This week in baseball blogs…
- Fish Stripes opines that the Marlins should cut the cord on Jose Urena, who earned a suspension this week for hitting Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. with a pitch.
- Outfield Fly Rule analyzes Mike Foltynewicz’s breakout season.
- MLB & Fantasy Baseball Analyzed takes an early look at potential suitors for soon-to-be free agents Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, while Off The Bench makes note of Harper’s inconsistencies.
- theScore talks to Ryne Stanek and Hunter Wood about their unique roles in Tampa Bay’s pitching staff.
- A’s Farm chats with Oakland’s top prospect, lefty Jesus Luzardo.
- East Village Times sits down with Padres outfielder Travis Jankowski.
- Jays Journal interviews Blue Jays legend Cito Gaston.
- NatsGM.com (podcast) speaks with Cory Schwartz, the vice president of MLB Advanced Media, about topics including Statcast, spin rate and Pitch F/X.
- Chin Music Baseball writes about how great Chris Sale and Jacob deGrom have been at preventing runs this year.
- Pinstriped Prospects takes a look at Luis Severino’s recent issues.
- Sox on 35th isn’t panicking over Yoan Moncada’s struggles.
- Joker Mag chronicles the rise of Cubs rookie David Bote.
- The Pinch Runner re-examines the Pirates’ and Rays’ Chris Archer trade.
- The K Zone sees the rest of this season as a big opportunity for the Mets’ Jeff McNeil.
- Know Hitter builds a 25-man roster out of players the Tigers have traded since 2013.
- Notes from the Sally weighs in on 10 prospects.
- Foul Territory name five prospects who could help contenders down the stretch.
- PhilliesNation.com notes that Aaron Nola is amid one of the best seasons in Phillies history.
- Blue Jays Beat tries to temper expectations for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- Armchair All-Americans wonders if the defensively gifted, offensively challenged Adam Engel will hit enough to keep his spot with the White Sox.
- Motor City Bengals explores trade scenarios centering on Jordan Zimmermann.
- The Point of Pittsburgh delves into why Trevor Williams has been successful this year.
- Reviewing The Brew asks if the Brewers are amid a second-half collapse.
- The Sports Tank explains how important Steve Pearce has been to the Red Sox.
- RaysColoredGlasses focuses on Tampa Bay’s impressive farm system.
- Call to the Pen looks at the Phillies’ relief options.
- Everything Bluebirds believes the Blue Jays’ rebuild is ahead of schedule.
- The Runner Sports (links: 1, 2) imagines a magical run to the playoffs for the Twins and profiles Astros shorstop prospect David Hensley.
- Extra Innings UK (links: 1, 2) begins its final 2018 update for Europeans playing at U.S. colleges and high schools.
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The Cardinals should nab Bryce Harper for the remainder of the season if they get the opportunity. The middle of the order bat they need. Plus, the change in scenery for Harper might just cure those inconsistencies. With Harper, the Cardinals could feasibly vault to the top of the Central Division.
Atlanta didn’t get Duvall to become the RF’er in 2019. He’s insurance, not the future. If you have the chance to sign Harper for RF, as much as I dislike him (as a Braves fan) you sign him and you say “Duvall. who?”
Fish Stripes opines that the Marlins should cut the cord on Jose Urena, who earned a suspension this week for hitting Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. with a pitch.
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Wow. It usually takes 2-3 down the list, before this little “let’s open it up to the public….particularly, the segment of the public who think they should be baseball writers, but no one would hire them” feature you guys have gets moronic.
Not this time. Leadoff batter for the win.
People are overreacting. Whether it was intentional or not it wasn’t a head hunting situation. People need to relax,
Seriously, it’s gotten pretty annoying as the week has gone on
It was his hardest pitch thrown, EVER. He was purposely trying to hit him. Did you even bother to watch the video?? I assume not by your comment
How is it that clubs like the O’s and Nats allow superstars to experiment at a new position—all in the service of said superstars’ pending free agency?
