Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald details the efforts by Major League Baseball and the Marlins to set up a fund for the infant daughter of deceased star Jose Fernandez. As Jackson explains, the money appears to have flowed from an insurance company to the league, then on to the team and into a trust for her benefit. Those interested in the specifics should read the exhaustively reported piece.
Here’s more from the NL East:
- Phillies GM Matt Klentak sat down for an interesting chat with Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com, which you can watch or read about right here. It’s certainly worth a full look for Phils’ fans, as Klentak discusses the team’s woeful performance in May. He emphasized a need to remain patient and keep the focus on the future, but acknowledged the disappointment. As for two particularly important players, Klentak says the team wants to let them work things out at the major league level. There are “reasons to believe” that Maikel Franco will bust out of his slump, he says, and the organization is “committed to giving Maikel more time to get out of this.” And center fielder Odubel Herrera is still a valuable contributor in the field, Klentak notes, explaining that his struggles at the plate may be due to the fact that he is currently “not taking pitches as well as he used to.”
- Righty Kris Medlen is still working on a comeback attempt with the Braves, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. Medlen has moved up to the Double-A level and says he feels good physically after dealing with a host of arm problems and redeveloping his mechanics to compensate. The 31-year-old has allowed six earned runs on 16 hits while striking out ten batters and issuing six walks over 15 2/3 total innings through three starts. He last turned in a full and productive MLB season back in 2013 with the Braves.
- Of more immediate concern to the Braves, the current big league club is struggling with its glovework, as O’Brien also reports. Even putting aside one horrific inning on Tuesday, Atlanta has allowed a ton of unearned runs. Metrics are split on the overall performance of the Braves fielders: UZR grades them rather well in spite of the miscues, while Defensive Runs Saved values the unit in the bottom ten leaguewide. Young shortstop Dansby Swanson has already racked up 11 errors, though both grading systems still see him as an average performer at short.
Baseball hasn’t been the same without Yordano and Jose…
Hunter Strickland seems to have really enjoyed stepping into the Yordano role
Give it a rest!
Newcombe is really worth not have if Simmons. Nice trade braves
Rip both
Let’s be real with our English – these are errors or mistakes. The first/third base coach is not signalling anyone to catch so it’s not a “miscue.”
Miscues, in this case, would refer to both the actual errors and other misplays that aren’t necessarily ruled an error by the official scorer.
UZR and DRS placing Dansby as an average SS shows that defensive metrics still need work.
Watching Dansby play defense, yes he’s making a bunch of errors as a young guy but I also see a guy who gets to the ball quick and guns it. When I watched Peterson out there the other day he was just terrible.
Watching Dansby play defense, yes he’s making a bunch of errors as a young guy but I also see a guy who gets to the ball quick and guns it with pretty acuracy. When I watched Peterson out there the other day he was just terrible. Just give Dansby some time. He’ll figure everything out and the same goes with his hitting.
Classy move by the marlins
They didn’t have to do any of that, but they choose to
I’m happy to here that they want to take care of his daughter, a nice gesture for sure.
They rushed Swanson badly. They needed a new face of the franchise and more excitement than Freeman brings. He’s totally over-matched and his inexperience is clear as day. They should’ve started him in AAA to start this season and not burn his service clock. But instead the new stadium and a need for a hook meant he was going to get the call. Hopefully he bounces back and they don’t ruin him. Hopefully they can take care of their pitchers too. I’d hate to be a starter on that staff ever since Mazzone left.
Freeman is an exceptional hitter. Every team in baseball and their fans would love to have him.
I think he will be on the block at some point under the right circumstances. The Braves being a team that spends around 100 million a year can’t continue to afford a 21 million/year guy. But with when he becomes a free-agent they may be able to hang on to him for the full contract. When he becomes a free-agent a bunch of this hyped young talent will be looking to get paid and cuts will need to be made. I suspect though in that final season of his contract if they are out of it he gets dealt. I wouldn’t expect a trade before that time just because his contract overlaps with the competitive window should be for the Braves.
So much hype around Swanson and he hasn’t shown anything.
Before his call up last fall he’d never taken an AB above Double A ball. He only had 377 AB’s at Double A and only a 117 WRC+ at double A. They flat out rushed him.
What do you qualify has anything? He did well last year and has not hit consistently well this year. He’s had a game-winning hit and some nice defensive plays, but it’s the consistency that he lacks that could be attained with experience. IMO, it’d be nice to see Swanson and Albies together knowing that Swanson is struggling and Albies isn’t fully recovered from his late-season injury. Whether that means a demotion to AAA for Swanson or promotion for Albies, I don’t know, but I think they would lift each other up in a way that Swanson really doesn’t have many people similar to him in the clubhouse right now.
They don’t fit on the MLB roster unless you move Swanson to 3b since Phillips is entrenched at 2b. Swanson’s bat doesn’t play at third. So either they need to trade Phillips or he needs to get hurt for that to happen at the major league level. Because neither of them is going to the outfield. If they are trying to develop players they wouldn’t do it at the major league level with those two since they would have one as a utility that wouldn’t get consistent playing time.
Swanson did good in a September call-up against other AA and AAA players that were also called up. His inexperience against advanced pitching is clear as day. Though clutch hits are nice, one walk-off hit doesn’t prove he can handle major league pitching.
The problem the Braves have now is that if they send him down who plays SS and if they do send him down how will he respond? Will it crush him or make him hungry to get back? September call-ups are suppose to be a low risk way to get young players a taste of the majors and what is to come when they are ready. Not to build hype against minor league pitching and skip development of a player. A wRC+ of 117 at AA over half a season doesn’t warrant a jump to the majors. He should’ve started this year in AA or AAA if they felt he was ready for a bigger challenge. They never should’ve gave him a warp whistle to skip a level. He wasn’t ready and it’ll either force him to adjust and get the growing pains out of the way early or it will destroy his approach, he’ll press, and be off somewhere else where they can fix him in 2 years or so.
RIP Jose
Klentak is making me miss Amaro.
Is t Jose Fernandez also responsible for the deaths of other people?
He was driving nor was it his boat
Wasn’t
it was his boat.. Also its speculation that he wasnt piloting the boat. nobody knows that for sure as there were no survivors or witnesses. With all that said all three were adults, anyone of the three could have intervened, so blaming it on any one of the three is moot. It was an accident, yes bad decisions were made. But it is not just one persons fault.
Nice PR move by the Marlins. In my opinion thats all it is.
Fernandez was the only one of the 3 that was legally drunk, while 1 of 2 that had cocaine in their systems. Might be a moot point, but no one should have been out in their condition that night. Sad story all around.
I never took the toxicology report into account as it is irrelevant to me as i could see myself sober making the same mistake if I had the means. It was a sad situation that shouldnt be compounded with blame.
I go to the Angels and say…. Any 5 players, excluding Moniak, at any level of our organization for Mike Trout. Any 4 players and we’ll take 90% of Pujols’ contract.
They can have Franco, Herrera, Joseph, Crawford, Quinn, whomever.
Still would have enough to go after a Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.