Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world this weekend:
1. Horton to debut:
The Cubs are calling up top pitching prospect Cade Horton this weekend. The 23-year-old was the club’s first-round pick in the 2022 draft and was a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport ahead of the 2024 campaign. He slid down prospect rankings a bit after an injury-marred season last year, but through six starts in 2025 he’s bounced back to peak performance levels. Horton has posted a sparkling 1.24 ERA in 29 innings of work across six starts at Triple-A, and he’s done so while striking out an impressive 30.6% of opponents. Now, he’ll get his first big league opportunity against the Mets and right-hander Tylor Megill (2.50 ERA in seven starts) on Saturday.
2. Quintana to reach milestone:
The Brewers are in Tampa this weekend for a series against the Rays, and tonight’s game will pit veteran southpaw Jose Quintana (2.83 ERA in five starts) against Rays righty Zack Littell (4.61 ERA in seven starts). Quintana, 36, is set to reach a major milestone during today’s start. With 1,998 1/3 innings pitched in his career, the southpaw will reach 2,000 career innings during the second frame of today’s game. The outing will make him just the sixth active player to reach that milestone after Chris Sale joined Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Charlie Morton during his last start with Atlanta. Quintana will be the 450th player in MLB history to reach that mark.
3. AL Central going streaking:
The AL Central sent three teams to the postseason last year (Cleveland, Detroit, and Kansas City), and the beginning of the 2025 season has already raised the possibility of a repeat. Not only have the Tigers emerged as the top club in the American League with a 25-13 start that ties them with the Dodgers for baseball’s best record, but the division once again has three teams in playoff position.
That’s been spurred on by a series of win streaks all around the AL Central. Detroit has won four straight, and the second-place Guardians have won two in a row (and seven of their past ten). Even more impressive are the ongoing streaks in Kansas City (six games) and Minnesota (five games). These hot stretches have allowed the Royals to grab the second-most wins in the AL behind Detroit, while Minnesota has managed to mostly dig itself out of a dreadful start to the season with an 18-20 record that puts them just two games back of a Wild Card spot.
Will any of these clubs be able to keep the good times rolling this weekend? All four are at home. The Tigers host a struggling Rangers club that just shook up its coaching staff. The Royals host a Red Sox series embroiled in drama regarding Rafael Devers’ position. The Twins and Guardians will each take on one of the NL’s top teams, hosting the Giants and Phillies, respectively.
Word is Horton heard a “Who?” from Cubs fans.
He’ll hear a who in the fourth inning. I doubt Counsell and the Cubs are going to let him pitch too much.
How is a prospect considered ready for the big leagues when they can’t even average 5 innings a start?!! Are they planning to move him to the bull pen? Maybe he’s an opener?
Quintana has been one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball throughout his career.
He was great with the Cardinals for the short term he was with them.
Dizzy-Quintana was below average when he left the Cubs and he still is if not worse. He’ll revert to the mean sooner or later. Just like Rea. I mean I love what they’re doing right now, But when it warms up and balls start flying a little more they’ll come back to Earth.
2021 – current, 503 innings of 3.74 ERA(3.89 FIP) gives him a 109 ERA+
He’s underrated
Quintana has had 3 below average years out of 14. He has a career 3.73 ERA after 14 years and 2000 innings. His mean is above average.
Quintana is an excellent #3 starter, which makes him incredibly valuable but also makes him overlooked. He has had some nice seasons, but he’s pretty much a 3 WAR starter which improves just about every team in baseball.
I don’t know about “underrated” but he’s a decent if unspectacular backend of the rotation option. He was awful with the Angels and Giants in ’21 in a mostly bullpen role but did rebound with a decent season with the Pirates and Cardinals the following year.
Idk man, the guy has made 31+ starts in 10 out of 13 full-seasons. And a career 110 ERA+ in almost 2000 IP is more than a backend guy and calling him that proves my point. He’s not an ace, but he’s underrated #3.
I like to see these three teams being successful as they are not high payroll teams and I am sure are still considered underdogs to clinch the big prize. Good for the game and exciting for the fans.
I agree! It’s more than just playing the White Sox, people.
They all beat up on the White Sox. The Tigers also got freebee wins over the Rockies. They’ll lose again in the playoffs.
Is that what you say to the NL West teams like the Dodgers who get to beat up on the Rockies 12 games a year?
Each team had a playoff series win
True.can anyone name 3 players in their lineup?😂
Only the fans that actually follow baseball, not the ones that post snarky comments on baseball sites.
Tigers: Green, Malloy, Torkelson.
Guardians: Kwan, Ramirez, Naylor.
Royals: India, Witt, Pasquantino, Perez, Massey, Isbel, Renfroe, Garcia, Canha, Fermin, Biggio.
Ragans, Lugo, Wacha, Bubic, Lorenzen.
Estevez, Ercig, Harvey, Cruz, Lynch.
Any other dumb questions?
cooperhill, are you a casual too? How can you not name 3 players in a lineup from a Postseason team? Lol
cooperhill nice self own there bud. So you dont like the Tigers, which is fine but you also admitted you don’t follow the game that closely and you think the Tigers will make the playoffs. Good for you.
But they have to play the other three central teams…
Tigers strength of schedule has been very tough outside of the two series you chose to cherry pick.
This is not the same team as last year, and I don’t foresee them selling at the deadline like last year.
Last year’s deadline sale sparked their playoff run, which is unusual in itself. The Tigers are legit. They have a solid pitching staff. Casey Mize might be this year’s Tarik Skubal. Torkelson is producing when he was looking like the odd man out and Baez has resurrected his career moving to CF.
