The Mets and Dodgers are locked in an unusual feud, reports FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal. New York contacted Major League Baseball on Friday after finding out that Los Angeles wanted to mark prearranged defensive positions in the Citi Field outfield, according to Rosenthal. The league is cognizant of the fact that the Dodgers used a laser rangefinder before the game to mark positions, but that’s only a violation of MLB rules if it’s done during the game. Further, given that the Dodgers actually informed the Mets’ grounds crew of their plans, there wasn’t any subterfuge on LA’s part. Nevertheless, the grounds crew notified their superiors after the Dodgers told them their outfielders would dig holes in the grass with their cleats if the markers were taken out, leading to this battle between the two sides.
The Dodgers, by the way, evened the teams’ three-game weekend series Saturday in a 9-1 rout. Notably, the game featured third-inning ejections of Mets starter Noah Syndergaard and manager Terry Collins after the ace threw behind LA second baseman Chase Utley. A hated rival thanks to both his time with the division-rival Phillies and, more recently, his slide that broke the leg of then-Met Ruben Tejada in last year’s NLDS, Utley went on to belt two homers and drive in five runs.
More from around the majors:
- Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen has struck out in a career-worst 23.4 percent of plate appearances this year, which concerns the five-time All-Star. “I’m a guy that has a good feel for the zone, and when I get good pitches to hit, normally I hit them. But more times than not lately, I’ve been getting them and I’ve been missing them,” he said (via Dave Sessions of MLB.com). “I’m getting to two strikes more and having to battle. When I’m on and I’m feeling good, I get a pitch to hit, I hit it.” As McCutchen mentioned, he has been missing more pitches this year – his swinging strike and contact rates (13.3 percent and 72.2 percent, respectively) are easily at personal-worst levels. It’s no surprise, then, that McCutchen’s numbers have declined this season, though his production (.258/.341/.463 line with nine home runs in 214 PAs) is still well above average.
- Right-hander Tim Lincecum is on track to make his Angels debut June 12 against Cleveland, reports Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times. The two-time Cy Young Award winner threw 75 pitches in an extended spring training game Saturday and regularly clocked in at 89 mph with his fastball – up from 87 mph last season. “Now that my velo’s just a couple ticks up from where it was last year, I feel like that can make a huge difference,” said Lincecum, who admitted that he’s “not going to blow the doors off” opposing hitters. Lincecum regularly did that during his heyday with the Giants, but his velocity decreased over the years and his numbers declined significantly.
- Indians left fielder Michael Brantley went on the disabled list nearly two weeks ago with shoulder inflammation, but there’s currently no timetable for his return, according to The Associated Press. Brantley missed most of April after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery and then appeared in a mere 11 games before heading back on the DL. Brantley said Saturday that he doesn’t think he rushed his previous return. “I was ready. We talked about it. We had a great process laid out. Everything went smoothly. It was just a bump in the road.”
- In his latest mock draft (Insider required), ESPN’s Keith Law has the Phillies taking Florida left-hander A.J. Puk first overall. Puk is one of five realistic possibilities for the club, per Law, who notes that the majority of scouts and executives he spoke to this week acknowledged there’s still plenty of uncertainty in general going into next month’s draft.
Really LA, you are that worried of the Mets? The rest of us ion the NL east don’t do that. Grow a pair you damn wannabes or miss the playoffs to the Giants, because the world know the wild card isn’t coming out of that division. Come tell me when the Nl west has a second team that is worthy.
baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2005-standings.s…
This is the dumbest rip I’ve read all week. Congrats.
That was the most mad comment I’ve read all week. Congrats
Geez brood550, all I did was ask you how your day was..
Lol someone is mad they got their behinds handed to them today by the Dodgers. What’s 4 out of 5 this season now? What a complete poor sport!! I am positive the Dodgers and Giants will both make the playoffs actually. But as of right now nobody can say for sure since it’s so early in the season so calm down and quit acting like you know anything for sure and learn to take a beating like a true fan
They do it all the time. They said that they also let other teams do it in their park, so why do you act like this is something they only pulled against the Mets, as if they’re scared of them?
Tribal logic.
All of the sudden, Andrew McCutchen is the Pirates’ third best outfielder.
No, trust me, Pirates fans who watch closely enough will tell you Marte was already better going into last season–at the latest–and for Polanco, it was just a matter of time until he broke out (relatively speaking) this season.
People on a national level generally see only the homers and such insiders want them to see. But McCutchen’s game has significant flaws, and anyone being honest with himself knows Cutch is a prima donna on the diamond. He swings for the fences way, way too often, and his swing-and-miss and swinging strike and similar rates are up only because he has mediocre plate discipline at best–he gets impatient and starts swinging at clearly bad pitches. His throwing was well below average a couple of years ago, but it seems he has worked on that to get it to average. Still, his decisions on the bases and in the outfield are frequently stupid. He thinks he is mostly too good to have to do a peasant’s work of stealing bases now, but even when he does try, his lead and jump are just bad, so he gets thrown out at a significant rate. But the worst of all is in the outfield, where he sometimes will take a great route but other times a loop that makes no sense, and the kicker that drives me nuts more than anything is when he slides for no reason, frequently missing practically routine liners or even flies that turn into three bases and can cost outs, pitches, runs and games.
MVP talent, for sure, but not an MVP mindset, as seen when–like the prima donna he truly is–he berated a scorekeeper for calling a liner almost right at him an error, to the point he said the scorekeeper should be fired. He apologized and blamed it on frustrations with losing and performance, but to me, that was a glimpse at the true Cutch. I cannot wait for the day the Pirates sucker someone along the lines of the Dodgers, Yankees, etc. into giving up a massive haul for him.
Be sure to grab an IC Light to wash dahn all dem hot takes an’at.
While I’m not going to argue with your opinion, it’s possible his plate discipline and mindset were more a result of having a relatively average lineup around him. Maybe he felt he had to do more (i.e. try to carry the team) to help them win. I could definetly be wrong and we might never know but he could be trying to do too much.
Karma. Last night was the baseball gods confirming who is on the right side of the whole slide argument.
I have to believe that Syndergaard was taking matters into his own hands or something would have happened in Friday’s game or any one of the previous games in LA. Kind of a bush league move on his part especially if it wasn’t called from the dugout. We have to know that Utley would have taken any pitch not aimed at his head because that’s just the way he plays the game. Dunno about karma or anything like that, but for sure Utley got in the last word. The last five of them.