Prep phenom Hunter Greene could be generational player

Who is calling him a generational talent? His agent?

No player in this year’s draft arrives with as much hype as the 17-year-old Greene. He’s a lanky 6-foot-4 and 197 pounds, but is considered by some to be a generational talent. He carries a first-round grade as a shortstop, but many predict his future will be on the mound after the right-hander fired fastballs up to 102 mph this year.

The OMNICHATTER always rings twice, for June 10, 2017

NYT: Borzi: The Rays Are Playing a Traditional Doubleheader. By Choice.

The largest crowds at the original Yankee Stadium (81,841 on May 30, 1938) and Fenway Park (47,627 on Sept. 22, 1935) were for doubleheaders. The author Chris Jaffe, writing for The Hardball Times in 2010, noted the number of doubleheaders rose slightly during the Depression, spiked through World War II, then returned to prewar levels in the early 1950s.

2017 MLB Draft prospects features and profiles | MLB.com

Top twenty.

2017 Draft Buzz: What Callis, Mayo are hearing | MLB.com

My latest first-round projection is barely 12 hours old, yet I’d already like to take a mulligan on the No. 1 pick for the Twins.

Though the teams selecting behind the Twins think they’re leaning toward Vanderbilt right-hander Kyle Wright, I started hearing whispers Thursday night that Minnesota prefers Louisville two-way star Brendan McKay. That noise is getting louder Friday, and I now believe the Twins will take McKay No. 1, as a left-handed pitcher rather than a first baseman, unless ...

Amid Defensive Woes, Mets Try to Avoid Fumbling Top Prospect’s Call-Up - The New York Times

OK, the Mets are safely past the Super 2 date. Is he still not ready? Is he still not an improvement to Cabrera at shortstop? That’s a tough sell. The idea they have a “surplus of left-side infielders” is pretty funny though. That surplus is easily fixed by releasing Reyes.

Few have doubted Rosario’s ability to bring energy to a lineup. But a strong minor league track record does not guarantee instant success against better competition. And if Rosario were to be called up soon, the Mets would ...

40 years ago, the Mets did the unthinkable: They traded Tom Seaver | Newsday

They did what???

Joon Lee on Twitter: “this is the funniest thing that will happen at a sporting event this year https://t.co/f6Yq9lErin”

this is the funniest thing that will happen at a sporting event this year pic.twitter.com/f6Yq9lErin

— Joon Lee (@iamjoonlee) June 10, 2017

Peter Gammons: With respect to 1st rounders, winning takes a much wider collective - GammonsDaily.com

Gammons on the draft and team building.

Brendan McKay will be a Twin or Red or Ray Monday night, and eventually make his team a winner. But it won’t be McKay or Hunter Greene or Austin Beck alone; Mike Trout and Harper are generational players who have yet to experience a World Series.

Winning is about depth of talent, makeup and leadership. How all that gets put together is an exceedingly complex process that may begin with the first round of the draft, but cannot be executed without the ...

Maloney out as Cardinals reorganize coaching staff; Peralta DFA’ed

The Cardinals made several coaching changes to reassess and rethink manager Mike Matheny’s staff in the wake of a disappointing start to the season.

The Cardinals reassigned third-base coach Chris Maloney within the organization, and Mike Shildt will move from the quality control coach to the third-base coach box. Bill Mueller took a recent leave of absence, and he will not return to the same role as assistant hitting coach. Mark Budaska will take over in that role.

Ron “Pop” Warner will also ...

You left home as a boy, and returned an OMNICHATTER, for June 9, 2017

Baseball dismissed Leo Mazzone and Johnny Sain — the Hall of Fame doesn’t have to | MLB | Sporting News

Some interesting quotes.

Sain taught Mazzone that there were five ways to get a hitter out: stuff, movement, change of speeds, location and motion. He taught Mazzone about how pitchers could control their fastballs, how to cushion their elbow, the least amount they could take off on a change of speed and so much more.

Rays Kevin Kiermaier to be out two months with fracture

Rays CF Kevin Kiermaier will be sidelined for at least two months after tests showed a hairline fracture in the hip area.

Kiermaier will need 6-8 weeks for the fracture to head and then work his way back into baseball shape, returning, at the earliest, sometime in August.

“He’s going to be out a while,’’ manager Kevin Cash said.

Mallex Smith has been called up from Triple-A Durham and will take over as the primary centerfielder.

“He’s going to get his chance,’’ Cash said.

...Read More...

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: June 09, 2017 at 12:23 PM | 10 comment(s)
  Beats: kevin kiermaier, rays

Trick play by the Miami Hurricanes remains a college baseball highlight 35 years later

Phil Stephenson, a future big-leaguer and college hall of famer, was on first and was the most dangerous runner Wichita State had having set the collegiate record with 86 stolen bases (in 90 tries) that season.

Mariners lock up Jean Segura to long-term deal

SEATTLE—Jean Segura and the Mariners agreed Wednesday to a $70 million, five-year contract covering 2018 to 2022, a deal that brings stability to a shortstop position in flux for more than a decade in Seattle.

