Guess who's injured again

 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Giancarlo Stanton is likely headed to the injured list. Ughh !

The Yankees slugger was removed from the Yankees' second game on Saturday with left hamstring tightness and is set to have an MRI. Manager Aaron Boone said after the game that Stanton will also have another dreaded IL stint after spending most of 2019 on the mend due to multiple injuries.

It’s the latest point of frustration for Stanton, and particularly a blow for the Yankees with the slugger off to a hot start this season. We won’t know until at least later today how much time Stanton will miss, but if his series of injuries and setbacks from last year are any indication, it could be a while.

The good news for Yankees fans and fantasy managers is that the team has many alternatives. Mike Ford replaced Stanton during Saturday’s game, but now would seem to be the perfect opportunity for Miguel Andujar to get another shot. Andujar was demoted two days earlier due to lack of opportunity, with only 14 at-bats and five appearances in the first two weeks. Still, he’s a proven hitter, as shown in his breakout 2018 season when he hit .297-27-92 before sitting out most of 2019 due to a shoulder injury.

Andujar is an intriguing middle of the order possibility, but that’s of little solace for fantasy managers who were finally starting to see Stanton gain some momentum, launching his third home run of the year during the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader.

 

The state of MLB closers has never been more frustrating for fantasy managers than in the early 2020 season. We are at least beginning to see some clarity with two situations that were up in the air as recently as a few days ago.

Just off the injured list on Friday, Rafael Montero has been given back-to-back save opportunities and converted for the Rangers. This time the former top Mets prospect was the fifth reliever in the game, pitching a perfect ninth inning to seal a 2-0 victory over the Angels.

Despite battling elbow tendinitis to start the year, Montero’s velocity has been just fine, though it could be telling that he’s yet to unleash his slider, which he threw 14 percent of the time in 2019. Fantasy managers can have no qualms with the performance so far after Montero had a 2.48 ERA and 6.80 K/BB ratio in 29 innings with Texas last year.

The Royals also look like they’ve settled on a closer. Mike Matheny gave Trevor Rosenthal the save chance for the second day in a row, and he was able to tally his third save of the year by throwing 1.1 innings with three strikeouts.

Rosenthal was notably the Cardinals closer for part of the time Matheny managed in St. Louis, so it should come as no surprise that Matheny would turn back to the hard-throwing Rosenthal. After showing almost no control in his return from Tommy John surgery in 2019, Rosenthal is back on track this year and has yet to issue a walk with 10 strikeouts in seven innings. The 30-year-old is also continuing to throw gas, averaging 98 mph on his fastball.

Osuna, osee ya later

It didn't look good when Roberto Osuna threw a pitch, pointed to the dugout and gestured for the trainer to come to the mound during Saturday's game against the Angels.

On Tuesday, Astros manager Dusty Baker said the same thing about Osuna's MRI.

The Astros closer reportedly was recommended to have season-ending Tommy John surgery, a source told Mark Berman, the sports director at Fox 26 KRIV-TV in Houston. Per Berman, Osuna will seek a second opinion before making a decision.

Baker, during a radio interview on 790 AM in Houston, didn't go so far as to reveal the results of the MRI but said the outlook "doesn't look real good, actually."

“He went and had an MRI yesterday," Baker said of Osuna. "He’s in our prayers and in our thoughts. The reality is it’s probably not really good news.”

If Osuna is done -- and, to repeat, that's just an unconfirmed report at this point -- it is both very easy and potentially very difficult to figure out where the Astros turn for saves in 2020.

The one that makes the most sense, almost too much sense, is Ryan Pressly, the 2019 All-Star reliever who was set to save games in Osuna's absence earlier this season. Pressly is in some ways a better version of Osuna, collecting more strikeouts while still offering elite ratios.

The problem, then, is that Pressly is dealing with his own issues, having his 2020 debut delayed due to right elbow issues and then suffering a cut on the thumb of his pitching hand in his season debut Sunday. If Pressly can't stay on the field, the picture gets a lot more cloudy -- does an upstart like Andre Scrubb or Cy Sneed get a crack at the job? Do the Astros move someone like Josh James back to relief to have him close? Do they look outside the organization, and if so, where?

For now, the move is to roster Pressly and hope his health cooperates. The next time the Astros have a save situation, pay attention to who gets the call -- and how they fare in the situation.

 

Nate was great

If his highly-anticipated big league debut on Wednesday night in Washington is any indication of what we can expect for the remainder of his burgeoning career, then the Toronto Blue Jays have something really special in Nate Pearson.

