The Yanks had to cough up a three good prospects but not their three best prospects. Jorge Mateo is the prize for Oakland but he had Didi Gregorius ahead of him. The other two are out at least a year with really bad injuries. Now the question is can Gray pitch in the Big Apple with all the pressure that brings. Aaron Judge hitting .157 since the Home Run Derby. Yankee catcher Austin Romine had the trifecta Sunday. Hit with a foul ball in the neck, clubbed upside the head with a bat and drillled on the left hand with a pitch. He had a goose egg bigger than a golf ball instantly. He is far and away the Yanks best catcher. Gary Sanchez has lifetime DH written all over him. I'm think he has a dozen passed balls already and takes so many trips together the mound that he adds at least 30 minutes to a game.
:roll: re: trade deadline I don't want Yu Darvish. He's a cancer and a guy who's numbers have been declining for four years. I guess I have to trust the front office. They've proven me wrong so many times the last several years that I'm getting gun shy about criticizing them. This had better work. We didn't give up much to get him. The only name prospect was Willie Calhoun. He's a second baseman and we won't need one for years with Taylor, Kike Hernandez, Turner and Utley all playing that position well... We didn't give up much for the two left-handed relievers either. I like the trade for Tony Cingrani of the Reds. He's 28 and under contract until 2020. We traded Scott Van Slyke for him and that's a win-win for everybody. Van Slyke spent 8 years in MLB, often as a starter, but had no future with the team. He spent most of this year in the minors and he's not going to beat out any of the kids; or Eithier if he comes back; or Alex Verdugo who is next year's stud-pony. Tony Watson is a rental from Pittsburgh. He's 32 and has two months to show what he can do. We gave up some low level prospects to rent him and they weren't guys with a future here. One was a catcher. Our current catchers are 28, 27, and 26 years-old. Two of them share the starting job here, so there's just no room. This front office has spent years building up the farm system and hiring guys who play multiple positions. Now all of that is paying off. I still don't want Yu Darvish...
:idea: :arrow: I think the Yankees are the big winners here. They already had a solid foundation of hitters and now they have a real pitching staff too. As I said months ago, "I agree with George." This late in the year, the cream is rising to the top. Cleveland, New York, Kansas City, Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago will be there at the end. The hot teams will make the World Series... What was Baltimore doing? Are they kidding? They were actually buying instead of selling? I'm going to award them the San Diego Padres Front Office Incompetence Award. Who're they going to catch? The Yankees? Red Sox? Not even Tamps Bay...
Both Houston Chronicle Astros beat guys took shots at Jeff Luhnow for his lack of meaningful moves to bolster the staff. One of those guys though I truly believe that he had another column ready to go criticizing Luhnow for selling the teams future for a short term gain if he'd made some significant move. We did get a guy from the BlueJays, Liriano who will be sent to the bullpen to bolster middle relief. Didn't give up anything big for him. Oh and another pitcher, Lance McCullers Jr. is headed to the DL.
Liriano was sensational in his first few years in the league until he developed arm problems. He's been decent since but nothing like his early years.
:shock: The Dodgers beat the Braves to extend the current streak to 9 games. They're 15 games up for the 1st time since 1955 and in cruise control. Bellinger hit his 29th HR and Maeda pitched his best game of the year. Atlanta was the only team to beat the Dodgers since July 4th. In late April this team was two games under .500, when they brought up Bellinger and Taylor. Since then, they're 44 games over .500... Kyle Farmer had his own rooting section in Atlanta of more than 100 friends and family members... When he made his debut back in LA, the story and legend of that event continues to grow. When he stepped to the plate, he had nodded to SF catcher Buster Posey, who's brother had been a teammate at UGA. His parents had missed their flight back to Atlanta, because the game went into extra innings and their son was the last hitter left on the bench. After he won the game with his pinch hit they met their son after the game. Farmer said his mother had been given the ball by the team and his father was crying... The Dodgers invited the Farmers to fly on the team plane back to Atlanta with their son and his teammates. All Mrs. Farmer could say was, "Go Dodgers!" I think the team has made some new fans...
