Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Astros roster moves incoming?
The Astros got hit with a double whammy on the injury front yesterday, as both center fielder Jake Meyers and right-hander Cristian Javier exited yesterday’s game due to back and shoulder injuries respectively. There’s likely to be some roster shuffling as a result of those injuries today. In particular, Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle notes that outfielder Taylor Trammell was scratched from the Triple-A lineup last night as Meyers is expected to head to Houston for imaging. That would fairly cleanly replace Meyers on the roster, but it leaves open the question of how the Astros will handle the potential loss of Javier. Hunter Brown is already on the injured list, and the club was seemingly planning to go to a six-man rotation in the coming days. Spencer Arrighetti, Colton Gordon, and Jason Alexander are among the options at Triple-A who could be asked to take up a rotation role moving forward.
2. Rockies going streaking:
The Rockies didn’t enter the 2026 season with much hope for a successful campaign on the field. It will take more than the first couple weeks of the season to change that perception, but the club has put together a bit of a winning streak with wins in each of their last four games to pull them up to .500. That keeps them out of last place in the NL West and makes them the only club in the division besides the Dodgers with a positive run differential. All of that leads into a series against the division rival Padres that opens today wherein Colorado could have a chance to pull themselves into a winning record and perhaps even sole possession of second place in the division. Those efforts will start tonight at 6:40 local time in San Diego when right-hander Randy Vasquez takes the mound for the Padres against an as-of-yet unnamed Rockies starter, though Chase Dollander is expected to get the bulk of today’s innings.
3. Tigers looking to avoid sweep:
Meanwhile, the Tigers entered the season with lofty expectations but have gotten out to a rough start this year. They’re 4-8 to open the season this year, putting them tied for last in the AL Central alongside the White Sox. That’s in large part due to a rough series against the Twins, who have won three straight against the Tigers. Today, Detroit will be looking to avoid a sweep while the Twins will try to finish the job with Mick Abel on the mound against veteran right-hander Jack Flaherty. That game is scheduled for 12:40pm local time at Target Field in Minnesota. Both have struggled badly so far this year, with a 7.56 ERA in two starts for Flaherty while Abel has posted an 11.05 ERA in 7 1/3 innings of work. Will one be able to get back on track today?
Mick Abel has been interesting I was definitely expecting more but his 4.96 FIP is definitely better and I still think he puts together a good year going forward.
I’m the extremely pessimistic twins fan. Not sure how you see the light on Abel in his small sample size. Never an era under 4 in the minors. Whip of 2.9 this year. Reliever at best imo
2025- Abel had an ERA of 2.20 in 18 AAA starts with both Lehigh Valley (PHI) and Saints.
2022- ERA of 3.90 in 23 starts between A+ and AA
2023- ERA of 4.13 (a shade over 4) in 23 starts between AA and AAA
2024 was a really bad year where his BB rate jumped to 6.5/9. He never had stellar BB rates.
Control will always limit his upside. He has shown flashes in the minors that he can limit BB/9 (see 2025 AAA stats). If he can do that, he has upside of #2-3 starter, however worst case scenario is high leverage reliever.
Okay I’ll reword. His total ERA at each level is above 4
AAA – 4.42
AA – 4.03
A+ – 4.01
A – 4.43
He strikes guys out but that only matters if you also limit runs
I understand why you are skeptical, but there are plenty of successful MLB pitchers who have had ERAs above 4.00 in AAA and various other levels. I went through the AL and counted 25 SP with minor league ERAs above 4.00 at various levels in the minors. Some may surprise you.
Trevor Rogers (Baltimore ace): 5.15 (AAA) and 5.35 (AA)
Shane McClanahan: 15.43 (AAA, 2 starts), 8.35 (AA, 4 starts)
Dylan Cease: 4.48 (AAA)
Slade Cecconi: 5.08 (AAA), 4.37 (AA), 4.12 (A+)
Nathan Eovaldi: 10.64 (AAA, 4g/3 starts), 4.32 (A+, 21g)
Mackenzie Gore: 4.85 (AAA), 4.45 (A)
Bryce Miller: 4.05 (AAA), 4.09 (AA)
He’s freaking Cy Young when he pitches against Detroit. But then again, so is everyone this year.
He sure made the Tigers look silly this afternoon…but then, it was the Tigers.
According to this article, the Twins have won three straight games against Minnesota. Fascinating.
Hey, you know the age old saying:
You must first learn to beat yourself before you can learn to beat others…
no, wait, I think that was love. my bad.
Nick Deeds has been rattled some by a brush-back heater from Jean Letrac.
Pull it together Deeds!
considering the author, are we even surprised?
They’re trending in the right direction, but no team so far have outshined the Red Sox in self defeats.
According to this post, Lloyd Emerson, a grown man, has cried on here like a bitchy schoolgirl, for 3 straight weeks.
Fascinating.
