Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:
1. Trout to be activated:
After nearly a month of the shelf due to a bone bruise in his left knee, Mike Trout is returning to the Angels today. Theo DeRosa of MLB.com was among those to note that the Angels plan to activate him from the 10-day injured list, bringing him back into a lineup that could certainly use his bat after the club dropped to fourth place in the AL West recently with a 25-30 record. It will be worth monitoring in the coming days how often Trout is used in right field as compared to DH, but regardless of his usage in the field, Angels fans will be happy to have the three-time MVP and 11-time All-Star back for his value at the plate. Trout’s .179/.264/.462 slash (95 wRC+) in 29 games this year would be by far the worst season of his career, but his nine home runs in just 121 plate appearances were very impressive. He’s also been weighed down by a paltry .159 average on balls in play that’s sure to improve over time.
2. Ramirez’s hit streak continues:
That Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez is having an excellent season is so unsurprising it’s barely even worth noting. The superstar has just two seasons since 2017 where he’s posted a wRC+ below 140, and this year is no exception; he’s hitting .318/.371/.527 with a 152 wRC+. Predictable as Ramirez’s general greatness may be, even he doesn’t rattle off a 21-game hitting streak on the regular. After going hitless on May 4, Ramirez collected hits in both halves of a May 6 doubleheader and has maintained the streak ever since, slashing a phenomenal .393/.446/.655 with a strikeout rate of just 10.9% during that time. If Ramirez can get a hit in today’s game against Jose Soriano and the Angels, he’ll tie the 22-game hit streak Bobby Witt Jr. put together earlier this season for the longest streak of 2025.
3. How low can the Rockies go?
We’re just days away from the calendar flipping to June, and it remains to be seen if the Rockies will even get their tenth win of the season before then. In a season that seems likely to continue reaching new historic lows, the Rox recently lost their 21st series in a row when they were swept by the Cubs earlier this week. That’s the longest stretch of consecutive series losses in MLB history (hat tip: OptaSTATS), and it actually stretches into last season, as the Rockies have only completed 18 series so far this year. The Rockies will go for their tenth win and attempt to avoid a 22nd consecutive series loss this weekend, but they’ll do so with a tough matchup against the Mets in Queens.
I’d like to see Ramirez get his hit streak into the 30s. Feels like forever since we’ve had a hitter do that…
My grandmother is 96 and she’s less prone to injury and recovers much quicker than Mike Trout.
Still drives that Mack truck too
When my grandmother was 91,
She ran a marathon just for fun,
When my grandmother was 92,
She ran a marathon faster than you,
When my grandmother was 93,
She ran a marathon faster than me.
Your grandmother doesn’t play professional baseball. That’s why.
Let the Mike Trout troll’s inane posts begin.
Halo11Fan: He’s still my favorite player, and I’m not being sarcastic.
It’s a lot easier to watch the Angels with him in the lineup.
@Halo11 It would be a lot easier to watch the Angels if Johnny Washington wasn’t the hitting coach.
The Angels are 29th in BB%, and worst in K%.
The players go to the plate without a clue. And the players we bring in don’t have a clue.
From top to bottom, it’s an organizational problem.
Jose Ramirez has to be one of the most underrated players of this generation.
Agreed. Really fun to watch.
I think he’s most underrated as a boxer.
How is he underrated? Five top five MVP finishes. Seven times top ten. He’s made 6 of the last 7 All-Star teams.
Not sure underrated is the word I would use.
I’m hoping for the day he’s underrated in my fantasy draft…
I think he said underrated but probably meant underappreciated?
That could be. He’s not underrated in any fantasy league I’ve ever been in.
Yeah maybe under appreciated is a better term. I just feel like he should be talked about in the same breath as the best of the best currently playing, a top 4 or 5 player right now. And I think he’s more in the 8-10 ranking conversation usually. Partly because I think he gets lost in a smaller market like Cleveland.
As a Tigers fan, I think he’s underrated, too. I’ve known about him for a while, but I was surprised recently when I saw his career stats. I’d say he’s underrated because he doesn’t seem like he’s got a high-profile personality. When he got into that fight, the announcer even said something along the lines of “Jose doesn’t go looking for trouble”.
Acuña Jr. and Trout, two peas in a pod. Both can’t stay on the field.
links to the wrong Jose Ramirez
Makes you wonder if the writers troll the readers with those links.
Angels tried. Just make Trout a permanent DH-availability to be an elite hitter for big $ outweighs any need to put him in the OF. If he still can’t avoid long IL stints, sunk cost anyhow.
It’s pay for his 700k minor league deal he was playing on while winning MVP trophies.