With the spectacular catch by Austin Jackson at Fenway, it makes me wonder what the rule is when making these catches where you end up in the stands. He clearly was in the field of play when he caught the ball then fell into the bullpen. This catch was close and they gave it to Rizzo: So is the rule you have to have all of your body in the field of play for it to be a catch, or can you have 1 toe down like a WR in college football? <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/thvWe3zU3T0" frameborder="0"></iframe> This non-catch is a just hilarious moment, maybe it's why Jose went over to drugs/weed. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QixQMUu4CKI" frameborder="0"></iframe> :shock:
His feet were on the tarp and his body was in the field of play when he reached to make the catch. The tarp is in the field of play. I don't know the actual rule, but I don't think your feet have to be on the ground when you catch the ball.
:idea: :arrow: Well, the ride stops here. It's just as well. I could no longer tell where the baseball stopped and the Hollywood movie began. I don't think Dave Roberts knows either. The last I saw of him tonight, he was joking with Yu Darvish in the bullpen.......in Japanese. He was born in Japan too and it turns out that Darvish and Kenta Maeda are from the same hometown. Among the streaks that went down the drain tonight: - Consecutive wins when having a lead at anytime during the game (53). - The old record was 33. - 41 wins out 46 games. This leaves the 2017 Dodgers in a three-way tie with the 1941 Yankees and the 1906 Cubs. - The Dodgers current win streak of 9. What gets into Atlanta when they play us? Since the 4th of July our team is 20-0 against MLB, but all three losses are to the Braves... Cody Bellinger hit his 30th HR in this game... Rumors say that video analysis of Darvish shows that he may have been tipping his pitches. This tells me two things: 1. The Dodgers are analyzing every opposing pitcher for tipped pitches. 2. The Dodgers have a program to prevent their pitchers from tipping off the batters. There are reasons why average pitchers improve dramatically once they're in the Dodger system. Let's see in Darvish, Watson and Cingrani improve.
Yu Darvish made it look easy against the Mets. He shut them out, giving up 3 hits and striking out 10. He used only 5 pitches in one inning and only 7 in another. Rick Honeycutt said that he noticed something about Darvish that had to be corrected, but he won't say what it is... The Dodgers have hit 18 HRs against the Mets in the last 5 games. The Dodgers have won 42 of the last 47, which is the best since the 1912 NY Giants. At their current pace, the Dodgers would win 114 games. No National League team has won 110 games since the 1910 Pirates. They only need to play .500 ball the rest of the way to win 100 games...
:shock: Dodgers win again in another comeback. There were five Dodger HRs, giving them 23 HRs in the last six games against the Mets. New acquisition Ton Watson looked fabulous in relief... This is now, officially the best any National League team has done at this point of the season since 1912...
Astros have 9 players on the DL, so far Liriano has been a bust as a situational reliever...Astros lose to Bluejays in 10. It was Jeff Bagwell's HOF Appreciation day. August is going to be a struggle to get healthy again.
:!: :arrow: Dodgers win 79th on Hyun-Jin Ryu's one-hit shut out. Kenley pitched the 9th to get some work and Bellinger hit his 32nd HR... Off tomorrow then open in Arizona on Tuesday... Local media is now referring to the Dodgers as "The greatest show on earth." Justin Turner was cut loose by the Mets as a player they had no use for. Yesterday Mets manager Terry Collins called Turner "the greatest hitter in baseball." What's wrong with that picture? The Dodgers swept the Mets easily in every game this year... It's just my opinion, but the Mets need to take a broom to that entire front office. Most of their "star" players are older guys in the final year of their contracts who should have been traded long ago. Now their value is just about zero and Dodger fans almost out-numbered Mets fans at Citi field...
Believe it or not, when this season started the media was calling the Mets the new Kings of New York in baseball. Thet just traded their most popular player in Lucas Duda. They suffered significant financial damage in the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme as well.
How do you feel about Joe West being suspended for calling Adrian Beltre the whiner that he is? Seems like excessive. Astros now in deep trouble, Ace Dallas Keuchel is back to last years form which is terrible. #2 starter is still on the DL and the bullpen is regressing weekly. We can probably still hang on to the Division because we have such a big lead and nobody is really very good in our division anyway and thus not likely to put on a big push. But I fear a 1 and done embarrassment in the playoffs.
I don't have a problem with West's suspension. Even if he was joking, IMO an umpire should never comment on a player either positive or negative. I saw that Beltre said he shouldn't be suspended, and I appreciate that. Nevertheless,West gave the appearance of bias with his comments, which is a no-no for umpires.