quick to judge there too I’d say.
Sox will be fine they’ll have alot of money coming off the book after this season….the only move they’ve wish they could do over was that Porcello extension……and maybe that Rusney deal…..
Sandoval.