Kendrys Morales set a new Blue Jays team record Sunday by homering in his seventh consecutive game. With one more long ball on Monday against the Orioles, Morales will tie the MLB record of an eight-game homer streak, shared by Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly, and Dale Long. The streak highlights a rather remarkable turnaround to Morales’ season, one that seems directly tied to his decision to stop wearing the glasses he donned for the first six weeks of the 2018 campaign. After posting a .499 OPS over his first 109 plate appearances, Morales has quietly been one of baseball’s hottest hitters, with a .308/.380/.560 slash line over his next 284 PA. There aren’t any AL contenders with a glaring need for a DH-only player like Morales at the moment, so while a trade before the end of August is unlikely, Morales’ revival could give Toronto at least some hope of moving him in the offseason, even if the Jays have to eat some of his $12MM 2019 salary.
Here’s more from around baseball as we wrap up Players’ Weekend…
- Relievers were the only position group that seemed immune to last offseason’s stalled free agent market, as several bullpen arms scored lucrative multi-year contracts. Looking ahead to this winter, however, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman wonders if the bullpen market could also begin to suffer, in no small because so many of the relievers who signed those big contracts last offseason have struggled in the first year of their deals. This year’s free agent is headlined by such names as Craig Kimbrel, Andrew Miller, Zach Britton, and Cody Allen, though the latter three have seen their value diminish due to injuries or ineffectiveness.
- Chris Archer allowed six runs in four innings in the Pirates’ loss to the Brewers today, and the right-hander now has a 6.45 ERA over five starts in a Pittsburgh uniform. Needless to say, this isn’t what the Bucs were hoping for after landing Archer for a hefty prospect package at the trade deadline, though Archer himself doesn’t feel he’s that far off his usual form. Archer told reporters, including The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel, that he thinks his struggles are “based on some minor things here and there that are easily adjustable.” Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage feels Archer needs to pitch inside more often and move his fastball around the strike zone, though the bottom line is, as Archer said, “I just have to be better, period.”
- As of Saturday, Red Sox pitchers had a 3.08 ERA when Sandy Leon was catching, compared to a 3.84 ERA with another catcher. Leon’s game-calling and defensive abilities have made him a favorite of the Sox rotation, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald writes, and the team hasn’t lost a beat with Leon taking the bulk of playing time with Christian Vazquez on the DL. Mastrodonato’s piece also delves into Leon’s early development as a player, and how his quick grasp of English helped him easily learn how to work with pitchers.
Hey Chris Archer……if all of your problems are so “easily adjustable “…then why not start proving that all of your critics are wrong by finally admitting that your stubbornness to not throw inside NOT so “easily adjustable?”
Hey, he’s so happy to play “winning and meaningful” baseball, he has no time to do it himself.
Just living up to being the most overrated pitcher in baseball.
Morales homers 7 straight games… What does that do to the “prospects” of trading him? 😉
He’d a 35 year old Designated Hitter that had a $12 million contract for 2019. If the Jays end up trading him most likely it’s going to be to get rid of his contract, it’s not like there’s a high demand for DH anyways
Morales unfortunately won’t be traded for much if at all. Good bat, one dimensional player. Jays will have to eat major salary to get anything but basic minor league inventory in return.
The likelihood is that Morales stays with the Jays.
I don’t disagree but i think it’s crazy teams wouldn’t be interested, but if there isn’t a need it is what it is.
It’s also crazy a .308/.380/.560 slash line is not worth 12 million regardless of defence.
I realize it’s a portion of his season but it has been an extended period of time and it’s been since the removal of the glasses.
Keeping Morales isn’t a bad option for the jays.
Yes, I agree with Archer – he’s pitching about as poorly as he has been the last couple years. So this is pretty close to his normal form.
Morales to the A’s for a meh prospect and 2-3 Mill off his contract. Can’t hurt. Get a hot hitter who can at worst be a bat off the bench in big game scenarios. Could help them win a game or two extra.
Yes please. Morales and $3-mil for some minor leaguer would be terrific.
I wouldn’t pay 9 million + the rest of what he’s owed this year for a bench bat. If you legitimately needed a DH maybe.
Neither would I jbigz. That’s why I said please 🙂
I didn’t expect Archer to be an ace or anything super great, but this is much worse than what I think any Pirate fan was expecting.
And he was given a heroes welcome in Pittsburgh. I was actually cringing when I saw what they gave up for him and how happy all the fans were that management made a trade.
Anyone who follows BucsDugout or PiratesProspects were cringing.
