Zack Cozart is concerned the Rays ‘have an ulterior motive’ in starting Sergio Romo

“I feel like teams have an ulterior motive when they are doing this,” Cozart said before the Angels’ game on Tuesday night. “Less starting pitching means you don’t have to pay guys as much.”
...
“I’m more concerned about the financial aspect of three or four years down the road, if your whole staff is bullpenning except a couple guys, your payroll is going to go down because you don’t have to pay starters anymore,” he said.

No time for foreplay, only time for OMNICHATTER! for May 24, 2018

Diamondbacks lose seventh straight game, get swept by Brewers

Arizona has lost 13 of 14, falling out of the NL West lead while scoring just 26 runs in that span. The three games marked the Brewers’ first sweep of the Diamondbacks since June 2-4, 2008.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers have been winning a little and the Rockies and Giants have been treading water.  All 4 teams are within 4 games of each other.  It could be a weird year in the NL West.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-24-2018

Lake County [Indiana] Times, May 24, 1918:

Persons who sell seats on any roof or structure overlooking a baseball park will be obliged to pay a war tax to the government, according to an announcement issued [yesterday] by the bureau of internal revenue.
...
The announcement says that in one city a woman whose yard adjoins the ball park has been selling seats in a tree, the price being five and ten cents, depending on how high the patron has to climb. Recently the price has been advanced to 6 and ...

No amount of ointment is going to clear up that OMNICHATTER! for May 23, 2014

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-23-2018

New York Tribune, May 23, 1918:

Eddie Holley, shortstop on the Newark International League baseball team, was struck by lightning at the baseball park [in Rochester] this afternoon in a severe hail and thunder storm. He was made partially unconscious.

Holly might have been out for the year. It’s not easy to tell, but a former MLB shortstop named Ed Holly played 24 games for the 1918 Newark Bears. If he played regularly for a month or so, then missed the rest of the year, 24 games sounds right. ...Read More...

Bautista must be last over-the-hill vet the Mets take a chance on

Is this really the best the Mets can do to fill out their roster?

Sullivan: Baseball’s Hardest Thrower Gets the Second-Fewest Strikeouts

Most counterintuitive observation of the day?

Or ever?

Part of this is easy to understand. Why doesn’t Hicks strike more batters out? Just look at the walks. He’s wild. Been better lately, but still wild. Hicks’ overall strike rate ranks in the sixth percentile. Batters are better when they’re not behind in the count. If you don’t have command, you want to at least have control.

Another factor here is that Hicks doesn’t throw a hard four-seamer. Rather, he throws a sinker, and ...

Philip Roth obituary: Poignantly humane novelist set on emancipating American literature from respectability

Tall, curly-haired Phil (as he was known in the family) was passionate about baseball. He regularly attended minor league baseball games at Ruppert Stadium in Newark, and devoted The Great American Novel (1973) to the mythologies of baseball set against the harsher realities of communist subversion and anti-communism. He was supporter of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

[The Breast] was followed by The Great American Novel. Asked by a Sports Illustrated journalist why he wrote about baseball, Roth ...

The Shohei Ohtani experiment isn’t just working—it’s been perfect

Hardly anything has ever worked as well as the Ohtani experiment has so far. Pitching in the Los Angeles Angels’ six-man starting rotation, Ohtani has made seven starts and the Angels are 6-1 in those games; playing three or four days a week as the club’s DH, he has batted 90 times and outhit everybody on the team except Mike Trout. Short stretches of baseball are inherently inconclusive, but we can now say Ohtani is certainly one of the 50 best pitchers in the world, probably one of the 30 ...

MLBN: Kenny on Rays Starting Romo

Chris Russo talks with Brian Kenny about the Rays starting Sergio Romo in back-to-back games

Got earplugs?

Astros Release Currently Suspended Ex-Top Prospect Jon Singleton

I remember a lot of sturm und drang about whether the Astros were taking advantage of Jon Singleton with the long-term contract. Guess that can be put to rest now.

The Houston Astros have released former top prospect Jon Singleton, who currently is serving a 100-game suspension for a third positive drug test.

It wasn’t the plans, it was Beauty killed the OMNICHATTER! for May 22, 2018

Twins part with Phil Hughes despite owing him more than $22 million

The lingering uncertainty over Phil Hughes’ role on the Twins is finally over. There isn’t one.

The veteran righthander, who hoped to capture a spot in the starting rotation during spring training, then tried to fill a vague, undefined bullpen role when that didn’t work, was designated for assignment following Monday’s game, a reluctant acknowledgement by the Twins that they can wait no longer to figure out how to use him.

Mets “Showing Interest” In Jose Bautista

The Mets are “showing interest” in veteran slugger Jose Bautista, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). The 37-year-old is back on the open market after being released by the Braves over the weekend.

It is not clear at this point how the Mets would envision utilizing Bautista, if a deal comes together. The veteran had lined up at third base for Atlanta, though there won’t be an opening at the hot corner in New York once Todd Frazier returns from the DL. Bautista ...

Yankees should trade for Paxton.