The fresh-faced, fireballing phenom went toe-to-toe through five innings with future baseball hall of famer Max Scherzer at Nationals Park, which was technically Toronto’s first ‘home game’ of this unprecedented MLB season, and was flat out impressive.

Pearson, a 23-year-old rookie who is six-feet-six-inches tall, 250 lbs. and one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, struck out five batters in his five innings of work against the reigning World Series champions and gave up just two hits and did not allow a run.

Forty-eight of the 75 pitches he threw were strikes and Pearson’s fastball was consistently topping out at 99 mph, which must have tricked the Nationals’ batters into thinking they were facing their own ace.

The native of Odessa, Fla., fanned the first batter he faced when he got Nats shortstop Trea Turner to swing through a nasty slider and became only the third starting pitcher in Blue Jays history to pitch at least five shutout innings in his first Major League start.

Without a doubt, Pearson has the brightest future among all of Toronto’s pitching prospects and as he learns how to manage the rigors of a season and hones his craft against the best hitters on the planet, he has all the tools to become a perennial Cy Young Award candidate in the years to come.

I admit that I may be jumping the gun in offering sky high praise to an unproven talent at the Major League level, knowing there have been countless others who have been in the same situation and have flamed out, but Pearson has that ‘it factor.’

The Blue Jays’ top prospect has a great work ethic and a desire to become one of the game’s best pitchers, and Person’s impressive showing on Wednesday proved to everyone that he is just starting to scratch the surface.

Ramblings from the edge

Well the calendar says July 12st, but I feel differently. Baseball is about to begin, the NHL is about to begin the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NBA is about to begin again in a "bubble". WTF is happening to the world.
Oh I remember, the pandemic broke out, but that was 6 months ago, oh sorry Mr.President, The Chinese Virus is going to blow over in a couple of days.  Bullshit.💩

The time on my computer says 10:38 am, but it somehow just doesn't seem right either. Nothing seems as it should.  I should be able to review the last cruise I went on, but oops I didn't go, the corona virus made that impossible.

Well, I guess I will write a blog.

Here is Steve Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning, their team captain. He is awaiting the winner  of a preliminary series, it's a bit complicated but trust me, they have it all figured out.

Now if the virus infects a team or two, well I can't see the NHL finishing the season.

Next we have the return of baseball next week, The Washington Nationals return to defend their first World Series trophy.

The Blue Jays have been bumped out of their cosy Toronto nest, and are making their minds up where to hold their home games at.
Pittsburgh, Buffalo , even Baltimore are options.

And the NBA is planning on finishing the season in a bubble, and so players have come down with the virus and some players have opted out for other reasons ( personal ). I think it's because they are scared of getting sick.
I applaud the fact that players are opting out and staying safe and healthy.


The NFL , who knows what to expect ? They are hoping for fans attending games, I think they are dreaming in technicolor.

Well, I need to finish my coffee, and watch some television, the usual, bye bye for now.

The Blue Jays denied their nest

The Blue Jays have been denied approval from the Canadian federal government to play their regular season games in Toronto, the club announced on Saturday.

The club is in the process of finalizing the best home location for the 2020 season.

“From the onset of discussions with league and government officials, the safety of the broader community -- our fans -- and the team remained the priority of everyone involved, and with that, the club completely respects the federal government’s decision,” Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro said in a statement. “Though our team will not be playing home games at Rogers Centre this summer, our players will take the field for the 2020 season with the same pride and passion representative of an entire nation. We cannot wait until the day comes that we can play in front of our fans again on Canadian soil.”

The club had received a federal exemption to carry out Summer Camp in Toronto, but the regular-season issue was a separate negotiation with the added complications of visiting teams crossing the Canada-U.S.A. border, which is still closed to all non-essential travel. The regular season also would have involved the Blue Jays traveling to American cities for road games, then returning home across the border.

In a statement announcing the decision, Canadian minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship Marco E. L. Mendicino left open the possibility that the decision could be revisited for potential postseason games in Toronto "should the risk of virus transmission diminish."

Player and staff have been operating under a strict “modified quarantine” plan through Summer Camp, which has seen them refined to Rogers Centre and the attached hotel. The club’s proposal for regular-season play, which had the support of the municipal government in Toronto and the province of Ontario, called for visiting teams to follow that same protocol with advanced testing.
Now, the Blue Jays are faced with even more uncertainty with Opening Day looming on July 24 and their home opener -- wherever home might be -- on July 29 against the Nationals.

