MLB ambassador Billy Bean spreads inclusion message

Billy Bean, who works for the commissioner’s office as its inclusion ambassador, isn’t counting the days until that watershed moment is achieved.

“That would be a lot to handle for a player while he’s playing,” said Bean, who came out after completing a six-year career as a big-league outfielder. “I feel confident that if a guy was just a great teammate and great player, that conversation could still be held in a clubhouse. It wouldn’t have to be public. That’s a great place to ...

MLB’s Statcast creates new era of data and competition | SI.com

Following up on earlier article from this week, one way for a team to differentiate itself right now is finding the best way to handle missing data.

If you are interested in sabermetrics, read this article.

Every MLB organization now has an analytics team in place to try to figure out what to do with all the data that comes from 2,430 games—roughly 750,000 pitches—a season. The 30 teams are using the data in 30 different ways, but they do all share this: an unwillingness to talk about what ...

Strained relations? Irate Hammel not happy with Maddon | Chicago Sun-Times

Want to say on the mound longer? Pitch better.

He was visibly angry when Maddon approached the mound to remove him, sought answers during a closed-door meeting with the manager after the game and didn’t hide his irritation talking to media afterward.

“I didn’t even pitch today in my mind. I barely threw 40 pitches,” said Hammel, who actually threw 39, and kept his postgame answers to even fewer syllables. “It was a side day for me pretty much.”

As recently as Friday, Maddon was ...

Padres claim Oswaldo Arcia, option Kivlehan | padres.com

Smart pickup for a bad team. He’s worth a flier.

The whirlwind season continues for Oswaldo Arcia. The Padres claimed the outfielder off waivers from the Marlins on Saturday and optioned infielder/outfielder Patrick Kivlehan to Triple-A El Paso. In addition, the club also transferred outfielder Jon Jay to the 60-day disabled list.

Arcia, 25, was designated for assignment by Miami on Thursday. This is the fourth Major League team for Arcia this season. He had played a total of 55 games in 2016 ...

Ozzie Albies might not get September callup | braves.com

If there is a real debate, the answer should be no.

Braves executives will meet with the coaching staff within the next few days to discuss which players will be added when the active roster can expand beyond 25 players in September. Ozzie Albies stands as the most intriguing candidate, but there is no guarantee the highly regarded prospect will end this season at the big league level.

Dating back to the start of Spring Training, there has been an assumption the Braves would spend at least a ...

It’s time the owner takes some blame for the disappointing Diamondbacks | FOX Sports

The instability starts at the top.

Process and evaluation matter greatly in today’s game, particularly with so much money at stake. Yet, the act that defined the D-backs’ occasional penchant for rash decision-making – the signing of Greinke as a $206.5 million free agent – was authored not by La Russa or Stewart, but by Kendrick.
...
So now what? The dismissals of La Russa and Stewart would amount to another abrupt turn, even if Kendrick determines that the moves are justified. Again: ...

Pirates’ Gerrit Cole will miss Monday start | MLB.com

This isn’t good.

Gerrit Cole will not make his scheduled start Monday in Chicago in order to seek a second opinion on his right elbow, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington announced after Saturday’s 9-6 win over the Brewers.

Dustin Pedroia’s AB hit streak ends at 11 | MLB.com

The Laser Show is fully operational.

Sunday Notes: Jessica Mendoza, Stubby Clapp, Strahm, McGuire, more | FanGraphs Baseball

David Laurila’s latest.

Sanchez Fastest In MLB History To 11 HRs

Another day, another Gary Sanchez HR:

Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez enjoyed his first career curtain call after becoming the fastest player in Major League history to reach 11 home runs, doing so in his 23rd career game on Saturday in the Yankees’ 13-5 win against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium. Sanchez connected for an opposite-field blast off Baltimore starter Dylan Bundy in the fourth inning, clearing the wall in right-center field and giving the Yankees a 5-2 lead at the time.
.  .  . ...