Another Angels prospect makes good… somewhere else.

The mystery of Shohei Otani and whether he’ll leave $200M on the table to play in MLB

That Otani is shrouded in mystery is only appropriate, seeing as his legend has grown to proportions in which even myths wouldn’t dare traffic. The fastball. The home runs. The legitimate possibility of a two-way player better than anyone since the person to whom Otani is most often compared – only Babe Ruth, the greatest baseball player ever. All of it creates this mania through which teams try to sift and find the truth.

Sherman: How will next 5 years treat these borderline baseball legacies?

An anachronistic system with no transparency or accountability:

A six-member screening committee looks at every player who has been retired five years and who played at least 10 seasons. It takes two votes to be placed on the ballot, which the larger voting body receives each December.

Cincinnati Reds from Cuba: A comprehensive list

“Not only did one of the team’s minor-league affiliates once reside in Havana, the club has been signing players from the Caribbean island country for more than 100 years.”

Did Moneyball teach us nothing? MLB is still selling jeans

“The draft is radically, radically different than 15 years ago, but probably not in some hugely measurable way when it comes to height and weight,” another executive said. “Maybe the interesting conclusion is that more teams than ever are leaning heavily on data to help them make smarter selections, yet players still look the same.”

Indeed, data is more important to every team now than it was in 2002. Not only do teams dig deep into college stats, like the Moneyball A’s did, but they have ...

Unbalanced: It’s Time to Revisit Eric Thames, Human Cyborg

I like the idea of evaluating the impact of injuries by logically assessing what will change and confirming that in the stats. It’s just a small piece of this article, and here it’s applied just to Thames; but on a larger sample of players having similar injuries it could be a good thing.

2017 College Player of the Year: Brendan McKay Excels On All Fronts | BaseballAmerica.com

McKay went 9-3, 1.77 in 96.2 innings. At the plate, he hit .308/.418/.431 with four home runs. Just a year after Kentucky’s A.J. Reed won the College Player of the Year award, college baseball had found its next two-way superstar.

Baseball keeps getting slower, but change will come by 2018 - Buster Olney Blog- ESPN

New rules won’t matter if umpires don’t enforce them.

Hurley: David Price Making Case Against Himself As Fit For Boston « CBS Boston

This type of reaction doesn’t bode well for David Price’s future in Boston.

As reported by Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald, Price pulled Drellich aside after the Red Sox’ loss to the Yankees and berated him loudly enough for reporters on the other side of a closed door to hear. Price later continued his confrontation with Drellich, and also snapped at Buckley (who had been told by the Red Sox media relations director to stick around to talk to Price).

The interactions with Price ended when ...

Foreign-born managers break through baseball team hierarchy in KBO

Whenever a slugger of the opposing team stands at home plate, SK Wyverns manager Trey Hillman asks his players to shift their standard positions and move to certain areas on the field to help them more easily catch a ball hit by the player.

The defensive realignment — called the “Hillman shift” among baseball analysts here — is based on odds drawn from accumulated data about the direction and distance a ball travels from the slugger’s bat.

The Hillman shifts have been executed 132 times ...

‘Bachelor Canada’ will help former MLB pitcher look for love

Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Chris Leroux didn’t go down swinging when love threw him a curve. The six-year Major League Baseball veteran got right back in the box.

Leroux will look for love on the next season of “Bachelor Canada.” He is, as you might have already guessed, the titular bachelor….

Prior to being a reality show contestant, Leroux spent six seasons in the majors. The majority of his time came with the Pirates, but also pitched for the Florida Marlins and New York ...

Baseball keeps getting slower, but change will come by 2018

The preference on both sides is for a negotiated solution—a common ground found through conversation and an exchange of ideas. Manfred spoke about this in March, about how he wants to have more dialogue from the players, more input on how to improve the pace of games. But some players recognize that one way or another, rule changes are coming. One player told teammates recently that they better get used to the idea of a pitch clock “because it’s inevitable.”...

But MLB wants a formal ...

An Oral History of the Moneyball Draft

Delightful peek into this legendary stathead event. My favorite line so far:

Lewis: [McCurdy] looked like this unbelievable power-hitting shortstop, but it turned out the University of Maryland had like a 260-foot fence, and he hit a lot of 270-foot fly balls. So the next year they park-adjusted their stats.

What did OMNICHATTER know, and when did he know it? for June 8, 2017

Zack Wheeler has a quality start, Mets win in ninth on dropped throw

“The two mistakes he made, he threw to me,” Bruce said after his fourth multi-homer game of the season.

Luke Heimlich sex crime surfaces as Oregon State baseball nears College World Series

Two months ago, as the Oregon State University baseball team marched toward the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, compiling one of the best records in college baseball history, a crime surfaced from a star player’s past.

A Benton County sheriff’s sergeant, on a sweep to track down sex offenders who let their registrations lapse, located one at Gill Coliseum, the heart of Oregon State’s bucolic campus. It was Luke Heimlich, the ace left-hander who statistically is the nation’s best ...