Ringolsby lists seven under the radar signings | MLB.com

Mediocre starter becomes good reliever. Who could see something like that happening?

Angels right-hander Bud Norris signed a $1.75 million deal with the idea he could be a swingman, but injuries opened up late-inning opportunities. Norris finally earned his first save on April 20. Beginning with that game, he is 10-for-11 in save situations. He has allowed only six earned runs in 20 1/3 innings over 22 appearances, striking out 27 and giving up only 11 hits.

Pedro Martinez thinks David Ortiz is ready for a comeback and knows a team that could use him | MLB.com

On MLB Tonight, Pedro also said Ortiz asked him, “Are you going to get me new legs?”

Ortiz isn’t coming back.

Astros’ homers help extend win streak to 11 | MLB.com

11!

Twins commitment to video scouting runs through minors

This makes all the sense in the world. First, it prepares prospect for the big leagues. Second, it helps them to better identify their better players.

Just three teams in the 16-team Midwest League are going without a video intern this season. Just more than half take their video person on the road, and for the first time, the Kernels are among them.

That means the Twins have a full-time video scouting presence at their top four minor-league affiliates. Rookie-level Elizabethton, which starts ...

A minor league baseball team is holding “Hourglass Appreciation Night” this summer

Since August is the eighth month of the calendar year, and an 8 looks tantalizingly similar to an hourglass, be there a better way to remind the world that baseball needs no clock than to feature 18 hourglass-shaped color commentators?

That’s right! Stars Talent Studio of Salt Lake City will provide a different stunner each half-inning. And the Raptors will video-stream the broadcast booth – well, at least the better-looking half of it!

Fans will have the opportunity to pose for pictures ...

Drafted right after Ken Griffey Jr. in 1987, Mark Merchant never played a day in the majors | MLB | Sporting News

By all accounts, the Pirates were thrilled with their pick.

“Tool-wise, he’s got everything you’re looking for as a complete ballplayer,” Buzzy Keller, the Pirates’ director of player development, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in August 1987. “You might find some players who run faster and throw harder, but his combination (of tools) and makeup make him a complete player.”

One anonymous scout told the Post-Gazette back then that Merchant was the best prospect to come out of ...

FanGraphs’ 2017 Mock Draft | FanGraphs Baseball

2. Cincinnati – Hunter Greene, RHP, Notre Dame HS (CA)
The Reds had about a half-dozen scouts at the ACC tournament in Louisville and watched Brendan McKay’s middling start, though I think they prefer him as a bat. He’s a possibility, but Greene is more likely and, in my opinion, the better prospect.

Luis Severino’s Breakout Season | FanGraphs Baseball

Before the season, the Yankees appeared to be a club in need of pitching. Their starting rotation ranked just 13th in our preseason Positional Power Rankings, and even the most enthusiastic Severino supporter would have had to admit, given how his 2016 season went, that his was one of the spots that the team would likely have to upgrade. More than two months into the season, New York’s rotation has mostly played to type. They rank 11th in starting pitching WAR, but Severino has gone from weak ...

Brewers promote Phillips for MLB debut | MiLB.com News

Brett Phillips before Lewis Brinson?

Gotta make a move to an OMNICHATTER that’s right for me, for June 5, 2017

OT: Summer Soccer Thread 2017

‘Tis summer, and the silly season did blather and bamboozle the internets.

With the Champion’s League all wrapped up in a Ronaldo shaped box, it’s time to move on to more important things. Like whether Antoine Griezmann leave Athleti, whither Alaxandre Lacazette, and why doesn’t Liverpool just hire Southampton’s recruitment staff and cut out the middle man. Also of interest: Sanchez, Ozil, Mahrez, Hazard, and anyone else with a z in his name apparently. Plus oh so much more! Get it all here in ...

Full Count » The Tyler Thornburg trade just got more expensive for Red Sox

The Red Sox announced that they were sending 18 year old middle infielder Yeison Coca to the Brewers as the player to be named later in the deal that already sent Travis Shaw, Mauricio Dubon and Josh Pennington to Milwaukee.

2017 Draft prospects with the best tools | MLB.com

Potentially the next “fastest to get the big leagues” flameout?

Best slider: J.B. Bukauskas, RHP, North Carolina
When it’s on, Bukauskas’ slider may be the most unhittable pitch in the Draft, peaking in the upper 80s with nasty bite. Hitters can’t even try to sit on it because they also have to contend with his mid-90s fastball.

Carlos Peguero and the Coverage of Asian Baseball – Daniel Brim – Medium

Oh boy.

Simply put, it’s incredibly rude that people stick their heads in and judge a league based on a few highlights on the internet and a few stat lines on Baseball Reference. When a foreign player does post a good stat line, it’s often held against the league instead of credited to the player getting better, or adjusting well to the Japanese style of pitching. Not every foreign player can do that. Many can’t.

Simply put, there’s not a lot of reason for anybody other than scouts to ...

The Phillie Phanatic’s best running gags, ranked – Phillies Nation

Finger extensions are not on the list.

Olney: Is the obsession with launch angle helping or hurting hitters? - Buster Olney Blog- ESPN

Is anyone actually suggesting every hitter should hit exactly the same way?

“Changing every hitter’s swing to produce a better launch angle is a mistake,” said one AL staffer. “It may work with hitters who have enough power to drive the ball out of the park to all fields, but most hitters will find themselves flying out to the track. And there is no question that strikeouts will go up because hitters will be swinging under the ball.”