That’s not going to work. Moving him to right is not going to work.
He typically gets hurt on the bases. Sitting around all game is not going to help.
The Rockies have to just blow it up…, whatever rebuild/retool they’re doing is not producing results…
Also what happened to Jon Gray? Is he still with Texas?
Yes. 60 day IL for a broken wrist.
yeah, but he broke his wrist in Spring Training ironically against the Rockies & is on the 60-day IL.
Coincidentally more than ironically.
The Rockies have nothing to blow up because their roster has very few desirable major league talent on it
They can only release Kris Bryant and the longtime pitchers they have, or trade Ryan McMahon or their hot young hitters like Jordan beck or hunter Goodman or even Brenton doyle
Mariners fan is right, there’s no value to the franchise other than Coors field and the fans who go there to socialize and maybe watch a little baseball. Top to bottom this has been the worst franchise in baseball since it’s inception. Always last in player development, scouting, and just about anything player related.
It’s not a player thing with Colorado as much as a systemic thing. And altitude thing obvs.
Would love to see Mike Trout play well again.
But even at a 95 wRC+ he’s a vast improvement over Chris Taylor and 1360% better than Kevin Newman.
His BaIbp was the most unlucky in baseball, hes almost certainly a 120+ at minimum
Rox need to get baseball leadership at the top, then have it work it’s way down to the farm system.
9 wins in 18 series so far this season. On average they win a game in half of every series they play. That’s a .500 record!
Might want to check the math on that one.
Mile high math always maths. If they can win one game with the Mets, they’ll be over .500!
How do the Rockies even begin to get out of this? The CWS minor league system was ranked #6 heading into the season. In contrast, the Rockies was ranked 18th.
They’ve only got two Top 100 prospects, SP Chase Dollander, who’s already in the big leagues, and OF/3B Charlie Condon. Condon’s hitting .180/.248/.270 with a .548 OPS for High A Spokane. He’s K’d 34 times in only 100 AB. The kid is definitely not ready.
On the MLB roster they have very little tradable assets unless they *really* want to blow it up, trade their younger players and start over. IMO, the Rockies are in much of the same situation the Orioles were in before Angelos finally got out of the way and committed to a full rebuild…except the Rockies are already losing 100+ games, Also, unlike when the Orioles lost 100+ games, the draft rules have changed and there’s only about an 18% chance the Rockies get the #1 pick in 2026 regardless how many games they lose.
Sadly, I don’t know if Manafort will ever commit to a full rebuild run by baseball people, because Rockies fans are still showing up to support their team, so he’s making $$.
The Rockies seem doomed for the foreseeable future. Not only is the team miserable but they really don’t have any substantial trade chips to rebuild with.
Rox won’t get better until Monfort sells the team. Ditto for Angels and Moreno.
We can say one thing about the Rocks – they have lost a lot of close ones.
In Los Angeles, California: TROUT Season has begun !!
ON the shelf re Mike trout
The angels adding Hunter Strickland and Robert Stephenson is huge. Lars year Strickland was pretty good. Stephenson is awesome. Looks like the mighty angels are way into contention now.
Dick Monfort appears to be satisfied having consistent 20k to 30k fans in Coors Field, however, at least half if not more of those fans are transplants rooting for their former teams across the league! Colorado Rockies fans going to a Coors Field game typically find themselves surrounded by fans of the visiting teams.
The only way for Mr. Monfort, who does in fact open his pocket book for a middle-of-the-league-pack team payroll, to change is to be shamed publicly by the national press. That is happening now in spades, due to the horrific start to the season.
The Rockies system (draft and develop) is stuck in the 2000’s, with analytics nearly amounting to the GM, Bill Schmidt, relying on stat sheets (his own words).
A complete overhaul of the Front Office and methodology up and down the system is long overdue. Baseball people with advanced and emergent ideas need to be brought in to overhaul literally everything.
Rockies fans are livid, a generation of youthful followers has been marginalized, but if you are a lifelong fan of the Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Cards, Red Sox, Cubs, Yankees…et. al., Coors Field games are a delight.
The Athletics did a recent player poll where 80% of them found analytics helpful for their careers. There are the Coors Field altitude factor and the lack of proper analytics which has prevented pitchers from signing with them. They need to pay a premium over other teams to sign free agents.
Mike Trout was already a first ballot hall of famer three years ago.
“Predictable as Ramirez’s general greatness may be” is NOT PROPER ENGLISH. You can’t just leave “as” out to begin the sentence. It’s not optional! Grammar is not optional when you’re being paid to write.
Always liked Trout. Shame that his career has kind of gone the way of Griffey Jr with injuries. Hopefully he can just stay healthy.