Dodgers’ Julio Urias to get shoulder examined; Yasiel Puig appeals MLB punishment for gesture - LA Times

This is not good.

A fitful season for Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias took a concerning turn this week, and now the left-hander is headed back to Los Angeles so team doctor Neal ElAttrache can examine his sore left shoulder.

The triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers placed Urias on the disabled list Wednesday. Urias mentioned to the medical staff that “he wasn’t feeling right” a few days ago, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. The team shut him down from throwing. When his condition did not approve, ...

EL notes: Indians’ Mejia has glove to match | MiLB.com News

How soon before the best catching prospect in baseball gets promoted, at least to AAA?

Mets’ Matt Harvey concerned about arm fatigue | MLB.com

He looked awful.

Can a brain ‘zapping’ device improve San Francisco Giants’ performance?

Electrodes hidden inside a $750 headset are placed above the area of the brain responsible for controlling movements — the motor cortex. The brain region sends electrical signals from neurons to targeted groups of muscle fibers, causing them to contract.

KEVIN COONEY: Matt Klentak has to walk fine line between honesty and complete truth | Phillies Talk | buckscountycouriertimes.com

Every time I read “carrying 13 pitchers” I want to scream, “Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

“We have alternatives if we need to go get somebody at Triple-A,” Klentak said. “That too may come at some point. But right now, with how the roster’s going, with us carrying 13 pitchers and with Daniel Nava playing well, this is a perfectly fine setup for right now.”

BOX SCORE ART

IT IS ART.  ABOUT BOX SCORES.  MAINLY LINES AND THINGS?

Memo: MLB players can use nicknames on back of jersey, wear bright-colored shoes during ‘Players Wee

He hate me!

Major League Baseball will relax its uniform rules for a weekend later this season, allowing players to put nicknames on the back of their jerseys, wear fluorescent-colored shoes and personalize a patch paying tribute to someone instrumental in their development, according to a memo obtained by Yahoo Sports.

The event, called Players Weekend, is planned for Aug. 25-27 and was negotiated between the league and MLB Players Association. Players long have sought to express their ...

The Juiced Ball Is Back – The Ringer

STOP THE PRESSES!!

Don Newcombe’s lost interview: Dodger great talks about barriers and breaking them down

Campanella and I signed to play for the Danville Dodgers in the Three-I (Illinois-Indiana-Iowa) League. When the president of the league heard about that, he called Branch Rickey and said ‘I’ll close the league down. They’ll never play here.’ There was only one club left in the Dodger farm system where we could go, and that was in Nashua, New Hampshire, in the New England League. Buzzie Bavasi was the general manager and Walter Alston was the field manager.

“What would have happened ...

OMNICHATTER was like that when I got here, for June 14, 2917

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-14-2017

Pittsburgh Press, June 14, 1917:

Fort Smith, Ark., June 14.—Umpire Shaffer [escaped] from a mob of fans who took objections to his decisions in the game between Fort Smith and Muskogee by jumping into an auto and speeding to his hotel. The ball players ushered Shaffer from the diamond to the street.

The bad news is that the fans tried to attack the umpire. The good news is that the fans seem really emotionally invested in their local ballclub.

Brian Kenny on Twitter: ICYMI: A few smart teams have found a new weapon: The SuperReliever:

ICYMI: A few smart teams have found a new weapon:
The #SuperReliever: #DiggingIntoTheData pic.twitter.com/2rv4Okpt6r

— Brian Kenny (@MrBrianKenny) June 14, 2017

Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger already has a cool place in MLB history

Four multi-homer games already?! It’s pretty crazy, when you consider some thought Bellinger was going to be a temporary call-up for the Dodgers in late April. Since then, the 21-year-old outfielder has driven in 39 runs, scored 32 and is slashing .261/.335/.630.

That doesn’t quite compare with Judge’s line: .343/.450/.718 with 22 homers and 49 RBIs. But it doesn’t take anything away from Bellinger, either. His impact on the Dodgers has been quite obvious. Just consider this pair of ...

Pablo Sandoval’s Boston Red Sox future lies in Dave Dombrowski’s hands

It’s difficult to justify putting him in the lineup. Sunk costs needs to be embraced.

How the Twins are proving the value of defense

I see three reasons they could be a model for other clubs. For one, defense is cheap. The 10 players with the most fielding runs over the past three seasons generated 90.6 wins above replacement in that span, according to FanGraphs. They are earning a total of $70.4 million this year, or about $776,500 per WAR since 2015. The 10 best hitters have 143.8 WAR and are costing their teams $153.1 million in 2017, or 37 percent more per win. Those numbers are skewed, because some of MLB’s best ...

Twins pummel Mariners behind club-record 28 hits

This is run support.

