Silverman: Doug Fister looks like an ace | Boston Herald

Let’s not get carried away.

The difference between Doug Fister and Sale is the former doesn’t need any qualifiers. Fister is the real thing, people, and last night’s gem — his fourth consecutive start of seven-plus innings allowing two or fewer runs — should be enough to cement his status as the closest thing to a sure thing the Red Sox can put on the mound at this point in the season.

If you’ve been waiting for his pixie dust to wear off, you can hit pause because 33-year-old ...

The Jonah Keri Podcast: Bill James - CBSSports.com

Haven’t had time to listen to this yet. With the pairing, I’m sure it’s interesting.

The shocking history of sign stealing in baseball

As Mike Lowell joked on MLB Network, this is partly a pace of play issue. How much time were these pitchers taking between pitches?

Boston’s greatest crime was the obviousness with which it employed the scheme. Generally speaking, according to sources, if someone on a team’s video staff cracks an opponent’s signals, they are run from the video room to an intermediary in the dugout and forwarded to players on the field. The Red Sox’s crime, according to sources, was sending the decoded ...

White Sox prospect Jimenez visits Chicago | MLB.com

“I truly believe that I can be playing here right now,” said Jimenez through interpreter Billy Russo. “Like I say, God’s plan is perfect. The only thing I can do and handle is to work hard every day and try to do my best and try to learn about the game every day and put me in the best position to force them to make a decision.

“They are the ones who can have the power and in my case, in my mind, I’m ready. But I have to wait.”

Beware Mets fans: Team looks ready to cut payroll in 2018 | New York Post

These small-market teams really need to watch the bottom line.

Owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz did just enough last offseason to silence criticisms about thriftiness — giving Yoenis Cespedes a four-year contract worth $110 million was a good start — but now old questions are bound to arise, given the Mets’ dismal performance this season, empty seats at Citi Field and the general manager’s assessment next year’s payroll may decrease.

The Mets have about $65 million coming off the ...

Stephen Strasburg extends scoreless streak, overcoming cramps to beat Marlins

MIAMI — In the sixth inning of the Washington Nationals’ 2-1 win Tuesday over the Miami Marlins, Stephen Strasburg fell behind Giancarlo Stanton 3-0. Strasburg was also experiencing calf cramps at the time, a minor problem he cannot seem to shake, and it all combined to create a rather discouraging set of circumstances for the Nationals right-hander.

But Strasburg fought back into the count against the man on a mighty home run tear and induced a groundout. He then struck out Christian ...

Astros’ Lance McCullers ready for return Wednesday

On Wednesday night at Safeco Field, the day after they will have officially welcomed Justin Verlander into their rotation, the Astros will get back Lance McCullers Jr.

But which version of McCullers will the Astros get?

The last time we saw McCullers on a major league mound, the 23-year-old with the electric right arm was amid the worst stretch in his young career. Poor fastball command plagued the 2017 All-Star, whose once-elite 2.69 ERA inflated to 3.92 in a span of five starts.

Red Sox score marathon walk-off win in 19 innings

Once the adrenaline rush from putting together a ninth-inning rally to force extra innings eventually wore off, and the ninth inning turned into the 11th, then the 13th, then the 15th, then the 17th, and all the zeroes on the scoreboard started to blend together, the Sox’s stalemate with the Blue Jays became its own surreal mental and physical challenge.

Physically, there wasn’t a body on the field that wasn’t feeling the drain of a game that stretched long past midnight.
...
But in ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-6-2017

A handful of stories from the Pittsburgh Press, September 6, 1917:

The following significant letter was sent to the sporting editor of the [Baltimore] American by Ban Johnson.
...
“Mr. Miner, Manager Griffith and Edward Walsh are the three principal stockholders and they all denied flatly that the Washington club was to be transferred…I am free to confess that Baltimore is entitled to a place in the major leagues, but how it can be brought about, I do not feel warranted to discuss at this time. ...

She’s a beautiful mess, yeah the kind you love to OMNICHATTER for September 6, 2017

Astros, Luhnow at center of baseball’s scouts versus data debate – The Athletic ($)

Posting the latest Rosenthal because the Athletic is running a 50% flash sale for the next hour. Paying about $60 for the Athletic was too high for me. Paying half that is more to my liking.

The unlikely story of how No. 762 became Barry Bonds final home run

At that point, Bonds had homered every 16 plate appearances for the season and had played in 84 percent of the Giants’ games. With 22 games remaining on the schedule (plus the rest of the current game), he’d likely bat about 75 more times. The chances of Bonds going homerless in 75 consecutive plate appearances were a tick less than one in a hundred.

OMNICHATTER is big on stench but short on redeeming features, for September 5, 2017

NYT: Boston Red Sox Used Electronic Devices to Steal Signs Against Yankees

Investigators for Major League Baseball have determined that the Boston Red Sox, who are in first place in the American League East and likely headed to the playoffs, executed a scheme to illicitly steal hand signals from opponents’ catchers in games against the second-place Yankees and other teams, according to several people briefed on the matter.

The baseball inquiry began about two weeks ago, after the Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman, filed a detailed complaint with the ...

Extended road trips were a part of baseball in the early 20th century

In 1905 the Tigers had a 20-game road trip that started on May 29 and didn’t conclude until June 23. That trip took the team to Chicago, St. Louis, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and finally New York before turning back for Detroit. In late July they commenced on a 17-game road trip to the east coast. That trip included three doubleheaders, all of which were played during the day, since night games wouldn’t become popular until after World War II. Sometimes the teams changed into ...

BAR: Could the Cincinnati Reds have six Gold Glove finalists?

Nope.

Derek Jeter’s reported plan to slash Marlins’ payroll is cruel | SI.com

It’s a lot easier to say it when it’s not your money.