The Red Sox next 6 games are in KC and Detroit and like Lou Merloni said in yesterday’s game, if they can go 3-3 on the trip take it as a win
They got Carpenter and Greene back from injury, and “lost” an ineffective Baez to season-ending surgery (subtracting a negative makes a positive). Plus the “pitching chaos” from having to bundle relievers to make up for a two-man rotation. What a season!
denistaylor, do you realize that the Tigers are 56-26 in their last 82 games? This team is for real whether you like it or not. The Tigers did sweep the heavily favored Astros in October too, remember that? Stay salty!
I love casual and uninformed baseball fans like you, denistaylor. Keep it up!
Did the Tigers get freebies against NYY when they won 2 out of 3? How about SD when they won 2 out of 3? What about the Royals when they won 3 out of 4? What about…lol. So funny to see Tigers haters on here. The team was irrelevant for a decade and now they are a fun story imo.
Yankees should have had a reunion with Q instead of signing Cookie.
Orioles should have signed him instead of Morton, would have been a lot cheaper!
No need for panic moves. Besides the Brewers are competing. The Yankees have one of the top offenses in the AL. Their win-loss record would look very different if Devin Williams didn’t single-handedly blow four games leading to losses. They also have Gil and a couple of bullpen arms ready to return. The focus should remain on acquiring a thirdbaseman.
How could they reunite with a player that never played for them?
The central division teams are all greatly benefiting because they play the white Sox 12 times each.
Atlanta: That’s true. The most exciting games are when the top three, and even Minnesota, play each other.
Also, the Rox better keep their hands off the White Sox’ record of 122 losses. That’s the only record we’ve got and will have until they break the all-time mark of 134.
Not that it really matters, but the Sox lost 121, not 122.
Actually, it does matter a little, because 41-121 was a better winning percentage than that of the 40-120 Mets, while 40-122 would have been a worse percentage. The Sox kinda spoiled the narrative by winning 5 out of 6 in the last week.
I disagree that there is a difference of more than a couple games. That’s because Chicago does win 1 out of 3 on most occasions. And, every team has a similar team in their division.
Chicago isn’t even the worst team this year. I just watched the 3 game series Tigers at Rockies. Colorado play like they’re in a beer league. They embarrassed themselves. Chicago may have been close to that bad last year, but this Colorado team was the worst team I’ve seen in many years.
The Rockies are really bad… I mean, I have seen some bad teams in the past, but they are just crazy bad.
Or maybe the white Sox look worse due to having 3-4 competitive teams in their division? If they played in the NLC, a weaker division, maybe they win more games
Yes. And their hitters will look better against the Cubs’ depleted pitching next week than most expect. They are going to win that series.
Ok, Alan, we’ll see.
A tired and trite take. The Tigers have played the Sox three times. Without those games they’d still be 22 – 13. Are the Mets and Phillies not legit because they play in a division with a far worse team?
Fun game. Now what’s the NL West’s records minus the Rockies?
Last year the AL Central had three playoff teams (Cle, KC, Det) and another that finished over .500 (Min) and still was able to come up with a cumulative record 35 games UNDER .500.
Doesn’t answer my question. What’s the WL record for NL west teams without the rockies.
Atlanta plays the Nationals and Marlins… LOL
Lazy take.
The West gets to play the Angels or Rockies 12 times. The East gets to play the Orioles or Marlins 12 times. Not much of a difference.
How bout them Rockies. They don’t count against the NL West teams, apparently. Marlins, the A’s till they started coming on last year and the Angels now. The Orioles before their hitting got to the show. Pirates. Every division has a walkover, but the AL Central has 4 teams that will be in the hunt. So that more than offsets the White Sox.
Don’t forget to watch the manager firing for the Orioles!🤣
..and Jays?
The East is terrible this year. I always laughed at them for getting swept in the playoffs… AL east teams have been swept 6 times in the past 3 years… now they won’t even have that chance. The Yankees would be a 4th place team in the central. We should go with just one division. Let them play equally among themselves and take the top six in each league for the playoffs. This, letting teams like the Yankees that don’t deserve to enter the playoffs, can sit at home. They are beating up on the Orioles and the Blue Jays and the Rays and Red Sox… of course they will have a winning record in that division… someone has to have it. Sheesh
Congratulations, the award for most asinine comment of the day and possibly even week goes to you!
He’s just repeating things said by East fans in the past, but it now applies to them. You seem to be taking it personally.
The AL East has frequently been the best division in the league. Declaring it a weak division on May 9th is moronic
Thanks Stymee, I thought that was obvious… I guess some Yankees fans are a little slow. It’s a shame we have to draw them pictures to understand. Game 5… 5th inning… 5 unearned runs. Dang, that is going to be remembered forever.
Twins rotation & the return of key veterans (Lewis, Castro, Correa) makes this a very compelling 4-way race. I’m still thinking Baldelli will screw it up but they’ve been a nice bounce-back candidate of late…
How bout them Tigers? Lol
Yeah! And they are doing it without Vierling, Meadows, Rogers and Perez! Just wait until they return.
Yeah. It’ll be a good problem to have. Cobb too. Maybe they trade him unless he takes Maeda’s old long man role because he’s not breaking into the rotation unless Jobe hits a wall or something.
Go White Sox
@minoso9: Atlanta fans used to say that about the Braves, Falcons. and Hawks for most of the 70’s and 80’s. “Go Braves—– and take the Falcons and Hawks w/you” was a popular catch phrase in those days.