OTP 2018 Apr 16: Beto strikes out but is a hit at baseball fundraiser

“I guarantee you he didn’t just get three pitches and three strikes like his old man,” said O’Rourke.

He can afford a laugh, since he has dusted Cruz in fundraising by taking in an eye-popping $6.7 million in the first three months of this year. That’s more than twice the $3.2 million gathered by Cruz, whose tally counted money from multiple campaign entities including a political action committee.

O’Rourke won’t take PAC money, a stand that’s expected to put him at a ...

Deven Marrero HR changed to single upon review

Well, that’s not good.

Why Matt Harvey’s spot in Mets’ rotation isn’t completely safe

Both Mickey Callaway and his pitching coach, Dave Eiland, insist they have not yet contemplated what they will do if all the members of their rotation are available to them. Around the Mets you learn quickly — even in Year 1 in charge — not to plan too quickly on having too many starting pitchers.

But we also have learned this rather fast about the new leadership. They were not brought in to rebuild. That fervor to go for it now only has been heightened by the exquisite opening to this ...

With Preston Tucker producing, Braves can wait to call up Ronald Acuna

Just bought tickets to see Acuna play next Sunday. Now I have to wait and see whether he’ll actually still be on the team.

Weekend OMNICHATTER for April 14-15, 2018

MLB suspends Nolan Arenado, Luis Perdomo as part of brawl punishments

NEW YORK—Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado has been suspended five games for charging the mound after Luis Perdomo threw a pitch behind his back, inciting a benches-clearing brawl during Wednesday’s game against the San Diego Padres.

Major League Baseball announced Friday that Perdomo was also suspended five games for intentionally throwing at the All-Star third baseman.

Gerardo Parra gets four games, Buddy Bauman gets a game. A.J. Ellis, Freddy Galvis, and German Marquez get fines. ...Read More...

Kevin Plawecki breaks left hand

Tomas Nido be enough?

DRays Bay: Montreal Expos ownership group positioned for MLB relocation

The recent exhibition games played in Montreal have significantly re-ignited the talk of baseball in that City and Province, to the point where prospective owners have been forced to respond to endless questions about when and how - not if - the Expos will return to Montreal.

. . .

But the latest few questions answered by Mitch Garner, who has a stake in Cirque du Soleil and is set to make an ownership bid along with fellow Billionaire Stephen Bronfman, is what has raised eyebrows and ...

I’m serious, and don’t call me OMNICHATTER, for Friday the 13th, 2018

Minor-league baseball team wins on walk-off steal of home

Booker, an outfielder for the Class A team in the Carolina League*, made a bold move during the Dash’s game Thursday night against the Carolina Mudcats.

The Dash, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, had the bases loaded with two outs in the 10th inning when Booker decided he’d try to win the game on a straight steal of home.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-13-2018

El Paso Herald, April 13, 1918:

Manager McGraw is evidently going to rely this season, as he always has, on his players slugging the ball, instead of having them follow the sacrifice bunt system.
...
He may be right in following this plan, but it seems that by doing the unexpected once in a while and adopting the sacrifice, the Giants would win many more close games.

John McGraw might have been a jerk, but he was no dummy.

Miami Marlins outdrawn by Double-A affiliate in Jacksonville

Yeah Jeets!

The Marlins drew 6,150 fans. The Jacksonville team brought in 6,960 for its home opener Wednesday night.

For the three-game series against New York, the Marlins—who lost Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna as part of a rebuilding plan by the team’s new ownership—drew a total of 19,669 fans.

Depressing. The Mets fans in South Florida didn’t want to come out to see their red-hot team?

Inside Baseball MLB Notes | Break up the Mets! | FanRag Sports

Heyman’s latest.

Jared Banner and the making of a front-office prospect

Here’s something you don’t see every day, an in-depth look at a mid-level baseball exec.

Elvis Andrus headed to DL for first time in career with fractured elbow

Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus left Wednesday’s game versus the Los Angeles Angels after being hit on the right elbow by a Keynan Middleton pitch in the ninth inning. Initial x-rays and examination by Rangers Team Physician Keith Meister done at Globe Life Park in Arlington indicate the probability of a fracture in the elbow.

Reminiscent of Ivan Rodriguez breaking his hand (while catching) in 2000 – both players at the peak of their careers. Of course Rodriguez was an MVP on his way to the ...