If they fail, maybe they think it makes them cheaper? In all seriousness though, it makes sense to keep your star player happy.
I think allowing Manny to play SS was a smart move. A-You’re appeasing your star player who, at the time, they may or may not have felt they could resign. B-Allowing him to showcase his ability at SS opened up their trade market partners even further. I think is ability to play SS and 3b made him more attractive to the Dodgers.
Playing SS didn’t help his trade value. I promise you that. Teams thought he could play SS before. Much better than he’s shown. I’m confident they thought his excellent D at 3rd would translate a lot better at SS. He hasn’t been that bad in the past either.
As a braves fan , I think the HBP incident is going too far. He got hit, wrongfully so. Lets not forget how many other pitchers have done the same thing. Let them play ball and settle it on the field. Stop trying to go after this guys carrer for him plunking someone.
Yes, I’m so tired of recency bias. Let’s ban/suspend everyone now for things that have been going on forever. It’s out of control.
No… let’s ban people who resort to idiotic/dangerous methods, all b/c they can’t beat the other guy on the field. NO place in the game for that anymore. It’s a TIRED act
Yawn
There is ZERO way to say for sure that he intentionally threw at him. We can be as opinionated as we want but it wasn’t like there was a distinct motive. Let it go.
And I am one of those who’s tired of retaliatory HBP for silly reasons like “styling” or “revenge for getting hammered”.
Bust ’em inside used to be common practice for half the league now who either hang over home plate while at bat, or worse? Dive over it and couldn’t get out of the way of a pitch throw CLOSE to a strike inside if they had to.
I blame players and the league itself for the issue, not pitchers. We didn’t see the amount of HBP’s achieved the last several years back when it was supposedly legal to go head hunting.
League itself and creating rules that are of no use to protect so called millionaires.. I started calling it (rightfully so) the “jeter rule” years ago when he pretty much started the diving in and wouldn’t get called for getting that strike called inside that obviously was.
Few more Bruce “Buster” Kison’s in the game that consider everything inside around the plate belongs to them and the league may have no choice..
Should’ve banned Dempster after he hit Arod too right? That was as intentional as it gets.
I think the reactions to the Urena thing is getting out of control. Was he aiming to hit Acuna? Well probably from context, but he wasn’t head hunting. Also the argument that he was trying a brushback pitch makes sense and that’s where the problem is. Let’s say league decides to fight the unwritten rules by making an intentional throw at a player a 25 or 50 game suspension, what then? How about all pitchers in the league who are throwing against a hot hitter and have no intention on hitting them? How many of them now are going to not throw inside because they fear a suspension? Several of them have lost a crucial pitch.
There’s an old story about Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb. Johnson was one of the toughest pitchers in the game once and he had a fear of hitting guys with his fastball. When Cobb found this out, about a pitcher who was constantly beating him, he started crowding the plate to give himself a better advantage. If pitchers are wary of throwing inside because they might be perceived as throwing at someone intentionally when they simply need them to back off, well you have a much large impact than a discipline one.
The other thing about this is it seems far more about economics than decorum. Let’s imagine for a minute it wasn’t Acuna, a 20 year old already showing all star stuff, who was hit. Imagine instead it was a league average player who had a multi-game hot streak going and Urena hit him with the first pitch of the game instead. Would the outcry be the same?
This all feels eerily familiar to Scott Cousins’ takeout slide of Buster Posey. Despite the fact that the slide wasn’t illegal, the great Johnny Bench himself saying Posey was set up wrong, and had Cousins done anything differently he would have been accused of lacking aggression, this incident basically was the flashpoint for the rule change about plate collisions. Similar incidents happened earlier that season to catchers who weren’t considered future franchise cornerstones. But when it happened to Posey, there was an uproar. So how much are people really mad about an incident more than about who the incident happened to.