WHERE THE 2017 TOP 50 INTERNATIONAL PROSPECTS ARE SIGNING

Our list below contains where Baseball America’s Top 50 international prospects have agreed to sign. As is the case with any signing, these agreements are all pending an officially signed contract and approval from the commissioner’s office, but these players have reached agreements to sign with teams.

Players who are still 15 are not yet eligible to sign until they turn 16 either later this month or in August. However, No. 11 prospect Ronny Rojas is expected to sign with the Yankees, No. ...

Jim Bouton, Author and Former Pitcher, Struggles With Brain Disease

It is good for Bouton to have company, said his wife, Paula Kurman, who has a doctorate in interpersonal communications from Columbia. They have been married for 35 years and have lived here for more than 20, among the foxes and black bears, surrounded by pine trees. A cloud might roll by, straight through the screened-in porch, and there are no other homes in sight. Their children are grown and live elsewhere.

Bouton had a stroke five years ago this Aug. 15. They know the date because it was ...

Sunday Notes: Blake Parker is an Angel Who Can Save | FanGraphs Baseball

“I don’t know if this is a good analogy, but the only thing I can compare it to is picturing yourself sitting on the beach,” [Taylor] Rogers told me. “If you can close your eyes and picture yourself on the beach, you can start to hear the waves, and feel the sand, and the warm air. It’s kind of like a daydream. It’s, ‘OK, Chris Davis is coming up, and here we go.’ By the time I get out there, my brain has already seen him.”

What it hasn’t seen is the result of the pitch. ...

Olney: Aaron Judge is chasing history by not chasing bad pitches - Buster Olney Blog- ESPN

But his walk rate in 2017 shows he understands a lot of principles that some hitters never conquer. A common response to a thriving young hitter is to tempt him with pitches out of the strike zone, and so far, Judge has demonstrated unusual discipline. As of Saturday morning, his chase rate was 24.4 percent, 30th best in the majors and better than old pros like Dexter Fowler, Logan Morrison, Matt Holliday and Buster Posey.

Joey Votto is regarded as a master of plate discipline, perhaps the ...

AquaSox’s White has tools, work ethic to be big-league success | HeraldNet.com

Meet the Mariners’ number one pick.

Kyle Schwarber rediscovering his form in Iowa: ‘This is a positive time’ - Chicago Tribune

“There is no feeling sorry,” he said. “Trust me. I did it to myself. I’m the one who was out there playing every day. This is a positive time.

“Talking to my parents, they were very supportive, and my girlfriend is here with me, and it’s all supportive. It’s just the extra reinforcement you get.”

Why the Mets’ dream of a super rotation has gone all wrong | New York Post

Generation K redux.

Top international prospects sign on July 2 | MLB.com

Happy 2nd!

Bradley Zimmer makes great catch in Detroit | MLB.com

Two “3-star plays”.

In a short amount of time, Zimmer has established himself as one of the game’s most promising young center fielders.

In addition to boasting the Indians’ hardest-hit ball since 2015 when Statcast™ was introduced (114.6 mph on May 30), Zimmer has the hardest-thrown outfield assist in the Majors this season (101.5 mph on June 18) and ranks third in baseball in Sprint Speed (29.8 feet per second). Now, Zimmer has a pair of 3-star plays (one diving catch to rob Mahtook in each ...

MLB, stung by juiced-ball gripes, sends memo to clubs claiming ‘no evidence’ ball changed

The memo, a one-page, 18-point document, notes that balls are tested at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell Baseball Research Center at least three times a year. Those tests measure the ball’s size, weight and COR (bounciness), seam height, circumference and weight.

MLB notes that the average COR measure of balls used this season was 0.555, slightly lower than the 2016 figure, which it did not cite. The higher the COR, the greater the ball’s exit velocity on contact.

The memo’s summary ...

Astros’ David Paulino suspended 80 games for PED violation

David Paulino, who represented rotation depth for the Astros and is also regarded as one of their best prospects, was suspended 80 games by Major League Baseball on Saturday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
Paulino will not appeal his suspension, which spells the end of his season. The 23-year-old Dominican righthander won’t be eligible to be included on a postseason roster. He tested positive for Boldenone, a substance in violation of MLB’s drug prevention and treatment ...

OMNICHATTER is the new black, for July 1 & 2, 2017

Each MLB team’s unlikeliest All-Star this century. | Sports on Earth

New York Yankees: Mike Stanton, 2001. Stanton pitched for 19 years in the Majors, for eight different teams, but he only got on one All-Star roster for a stacked Yankees team that had six other All-Stars. Amusing factoid: Stanton pitched in 1,178 games and started only one, in 1999, also for the Yankees. He pitched four shutout innings in a bullpen game before giving way to Jason Grimsley (!) and Mariano Rivera.

ESPN: Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! His annual $1.19 million payday is here

Might as well get it over with…

With seven payments now in, Bonilla has now collected $8,352,737.40. There are 18 more payments due to Bonilla through 2035. When all the payments are made, Bonilla will have turned that $5.9 million into $29.8 million.

But that’s not all.

