Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig is slated to go on a rehab assignment Monday and come off the disabled list Wednesday, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com tweets. It has been a short stay on the DL for Puig, who suffered a hip pointer and a bruised foot on April 28. Meanwhile, third baseman Justin Turner took batting practice Sunday for the first time since suffering a broken left wrist on March 20, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register was among those to report. Both the Puig and Turner updates are much-needed positive news for the Dodgers, who have been victimized by key injuries all year. Ace Clayton Kershaw became their latest cornerstone player to hit the DL on Sunday.
More from the National League…
- Mets left fielder Yoenis Cespedes exited the team’s game Sunday with a right quad issue, Tim Britton of The Athletic tweets. Cespedes has dealt with right quad problems in the past, but he’s optimistic this isn’t a serious issue. The 32-year-old said after the game that he might play the Mets’ series opener in Cincinnati on Monday.
- Braves third base prospect Austin Riley is getting closer to the majors. The Braves promoted the 21-year-old from Double-A to Triple-A on Sunday, according to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Riley, whom multiple outlets ranks as a top 100 prospect, slashed an incredible .333/.394/.677 (193 wRC+) with six home runs in 109 plate appearances at Double-A this year. He might push for the Braves’ starting third base job as early as next season, per O’Brien.
- Padres righty Bryan Mitchell could lose his starting job before he’s scheduled to take the hill again on Thursday, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com relays. “Going forward, we’ll sit down and talk about it,” Padres manager Andy Green said Saturday after Mitchell allowed three earned runs on five hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings against the Dodgers. Although Mitchell’s ERA is now up to 6.47 across 32 frames, during which he has logged 4.5 K/9 against 7.31 BB/9, it doesn’t seem as if those struggles will cost him his roster spot. Rather, the Padres would move the out-of-options 27-year-old to the bullpen, Cassavell suggests. Mitchell’s output this year clearly isn’t what San Diego had in mind when it acquired him and third baseman Chase Headley (and $12.5MM of his $13MM salary) from the Yankees for outfielder Jabari Blash over the winter.
- Giants outfielder Mac Williamson’s return from the seven-day concussion DL isn’t imminent, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle suggests. Williamson, who suffered the injury April 24, will likely need a rehab assignment even when he’s healthy enough to play again, Schulman notes. As such, he might not suit up again for the Giants until mid-May or later.
The Braves will be digging themselves a hole soon regardless. Bad rotation other than Soroka. Inconsistent bullpen, and an offense that is not sustainable. They just got swept by the overachieving sign stealing Giants.
Not just swept, absolutely demolished.
Eh, it happens each season to every team. It’s 3 games. Bounce back and win the next 3 series’ and alls well.
Sign stealing? Really .. the Giants are doing there thing right now and everyone who counted them out was wrong..
Giants are just in a “hot” stretch. They will fall eventually especially with the injuries to Bum and Cueto. They have no depth and the current ones are overachieving right now.
Hah
Agreed. I don’t think the Giants are that good. They just lucked out with their bats in a collective hot streak. Eh they will slowly slide away as the season goes along.
Salt
They have no depth? They’ve got tons of depth especially when Panik and Cueto and bum come back. They’ve got 6 major league outfielders and slater can play in the infield as well. Add that to Tomlinson, Hansen, and Sandoval and they have depth. They’ve also got beede and Suarez to go to.
There playing out their ass
Interesting you’re commenting on how unsustainable ATL’s offense is in a post talking about how close a power-hitting 3B at 21y/o is though it’s a weak spot in the batting order, even with Bautista.
Riley will not solve their third base problem this year. He may not solve it long term either. He is just a prospect, however I’m definitely intrigued of his success so far.
Despite all of that, I’m still skeptical this team will accomplish much if they continue their cheap strategy of plugging holes with internal parts. This team has enough youth. Time to spend money and some of the prospects for proven vets.
The bullpen will NOT succeed if they continue to plug random pieces every other day. I know it is early but I’m not going to be optimistic until i see the Braves pull a big trade or two to make this team better.
As for the rotation, I personally don’t care what others think, but i still believe Folty will and should not be in the rotation long term. I see Teheran being moved if he has value, and Newcomb is still wait and see for me.