Bochy’s extension sets managerial pay record

Bruce Bochy’s three-year extension with the San Francisco Giants was announced in April of 2015 without a salary given, as so often happens these days, when teams prefer to keep secret the salaries and in some cases even terms of their top baseball people.

But it has been learned Bochy’s extension actually set a managerial pay record, as he became a $6-million-a-year man on the new three-year deal.

The Giants may consider it a five-year deal since he had two years to go when they added ...

Omnichatter 8-27-16

Ain’t no party like an OMNICHATTER party!

The Diamondbacks’ flexible philosophies

““So what’s next for the Diamondbacks? The owner and the CEO are the same. Will they stay old school? Will they go outside-the-box? Will they hire someone who’s got a series of impressive degrees and worked in a baseball front office? Will they go purely sabermetric? Or will they stay where they are and augment La Russa with someone he knows and trusts, like Walt Jocketty?

Any guesses about their future might be accurate because the Diamondbacks have tried just about everything. There’s ...

2016 NFL thread

A place for those who would pollute the college football threads.

Hardly a Hard Day’s Night for the Cubs on Beatles Night at Dodger Stadium - Chicago Tribune

Joe Maddon and David Ross visited Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully in his TV booth before Friday’s game to wish him well and give him some going away gifts.

Among the presents was the numbers 6 and 7 from the Wrigley Field scoreboard, and a variety of T-shirts from the vintage Maddon collection, including the ubiquitous “Try Not To Suck” T.

Was Maddon hoping the legendary Scully would say “try not to suck” on the air for perhaps the first time in his career?

“It would definitely put a spike in ...

Mariners option outfielder Norichika Aoki | MLB.com

While his teammates celebrated Friday’s 3-1 victory over the White Sox on Friday night, veteran left fielder Norichika Aoki quietly dealt with Mariners officials and then made some phone calls after being informed he was being optioned back to Triple-A Tacoma.

Aoki will be one of several roster moves announced by the Mariners on Saturday as they look to shore up a bullpen that was already running a man short and now is dealing with a sore back by Tom Wilhelmsen as well.

The San Diego Chicken Heads Into a Sunset

Erin Blank, the owner of Keystone Mascots and a former Detroit Tigers and Washington Capitals mascot, added, “We wouldn’t be doing what we do today if it wasn’t for him.”

Giannoulas’s business model was always to go where a laugh was appreciated. For years, he pursued them relentlessly, spending up to 260 days on the road.

These days, thanks to the unpredictability of travel and a desire to enjoy life in San Diego, Giannoulas stays still — or what, for him, passes for still. He ...

Gyorko continues his surge to aid Weaver’s win | Cardinal Beat | stltoday.com

22 homers in 316 PA.

“When you’re out there trying to get your first win and you get a couple of runs early, it maybe settles you down a little,” Gyorko said. “And he definitely got in a groove and was pounding the strike zone. I got a pitch I was kind of looking for. I was looking for that changeup and I put a good swing on it.”

After wrapping up the previous night’s loss with a solo homer in the ninth inning, Gyorko put a jolt into his 22nd of the season, driving it 423 feet onto the grass in ...

Sanchez-Fueled Yanks Penning Thrilling Script

Joe Hardy, Roy Hobbs, and just maybe Gary Sanchez?

Sanchez continued his torrid month on Friday with the 10th home run of his young career, part of a three-hit, four-RBI performance as the Yankees routed the Orioles, 14-4. Sanchez’s fifth-inning blast off Vance Worley was celebrated with loud chants of his name from an announced crowd of 38,423 at Yankee Stadium.
.  .  .
Summoned to New York for an Aug. 3 contest against the Mets, Sanchez has enjoyed an all-out assault on both big league ...

Baseball’s minor leaguers pursue their dreams below the poverty line - The Washington Post

Nobody gets rich playing in the minor leagues.

How Youppi! Canadiens Keep Expos Spirit Alive

“There were some instances where you saw Youppi! on the pocket schedule or the media guide as opposed to some of the players.”