One AL evaluator observed, “I have been around a ...

Top 10 Prospects: June 5 - Prospect Roundup - Rotoworld.com

5. Gleyber Torres, SS, New York Yankees
2017 stats: 43 G,.255/.364/.433, 25 R, 11 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR, 21 RBI, 25 BB, 34 K at Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Torres might be a little too patient right now. Yes, that’s a real thing. It’s great that he’s drawing walks, but he is putting himself in a lot of two-strike counts, as seen in his 13 strikeouts in 11 games with Scranton. This is definitely an adjustment period, and Torres is too smart and too good for it to last ...

Regression with Changing Talent Levels: The Effects of Variance – The Hardball Times

Estimating talent level is not for the squeamish. Interesting stuff.

Amed Rosario might get called up sooner rather than later | Newsday

Super 2 cutoff is on the horizon. Barring injury, he’ll be up this month.

Amed Rosario might be on the way. When Sandy Alderson was asked about the heralded shortstop during a forum for season ticket-holders before Sunday’s game, the general manager said, “Yes, it could be this year.”

Alderson said he will see Rosario play this week when Triple-A Las Vegas visits Salt Lake City. He told the group, gathered in the stands down the leftfield line, that Rosario indeed had compiled enough ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-5-2017

Pittsburgh Press, June 5, 1917:

Rumor says today that the address of the Washington ball club is to be changed. Ban Johnson says there is nothing to the rumor.

Poor patronage at Washington, it is said, makes the transfer of the Senators to some other city imperative, and Baltimore, Brooklyn and Toronto have been mentioned.

Ban Johnson says: “The sentiment of the American league is to stick by Washington. I can say that the league would rather operate in Washington at a loss than elsewhere at a ...

Hits on the Diamond | Tufts Now

Tufts’ impact on statistical analysts in MLB.

For the Cubs, the moment marked the end of a century of futility. For Tufts, the World Series represented another step forward in baseball’s statistical revolution. Gone are the days when teams acquired players based solely on the instincts of grizzled scouts. An influx of analysts, coders and game theorists, utilizing numbers you won’t find on the back of a baseball card, has changed the game. Everything these days is worth quantifying—from ...

As the single-year home run record stands to fall, who’s next to hit 600 after Albert Pujols?

Jeff Passan’s top nice candidates.

Mets’ Seth Lugo, Steven Matz near returns | MLB.com

On Saturday with Triple-A Las Vegas, Matz gave up five runs over 4 1/3 innings on eight hits and no walks with five strikeouts. He threw 90 pitches. Matz has been recovering from elbow soreness that he believes stemmed from a flexor strain in his left forearm—a diagnosis that the Mets dispute.

Top 200 Draft Prospects list unveiled | MLB.com

While there’s been a quite a bit of movement up and down the list, the very top of it remains relatively unchanged. Notre Dame High’s (Sherman Oaks, Calif.) Hunter Greene and his electric right arm remain in the top spot, where Greene has been since the initial Draft Top 50 was released in December. Louisville’s two-way star Brendan McKay, who could still be taken in the top five as either a first baseman or left-handed pitcher, is still at No. 2.

Still-too-early All-Star rosters: Which NL first baseman gets snubbed?

This is where it gets tougher. The AL is limited to just two free selections here because it also carries a backup DH. Teams also usually carry three catchers, so the two free picks were Xander Bogaerts and Gary Sanchez (in a very weak group of catchers). Alonso is the clear choice as the backup first baseman and the only A’s representative. Robinson Cano is having another strong season at a traditionally deep position that hasn’t been as deep this year because of slow starts by Brian Dozier, ...

Brad Ausmus fumed when Tigers got 30 seconds, but no more, to challenge play

The Detroit Tigers were given 30 seconds to decide whether to challenge a bang-bang play at first base in the first inning.

Manager Brad Ausmus wanted a few more.

That seems to be the root of the argument that led to Ausmus’ ejection on Saturday at Comerica Park: Is the 30-second clock a guideline or a timer?

“You have 30 seconds, as a rule,” said bench coach Gene Lamont, who took over the club after Ausmus was tossed by crew chief Fieldin Culbreth. “But usually they’ll give you more time ...

Jimmy Piersall, Whose Mental Illness Was Portrayed in ‘Fear Strikes Out,’ Dies at 87

Jimmy Piersall, the often outrageous outfielder and broadcaster whose emotional breakdown while a rookie with the Boston Red Sox was portrayed in the 1957 movie “Fear Strikes Out,” a rare glimpse, for its time, at an athlete’s mental illness, died on Saturday in Wheaton, Ill. He was 87.

His death was announced by the Red Sox.

Piersall was an outstanding center fielder, a solid hitter and a two-time All-Star, playing in the major leagues for 17 seasons. But his career nearly ended just ...

OTP 5 June 2017: Venezuelan big leaguers strike back

Back to baseball this week, as patriotic players highlight resistance to a disastrous President. 

Since March, massive anti-government rallies have erupted in Caracas and other big cities, with demonstrators protesting the country’s runaway inflation, deadly shortages of food and medicine, and the politician they blame for pushing Venezuela into crisis: current president Nicolas Maduro.

At least 60 protestors have died in clashes with government forces. As the conflict deepens, a series of ...

LoDo: A renaissance owed to Coors Field, urban pioneers and smart politics

The role played by Coors Field in the rebirth of Lower Downtown Denver.

If OMNICHATTER is guilty of anything, it’s of loving too much, for June 4, 2017