Archer has been nothing more than a #3 or #4 for the past 2+ years. The Rays work their pitchers too hard when they are young and burn them out. See Matt Garza, Shields, Sananstine, Odorizzi, Helickson,
and Cobb. Only David Price produced after leaving Tampa though he struggled with injuries.
Shields did what the Royals needed him to do, but in general I still agree with your point
Also Cobb could be moved again and Odorzzi just first year with Twins.
Also the Astros could use Morales as DH and put Gattis in LF.
Matt Moore as well
They do that because they won’t re-sign them. Makes sense.
How exactly do they work their pitchers too hard? Do you have data to back up this silly clam?
Exactly what I was expecting when I told my family and friends Huntington got raped. We traded three players including Glasnow for a pitcher less talented than Glasnow. Wanna know why Archer doesn’t pitch inside? He has no control and is scared he’ll beam batters.
Like I said on the poll thread, the Rays won the Archer trade. However, I didnt see them winning it by this wide a margin. Maybe Archer still has time to right the ship but Glasnow is looking good. As it stands, the Rays traded a 4-5 ERA SP for a 3-4 ERA SP pitcher that costs less and has more years of control (+ a top OF prospect). And here I thought the Rays shot themselves in the foot by not trading Archer earlier
My man – you can’t judge a trade after one month!! Archer will be fine – he has the best pitching coach in baseball to work with him!!
Also, your comment about prospects – The Pirates are known for overrating there young players – Meadows did well early but once other teams figured him out he couldn’t buy a hit. Glasgow is about as frustrating as they come – he’ll look good then walk four straight- it was time for him to go.
Glasnow has more control than Archer. This trade will get Huntington fired
And as I have said, Archer is overrated. Give up the farm for him cause of his team friendly contract you guys all said. Yeah ok
When it was announced that the 3rd player traded for Archer was last years Pirates #1 draft choice, I wrote that the trade could well cost the Pirate GM his job.
As with everyone else, once professional athletes get good reputations in the media, they can do no wrong. I’m convinced that Archer doing commentary on national TV during the playoffs set him up as some sort of star. That he’s gotten worse instead of better the past few years has been excused.
While this may not be as bad as the Expos trading prospects Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore, and Cliff Lee for Bartolo Colon, keep in mind that Bartolo was one of the AL’s best pitchers when he was traded. Chris Archer is nothing close to that. Archer was not worth one of the 3 players he was traded for. That trade will make the Rays.
The only person on Earth who has more job security than Neil Huntingdon is Vladimir Putin. As long as Nutting owns the team, NH has a job.
No one gave up the farm!! Not one of the players the Pirates gave up have proven they can sustain anything in the majors! Meadows is a 4th or 5th Outfielder on a good team and Glasnow will pitch himself back to the minors!
Meadows was 2nd best OF on the pirates. Also Glasnow is a stud. If number 1 pick pans out this will go down as worst pirates trade ever
Was he really! haven’t seen him yet but he’s expected after the triple a playoffs. Does he have power? We still miss Cory Dickerson so since we gave him for free I feel we are even in this Archer trade.
Archer’s numbers have been worse than his performance in his previous starts. He had a lot of walks where strike three was called ball four. He got hit on good pitches outside the zone. He gave up runs on seeing eye singles followed by bloops.
Today, though, he just kept grooving pitches down the middle of the plate. Command not there.
Pedro Martinez gave the Pirates and Archer a free tip on where to start getting better…
@45PedroMartinez
Aug 20
Archer has great stuff, but he is exposing the ball too early and away from his body. That makes him lack deception in his delivery.
Having only two pitches AND tipping them seems like a bad formula. The Pirates have helped him start to diversify his pitch mix (adding the two seamer and change back to his repertoire) so they need to clean up this delivery issue.
Of course, a victim of bad circumstances in every which way…nah, he’s just way overrated.
Its the umpires fault. Lol
Archer’s job is to make good pitches. What is he supposed to do when great pitches painting the corners get called balls?
Make worse pitches? That seems to be what he tried yesterday…
And the umps need to be replace with the superior computers, regardless of Archer. I watched Stephen Brault issue a 5 pitch walk the other night where he threw 4 strikes.
I’m SO glad that Atlanta chose to acquire Kevin Gausman instead of Chris Archer. Atlanta thought Gausman would show improvement under their pitching tutelage (and he has).
Here here
I questioned how good gausman would be this year for Atlanta, but I think he could be a lesser version of Arrieta. Something goes on within the orioles where pitchers can’t pitch. I think it’s more than just Camden yards being a hitter-friendly ballpark. So much talent has gone through the Orioles farm stystem and there’s been almost nothing to come out of it
“Chose”? The Rays and Pirates made that choice for them.
