Here are three things we’ll be watching around Major League Baseball today:
1. James Paxton goes for MRI, Red Sox roster moves incoming:
Red Sox starter James Paxton exited his start yesterday in the first inning with a right calf strain. The left-hander will go for an MRI today, after which the team will have a better understanding of his injury. However, it seems all but certain the veteran will be placed on the 15-day IL before tonight’s game against the Rangers. He exited the field in significant pain on Sunday and used crutches to walk around the dugout after the contest.
According to manager Alex Cora (as reported by Chris Cotillo of MassLive), Boston plans to make several additional roster moves today. For one, right-hander Brayan Bello will return from the paternity list to start tonight. In addition, lefty Brennan Bernardino has already been optioned to Triple-A (per Cotillo), although the team has yet to formally announce the transaction. Bernardino gave up four earned runs in 1 1/3 innings of work yesterday.
2. Joe Musgrove returns to the Padres:
All-Star right-hander Joe Musgrove will be reinstated from the 60-day IL to start tonight against the Pirates. Before he is activated, the Padres will need to open a spot for him on the 40-man roster. They could do so by transferring Fernando Tatis Jr. from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL, considering the superstar is unlikely to return until September.
Musgrove has not played for San Diego since the end of May, nursing inflammation in his throwing elbow. He got off to a rough start this year, pitching to an uncharacteristic 5.66 ERA over his first 10 starts. However, his 4.23 SIERA is a little more promising, and his track record is that of a front-line starting pitcher. Over his first three seasons with San Diego from 2021-23, Musgrove put up a 3.05 ERA and 3.61 SIERA in 78 starts. The Padres will hope to have that version of Musgrove back in their rotation. While they have played exceptionally well as of late (8-2 in their last 10 games, 20-10 in their last 30), they have been relying on Randy Vásquez (4.63 ERA, 4.88 SIERA) as a fifth starter. Musgrove could provide a huge boost as the Padres battle for the NL West down the stretch.
3. Mookie Betts back in right field for the Dodgers:
Mookie Betts will be back in the Dodgers lineup today, batting second and playing right field – not leading off or playing shortstop. Manager Dave Roberts relayed the news to reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) last week. The team is going to stick with Shohei Ohtani in the leadoff spot, while second baseman Gavin Lux and shortstop Miguel Rojas will play the middle infield. Betts will split up Ohtani and Freddie Freeman at the top of the lineup and return to the position where he has won six Gold Gloves.
The eight-time All-Star has been out since mid-June with a fractured hand. While his long absence has dashed his chances of winning the NL MVP, Betts will return in plenty of time to help as the Dodgers attempt to secure what would be their 11th NL West title in the past 12 years. L.A. currently holds a 3.5-game lead over Arizona and San Diego.
Randy Vasquez is such an enigma of a pitcher. He will go like or 3 starts giving up 2 or less runs then just get hammered on the next outing.
IBWCW
Curious
Who do you think is an example of a steady pitcher? And an average one?
The standard deviation of Vasquez’ game scores is 14.4
For comparison the standard deviation of Aaron Nola’s game scores is 20.5
By that measure, Vasquez is more consistent than Nola
Huh? How are the standard deviations so gosh darn big?
Percentages?
Why
1) it’s game score, are you sure you’re familiar with that
2) players aren’t as consistent as people think
Brew
No. Standard deviation of game scores
Hey all the padres fans, is Randy vasquez better than Aaron Nola?
I haven’t watched any of his starts so my opinion isn’t relevant
Sad
“is Randy vasquez better than Aaron Nola?”
Did anyone say he was?
I certainly didn’t
I just showed that he has been more consistent
DodgersBro, I still need clarification on the standard deviation. It’s the square root of the sum of the squared differences between the average and each score, divided by number of games minus one, since it’s a sample standard deviation. It represents the typical departure from the average.
Why
Something like that, yes
So, what’s your question?
The StDev’s are that large because pitching has a lot of variation between games
20.5 is a huge number. One game score could be 11-10 and another could be 11-10 and another 21-20 and another 31-30 and another 31-30. The mean of those five game scores is 41 and four of the five scores differ from the mean by 20. Clearly, I’m confused here.
Why
mlb.com/glossary/advanced-stats/game-score
Okay got it DB
I trust Mookie and the team, but I find it strange that he didn’t go any rehab games.
I guess everyone felt confident in him after the sim games.
Also think that having Mookie’s OBP in front of Ohtani instead of Keirmaier or Pages or whoever would make more sense
Betts
Ohtani
Freeman
Teoscar
Smith
Lux
Hernandez
Keirmaier/Pages
Rojas
Is how I would line then up. But, again, the F/O knows a lot more than I do
How will LA get Mookie on the roster?
I’ll guess Pages to AAA
Second guess is DFA Ahmed
Muted for having four consecutive comments and calling yourself a bro.
HAHA! Dude even answers himself.
Or Kiermaier DFA.
That would the move to make. I don’t see them giving Kiermeier at bats that Heyward will get, although neither will stick once Edman is activated. Then there is Muncy. I suspect Ahmed and Kiermeier are DFA’d and River Ryan goes to the 60-day as he is done for the season. They still have to clear a spot on the 26-man. Heyward or Kike might come up with an IL turn for a strained eye land or something similar.
