Giants first baseman Brandon Belt and Angels right-hander Jaime Barria carved out a unique spot for themselves in baseball history on Sunday, as the two set a modern-day record with a 21-pitch plate appearance. The epic battle finally ended with Belt lining out to right field, though the accumulation certainly took its toll on Barria and the Angels bullpen — Barria, making his second career MLB start, lasted just two-plus innings in the game on 77 pitches. The historic at-bat was just one noteworthy moment of a big day for Belt, who went 3-for-5 with a home run in the Giants’ 4-2 victory.
Some items from around the NL West…
- An MRI revealed that Jake Lamb has tendinitis in his right elbow, and Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (including Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) that the third baseman will be shut down for a few days. Lamb appeared in just four games before hitting the disabled list due to a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder, and the Snakes were hopeful that he could return to action this week before this new injury cropped up. Deven Marrero and Daniel Descalso have served as a third base platoon in Lamb’s absence.
- The Rockies announced that right-hander Jeff Hoffman will not be optioned to Triple-A, and will instead remain on the 10-day DL and pitch at Triple-A on a rehab assignment. (MLB.com’s Thomas Harding was among those to report the news.) The former top prospect has been sidelined with a shoulder problem, though Hoffman has managed 11 innings in the minors as he works his way back from the injury.
- The Rockies didn’t make Tyler Chatwood an offer last winter, which didn’t come as much surprise to the right-hander, as he tells The Athletic’s Nick Groke (subscription required). “Toward the end of the year, the writing was on the wall that I wasn’t coming back. I think the feeling was mutual,” Chatwood said. A change of scenery certainly seemed likely for Chatwood given his very rough career numbers at Coors Field; he mentioned to Groke that his two-seam fastball was particularly ineffective in the thin air. The general belief around the game was that Chatwood could flourish in a less hitter-friendly environment, which made him a hot commodity in free agency and led to a three-year, $38MM deal with the Cubs. His first three starts for Chicago have been mixed to say the least, as Chatwood has a 4.60 ERA and an ungainly 14 walks (against 18 strikeouts) over 15 2/3 innings.
Theo showing why he’s the most overrated GM in baseball by handing out a three year deal to Chatwood
Is he the GM? I thought he was President of Baseball Operations. Nevertheless, he signed off on it, and it’s his watch. On his behalf though, it’s still a very small sample. Chitwood has great stuff and has upside. It was worth the risk in a thin market. The Cubs have made worse deals. JH? Lol….With that bid everyone a good evening.
Autocorrect should be called something else. CHATWOOD
I was thinking we moved into a Hoosiers conversation.
He’s technically the president of baseball operations, but his duties are pretty much the same
Chatwood was an overpay from the beginning. He was a pure upside signing. His 4.57 career FIP and 4bb/9 weren’t exactly stellar. Never topped 157 innings in a season so it’s not like he was ever soaking up the innings either. The walks have been extremely high so far but the results aren’t.
Can’t say chatwood is doing any worse than Lynn or Cobb though. Despite his walks he’s been better than the pair of them. He did have the advantage of an entire ST to prepare also.
The best free agent pitcher has been Miles Mikolas for the Cardinals
Non-Ohtani division, maybe.
Ohtani wasn’t a free agent, he was int’l spending limited
Fair enough, he was still allowed to sign with literally any team.
Yeah cuz a 3 year deal to Chatwood definitely outweighs the fact of him putting together a World Series winner and a team that has gone deep in the playoffs 3 years in a row. I guess that if the front office doesnt make every single perfect signing with the perfect amount of years and dollar amounts, they are considered overrated no matter how successful they are overall…
Difference being that most other team’s fans aren’t constantly talking about how great their front office is and worshiping them like gods, even when they make questionable moves.
Big difference between being called “bad” or “overrated.”
You’re a scumbag troll.
A 15 minute rainstorm from Mother Nature was the only thing that kept the Cubs from going another year without that WS trophy!
Proof?
Well, he did bring championships to 2 very annoying fanbases errrr long suffering fanbases
Ha so true. Cubs and Red Sox everywhere you look
Are you touched in the head? 3 championships with 2 franchises, both of whom broke century long droughts, and the Chatwood deal makes him a bad GM? You must be a bitter Cardinals or White Sox fan
You honestly aren’t paying attention if you think Theo is nailing every move he has made. Even the move that won them the championship trading for Chapman has potential to hurt them. He brought a title to Chicago which is priceless but there are questionable moves that will hurt their chances of getting back to the top
Find me a gm that nails every move and what you’ll have found is a poor gm. If you take no risk have to win every deal you’ll end up doing nothing.
When did i say he is a poor GM? Im just saying the anti Theo people do have somewhat of a point that he has been a little reckless recently.
Yawn, nice try
They have zero bit of a point. Shut your bitter mouth.
Exactly broke two longest curses in major sports. What does he know:-)
He didn’t break it. The players are the ones who did all the work. He just put them in the position to succeed !
Chatwood will be remembered when compiling the worst free agent signing lists at the end of the year. This was a bad move by the Cubs, plain and simple. It is bad moves like this that has caused the Cubs window to close prematurely. You have Darvish over Arrieta. The long term contract to an aging Ben Zobrist. Not trading Scwarber when he had value. Deciding they would not need a closer in 2018. Mind you this is all after they won the WS. This series of bad moves has led to a situation where the Cubs will be shooting for the second wild card this year.
The tough time will be at the deadline. They will have to find a replacement for Chatwood but can they risk depleting an already weak farm system.
The proof is clear that you’re an alternate account of that troll themed.
Yea. It’s been dreadful being a Cubs fan the past 3 years… just awful
Cool narrative, nice try, Theo will get a wing in Cooperstown
3 starts mostly in frigid temperatures and the naysayers are out in full force. Quite amusing
Finding positives from 14 walks in 15 innings is difficult. Particularly difficult when you’re dealing with a guy who doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record control included.
It’s just as cold for the other pitchers as it was for the Cubs pitchers!
#Belted
I hope that becomes a term.
Theo “turned around” two of the richest franchises in baseball history……he deserves credit for that, but I wonder how he would do with the Rays, for example……until he pulls THAT rabbit out of his hat, he’s no more than slightly better than OK……..
I liked your comment because it is a good point that’s he’s only done it with teams that have big time resources. But I said the same thing about cashman for a decade and sure they have Stanton and Tanaka making a lot, but look at what he’s done with the farm system and trades. Once George Steinbrenner was gone and Cash was allowed to run the team his way … he’s really proved that he’s a baseball genius. And no, I’m not a Yankee fan at all. Met fan yankee hater actually. But I respect well run franchises and good GM’s. I guess my point with Theo is that you can’t just write off his successes, only because he ran teams with resources. Plenty of teams with huge resources don’t win. So it’s a lot more complicated than that.
Yeah the main resource that Theo used in Chicago to win the World Series was the draft and trades so if you are trying to refer to him as buying the championship, you are wrong
Wrong, scumbag, try again.
in theo’s defense he broke the lossing culture both of those teams were in and the other gm’s before him didn’t get it done with the same check book
3 yrs $38M, what it must be to be a ballplayer, suck, and get that kind of money.
I don’t know how GM’s thought he’d flourish on another team. I thought about drafting him in fantasy, so I took a long look at his splits. On the road his ERA was lower, but he still walked everyone. On the road he had 62 k’s and 40 walks with ten HR’s in 77 innings. The ERA and batting avg against were nice and his WHIP was 1.20 which is good. But that walk to K ratio plus the HR’s pointed me far away from drafting him and buying into the post coors hype on him. Not sure why there was so much hype. It’s very confusing.