The Vin Scully Farewell Tour Comes To Him

Scully, 88, is not only greeted by umpires on the field. A procession of players, managers, coaches and umpires has made the trek — in uniform — up the ballpark elevator or escalators and into the Vin Scully Press Box to say goodbye to the man himself.

“He’s the only guy who has the farewell tour come to him,” Steiner said. “To see kids one-third of his age go up there wide-eyed and blown away — I think he’s every bit as blown away that they come up and show that respect.”

The Library of Congress Website is a Digital Wonderland for Baseball Fans

Prepare to lose hours of your day.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 8-30-2016

Pittsburgh Press, August 30, 1916:

If there is a nation-wide railroad strike the major league ball clubs in the east will make their jumps in automobile. In the west motor cars and trolleys will be used, but numerous double headers will have to be arranged to allow time for the comparatively long trips between cities.

That would not have been fun. Driving from Detroit to St. Louis in a car built around 1916 in the era before interstate highways sounds like an absolute nightmare.

Thankfully, it ...

Texas Rangers: Banister: Darvish is ‘more relaxed and more connected’ as he knocks Mariners down the standings | SportsDay

Hey are doing their part to become a dynamic duo. The Rangers have won Darvish’s last five stars. They’ve won three of Hamels’ last four.
“You are talking about two ace quality pitchers,” said Jonathan Lucroy, who has caught all nine of those games. “Put it this way: I’m glad I get to catch and them and not face them. I feel sorry for a lineup that has to face them back-to-back.”

Cleveland Indians come home with chance to pump up fans and stop doubts—Terry Pluto | cleveland.com

“It’s agony. It’s awesome.”

That’s how Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona characterized the playoff race.

Corey Seager is living up to high expectations | MLB.com

I look forward to watching him just get better and better.

You have to watch Corey Seager to appreciate him, and not just when he is at bat or playing shortstop for the Dodgers. You have to watch him in the dugout. You have to watch him during batting practice. You have to watch him in the clubhouse, constantly viewing video, seeking input from his teammates.

And then, once you have gotten more than an eyeful, you can understand that all that offseason hype about him being an impact player as a ...

Here’s the secret to why Paul Goldschmidt steals so many bases - CBSSports.com

Check it out.

The assumption to make, then, is that Goldschmidt possesses other qualities that manifest in his base-stealing success. He does. What Goldschmidt lacks in straight-line speed, he atones for with a combination of attributes that are tougher to measure, like his reaction time, his pattern-recognition skills, his opportunism, and his boldness. Let’s look at some examples of what we mean. Here’s Goldschmidt stealing second and third base off Noah Syndergaard:

Tim Tebow to display baseball skills in tryout | MLB.com

I am all for chasing dreams. This one is more than a little far-fetched.

Red Sox roll past Rays behind Betts, Porcello | MLB.com

On MLB Network this morning Todd Hollandsworth was talking about pushback he was getting for the suggestion that Rich Porcello is a Cy Young candidate. He may not be the favorite but he’s in the conversation.

The four contenders in AL’s cutthroat MVP race

Go to Rio for a month and look at what happens. Babe Ruth is resurrected, and he’s hitting right-handed and playing catcher. The Giants, the best team in baseball at the All-Star break, are literally the worst since. Ian Kennedy’s ERA in August can be spelled out in binary code. Baseball does this. Every month is its own little season of the absurd, the impossible, the unrepeatable, the glorious.

Only two things are the same.
a) Clayton Kershaw, on the disabled list for two months, still ...

The Beauty of Baseball’s “RedZone” Channel – The Ringer

I will try Game Changer tonight.

Redzone was exciting but bare-bones, single-minded in its pursuit of high stakes. Earlier this season, Dan Hirsch, proprietor of historical stats and analysis site The Baseball Gauge, built on Brooks’s concept and assembled a more fully featured script, which he recently renamed the “MLB.TV Game Changer.” (Get it?) I tried Game Changer for a few days last week, which was enough to make me a convert, although your mileage may vary depending on the way you ...

OMNICHATTER 8-29-16

Gamingboy belongs on the side of an OMNICHATTER carton.

Hey, ump! Why’d you eject that player or manager?

An article about ejections without an Earl Weaver reference is woefully incomplete.

MLB Network’s Matt Yallof suffered a stroke

This awful news just popped up on my Twitter feed.