Gausman has been great for the Braves and Archer has been bad, but no need to rewrite history. AA was on High Heat after the deadline and talked (surprisingly) candidly about Archer being their top target. Gausman was the Braves’ Plan B if they didn’t get Archer, just as he was the Pirates’ Plan B if they didn’t get Archer..
I believe “chose” is the operative word knowing that AA and Co. have made it clear that ATL would spend some of their prospects on the right player (and contract). Archer has the upside, experience and contract that checks off all the boxes, but ATL didn’t cash-in on him. I think any level-headed fella can assume that ATL could have had Archer, if they really wanted him at TB’s asking price.
PIT cashed in some nice prospects for him, so they chose to spend their top prospects for Archer just like ATL chose not to.
Atlanta EASILY had more prospect wealth to deal with than the Pirates did. Atlanta clearly chose to to spend that wealth on Archer and decided it was more cost effective to go the Gausman route than meet Tampa’s high demands.
AA has said as much in interviews while also speaking about some of the data the looked at that led the organization to believe that with a few specific changes (and the much better defense of Atlanta) that Gausman should far better results in Atlanta.
They purposely didn’t pull the trigger on Archer when discussions were made. How is that not “chose”?
Rays fan here, just adding that he’s said the same thing for 5 years now. That he feels close and it’s minor. But continues to have an era over 4. Way overrated and every rays fan knew it and the pirates will end up regretting this dearly.
Archer is a very good pitcher, However the fame he gets from baseball has caused him to think he’s a great pitcher when he hasn’t done anything special yet. As I always said a very nice headcase.
It’s actually amazing that Morales has been much better than EE this year for much less money. But I feel like there’s a ton of people who will ignore this and still scream that he’s not here.
I think the Jays management did the right thing in making an offer to EE but letting him walk once he refused it and moving on to Morales. Now if they can trade Stroman for a package like what TB got for Archer, that would speed the rebuild up quite a bit.
“This year’s free agent is headlined . . . “
Appears to be something missing, a noun perhaps.
Andy S. Did not have a fastball that was above 90mph. But had some off speed pitches that he was effective with control for a hit but in no way did he have “elite” stuff. Even with the Ray’s Garza was around a .500 pitcher. Shields had one very good year with the Royals & one very bad year with the Ray’s. He had very good off speed pitches that made him very good.
Now with Price look at his regular & post season stats.
Chris Archer is the reason you shouldn’t look too hard into peripheral stats when they don’t back up the bottom line numbers. Same with Jeff Samardzija.
“Chris Archer is the reason you shouldn’t look too hard into peripheral stats . . . Same with Jeff Samardzija.”
Huh? Archer/Samardzija are the reason I shouldn’t look too hard into peripheral stats why? From memory and a quick look at Archer’s bb-ref page, both pitchers’ mediocre results are amply supported by their mediocre peripherals. No reason to believe that either has been or will be any better than they have already been. Your point about peripherals is what?
I never understood this sites obsession with Archer and Odorizzi both were highly rated but Cobb was looked over even pre-injury, I still think Cobb has the best chance of any of them at bouncing back though.
As a longtime Rays fan, I mostly agree. Price is the best pitcher to this date (watch Blake Snell) that came out of Tampa, However Alex Cobb was our ACE after Price trade not Archer! After Cobb’s Arm injury, we basically anointed Archer The ACE title only because he did so well speaking with the media and helping people in need across Tampa. He’s a Great citizen but till now a mid level pitcher. He has to take his craft serious…Oh! whats with this falling off the mound after every pitch stuff? Cobb and Price will come back as elite pitchers..
Oh man…Snell. Good grief he is filthy.
Snell Zilla would be the leader for the AL Cy Young if not for Chris Sale. he’s a true ace and at 25 years old! Glasnow is seeing firsthand (and the same age) how it’s done. When Honeywell, Deleon and Banda are back from UCL next year we will be a pitching nightmare to all baseball! Hitting ain’t bad as well!
One year does not an ace make. Look at Ray with e Dbacks. you’re not an ace till you can string multiple elite seasons together
this reds fan was very happy when the pirates destroyed their farm system on this ridiculous trade. they had a shot for last 6 years and failed to move but got desperate. lol
Destroyed? Not quite but they did overpay for a good arm but without the head to make it work. Talks a great game but once he gets to the mound…….
The Pirates have pitchers in AA who’d be in the Reds rotation today.
Not sure the fans of a team whose rebuild needs rebuilt should throw stones in glass farm (system) houses.
Relievers were immune from the bad market because Colorado decided to hand out three big contracts to relievers. Those were the only $20M+ contracts that went to relievers, the other 29 teams were quite stingy on this front too.