The club’s Dunedin, Fla., complex had been Plan B for much of this process, but their Triple-A stadium in Buffalo, N.Y., has recently re-emerged as the likely candidate.
Challenges would remain in Buffalo, too, but many teams have found ways to creatively use space in concourses, suites and the bleachers, which will not be housing fans.

Time to shuffle off to Buffalo.

Yasiel finds a home

A week after being surprised by Nick Markakis’ decision to not play this year, the Braves are now attempting to replace him with Yasiel Puig, who has the potential to be more productive than Markakis would have been.



While Markakis has always been considered to be a clubhouse favorite, Puig has often drawn the ire of his previous teammates and employers.
But as Braves manager Brian Snitker recently said regarding an unrelated matter, “This is not a game played by choir boys.”
Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos understands the value of clubhouse camaraderie. At the same time, the two years he recently spent with the Dodgers gave him a better understanding of what kind of player and person Puig truly is.
Whatever trepidation might have existed didn’t stop Anthopoulos and Puig from reaching an agreement that, as of Wednesday afternoon, was still pending the results of a physical and a COVID-19 test.

If Puig passes his physical and tests negative for the coronavirus, he will join what will immediately become an improved Braves roster.
Here are a few reasons Puig could clearly be a better option than Markakis:

Recent offensive production
When Puig hit .267 with 24 homers and a .785 OPS over 611 plate appearances with the Reds and Indians last year, he experienced a down year. His 100 OPS+ was the second-lowest mark of his career, sitting ahead of only the 98 OPS+ he constructed in 2016.

As for Markakis, his OPS+ exceeded 100 just once over the past four seasons. That occurred in '18, when he hit .297 with 14 homers and an .806 OPS.

But being seven years younger, Puig has the power, speed and defensive range no longer possessed by the 36-year-old Markakis.
Defensive value

Puig still has one of the game’s top arms and he will provide more range than Markakis would at both corner-outfield spots.

Roster fit
Before it was determined National League teams could use a designated hitter this year, there was reason to question how Markakis was going to draw plate appearances beyond those as a pinch-hitter.
With Snitker now given the option to use Ozuna as his primary DH, it looked like Markakis might at least draw a handful of starts in left field. But this would have likely highlighted his decreased range.
Truist Park’s dimensions led the Braves to spend much of the past two seasons sticking Markakis in right field and positioning Ronald Acuña Jr. in left field, which is the more spacious of the two corner outfields in Atlanta.
With the five outfielders the Braves had at the start of Summer Camp, they possessed two (Ender Inciarte and Markakis) who struggle against left-handed pitching and another (Ozuna) who should be used sparingly on defense.

Johan Camargo and Austin Riley could have played left field when necessary. But Riley is slated to play first base until Freddie Freeman is cleared to return after testing positive for COVID-19.
Though Puig had reverse splits in 2018, he has shown the ability to handle right-handed and left-handed pitchers in similar fashion. His ability to play on an everyday basis at either corner-outfield spot makes him a better fit for this roster.

Potential roles
If this deal is completed, Snitker will then discuss how he might use his outfielders. These are possible options.
vs. right-handed pitchers: LF Puig; CF Inciarte; RF Acuña; DH Ozuna
vs. left-handed pitchers: LF Adam Duvall; CF Acuña; RF Puig; DH Ozuna

Baseball players are falling like ten pins

Met Pete Alonso

Several Major League Baseball players and team staff have reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.

 

It is unknown how many players or staff have tested positive, or which teams have been impacted, according to USA today. 

 

The news of the positive tests was released in a letter obtained by USA Today sent from MLB's Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem to Player's Association attorney Bruce Meyer, as the two sides work to come up with a formal agreement to get the player's back onto the field, to salvage at least some of the season.

 

"The proliferation of COVID-19 outbreaks around the country over the last week, and the fact that we already know of several 40-man roster players and staff who have tested positive, has increased the risks associated with commencing spring training in the next few weeks," Halem wrote.

The two sides are trying to hammer out complicated issues like player compensation, quarantine measures for players, and the number of games to be played.

 

Several players are publicly questioning the leaking of the letter, on social media, as negotiations between the two sides have taken a turn for the worse in recent days.

 

Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle tweeted Monday, "First, I hope everyone is feeling ok and recovering well. But the timing of this leak is suspicious and it feels really gross."

 

Paul Goldschmidt

 

 

New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso added, "It's almost as if they planned it." Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo wrote "Good timing." 

 

CNN has reached out to MLB and the players' union for confirmation about this report.