MLB Network reporter Matt Yallof suffered a stroke late last month, and friends are asking for donations to aid his recovery process.

According to a donation page on YouCaring.com, the 46-year-old Yallof suffered a stroke in his basement on July 29. He is apparently doing OK after spending seven days in the ICU but will require physical therapy, transportation and other rehabilitative needs that insurance won’t fully cover.

Before Gary Sanchez-mania, the Yankees had Shane Spencer’s gift | Newsday

Who remembers Shane Spencer? How about Kevin Maas?

Dodgers place Triple-A Superstar Yasiel Puig on trade waivers

Will anyone take a chance on The Wild Horse?

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 8-29-2016

Rock Island Argus, August 29, 1916:

The most interesting deal of the 1916 baseball season, or for years for that matter, was swung last night between the Cubs and the New York Giants. The deal involves the transfer of Heinie Zimmerman, the recalcitrant infielder, to the Giants in return for Larry Doyle, Hunter, an infielder, and Jacobson, an outfielder.

Because of the fact that both Doyle and Zimmerman are two of the widest known players in the National League at present, the deal is easily the ...

Lasers in the outfield—Infield isn’t only place where defense is shifting

When it comes to positioning their outfielders, the Yankees literally keep the information under their hats. Before each game, bench coach Rob Thomson, responsible for the outfield defense, gives Gardner, center fielder Ellsbury, right fielder Hicks and rookie outfielder Aaron Judge an index card with precise locations for each opposing hitter.

Those locations are determined by a proprietary computer program developed by the Yankees’ analytic squad, headed by David Grabiner. It takes a ...

Cubs star Kris Bryant has a chance to be a very unique MVP | FOX Sports

Has anyone else tried to quantify the value of position flexibility? I’ve investigated the topic a little myself for my WAR system for the simulation league I play in. Despite some effort I’ve always ended up using WAR without any additional adjustment.

But while Bryant is only in his second season and Musial is a Hall of Famer, the two could end up sharing a unique distinction.

Musial is the only player to win an MVP award after a season in which he started 30 games in both the infield and ...

OTP 2016 August 29: Minor-league team offers Trump, Clinton bobbleheads with real hair

On Sept. 3 some lucky game-goers will receive a bobble of either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, and said bobblehead will be adorned with real hair. Putatively, this is a feature and not a bug.
But wait: That’s not all!

Boston Red Sox must find solutions for struggling bullpen - Boston Red Sox Blog- ESPN

The Red Sox bullpen needs help.

Cubs wear onesies on trip from Los Angeles - Chicago Tribune

Fashion mavens they were not.

Yankees look to refinance $1B debt from new stadium | New York Post

The Yanks are roughly breaking even now. That’s just the team and doesn’t include other businesses, such as the YES Network or Legends Hospitality.

Blake Swihart says he’ll be back for spring training

Talking about roster rules.

How many times have we written about this? How many times have we broached this subject? There are always managers and general managers who rail against the current September roster system, which allows as many 40-man roster players as each team will allow.

MLB and the Players’ Association are currently in negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement, and the September roster issue is on the table, according to a major league source familiar with the ...

Blue Jays’ MVP Josh Donaldson hits 3 home runs | MLB.com

Josh Donaldson brought the rain with his first career three-homer game, and the Blue Jays brought the brooms, completing a sweep of the Twins, 9-6, and handing Minnesota its season-high 10th straight loss on Sunday afternoon at Rogers Centre.

Toronto’s third come from behind victory of the series was fueled by the reigning American league MVP. Donaldson’s two-run shot in the bottom of the seventh put the Blue Jays in front for good, and his second solo home run of the day in the eighth put the ...

Omnichatter 08-28-2016

Not your mother’s Omnichatter.

Indians’ Brandon Guyer is hit-by-pitch king | indians.com

Ouch!

How model for Yankees’ vision shows lightning-rebuild hope | New York Post

OK, they both traded for prospects. Other than that, where is the similarity?

2017 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings - MLB Trade Rumors

Tim Dierkes’ free agent power rankings.

An Appreciation: Carlos Ruiz, the most popular person of the Phillies’ golden era | PhillyVoice

Read the article for the explanation.

But Carlos Ruiz, another important homegrown stalwart from the core that helped the Phillies win a world championship, two National League pennants, and five division crowns, was arguably the most popular person during that era.

Maybe that doesn’t make any sense when you read it. Maybe it does.