Sporcle: MLB Players, By Statue

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Reds offense good enough to win now

On the year, the offense is nothing special. The Reds are No. 9 in NL runs scored. But as anyone still following the once-miserable Redlegs can attest, it’s a different team from the first half.

The post-All-Star break Reds rank top-five in runs scored, having plated more runs than both the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Of course, runs scored is hardly a tell-all metric. But even a more granular look into the Reds offense reveals more evidence of the team’s ability to score ...

Mets playoff watch: Where they stand in postseason race | Newsday

Can the Mets hold on with this ragtag bunch?

With 13 games left on their schedule, the Mets (80-69) moved one game ahead of the San Francisco Giants at the top of the NL Wild Card standings with a 3-2 win over the Twins. The St. Louis Cardinals sit in third place, two games behind the Mets after a 3-0 win over the Giants on Sunday.

Rangers owners say if city builds them new stadium, old one can be stores or something | Field of Schemes

This is just insane. The current park is only 22 years old.

And this is just bizarre:

In an letter released Sunday on WFAA/Channel 8 Inside Texas Politics, Rangers managing partner Ray Davis said the team is working with the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. to develop retail shops along the Randol Mill Road side of Globe Life Park: “It is the Rangers’ intent to preserve the beautiful exterior facade.”

So if the Texas Rangers owners get more than half a billion dollars in public money to ...

Joe Girardi manages by the book and it’s tanking Yankees’ season | New York Post

Binder talk? Really?

Girardi let Sabathia pitch to Ramirez. He also let Sabathia start the sixth inning. And Girardi elected to pitch to Ramirez again in the seventh — and Clippard surrendered the go-ahead home run.

Bad Binder decisions.

Goold: Cardinals running behind in wild-card race, on bases | St. Louis Cardinals | stltoday.com

This is silly. The Cardinals are 6th in runs scored in MLB. While it’s true a team should try to be great at every facet of the game, the Cardinals baserunning isn’t a real issue.

Rays’ Longoria answers questions with bounceback season | Tampa Bay Times

It’s better when the voices whisper but don’t yell.

“At the end of every year when the numbers don’t look like they have in the past, there are always questions of can you repeat it, are you still the player you were,” Longoria said.

“I’ve never been one to pay attention to what other people say. I don’t read a lot into what people write or listen to what people say.

“But there are always voices in your own head, and to be able to answer those questions to yourself is the most important ...

Constructing Heat Maps for AVG | Exploring Baseball Data with R

Heat maps for all my friends.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-19-2016

New York Sun, September 19, 1916:

The Giants gained another full line of trenches on the Polo Grounds yesterday and ran their September string of victories to a full dozen. Ferdie Schupp painted kalsomine over the Pirates by a score of 2 to 0 in the first tiff of a twin bill.
...
A young man from Dixie named Burleigh Grimes pitched a well regarded spitter at the Giants so skilfully in the second bout that they knocked it back for only three hits…the score was 1 to 1 when Will Klem, the bald ...

OTP 2016 Sep 19 - Race for the White House: The Greatest Circus on Earth

But is the volume of inches of news space and on-air minutes that are devoted to the U.S. presidential race internationally any longer justified?

I believe it isn’t. It is but a quaint habit by now.The near-interminable, grinding race for the White House has degenerated into a self-feeding media circus. Worse, the event has largely become a severe obstacle in global affairs.

Hanley Ramirez homers twice as Sox sweep Yanks | MLB.com

Porcello has 20 wins. Hanley has put the Red Sox on his back this week. When does the Panda get activated?

Ben Zobrist lived every ‘Sandlot’ fan’s dream and biked to Wrigley in his uniform | MLB.com

OK.

Trevor Bauer labels beat writer Paul Hoynes a “coward”

Saturday afternoon Carlos Carrasco suffered a fractured finger when his second pitch of the game was lined back up the middle. The injury almost certainly means his season over, a tough break for the pitcher and for the Cleveland Indians, whose starting rotation will also be without All-Star Danny Salazar the rest of the way. Paul Hoynes, Indians beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer (and its internet arm, Cleveland.com), tweeted “Sept. 17: Remember the date because that’s when Indians’ ...

Baseball’s First 300-Game Winner was Also the Game’s First “Juicer”

In the August 13 game, Galvin played like a man possessed. “Old Jeems once more was a youngster full of fun, power and tricks,” the Pittsburgh Dispatch reported in its story headlined: “Galvin, the Great.”

Bonds, McGwire, A-Rod, and… Pud?

OMNICHATTER 9-19-16

The OMNICHATTER did not win a Emmy.

Stephen Colbert goes incognito at Cubs game as hot dog vendor - Chicago Tribune

How much did he make in tips?