The Yankees have something special going on this season. The club owns a 30 - 13 record and has played stellar baseball for the last month or so. That’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement. The rotation, of course, stands out as the area in most need of an upgrade. The staff contains far more question marks than sure things. Reinforcements would help.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-22-2018

Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, May 22, 1918:

[Ban] Johnson was in Washington yesterday to register a personal protest with the Government officials against [players leaving their teams to work in defense industries in order to avoid army service].
...
Considerable surprise was expressed by baseball men yesterday when word was received from Greenville, S.C., that Joe Jackson, former star of the Chicago White Sox, had been certified to his district draft board and would probably not be ...

Hader’s feats generating All-Star, Cy Young buzz

In the wake of Hader’s latest strikeout special, a 2 1/3-inning outing Saturday in which he struck out the final six batters he faced for a 5-4 win over the Twins, here are some of the more eye-popping things about the left-hander’s start to the season:

• Ninety-five hitters have dug in against Hader. Fifty-six of them have struck out. That 59-percent strikeout rate would shatter the all-time record (min. 25 batters faced) set by the Reds’ Aroldis Chapman in 2014, when he struck out 52.5 ...

Of all the chats in all the world, you walked into OMNICHATTER! for May 21, 2018

Whitey Herzog Offered Hernandez to the Mets in 1980, 2+ Years Before Trade

SN: Did you know that Whitey offered you to the Mets and asked for Tim Leary, Doug Flynn and Neil Allen?

KH: I didn’t know that. Who did he ask for?

History and sabermetrics haven’t been kind to Flynn, the Mets’ 1980 starting second baseman and only the most diehard Mets fans of the day remember what great hopes the franchise held for Leary. Neil Allen was a valuable trade chip but not crucial to the team’s success, with rookie Jeff Reardon who could’ve easily slid into the ...

Cardinals’ Jordan Hicks throws MLB’s fastest pitch of the year, clocking 105 mph twice

You can’t help but notice the violent armside run. It’s there because Hicks throws sinkers rather than four-seam fastballs. Yes, he touches 105 with a sinker.

In an era when every team has guys coming out of nowhere and getting more than a strikeout per inning, Hicks only has 9 K’s in 22 innings despite his monster velocity.  Hitters only have two measly extra-base hits against him, both doubles.

Kevin Cash keeps thinking outside the box with use of Sergio Romo

It was a strategic decision made possible in part because of the Angels’ right-handed-heavy lineup. With Shohei Ohtani not hitting either day, the only lefty in the lineup on Saturday was Kole Calhoun, and the starting nine on Sunday were all right-handed. Romo, with his sub-90s fastball and big, sweeping slider, has always been much better against righties, and his platoon splits have been even wider in recent seasons.

Romo was the starting pitcher on both Saturday and Sunday, although only ...

Posnanski: Modern Romonce

Is this the future of baseball?

Now, let’s say right off that I’m quite sure this Romo strategy is a winning one. Many of us have been talking about it for years; Joe Sheehan most prominently. Teams rarely use fewer than three pitchers in a game; they average about four pitchers per game. There have been 17 complete games all season. Seventeen. The concept of a starting pitcher as we knew it in the 1970s and 1980s and even 1990s has been blown to smithereens, so the question has been obvious ...

Jordan Hicks, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. among the MLB’s youth surge

Hicks has a little giddyup in his game.

1. Jordan Hicks is redefining what a hard-throwing pitcher can be. Ever since the Cardinals took him in the 2015 draft — with, naturally, the 105th pick — he has tantalized the organization with his athleticism. Nobody saw this.

Even with a velocity jump last season, which Hicks spent in Low-A and High-A, the prospect of him doing much more than spending this season rounding out his arsenal to remain a starting pitcher seemed far-fetched. Then he came ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-21-2018

New York Sun, May 21, 1918:

With two out and the bases full in the fourteenth inning to-day Merlin Kopp of the Athletics stole home, beating Detroit by 5 to 4. Kopp had reached third on a pass, a steal, and Gardner’s single.

That would melt people’s brains if it happened now.

Elsewhere in the news 100 years ago today, Babe Ruth will be out of commission for a few days after fainting in a drug store on his way to the ballpark.

VHS via Leitch: Phillie broadcast commenting on impending rain delay

Leitch:

This clip explains Midwestern weather to East Coasters better than anything I’ve ever seen.

Best fans thunderstorms in baseball.

OTP 2018 May 21: President takes British royalty to a baseball game, May 15, 1991

The 65-year-old queen, dressed in a below-the-knee blue and red dress, black gloves and three strands of pearls, entered the Orioles dugout along the third base line. She formed a receiving line with her husband and the president, clad in a navy blazer, and Barbara Bush. The first lady wore a blue and white floral print dress.

While the VIP guests took their positions designated by their names on 3-by-5 cards, the song “Brown-Eyed Girl” played over the stadium’s public-address system. ...

Dan Duquette, Orioles Understand Trading Manny Machado Seems Inevitable

“Usually, we try to go to Memorial Day and see where you are on Memorial Day and see what the strength and weaknesses are of the team are and how we can supplement what we need to compete,” Duquette said. “I am not sure we will be in that position this year.”

The asking price for Machado will be steep. Shortstop Addison Russell and outfielder Ian Happ are the two Cubs who have often found their names tied to Machado trade rumors, and as cost-controlled young players under contract for quite ...

Weekend OMNICHATTER for May 19-20, 2018

A face that could launch a thousand OMNICHATTER! for May 18, 2018