With that in mind, the Canadiens bought the rights to Youppi! from MLB, creating a permanent link between the NHL’s most storied franchise and its bygone MLB neighbor. After 96 seasons without a mascot, the Habs handed Youppi! a hockey sweater and introduced him as an official team representative at a news conference on Sept. 16, 2005.

A month later, Youppi! performed ...

White Sox GM Rick Hahn says talk of trade-deadline discord ‘simply untrue’

A pair of recent media reports suggested Hahn trade-deadline strategy clashed with that of executive vice president Ken Williams and Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, with Hahn favoring a rebuild. Those reports from Chicago radio and TV host David Kaplan and MLB reporter Jon Heyman again fueled the frequent speculation about how the front-office dynamic works between Hahn and Williams.

Hahn said the talk was “tired news and repetitive and there’s nothing there” and stressed there is “an open dialogue ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 8-26-2016

Pittsburgh Press, August 26, 1916:

[The Giants] have not been making many runs. Until they tied the score in the ninth inning of yesterday’s game at Forbes Field, the McGraw tribe had crossed the plate but once in 54 consecutive innings—and that score was made in Thursday’s game here.

I don’t have any idea how you’d measure this, but the 1916 Giants just have to be the single streakiest team in MLB history.

Rangers pitcher Jeremy Jeffress arrested, records show

Texas Rangers relief pitcher Jeremy Jeffress was apparently arrested overnight in Dallas County, records show.

Dallas County Jail records say Jeffress was booked into jail at 5:13 a.m. Friday.

The reason for the arrest was not immediately made clear. No charges had been listed on the Dallas County Jail’s website. News 8 has reached out to the Rangers for comment.

Votto ‘reaches out’ to Mays, Musial, Jeter

“I was striking out a tremendous amount,” he said. “I was striking out far too much and to me that was not going to stand the test of time. Again, I looked at Willie, I looked at Stan and I looked at Derek. Willie and Derek stood out to me the most. Both of them struck out during the first two months almost the same amount they struck out the last four months. That means they struck out so much that they said, ‘OK, I’m not doing that any more’ and their seasons ended up being pretty ...

Astros analysis: Third baseman of the future has to be Alex Bregman - Houston Chronicle

But Bregman’s performance - after a 1-for-34 start, he has raised his batting average to .231 - already has begun to force the front office’s hand, first evident when Gurriel appeared in left field during a minor league stint in which he had been expected to play only third base and DH. A month after his celebrated debut, Bregman has yet to start a big league game in left field, appearing in the outfield only once as part of an in-game substitution.

The question, then, is where to play ...

Mets try to salvage challenging season, but know changes are inevitable

At least he has a good perspective.

“They may fire me at the end of the year,’’ Collins told USA TODAY Sports, “but they have supported my ass the entire time I’ve been here. That’s why I’ve got no (complaints). None.

“Whatever happens at the end of the year, I’ll walk out of here with a smile on my face, and get ready for spring training, or get ready to play golf, either one.’’

Minnesota Twins’ Byung Ho Park has wrist pain examined

Disappointing so far.

Shelby Miller’s demotion likely to delay free agency

Miller can’t complain. Well, he can, but I wouldn’t be sympathetic.

With Shelby Miller scheduled to make at least one more start with Triple-A Reno, it appears the Diamondbacks, whether they intended to or not, will gain an extra year of club control over the right-hander.

Miller, according to sources, has three years, 133 days of major-league service time. Assuming he isn’t promoted to the big leagues Thursday, the most days he could accrue the rest of the season is 38. That would bring him ...

Jeff Francoeur is Still Employed by a Major League Team

From Frenchy’s perspective, it’s just about a best-case scenario: You’ve gone from a hopeless, helpless last-place team to one in the thick of a wild card chase; you’ve been traded not only within your division, but you’re staying in the same time zone and avoiding major travel disruptions. It’s easy to see why he’s excited.

But what’s in it for the Marlins?