Here are three things we’ll be watching around baseball today:
1. A’s to activate Mason Miller:
After missing a couple of weeks with a broken pinky finger in his non-pitching hand, Athletics closer Mason Miller will return to the club’s bullpen tonight. Manager Mark Kotsay shared the news with reporters yesterday (including Jessica Kleinschmidt). Kleinschmidt noted on Monday that Kotsay himself stepped in to face Miller in live batting practice, and the young hurler reportedly felt great.
The A’s have been playing surprisingly well as of late, but they’ll surely be glad to have their closer back in the fold. The team went 10-6 in July before Miller’s injury, and they have gone 7-6 since. Miller has been, arguably, the most dominant reliever in baseball this season, with a 2.21 ERA and 1.67 SIERA in 40 2/3 innings pitched.
2. Kyle Freeland exits with blister on pitching hand:
Rockies starter Kyle Freeland exited in the fifth inning of last night’s contest against the Mets. After the game, he explained to reporters that he developed a blister in the fourth, and it became a problem in the fifth, causing too much discomfort for him to throw his curveball properly. The southpaw was unable to say if he thinks the blister will affect his next start; he has dealt with blisters in the past, but “this one got pretty big on [him]” (video on X via Christian Saez of DNVR).
While a blister does not sound like a particularly serious injury, it’s not unheard of for a pitcher to require an IL stint while a blister heals. The Rockies, who already have one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball by almost every metric, will be in an even worse position if Freeland misses a few starts. Freeland has a 5.65 ERA but a career-best 4.24 SIERA in 12 outings this season.
3. Two doubleheaders on the docket:
Fans will get a little extra baseball today, with 17 games on the schedule. After a couple of rainouts on Tuesday, there will be two doubleheaders this afternoon and evening. The Guardians and Diamondbacks will kick things off at 12:10 PM CT, with Brandon Pfaadt set to take the mound for Arizona against Cleveland’s Ben Lively. In game two, Eduardo Rodriguez will make his 2024 (and his Diamondbacks) debut, while Carlos Carrasco will take the ball for the Guardians. The Guardians will look to slow down a red-hot D-backs team that has not lost a series since June. Meanwhile, with a pair of wins (and a Padres loss), the Diamondbacks could move into sole possession of the top NL Wild Card spot.
The Yankees and Angels will play the second doubleheader of the day, with game one starting at 3:05 PM CT. Luis Gil of the Yankees is lined up to face Davis Daniel of the Angels. In game two, New York will send Will Warren to the hill against L.A.’s Carson Fulmer. The Yankees are hoping to hold onto sole possession of first place in the AL East, which they reclaimed when the Orioles lost to the Blue Jays on Tuesday.
They need to bring back Triple Headers.
Triple? They need to bring back DOUBLE-headers! The only ones you see today are make-up dates due to weather, etc. No scheduled DH’s. Remember when they not only had them but one ticket covered both games? Made for a long day, but what a value! Nowadays, they clear out the park and make you have a separate ticket for game 2
A sign of the (greedy) times. The first game I ever went to was a double-header. Phillies-Pirates. What a great day, even though neither team was really that good at the time.
Sure, that too, but they haven’t had a triple-header since 1920. We’ve had more than enough double-headers since then. I’d rather have a full day from morning to night filled with baseball. These guys are athletes and should be able to play the whole day not just a 2 hour session.
You’d have to take out a second mortgage on your house to enjoy 18 innings of concessions, but you’d only be paying for parking once so might come out a wa$h.
Speaking of Rodriguez (Eduardo), any update on Grayson? He was scheduled to start yesterday but felt something. That could be a fairly significant loss for the O’s.
Doubt we’ll hear anything this early. Probably later today or maybe even tomorrow.
The update to the article on his injury says he’s been sent home for imaging and that it’s his lat again. Sounds somewhat ominous.
Unless he goes 5-0 with a 1.75 ERA the rest of the season, I’m calling the E-Rod signing a stinker.
It’s a 4 year deal. This year has obviously been unproductive with the injury, but there’s still plenty of time for the Dbacks to get value from him. The signing may still payoff in the end (maybe even this year).
If the A’s just spent maybe 30 mil in free agency this off season they could be competing for the division title next year.
Trevor Bauer, Snell and Paul Goldschmidt
Bauer & Snell have combined for one win this year, and Goldie has a bWAR of 0.4.
Snell alone is going to cost north of 30 million (unless he gets a really long deal)
Pointless to bring up Bauer
Never pointless to bring him up when MLBTR refuses to talk about him.
I guess it depends on whether one is engaging in the comments to have a discussion about baseball moves or if they are simply grandstanding for a sad man
If the Dbacks can reach the playoffs, they will some fresh arms to run out there. Gallen, Kelly, ERod and Montgomery have all spent at least one month on the IL. And Pfaadt and Nelson have been their two best SPs of late.
Good point. However, would you trust Montgomery? He’s been downright terrible this year.
Agreed. When Kelly returns, Montgomery should be moved to the BP. Barring an incredible turnaround, which I would love, Montgomery won’t get any playoff starts.
The Diamonbacks and Padres are the two most dangerous teams. I think one of them wins it all this year.
It’s time for Anaheim to trade Trouty for a massive haul while they still can and reload their farm system. He’s still the #1 player in MLB and he still has at least 5-8 years of prime to build a team around and every team and every GM would be thrilled empty out their farm system for him alone and would jump at the chance to do it. Should have done it with Ohtani too, but at least they can still get a massive haul of marquee prospects for Trout and Trout would bring in dramatically bigger haul than the phony back stabbing gambling addict Ohtani ever would have brought in for Angry Arte. And Trouty can go to a contending team and win a World Series and try to compensate for his failure and defeat in the World Baseball Classic. He banged 6 SB and 10 HR this season to go along with an other-worldly arcade level BA and OBP- it was a 30/50 pace and it was going to easily be his best all time season by A LOT.
Do it now.
Why is a raven like a writing desk?
lol “a massive haul” good luck with that…dude’s made out of paper mache at this point
Can we start calling Trout “Overrated”?
@Melchez17
He was overhyped when he joined MLB. Everyone thinks these guys are MLB the Show players that never get injured and crush 1,000 feet HRs all the time.
This is silly. I would trade a single top 100 prospect for trout, maybe if they ate the contract we could think about more. But while the upside is sky high the floor is very low because of injuries.
Not to mention his salary is very high. Anything less than winning the MVP makes it an underwater contract.
“Miller has been, arguably, the most dominant reliever in baseball this season, with a 2.21 ERA and 1.67 SIERA in 40 2/3 innings pitched.“
This is arguably one of the worst sentences Mr. Deeds has ever written. For one, conjunctive adverbs like “arguably” shouldn’t have commas around it. Secondly, it’s in the complete wrong place grammatically and destroys the sentence’s syntax. It should be:
“Miller has arguably been the most dominant reliever in baseball this season” or “arguably, Miller has been the most dominant reliever in baseball this season.”
Someone get Deeds back in middle school grammar class.