Well we are at the All-Star break. Rays, Guardians and Rangers lead the AL Divisions Braves, Reds, Dodgers/DBacks lead the NL Divisions. Wanna bet that's not the way it finishes? Astros just can't stop with the injuries, yet somehow we're in strikng distance of the Rangers only 2 back and that's after losing 3 out of 4 to the Mariners at home. Need to get healthy.
Jose Ramirez did just that last week to go one run up in extra innings. (Well, he didn't steal second and third but he's done a lot of that too) Unfortunately the Royals scored two in the second half of the inning to win the game. Only the 8th time in MLB history that someone stole home in extra innings. Jose Ramirez steals home: Guardians star pulls off stunning swipe to score go-ahead run vs. Royals
Braves of course are the most likely to be the AL East winner given their big lead and the number of AA-Stars that they have, of course they have to stay healthy.
Sounding more and more like Ohtani will be a free agent after the season. Will probably command a record contract that only a few teams can afford. No doubt while money will be big also going some place where he has a shot at winning a championship will be important. The Angels haven't even made the playoffs in his 6 years.
The Dodgers are gonna go all out to get Ohtani. They've been slashing payroll and letting guys walk for 2 years now waiting for the next off-season.
As a Yankee fan I consider myself somewhat of an expert on committing large chunks of money over the course of 7-10 years on one "generational talent" player. It feels so good when you win one of those high priced sweepstakes. Then you watch a .152 hitting Josh Donaldson earning $25.5 million. Or a .203 hitting Giancarlo Stanton with 9 HRs earning $31 million. Or Carlos Rodon throwing his first pitch of the season on July 1 while earning $22 million. Then of course you can watch Aaron Judge night after night cheerleading from the bench with a bum toe, his second extended stint on the IL having missed more than 50% of the season so far as he pulls down $40 million. That is almost $120 million in annual salaries producing little or no return and you are hamstrung to make any significant changes because of the nature of the contracts. And you realize that the best player on the team, the real team MVP, the one who gives you the best return and offers the most utility is Isaiah Kiner-Falefa who pulls down $6 million. Be careful how you build your team. And if you think that's crazy then just look at Tampa Bay who puts a solid team on the field every year, a winning team with a current total payroll of $64,540,866 .
At least the Yankee's are above .500 unlike the Padres and Mets who spent an obscene amount of money on star players who haven't been stars this season for sure.
Certainly, would be the easiest move for him. Not many teams can afford him that's for sure, before the NL allowed the DH I would have given it zero chance of him moving to a NL team, but that's not an issue. I wonder if the Giants can afford him, although the LA area has double the number of people of Japanese ancestry as San Francisco if that is a factor in his decision.
Seems as if the teams more limited in payroll have to work on player development and try to sign rising potential stars to extensions (i.e. Emmanual Clase, Andres Gimenez)...or trade them before they become free agents to get more prospects to develop. The larger market teams just sign the established stars to their big league club...but as George says, that's no guarantee. I hate it when Cleveland loses a Fransisco Lindor or a Shane Bieber...but it's something to watch the new kids come up and compete. And every once in a while you get someone who could make more money as a free agent but wants to stay (Jose Ramirez).
Cleveland gonna be challenged rest of this year because of injuries to their starters and trying not to overburden their young arms both starters and bullpen.
Oh. My. Gosh. What an absolutely amazing debut! To my eyesight, assuming a ball hitting the top yellow line is a home run, he robbed two HRs in addition to his clutch hitting. A hero is born.
Big series starts with the Astros/Rangers. Rangers won't be throwing their best pitcher at us during this 3 game series so that's a break. We've been hanging in there and hopefully Yordan Alvarez will be back this series and Jose Altuve not far behind. Oh and today is the 40th Anniversary of the George Brett pine tar incident.
I love Joey Votto. For real fun, if you can catch a Reds game early, watch Votto interact with the kids.
The real entertainment event of the century will be to be a "fly on the wall" and watch Corey's reaction when he finds out that the Yankees decided to open the vault far enough to outbid the Dodgers and nab Ohtani. It is only fitting that the young man dons pinstripes, plays in the Bronx and gets a daily view of the location upon which his monument will reside for eternity.