I think the rotation has potential but clearly it’s still a work in progress. I think the bullpen will be fine. Just gotta work out a few kinks. Winkler and Carle have been great. Vizcaino will improve and just a matter of time for Minter to be the closer. Freeman is a decent lefty if he isn’t overused. Biddle has done pretty well and may stick. So who is left ?
I agree about Folty. Been waiting for a couple of years for his move to the bullpen. come on after 5 years he hasn’t shown any signs of improvement. As a reliever he could be a consistent 99 mph guy.
I seriously doubt the Braves can make any moves except to continue plugging holes. They unfortunately are nearly tapped out financially which is why they mysteriously picked up Jose Bautista. Its very odd that they act like they don’t have any money when Suntrust netted them 50% more revenue in 2017. Really they can’t spend any of the $150 million surplus on the roster ???
Well, they could start by promoting Jon Kennedy soon. He’s a lefty who looks to be good. Freeman is a AAAA pitcher at best and belongs in AAA.
I’m fairly certain that the revenue went to cover the expenses that was incurred in the park and the battery. Not everyone realizes you can have huge gains in revenue without it meaning a huge gain in profit. You have to take out expenses, and there are more expenses to a major league team than just the payroll for the roster.
Building up the park and surrounding area is a high upfront cost for the Braves. But with the way their revenue increased they should have no issues spending more money. With expected cash flows coming in that much higher than they were previously this will be a team with plenty of money in the coming years. They can spend, whether they want to is a different story.
It’s not hard to imagine that the Braves lineup is going to experience some regression. I don’t really think anyone truly believes that nick markakis is gonna post a 1000 OPS season after being nowhere near that the last 8 years. 165lb Ozzie albies probably isn’t going to pace for 45 hrs all season. Acuna will go through some rough patches once the league makes some adjustments. They have a promising future but regression is almost inevitable for this lineup.
Nah .. I think the Braves offense is legit. They may not continue scoring 5.5 runs per game but I think they can still be a top 3 scoring team in the NL. They have a lot of big contributions from players like Albies and Acuna (who was just added), Swanson appears to have figured out how to hit, Markakis seems to have realized its a contract year, Susuki is still pounding the ball like last year and you know Freeman and inciarte havent heated up yet. They are running way more than before leading the league in doubles and third in stolen bases.
I won’t disagree with the potential of the offense, but the Braves have been hitting extra base hits far more often than sustainable. There success has been attributed to that so far offensively. They still need a legit power threat in the lineup and Markakis is just not the guy that should be hitting clean up.
Personally, i don’t like Ozzy hitting lead off. I like him a lot as a player but it is pretty evident, he just goes out there to show off his flash and swag. He needs to stop swinging for the fences every time out. His strikes out too much, and walks too little. The power is nice, but if he wants to be a power hitter, he needs to hit lower in the lineup. Move him back to the second spot and move Swanson to the lead off spot.
Swanson ? Really ? What’s wrong with Inciarte ? He is leading the league in stolen bases and will go back to his usual .350 OBP. It’s not great but hey they don’t have anyone who is better. Swanson doesn’t have many walks.
I don’t think Ozzie is swinging for the fences. You can tell he isn’t swinging that hard. He has just been making very hard contact.
As I said, I think this team can be a top 3 offense in runs scored. They are scoring nearly a run better than the #2 team the pirates right now so slowing down some means they are still legit. Maybe they won’t sustain the extra base hits but it doesn’t mean they won’t still score.
Inciarte unfortunately has the same mentality of swinging for the fences, except he has little power. I’m fine with him hitting 9th or 8th if the Braves go back to the traditional lineup.
Swanson to me has shown he can make adjustments when needed. I personally think he can be a good lead off hitter. At the end of the day, the offense should be fine for the most part. I’m more inclined to really go after fixing the rotation and bullpen before it is too late.
Swanson has one of the best averages wRISP and 2-out RBIs…that alone should take him out of the running for hitting in the top part of the lineup, of even mentioning Albies, Acuña are faster and have more power. Swanson could be a very good 6-7 hitter, no shame in that.
geez lose 3 straight and the sky is falling….
More like the weak rotation will eventually be exposed coupled with the fact that they got beat by a weak team like the Giants!
