Saturday afternoon, Nationals starter Max Scherzer no-hit the Pirates, losing a perfect game with two outs in the ninth when Jose Tabata leaned down to allow himself to get hit in the elbow — in a 6-0 game. The ending aside, it was a dominant performance by Scherzer, who is, improbably, having the best season of his career in the first year of his contract in Washington. 14 starts in, Scherzer has cut his walk rate in half compared to last season, during which he was already clearly an elite pitcher. After today’s ten-strikeout performance, he’s also whiffed 123 batters in 102 1/3 innings. Tabata’s HBP dashed Scherzer’s chances of a perfect game today, but if he keeps pitching this brilliantly, there might be more shots in his future. Here’s more from the East divisions.
- In 2012, the Red Sox made a franchise-changing trade, dealing Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Dodgers and freeing up salary in the process. That deal ended up helping them win the 2013 World Series. Now, the 2015 Red Sox look a little bit like the 2012 version, and Tim Britton of the Providence Journal, following up on a column by Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, wonders whether they ought to consider dumping players yet again to give themselves more flexibility. Britton suggests, though, that it would be difficult to find a trade partner as perfect for their current situation as the Dodgers (who willingly took on heaps of money to get a good player in Gonzalez) were in 2012. Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, meanwhile, is withholding judgment on the new contracts of players like Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. “We’ve had plenty of examples of guys who five or 10 percent of the way through their contracts, there was an adjustment period and they didn’t take off quite yet and then in time they do,” said Cherington earlier this week. “I’m not going to make any judgments on any specific decision or player based on that short amount of time.” Here are more notes from the East divisions.
- Despite his unusual background, former GM Dan Jennings is settling in as the Marlins’ new manager, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman writes. When Jeffrey Loria broached the subject of Jennings taking the managerial job, Jennings had the same reaction as much of the rest of the industry: “Have you lost your mind?” After beginning Jennings’ tenure with five straight losses, the Marlins are 13-12. “It’s starting to normalize. The boys are playing well, and I’m proud of the way we’ve responded,” says Jennings. “I’m having a blast.”
- Acquiring high-upside talent in the draft can be difficult, so the Braves have tried to acquire talented, if tarnished, pitchers in trades, Ray Glier writes for Baseball America. Those include Manny Banuelos, Chris Withrow, Arodys Vizcaino, Max Fried and Tyrell Jenkins, all of whom have had significant injuries. The Braves’ top 2015 draft pick, Kolby Allard, likewise fell to them because of an injury. “Before you know it, the end of 2015 will be here and it will be 2016, and we will have a lot of fresh, healthy pitchers,” says GM John Hart. As Glier notes, sometimes injury recoveries don’t go smoothly. But Hart insists the Braves are being careful. “For every guy we have acquired I can honestly say we have another 10 to 12 we didn’t bite down on because we didn’t get good enough medical information that allowed us to pull the trigger,” Hart says.
Tabata is going to get a fastball to his back the next time he faces the Nationals, no doubt.
I wonder if he’ll try to get out of the way of that one?
Because he cares about his OBP? In my unbiased opinion, the Nats don’t deserve common courtesy from anyone, as they seem to like to fight a decent amount of people.
I’m no Nats fan, but I was just pointing out that teams don’t forget…and that was a pretty bad way to have a guy lose his perfect game. I’m surprised the umpire didn’t call him back though, because of what was on the line. The umpire gave Heston about an extra 6 inches in all directions to the strike zone in the 9th to assist in his no-no.
First the Nats will have to find a way to get Tabata in the game!
He struck out 1/3 of a batter? thats amazing
Scherzer has struck out 102 1/3 batters. That’s a oretty crazy stat.
The numbers are backwards, should read he whiffed 123 batters in 102 1/3 innings
Tabata took one for the team lol.. You know if you were him you’ll do the same.
I must say it was funny hearing the Nationals’ announcers cry about Tabata getting hit by that pitch…
Lifetime NLers Sandoval and Ramirez (minus his cup of coffee) currently sport OPS+s of 106 and 115 over the first 60 games in their new league, that’s not terrible at all. Sandoval in particular, has throughout history hit poorly in May, and historically heats up in the second half. Other than Ramirez not knowing how to play OF, they are both signed to actually pretty good deals. With Boston, their issue lies with pitching. The fact that anyone is talking about those two is mindblowing. Joe Kelly is awful. Justin Masterson is awful. There are about a half dozen ace-quality SPs in the next FA market. All Boston has to do is get a couple of those and they will be right back in it.
If they can’t sign anyone, just trade Bogaerts for a young ace-quality SP (Sonny Gray?) and move Ramirez back to a position he knows how to play. They’re toast for this season, but the FA market is where they live and die and the upcoming one gives them so many opportunities to turn the team around in a hurry.
I can’t honestly say I can believe the Red Sox will be competitive in their offers to any of the upcoming free agents. They’re unlikely to make the 7 or 8 year offers that these guys will be seeking.
You might want to check Sandoval’s numbers the last 5 years. That 106 OPS this year is not bad, but certainly not great
Sandoval 2011-2015
OPS+
155
123
116
113
106
wRC+
149
118
116
111
106
His BB rate is at a career low and his K rate (which is very low so I’m not sure why I’m bringing that up) is a career high. And his career high K rate is probably a career Low rate for others, so I’ll just say right now he doesn’t K a lot lol
My point is though, his offense has dropped the past 5 years and it is a cause for concern (though he is on a hot streak right now)
I doubt there’s a big market team out there ready to relieve the Red Sox of bad contracts. The team has more than adequate talent. and sooner or later they will get things moving in the right direction. Of course, another Porcello bad start, and the 8,342nd iteration of the Papi Drama machine didn’t help today. They are 30-40 after being touted as a powerhouse in the offseason. Some of that is bad luck, a bit are mistakes by the FO, but a lot of it is players not playing up to their potential. If they don’t straighten out the ship in this next third of the season, the waiver wire should be fascinating.
I agree that there’s no team waiting to take their contracts. Based on the recent Arroyo trade, they might have to give up talent along with the contracts, and Boston won’t give up prospects for … well…anything. But to say that “a bit” of the problem is from mistakes the FO made is a LARGE understatement. Its a LOT of the problem. The team would look a lot better with Iglesias at SS, Boegarts at 3B, JBJ in center, and Lackey in the rotation. Lets even put Rizzo at 1B, Melencon in the bullpen. This Front office keeps changing direction. They need to decide on a course and stick to it.
Scherzer might have a HoF career in progress.
Scherzer is the best pitcher in baseball right now, it’s great to see players who get big money perform up to their potential!
I loved listening to John Hart on the MLB Network, he showed his great knowledge of the sport. MLB Network has proved to be the most interesting baseball show, with guys like Verducci, Hart, Reynolds, Sherman, and the rest of them. Hart has fleeced the Padres and has picked up young pitchers. The Braves like the Cubs are ahead of schedule at this point in their rebuilding program. Hart managed to get rid of all his big ticket players, load up on prospects.