According to this post, Foppert has harassed and obsessed over Lloyd Emerson’s posts for 3 weeks. Makes sense to want an author of a respected baseball site to improve their mistakes…. obsessing over some random guy in the comments on a daily update article? Takes a special kind of fella. I’ll have to get into touch with your handler and let them know they forgot to remove your internet privileges. Maybe then we’ll finally be spared from your useless drivel
Pssst……… you can mute me.
I think I can speak for most by saying I hope Jason ” George” Alexander gets the call up. The comments are always hilarious for those posts.
A little too soon in the season for The Summer of George.
Always hopeful that things turn around for George… I mean Jason. Things don’t tend to go his way.
With the Rockies, the starting pitching has been great with a couple of hiccup games. The bullpen has been arguably the best in the game thus far. Most of the new arrivals have been good with the exception of Jake McCarthy. The real struggle are with holdovers like Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle. They are 6-6, but could easily be 10-2 because 4 of the losses were by one run. And the best part is that these games don’t look fluke-y. The Rockies are playing with a confidence that I haven’t seen in a long time.
So during the off season they knew they had to work on new pitching concepts. Dollander and Senzatela were going to be long relief as so far doing a good job. Yesterday Agnos pitched 3.1 innings. I wonder (very early in the season) If one of the concepts, no matter who pitching and doing a great job, leave them in and don’t waste arms by getting them loose for no reason? Just a thought or question on my part, but it’s possible. I hope the good continues because us die hards have been waiting a loooong time.
I think Agnos may have been a weird thing. He only had like 44 pitches, so he was very efficient for his 10 outs. That being said, I LOVE the idea of multiple innings. Right now with Senzatela, Dollander, and Bellozo in the pen, there are three stretched out starters there. And now with Agnos showing the ability to pitch multiple innings. Currently seven out the eight bullpen guys have pitched multiple innings in just 12 games. Only Victor Vodnik hasn’t. And technically he pitched multiple innings too, except he didn’t record an out in his second inning.
I have always hated the idea of limiting pitchers based on pitch counts or innings. The more pitchers you use, the bigger the chance of one having a bad day. And if one has a bad day, it likely ruins it for the rest. Take pitchers out when they are ineffective, not when you think they might be tired. They get paid a lot of money to work a little when they are tired.
hiflew will you be watching the game live tonight? Makes for a late night from Kentucky.
Watching it right now. But I am a night owl by nature. It’s why I became a fan of a West team to begin with.
Man you jinxed it. Sitting in the 11th right now. Still going, but I am feeling it now.
Sorry about that. Long night for sure but I admire the dedication.
No worries. That is the good thing about being self-employed and working from home. I can start the day anytime I want. That being said, I am looking forward to expansion/realignment and the Rockies are moved into a division with St.Louis and/or Kansas City instead of all the West Coast teams.
My Rockies so inspirational
It’s amusing to see writers place such relevance on a team being .500 on W-L and run differential after just 12 games in a 162-game season.
Consider that the Rockies were never .500 at any point last season and didn’t win their 6th game til may 1st and you can see why they are making a big deal. It’s a marked improvement, even if it’s a small sample
i did consider that but then looked at the calender.
They do have some nice bats coming along, and young arms, and some of the best fans in baseball.
Did you consider the first paragraph.
The Rockies didn’t enter the 2026 season with much hope for a successful campaign on the field. It will take more than the first couple weeks of the season to change that perception, but the club has put together a bit of a winning streak with wins in each of their last four games to pull them up to .500.
Where is the “such relevance” ?
Nick Deeds burner strikes again
FMD. Again with the burner account. Cmon little girl. Give me something new. Can I suggest “Fappert” or “Floppert”. There good ones. Popular with your type as well.
Odd that there are only three teams over .500 in the AL and two teams under .500 in the NL.
They write a article about the Tigers when they start slow, what a hoot, so predictable. When you have a season changing pitcher like Skubal on your team that you can trade for some nice players your never worried about a slow start. The team is scoring runs so its going to turn around at some point. If it doesn’t they have an option there too. GO TIGERS !
Skubal, having less than a season left on his contract, and Boras as his agent, isn’t going to bring back the return you think he will. Contending teams won’t want to give up ML players, and create a hole to fill a hole. Even if he goes to the Dodgers or Mets, Boras is unlikely to finish a contract before he becomes a FA. Face it. Skubal will finish the year as a Tiger.
The team is scoring runs? Not many! The offense has been stuck on SUCK all season. Riley can’t get his head out of his @$$. Don’t look now, but the highest batting average after Colt Keith is Javy Baez.
Too early to change expectations I suppose, but Rockies did not win their 5th game until game 31 in 2025.
I meant 6th win in game 31.
I’m surprised Mariners are off to a slower start than us. Unlike us, Mariners have talent to field a World Series team, we have 90 win team when healthy, but we are never healthy.
Per Mike Kils Denver 9 news, The Prenner Sports group has bought a minority(40%) share of the Rockies. They are minority owners of the Broncos as well. That’s as of 10am on the Friday 4/10