So without the Rockies, it would’ve been a bad market for them too, for the same reasons it was a bad market overall: Yankees and Dodgers capped their spending, Red Sox ran out of money (so that’s the three biggest spenders, not spending the way they usually do), and the Florida teams and Pittsburgh flooded the trade market with younger (and in some cases better) players than what was available in free agency.
Those factors were unique to last winter. This winter, things will get back to normal.
Relievers market is ripe for an overhaul on how they value these players. As the Tampa Rays have successfully changed the use of their unique skills. As they did with Defense positioning in the past, Most teams will utilize relievers to start games and briefly come in and pitch at very sensitive times in the game next year. The value of these relievers will go up. Statisticians are correct that Pro-Players “can’t adjust” to Shifts and certain Pitchers.
Insert all the comments from people glad their team didn’t trade for Archer lol. I always thought he was overrated and it’s been awhile since he has put up good numbers so not sure the hype.
So many posts talking about this player and this player isn’t enough for archer because of that contract. Well ok Tampa got good players for him. How’s that working so far?
Archer’s appeal always was the cheap contract. Not only is it under-market, you can get out of it since it’s all tied into options. My guess is the Bucs give him one year to straighten out, and then just non-tender him if Searage can’t work his magic with him.
And PLEASE, Pirate fans. Glassnow’s a middle reliever who has the John Lester disease, almost fatally; Meadows DOES have all 5 tools, but none of them are especially loud. And the other kid keeps getting belted around in low classification leagues, with the dreaded “losing velocity” being heard.
It was actually a fair return, with the Pirates holding the “potential upside” bag.
Typical pirates fan in denial
Actually more of a Rays fan. I said at the time, a year from now nobody will remember this trade got made. It’s a nothing burger from the get-go.
So far Glasnow has started as many games as Archer. In them he has struck out guys at a much higher rate, walked fewer guys, given up HR at a dramatically lower rate, not been hit nearly as hard and even gone deeper into games on fewer pitches. Like 60 fewer pitches over their respective 5 starts even, so that’s not even close either.
That isn’t to say Glasnow is amazing or anything, but boy is he ever looking better than Archer – and he has more team control and a lower cost attached.
All the rose colored glasses in the world can’t change that; and thats before even getting to the hitter tearing up AAA and the 1st round talent HS pitcher with barely 1 pro year played the Pirates also included.
Obviously the notion of “small sample size” isn’t in your dictionary……
It’s not a small sample size when it comes to Archer – he’s pitching basically the same as he has the last few years.
And yes, while it is a small sample size when it comes to Glasnow, his performance is also supported by what he was doing in Pittsburgh before the trade.
But even if he regressed quite a bit, he’d only be pitching much more like Archer. And that’s the real problem.
Dude – Glasnow sucked for the Pirates – he walked 3 straight batters shortly before the trade went down – the reason the Pirates moved him to the bullpen was his inability to sustain for more than a couple of innings – he has a live arm but control issues – if Ray Searage can’t get you right no one can!!
I completely disagree and I think Searage was the problem! Seems he “can’t” help young pitches! Glasnow was calmed down and promised and easy schedule till the season end by our P coach and he’s been unhittable. My gripe with searage coaching is that Glasnow can’t hold runners on properly…This is the pirates coaching at it’s worst. As for the trade, Your success will hinge on Searage and Archer.relationship. I’ve seen him be successful with older pitches and wish you the best. Archer is a very good pitcher and caring citizen. The other 2 players are very exciting. We rays fan know how a Pitching coach can cause problems as we had with jim Hickey and his problems with Blake Snell!!!! he had a great name as Pitching coach but had a problem getting is head out of his ass!
We Rays fans hope Archer straightens out under Searage, However Searage was a complete failure with Glasnow and to the Rays benefit. All Glasnow needed was the confidence to pitch to his strenghs and he has been successful so far. The Rays aren’t worried if he’s middle relief since most of their young starters have had success with that usage in their first years, In other words, except for Snellzilla we don’t use starters much.. What I was suprised with Glasnow, is that he wasn’t taught properly how to hold runners on and pitch economically in the streach. That is the Pitching coaches responsibility and easily trainable. Searage has to take the blame for that!. You’ll see how much better Gasnow works the mound next year! As for the rest, Meadows is batting 425 at triple A (playoffs) and will be called up after that. Baz is to young to analyze.
Baz is a young flame thrower with great upside. This was a steal!! A journeyman SP who was always analyzed as better than he performed for a guy who fell from grace after being a 1st round pick, an OF with huge potential and another SP with a huge arm and tons of potential. Nice job TB. Probably the most lop-sided trade of the year!!