The White Sox ballpark in Chicago that never was and could have changed history

Dayn Perry with a tremendous article on Philip Bess and his attempts to design a ballpark that combined the best of the Wrigley-Fenway-Comiskey era parks along with modern amenities.  He came up with Armour Field and the piece has illustrations of what might have been for the White Sox instead of Guaranteed Rate Field.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-12-2018

Toledo News-Bee, April 12, 1918:

Mel Wolfgang, who suffered last year from the effects of poison ivy, contracted at Paso Robles, Cal., has fully recovered and says he’s ready to pitch big league baseball. Mel was carried, not for what he was doing, but for what Pants Rowland knew he could do.

Must have been a hell of a poison ivy outbreak if it was newsworthy that Wolfgang had recovered in the offseason. I know he was a redhead and I know their skin can be particularly susceptible to stuff like ...

OMNICHATTER will have what she’s having, for April 12, 2018

Kaplan: How Max Stassi delved deep into the data and turned his career around – The Athletic

A get look at how players can use data to improve their games.

Rockies, Padres Get Into Benches-Clearing Scuffle After Nolan Arenado Charges Mound

The brawl happened in the bottom of the third when San Diego’s Luis Perdomo threw behind Colorado’s Nolan Arenado, almost hitting the third baseman.

Arenado charged the mound. Perdomo then threw his glove at Arenado, and Arenado threw a punch.

The benches cleared and the scuffle lasted over a minute as the two were separated and then another brawl broke out.

A Brawl Erupts, and the Red Sox-Yankees Rivalry Catches Fire

BOSTON — If there was any doubt that the saltiness had returned to the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, it evaporated late Wednesday night when a 97-miles-per-hour fastball from Boston reliever Joe Kelly found its intended target: Tyler Austin’s ribs.

Austin slammed his bat down, fired his helmet to the ground and charged after Kelly, and soon both benches and bullpens were empty.

Arizona Diamondbacks’ hitters locking in with new approach

Too bad nobody thought of this before. Can you imagine how good Ted Williams could have been?

974 Fans Attended Rays vs. White Sox Game at Guaranteed Rate Field

You get a foul ball!  YOU get a foul ball!!  EVERYBODY GETS A FOUL BALL!!!

Monday’s game:

And then, Tuesday’s game:

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-11-2018

Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, April 11, 1918:

Four members of the White Sox team who visited the Ellington aviation field in Texas a few days ago were given a war thriller when they saw two aviators killed during flights. It was the third like casualty of the day.

Goodness. That had to have been awkward for them.

Marlins argue they’re from a Caribbean Island

The Marlins are claiming corporate citizenship in the foreign territory in order to have an arbitrator take over a lawsuit filed by Miami and Miami-Dade County in a dispute over the profits from the team’s sale last year, according to the Miami Herald.

But could Marlins Teamco (a subsidiary of Marlins Funding, a subsidiary of Marlins Holdings LLC) win the Caribbean World Series?

Lovullo and Molina suspended

I haven’t seen this discussed. It seems off, to me. A manager being suspended is hardly anything as he can manage just as well by text. (I assume he can’t come to the park).

And it looks to me like Lovullo was clearly in the wrong and admits he was in the wrong. But maybe I missed something?

OMNICHATTER zigs when it should zag, for April 11, 2018

Cubs place 1B Rizzo on DL with back tightness

CHICAGO (AP)—The Chicago Cubs are taking the safe route with Anthony Rizzo, placing the first baseman on the 10-day disabled list on Tuesday with lower back tightness.

Rizzo said he is feeling better and hopes to be ready when he is eligible to come off the DL on Monday. The move was made retroactive to Friday.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-10-2018

Bridgeport Times, April 10, 1918:

Derrill Pratt and John Lavan, former members of the St. Louis Americans, who compromised their $50,000 damage suits against Phil Ball, president of the St. Louis club, received $5,400 in settlement, according to information obtained here yesterday.

Ball yesterday said that the settlement did not cost him a cent and sporting men concluded from this statement that the American League had footed the bill.

Pratt and Lavan had sued Ball for slander after the owner ...

Bradford: Are players buying what baseball is selling when it comes to analytics? It’s a work in progress | WEEI

It seems to be working.

The Red Sox plan this season was to load up their coaches with a whole new level of analytics, filtering a new level of information to the players. It’s a whole new thing. And it’s one which, judging by an 8-1 start and the lowest batting average on balls in play in years, certainly seems to have some merit.

But, make no mistake about it, the selling of this new way of doing things is, and will be, a work in progress. The information gatherers know it. The coaches know ...