It would be a colossal mistake and deeply wrong on the part of Jeter and Sherman to come to Miami and immediately tear things down. To give up right from the get go would be to admit openly that professional baseball isn’t worth the effort in Miami, and if the new ownership group can’t commit to doing what’s right for the franchise and its fans, then they shouldn’t be allowed to purchase the team. Manfred and MLB may desperately want ...

Chicago’s Avisail Garcia and Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer fight over pitches - SBNation.com

As these things usually start, this one began on the diamond thanks to some disagreements over pitching preferences. Garcia, who has said this to pitchers before, thought that Bauer was being unfair with his pitch choices.

So Bauer told him to get back in the batter’s box and get ready to try to get a hit off of him again. Garcia struck out, after which Bauer told him to go sit down.

Meet the math/computer whiz who helps make Marlins baseball decisions | Miami Herald

So what was realistic about the movie?

“There was sort of a divide between the traditional scouting and the analytics stuff a decade ago,” Parè said. “I do think that gap has closed quite a bit and teams realize that just any source of information they can get more of and better of is going to help them make better decisions and be more of a competitive advantage.

“For every organization I’ve worked with (the Marlins, Indians and Blue Jays), there has been none of that animosity ...

MLB At Bat App Surpasses 2 Billion Minutes Consumed In August

MLBAM is printing money.

MLBAM said data shows that At Bat is approaching 10 billion minutes consumed for 2017, putting it on pace to surpass last year’s record 10.4 billion by early September.

Matt Harvey’s dubious future comes down to these five starts | New York Post

Three days rest?

If you blinked Saturday, you might have missed Matt Harvey’s ignominious return to the mound in Houston in which his ravaged right arm was torched for seven runs on eight hits in two innings by the Astros.

But apparently Harvey was enthused enough about his performance that he’s rushing back out there, moved up a day in the rotation to pitch Wednesday against the Phillies on three days of rest after having thrown 70 pitches in his first big league start since June 14.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-5-2017

Seattle Star, September 5, 1917:

[Carl] Mays has speed, a good curve and a change of pace. In addition his underhand delivery is hard for most batsmen to hit because they do not bat against it often enough to get accustomed to it.
...
[Mays:] “In the minor leagues I was always having arguments with managers who believed the underhand delivery was to be tabooed because it was scarcely ever used.

“That was the best reason, to my notion, for keeping on using it. A batter is less likely to hit the ...

Cubs’ Javier Baez sits out with injured thumb | MLB.com

It’s his thumb not his vision.

“My thumb is kind of jammed a little bit, so I’m taking a day off and I’ll be ready to go [Tuesday],” he said before the Cubs played the Pirates. I told the doctor about my thumb, but we were obviously worried more about the head, the contact. So today it’s pretty swollen. I’ve been icing it. Hopefully I’ll be ready [Tuesday].”

Placing 19-Year-Old Ronald Acuna’s Season In Context | BaseballAmerica.com

Some good comps. Delmon Young is there to remind us prospect numbers don’t always translate into MLB numbers.

Is the LeMahieu Shift the Boldest One Ever? | FanGraphs Baseball

Now this is a shift.

OTP 5 September 2017: For storm-ravaged Houston, a presidential visit and baseball’s return

The city of Houston on Saturday witnessed two milestones on its road to recovery from Hurricane Harvey: a visit from the president of the United States and the return of baseball a week after deadly floodwaters engulfed the metropolis.

President Donald Trump, in a widely watched test of his handling of the disaster, distributed food and played with children at a center for evacuees in his first trip to Houston since it was slammed by one of the most destructive storms to hit the United States. ...Read More...

Mellow Mouse, Benevolent Space Tyrant Posted: September 05, 2017 at 07:43 AM | 1430 comment(s)
  Beats: houston astros, politics

Clint Hurdle agrees to four-year contract extension with Pirates

Hurdle has agreed to a four-year contract extension, which replaces the 2018 club option on his current deal and keeps him under contractual control through 2021.

The guaranteed portion of Hurdle’s current contract, agreed to in April 2014, expires at the end of this season. The Pirates have not announced the move.
...
Chad Kuhl pitches seven scoreless innings, Pirates pound Cubs, 12-0
Hurdle, 60, took over the Pirates in 2011 and has a 575-534 record in seven seasons. The team reached the ...

Jake Arrieta’s hamstring injury ‘could be worse’ but severity unclear

The hottest pitcher in the majors left the Cubs’ 12-0 loss to the Pirates in the third inning Monday when the middle of the right hamstring “grabbed” on a pitch to the third batter of the inning.

“I’ve never really had any -hamstring issue before. It’s kind of a foreign feeling,” said Arrieta, the National League’s pitcher of the month in August. “I think it could have been a lot worse. No pop or anything like that. So that’s a good sign.”

Arrieta is to be re-evaluated ...

Diamondbacks blast Dodgers with 4-HR game from J.D. Martinez

Martinez became just the 18th player in baseball history to hit four home runs in a game, going deep in each of his final four trips to the plate to lead the Diamondbacks to their 11th consecutive victory, a 13-0 shellacking of the Dodgers.
....
The win left the Diamondbacks one win shy of their 2003 franchise record of 12 consecutive wins. It was their fourth during the streak that’s come against the Dodgers. Not long ago, the Dodgers had a chance at establishing an all-time wins record. On ...

Cleveland Indians beat White Sox, 5-3, for 12th straight win; Trevor Bauer wins No. 15

The Indians are in the midst of their longest winning streak since last year’s franchise record 14-gamer. They have not lost a game since Aug. 23 against Boston.

They are the first team to construct winning streaks of 12 or more games in consecutive seasons since the Orioles in 1970 and 1971.

The Indians are 34-16 since the ASB, the best in the majors during that stretch.