“But, again, the F/O knows a lot more than I do”
Yep. Thanks for verifying that they do.
Agree with you Bro on both main points. Mookie should be taking some ABs in OKC this week. Shohei needs to be hitting with runners on base. Not gonna happen if he is leading off, particularly with the likes of Barnes, Kiki and KK hitting in front of him.
Yeah, Ohtani has really cooled off in the lead-off spot the past couple weeks. Be a great time to move him back to the second or even third spot….
For some reason, Doc is now obsessed with this L-R-L lineup “balancing”….sheeesh
When Muncy and Edman complete their rehab, this would be a good “balancing” lineup:
Betts
Freeman
Smith
Ohtani
T.Hernandez
Muncy
Pages/Edman
Lux
Rojas
I’m good with it Jerry and thanks for offering it up. I might switch Freddy and Shohei in order to give Shohei a little more protection and more at bats; but, this would work for me.
Honestly, Doc’s newfound L-R obsession Seems overly reactive to me.
Edman also brings a reputation as an above average shortstop and I’m hoping we see him there frequently. Of course, he’s got to hit, and that may be asking a lot given his rehab timeline.
It’s well overdue for there to be a serious article or series of articles about Matt Wieters’ highly underrated career and Hall of Fame legitimacy.
He’s a well deserving Hall of Famer (especially if lesser players like Pujols and Verlander and Ichiro Suzuki and Cabrera get in) but might not be elected because of MLB’s/Manfred’s anti-Baltimore bias.
Discuss.
The Hall of Unappreciated Players or HOUP is larger than an Amazon warehouse.
Weiters name just hit me so hard those Baltimore teams in the 2010s… existed
Fewer than ONE thousand career hits. A .249 career average. 146 HR. A whopping two Gold Gloves, even though he was advertised as the next Johnny Bench. Brutally overrated prospect as a ton of Orioles tend to be. And Ichiro, Pujols and Verlander are lesser players? You need to head to Walgreen’s and get your prescription refilled.
Did you miss the part about Matt being the best college player of all time? If Bo Jackson (a fundamentally hideous baseball player, by the way- low BA, low OBP, sucked in the outfield, couldn’t steal many bases despite having great speed but never being as fast as Deion, one of the worst SO rates of all time- worse than Adam Dunn. Deion Sanders was the more gifted baseball player/football player/basketball player/athlete in general despite the widely accepted false narrative that Jackson was better in baseball or any other sport than Deion) gets credit for his college performance, so does Wieters.
I didn’t miss it. I didn’t read it. So I didn’t miss it. And what do college performances have to do with the HOF? Put Wieters in the Hall and you make a strong case for Eric Soderholm and Doug Rader.
Ichiro is “lesser” than Wieters? Miggy is lesser? I won’t argue nay or yay on Wieters’ candidacy, but if you are marginalizing those guys., I think your logic is off. There are some questionable entries into the HOF, but those two will be first-ballot guys, and deserve to be.
Discuss what? Your level of troll-dom?? I can assure you Matt Weiters will not get in the HOF, unless he pays $30 bucks just like the rest of us… and none of that has to do with any perceived anti-Baltimore bias.
You don’t get into the HOF with less than 1000 hits and 550 RBI
College stats have absolutely nothing to do with HOF eligibility
You’ve now gotten your conversation about Wieters. You’re welcome
Who’s Matt Wieters?
The best college baseball player of all time and a top 100 all time MLB player who saved the Orioles organization and the city of Baltimore itself and put the city on the map- most had never even heard of it before him. Similar to how Joey Votto saved the city of Cincinatti and put the city of Cincinatti on the map and made it a well-known place instead of the previously unheard of city that it was before . Baltimore and Cincinatti were fly-over country before they arrived.
You’re welcome.
Well there was Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken. Thanks for playing.
Is this a nickname for your real user name? 12981 the troll?
The Headliner has been retired and donated to the MLBTR writers to use as article titles.
With the DL decision we will learn a bit about the status of Tatis by game time tonight.
Im shocked, SHOCKED Paxton isn’t healthy.
Sadly, so is Craig Breslow…
Not even Paxton is shocked that Paxton is hurt
Maple Syrup
With about 45 games left in the season, my prediction that the M’s would face off against either the Padres or Pirates isn’t looking great but also not looking terrible either.
M’s are tied for 1st in the AL West and 2.5 out of the final WC spot. Padres are tied for the 1st WC spot and only 3.5 games back of the top spot in the NL West.
Pirates have let me down, but not unexpected.
I look forward to the M’s vs. Padres fall classic, this year.
West coast WS. Start each game at 11 pm EST after Passan’s bedtime
@Brew88
That would make the WS 100% better.
Since they won’t let us comment on Duran under the announcement of his two game suspension…. Here is my comment. He is now my favorite Red Sox player.
Red Sox again catering to the 1%…. and alienating the 99%.
I would just add that the two games he got was a rather limp wristed suspension.
You trying to set some kind of record for being muted?
I was hoping less than 99% of us are ignorant phobes