Bonilla also has deferred money that is being paid by the Mets and the Baltimore Orioles, who took Bonilla for the final year and a half (1995 and 1996) of his first Mets contract, a five-year deal signed in December 1991 ...

Dave Roberts, Andy Green ejected after fracas | MLB.com

Nobody is stealing this sign.

via GIPHY

No humidor at Chase Field for Diamondbacks in 2017

Along with a better grip for the pitchers, the humidor was expected by physicists to decrease offense. Notably, Alan Nathan wrote an article six years ago for Baseball Prospectus that analyzed the effect of the humidor at Coors Field. He also looked at Chase Field at that time because there were rumors even back then of a humidor coming to Arizona. Nathan predicted a 37 percent reduction in home runs at Chase Field, which is even greater than the actual reduction in home runs at Coors Field ...

Adam Dunn—The home run-strikeout artist ahead of his time

Rob Deer wasn’t available?

Red Sox LHP David Price And Dennis Eckersley Have Confrontation

I hope Price pitches well enough to opt out of his contract. I already dread the last few years. His temperament will only make his end that much worse.

Pipeline Inbox: 2017 All-Star Futures Game | MLB.com

I have been to every Futures Game except one (the birth of my daughter won out over the 2004 edition in Houston), so there’s a lot of history to sift through. In some ways, answering this question really would require a longer look at future success, sort of like evaluating the Draft. I don’t mean to kick this down the road, but seeing how many of this year’s Futures Gamers go on to not only get to the big leagues, but become impact players would be the true measure.

I will say that in terms ...

Baseball’s Analytics Society Sees a Problem: Avg. Age, Members

Think Comic-Con, only with gray hair and a slightly stooped posture.

June sees greatest number of home runs in 1 month in MLB history

Smoak’s home run was the 1,070th across the majors in June, breaking the previous mark set in May 2000…..

The 2000 season had 5,693 home runs overall—the most of any MLB campaign. This year’s pace of 6,139 would smash that record.

Entering Friday, the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge (27) and Los Angeles Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger (24)—both in the midst of phenomenal rookie campaigns—lead their respective leagues in home runs this season.

There has been at least one player with a multihomer game ...

Boston Red Sox release Allen Craig

The Red Sox announced on Friday that they have released first baseman Allen Craig.

The 32-year-old Craig never panned out in Boston after a July 2015 trade to the club from St. Louis along with Joe Kelly in exchange for John Lackey and minor league pitcher Corey Littrell.

Craig appeared in just 65 games for the Red Sox hitting .152 with one double and one homer.

He spent the entirety of 2016 and 2017 in Triple-A Pawtucket. He hit .253 with a .668 OPS in 47 games with the PawSox this ...

An oral history of “League of Their Own” on the 25th anniversary

Candaele: Geena Davis (Dottie) was very clearly a talented athlete. She could throw and swing the bat. Then all of the other women they found to fill out the teams were great athletes. So it just reinforced this idea that there are great women athletes out there that are tremendous baseball players. They brought those skills to the tryouts, then, of course, the movie.

Greenhut: We went through a lot tryouts. We had Demi Moore out there in a batting cage. (Moore eventually couldn’t do the film ...

Tom Henke’s early retirement might’ve cost him the Hall of Fame | MLB | Sporting News

Duane Ward’s interview should have been completed first.

Before Kevin McClatchy came out as gay, he called ‘the midwife’ for help | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A psychology Ph.D. who loves Star Wars and Star Trek, he also felt writing his own book would provide a more holistic picture of his background and accomplishments than leaving his story up to media outlets.

“Far more important than knowing I am gay,” he said, “is knowing I am a geek.”

Bragman knew McClatchy wanted to maintain his sense of self, too, as a golfer, a major sports figure in a town of Rooneys and the chairman of a newspaper chain — who happened to be gay.

“This is a ...

To combat fly-ball mania, Pirates pitchers are playing along | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When everybody is zigging, it’s time to start zagging.

Cardinals promote Mozeliak, set to name Girsch general manager

It has been discussed for several months now within the ballpark how Mozeliak would be promoted and one of his lieutenants would be moved up to the general manager role. Mozeliak would have a role overseeing all of baseball operations—and a title to go with it, akin to president—and still remain heavily involved. The Cardinals would have a new general manager to work in tandem with Mozeliak.

Mike Girsch, the assistant general manager, has been identified as the next general manager of the ...

MLB First-Half Awards: Aaron Judge, Aaron Judge and, oh yeah, Craig Stammen?

What does this have to do with Craig Stammen?

As with just about everything he does, Goldschmidt is turning in a kid-on-an-iPad quiet MVP-type season. He is the most well-rounded first baseman we’ve seen in some time, among his ability to hit for average and power, his patience, his baserunning and his glove. Scherzer has been the best pitcher in baseball this year, and like Sale, his dominance deserves MVP consideration. The rest of the list is pretty much Dodgers and Nationals, with Joey ...

OMNICHATTER never lets the smooth taste fool him, for June 30, 2017

Numbers behind Rockies’ 8-game losing streak | MLB.com

Allowing more runs and scoring less is a recipe for a losing streak.