Whiny, moronic, excuse making and clueless Braves fans. Shocker. Your team is in first place and u claim giants are overachieving.
If giants lose it’s cuz they suck and if they win they’re lucky and playing out of their butts.
No bench? They’re winning because of bench players. They just won with Suarez who wasn’t in the original rotation.
The Braves got swept by veterans and AAA call ups. Own it. And lose the stupid insulting chop. It’s more insulting than anything associated with the Indians/Redskins.
I find the Braves losing to has beens and minor leaguers more insulting than the chop personally!
God I cant believe braves fans these days. The Giants won that series because they were the better team at the time, the braves were white hot coming in to the series and simply got beat by a team that knew how to contain them. It wasnt “luck” the braves starting pitching was awful and although they have a top 5 lineup in baseball, their rotation/bullpen wouldnt crack the top 15.
You mean like everything the Braves hit hard was right at somebody and the Giants managed to find holes in their hitting barrage? The Braves bad pitching, which you seem to agree with made the Giants look better than they actually are. Good for them but looking forward to see them fall on their face soon enough.
What are you talking about? Did you even watch the series? The giants hit balls out of the ballpark, and down the lines. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Good luck against Philly.
Thanks we will take it
It’s only offensive to the mentally weak. Natives have no problem with it. Why do you?
As far as the game, yes the won. Gratz. But I don’t think the Giants are anything but mediocre. That’s not making excuses or being whiny. They just happened to sweep and stuff like this happens in a 162 game season so again Gratz. Let me know if the Giants make the postseason?!
Braves are the definition of mediocre lol. What has it been 25 years now without a chip?
Your telling me that fans do the chop in a trancelike manner and they’re mentally strong. I’m not a Native but it’s the stupidest thing in all of sports. Worse than thunder sticks.
But what’s gotta hurt more than anything is that a second baseman made 2 errors and his team still won. Kinda like Conrad in 2010 EXCEPT the 2010 braves lost.
Giants have been the underdog in 3 World Series and won all three. Braves won division umpteen straight years and won it all…..once.
Even with foam tomahawks
As for Cespedes, I said this when they signed him, they will regret signing him. The guy is a diva and is among the most overrated players in baseball.
” Yoenis Cespedes exited the team’s game Sunday with a right quad issue”
This guy has missed half his contract with this never ending “quad issue”.
They should tie Cespedes down on the trainers table and every Mets player form a line and one by one punch Cespedes in his quad as hard as each of them can.
I’m informed by Fifi LaRue (noted NY “professional woman”) that he would like that very much…….
Now Padres fans understand how awful Bryan Mitchell was for the Yankees. So far this season he has: 2.00 WHIP, 26 walks to 16K in 32 IP.
He’s 0-3, but he’s lucky not to be 0-4 after his offense bailed him out after he was pulled after 2 1/3 innings, allowing three runs, three walks and five hits. Padres’ fans.. How much longer is the leash going to be
Was a good attempt hoping to catch lightning in a bottle on the down low but time to dfa and call up Huffman
I disagree with it being a good attempt to catch lightning in a bottle. They ate 12.5 million For a guy who was out of options and zero track record on a team he wasn’t going to make. They probably wouldn’t have spent that money If they didn’t get Mitchell but it wasn’t exactly a buy low investment.
Mitchell’s win-loss record is irrelevant. He is a bad pitcher regardless and they need to either DFA him or see if he could maybe be decent in the bullpen.
Pitcher wins and losses need to be removed from the stat books completely.
Giants have a better team than people think. If they can continue hot streak and bum garner and Cueto get healthy they have a decent chance of wild card.
Giants have analright team. Theyre going to need to make additions to bolster it though. That will take them over the luxury tax for sure. Cutch is the only semi-productive outfielder they have. Pence’s productive days are behind him and it’s pretty obvious Ajax isn’t a starting CF.
When Mac comes back they will have another good OF
Maybe. I’m not going to take that small of a sample size and say he’ll be alright just yet. Hopefully he is though.
I’m surprised Mitchell has survived this long in the rotation, because he looks horrible. It’s like an automatic loss every time he starts.
I’m excited about Riley, kid is going to be a stud!