Jacob deGrom leaves, as does Mets’ best route through playoffs | New York Post

More bad news for the Mets.

Instead, the Mets’ GM said Jacob deGrom had experienced renewed pain in his right elbow. DeGrom would not start Sunday for the first time since Sept. 1, as hoped. He almost certainly is done for the season, heading for an offseason surgery to relocate his ulnar nerve away from an area in which it is being compressed, likely by scar tissue.

DeGrom said doctors informed him the ligament — on which he already has had Tommy John surgery — was sound. The procedure ...

Baseball Savant - Video | baseballsavant.com

This is a nice piece of hitting.

Xander Bogaerts homers (20) on a line drive to left field. Jackie Bradley scores.

Nick Cafardo: What the Cubs, Red Sox, and other playoff contenders need to do to stay hot

Score more runs than their opponents?

Indians walk off vs. Tigers; magic number at 7 | MLB.com

This is a tough loss.

Carrasco exits: Two pitches into Saturday’s game, Kinsler sent a sharp line drive back up the middle and off Carrasco’s right hand. The pitcher was in clear pain and was removed from the contest. The Indians announced that Carrasco sustained a non-displaced fracture of his fifth metacarpal, which is a bone in the hand located beneath the pinky finger, and is done for the season. That setback initiated an unexpected bullpen day for the Tribe.

Will the Minnesota Twins trade Brian Dozier?

Everyone is available *in the right deal*.

Jerry Weinstein’s new task: managing Israel | MLB.com

Ike Davis is not an edge.

You have a roster of guys with professional experience. Is that an edge?

Weinstein: Sure, but so do the teams from Great Britain and Brazil, and we’ve got a lot of question marks because we’ve got a lot of old guys on there who really haven’t done a whole lot baseball-wise lately, guys like Josh Satin, Ike Davis and Jason Marquis, but we’ve got some names, and it’s a short series. Anything could happen in a short series. I’m optimistic.

...Read More...

Jim Furtado Posted: September 18, 2016 at 07:54 AM | 1 comment(s)
  Beats: coaches, wbc

OMNICHATTER 9-18-16

The “Technically Submitted on the 17th” OMNICHATTER

Giants beat Cardinals again as Posey breaks homer drought - SFGate

Brandon Belt called Buster Posey “pretty stone-faced.” Indeed, Posey usually saves his smiles for World Series clinchings, no-hitters, all that fun stuff.

That Posey was laughing and smiling as soon as he touched home plate, to see him break every rule in the Book of Buster and flash a huge grin and a thumbs-up directly into the dugout camera, underscores how happy and relieved he was to hit his first homer in two months during Friday night’s 8-2 victory against the Cardinals at AT&T ...

Rockies’ Daniel Descalso a vital veteran bat | MLB.com

Coors Field works wonders.

Descalso is hitting a remarkable .272 with an .820 OPS after hitting .205 with a .607 OPS in 2016. He credits his turnaround to a much-improved swing after studying reigning American League Most Valuable Player Josh Donaldson, Mookie Betts, and former Cardinals teammate Matt Carpenter.

“I just found a swing that I can repeat, and that I feel confident in,” Descalso said. “It has just allowed me to simplify my at-bats and just worry about getting good pitches to hit ...

Scott Boras on Britton’s Cy campaign, Alvarez versus lefties and Jones’ comments - BaltimoreBaseball.com

Alvarez is who he is. A left-handed DH with power.

Alvarez will be a free agent at season’s end and Boras believes he’ll be an attractive free agent coveted by a number of teams. (Yes, he always says that, but more times than not his high-profile clients hit the jackpot in free agency).

Boras says he thinks the Orioles will be in the mix for Alvarez this offseason, especially if they don’t think they can keep pending free agent Mark Trumbo and don’t want to lose their surplus of power. ...Read More...

Jim Furtado Posted: September 17, 2016 at 08:27 AM | 23 comment(s)
  Beats: adam jones, orioles, pedro alvarez, scott boras, zach britton

Theo Epstein of Chicago Cubs sits in Wrigley Field bleachers, wears comical disguise

He’s no Bobby Valentine.

Red Sox got short end of deal in Preller suspension

The closer you look at Padres general manager A.J. Preller’s 30-day suspension by Major League Baseball for his part in the Drew Pomeranz-Anderson Espinoza deal on July 14, the more you realize the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

The Red Sox should be upset they didn’t receive compensation. What happened, according to major league sources, is the Padres didn’t input important information about Pomeranz’s injury history — especially regarding an injury he was receiving treatment ...

OMNICHATTER 9-17-16

The “Theo Epstein in the Bleachers” OMNICHATTER

WP Kinsella, Shoeless Joe author, has died | Vancouver Sun

I enjoyed his work very much.