Royals lefty Mike Minor struck out the side to end the Indians’ winning streak and pick up his first career save over the weekend, and he tells MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan that he’s intrigued by the idea of holding a late-inning relief role moving forward. “I value starting over not knowing when you’re going to pitch,” said Minor, a potential free agent after the season. “But if there’s an opportunity to be an eighth-inning guy or ninth-inning guy, that’d be great.” Minor says that he spoke to Wade Davis about his transition from struggling starter to dominant reliever when the two were teammates last season, and he also pointed to Zach Britton’s similar emergence as one of baseball’s top relief arms. The Royals hold a $10MM mutual option on Minor for the 2018 season, though the 29-year-old’s dominant season could also lead to a return to free agency. In 73 innings, Minor has averaged 10.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 with a 43.4 percent ground-ball rate — all of which has resulted in a 2.71 ERA.
More from the Central divisions…
- Byron Buxton and Zach Granite were among the Twins players that were disappointed to hear of the team’s firing of minor league skipper Doug Mientkiewicz, writes Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The longtime Twins first baseman has been managing in Minnesota’s minor league ranks for the past five years and enjoyed his fair share of winning (four playoff appearances), but the team won’t bring him back for a sixth season. “He knows how to bring out the best in players,” Buxton tells Berardino. “He was very fiery. When you did things right, he would let you know, and when you did things wrong, he’d let you know as well — and he’d tell you ways to correct. … He was more of a brother to us.” Granite, the Twins’ minor league player of the year in 2016, credits Mientkiewicz for teaching him ho to drive the ball and taking his game “to the next level.”
- Injured Cardinals righty Adam Wainwright won’t start again in 2017, but he’ll return to the club as a reliever for the final few weeks, writes Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Wainwright faced teammates Magneuris Sierra, Luke Voit and Alex Mejia in a live batting practice session Sunday morning, per Goold, with manager Mike Matheny catching. Rookie Jack Flaherty will make three more starts this season in what was Wainwright’s rotation spot, though he could be paired with either Wainwright or John Gant in a “piggyback” type of setting, per Goold, where he’d be lifted after four to five innings to help preserve his workload. Interestingly, Goold also notes that Wainwright tried out the changeup grip of young teammate Luke Weaver during his most recent throwing session and will test it out in games over the season’s final weeks.
- Fangraphs’ Travis Sawchik spoke to Pirates general manager Neal Huntington about the growing presence of Statcast in today’s game and how technology can coexist with teams’ scouting departments. While some see the advent of Statcast as a threat to the scouting community, Huntington — a former advance scout — suggests that the technology could instead be an advantage to scouts. Rather than tracking the minutia of a game — pitch location, batted ball outcomes, etc. — scouts can instead be freed to watch more intangible elements of the game, such as player makeup, baserunning instincts, body language, etc. “It’s one thing to say, ‘The route was efficient, the jump was X, the max speed was Y,'” said Huntington. “It’s another thing to understand defensive instincts. How engaged he away from the ball? Is he a spectator or a participant?”
Hopefully a reunion with the braves for minor.
Huntington is a joke! Ask any Pirates fan.
So who gets credit for the Pirates success after so long in the basement?
The ball. It took some good bounces.
Players? Coaching staff maybe?
Step 1- Huntingdon’s teams make playoffs 3 years in a row, including a 98 win team, while building a top ranked farm system five years after taking over a pile of nothing all while working on a shoestring budget for what they call the worst owner in baseball, but he’s still awful, terrible, stupid and a joke.
Step 2- ?????????
Step 3- Profit! Nuttting’s wallet!!!!
From 98 wins to 68 in just two years? Wow, he is obviously the best GM in modern sports.. But… but… but small market?
@Eat
I’m anxiously waiting for forwhomjoshbelltolls to see your comment and call you a yinzer.
No, even I wouldn’t insult yinzers by comparing them to this…
A) 12 year old?
B) lazy and/or untalented troll?
C) legit special needs case?
…your guess is as good as mine.
^ guy doesn’t remember Dave littlefield.
Why does everyone always rag on Huntington. If you are going to point the finger look at the owner. He is the joke. Huntington has done a fantastic job without the luxury of money like other clubs.
My impression is that people outside of Pittsburgh see Huntington for the greatness that he truly is. I look at him and think ‘What kind of team could this man produce if he were given a large market budget?’ in the same mold as people have suggested with Billy Beane and used to with Andrew Friedman.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Wainwright as the closer for the rest of the season
The way they have been playing they might not need a closer.
So true, but Latheny will be back next year so be ready for more of the same
It make sense so it will never happen
I would agree that to some degree the team can only be as good as the owners who own them too!
When you are a mediocre team for so long and consistently finish in the basement you are bound to run into some talented players via draft. However, when the GM makes puzzling moves like the Nicasio (where he allowed him to play for YOUR direct competitor) one you realize what I’m saying. It wasn’t the first and Im sure it won’t be the last.
Granite still has a few more levels to go before he’s considered to reach “the next level” in Major League Baseball.
Indians have been hit with the curse of the “1st Save Mike”
FWTBT…
” Step 1- Huntingdon’s teams make playoffs 3 years in a row, including a 98 win team, while building a top ranked farm system five years after taking over a pile of nothing all while working on a shoestring budget for what they call the worst owner in baseball, but he’s still awful, terrible, stupid and a joke.
Step 2- ?????????
Step 3- Profit! Nuttting’s wallet!!!!”
As has been perceived by all who aren’t drinking your koolaid, you’re either Nutting, Huntington, or some other salaried employee who’s job is to spin the facts.
Did you watch last night’s game?
How’s the attendance at the games, Bob?
Fact 1: We’ve lost 6 in a row.
Fact 2: We’ve lost 11 of our last 12.
Fact 3: We’re now just 1 game out of last place in the weakest division in the NL.
Address those fact wise guy, instead of shooting your mouth off with yesterday’s garbage that is stinking up the the air we breath.
As we’ve said before, your rap is tired, irrelevant and misdirecting. I repeat… vini vidi vomit…
you make us pewk!!!
Did anyone catch Joe Buck’s interview with Tony Larussa today? A proven winner on a club with a proven owner and GM who have the passion to win… not just a desire to take the money and run while leaving the team, the city, and the fans nationwide to lick their festering wounds.
Sell the Pirates, Bob.