WaPo: Daniel Murphy Asked An Umpire To Move, Got F-Bomb Instead

But Tuesday, Murphy’s ability to play defense diminished greatly when umpire Alan Porter stood in his line of sight early in the game.

Porter did not respond well to a request from Murphy, barking at the player, who appeared to try to reason with him. When the conversation was over, and Murphy could no longer see what Porter was saying, cameras caught the umpire muttering expletives at Murphy.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig makes pair of obscene gestures to stands after hitting a home run

Probably expressing his protest over the Cleveland logo!

Not shown there for obvious reasons is that Puig flipped the ol’ bird—two of them actually—toward someone or a group of people in the Progressive Field stands. Yes, two very visible middle fingers toward fans.
The gesture happened on Puig’s trip back to the dugout after crossing home plate. The area is very close to the on-deck circle, so we can probably do the math, right? People are all over Puig in the on-deck circle about how much he ...

Triple-A manager says New York Yankees prospect Gleyber Torres not yet ready for majors

Across town they have a SS ready defensively in AAA but the team is wedded to playing Jose Reyes, a shortstop who can’t field or hit.

“If you ask me today, if the call comes, he is not ready,” Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders manager Al Pedrique said Tuesday. “He is headed in the right direction. I like where he is at for a 20-year-old kid to be in Triple-A. He’s very mature, but defensively, he needs more work at third and second.”

Safeco Field, home of the Mariners, is getting a name change

Since before the late Dave Niehaus threw out the ceremonial first pitch on the day it opened, the emerald jewel of a stadium in the Sodo district has been known as Safeco Field.

But that will change after the 2018 season.

The Mariners and Safeco Insurance announced Tuesday that the naming-rights agreement for the stadium will not be extended following next season.

“Safeco Insurance has been a great partner of the Mariners dating back to the earliest days of the franchise, including the ...

Rovell: Senators aim to stop use of municipal funds to finance stadiums

Cory Booker, D-N.J., and James Lankford, R-Okla., are sponsoring a bill that would prohibit teams from using municipal bonds, whose interest is exempt from federal taxes, to help finance stadium construction.

. . .

The largest federal subsidies, according to the report, include the New York Yankees ($431 million), the Chicago Bears ($205 million), the New York Mets ($185 million), the Cincinnati Bengals ($164 million) and the Indianapolis Colts ($163 million).

Anything you say can and may be used against you in OMNICHATTER, for June 13, 2017

Posnanski: Almost Hall of Famers

1980: Here’s a fun trivia question: Before Ken Griffey was drafted in 1987, there had been 22 drafts meaning their had been 22 first overall picks.
Which first overall pick had the most WAR in his career?
If you are like me (which I know you are not) you immediately thought of Harold Baines, the first overall pick in the 1977 draft. Rick Monday had a terrific career. Both are good guesses.
But the answer (somewhat shockingly) is Darryl Strawberry in 1980.
Strawberry is, of course, one of the ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-13-2017

Pittsburgh Press, June 13, 1917:

Adolfo Luque, Cuban ballplayer, who started in to make good as a pitcher, has given up hurling and is going in for outfielding because of his ability to hit the ball. Manager Clymer of the Louisville Colonels thinks so much of his ability that Luque is the only extra outfielder now carried on the club.

After hitting .225 as a position player with the 1917 Louisville Colonels, Luque went back to the mound and it was the right move. As a big league pitcher, he won ...

Astros’ Carlos Correa is driven to become the best player in the game | FOX Sports

Proving you don’t have to go short on talent when you sign under slot.

Royce Lewis, Hunter Greene going 1-2 in the draft could help sell MLB to black youth

Will it really have much of an impact?

JetHawks’ Rodgers extends hit streak to 20 | MiLB.com News

He’s playing in a bandbox but what he’s doing is still pretty impressive.

Mariners select Kentucky 1B Evan White in first round of MLB draft | The Seattle Times

This is a very good pick at 17.

Twins take California high school shortstop Royce Lewis

With the flatter bonus structure, some analysts have said it will be more difficult to use the extra slot money to make an impact. We’ll see how much the Twins will save with this pick and what they can do with it. Boras gets to add another 1st overall pick to his portfolio.

Lewis becomes the 11th first-overall pick advised by powerful agent Scott Boras. That run started in 1983 with small college right-hander Tim Belcher, who didn’t sign with the Twins, and now includes six of the past 12 top ...

Cardinals send DeJong back to Memphis, signal changes to bench | Derrick Goold: Bird Land | stltoday.com

He says about the guy heading back to the minors.

The 23-year-old batted .244 with a .244 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage just below .400. He homered in his first at-bat, but he had only one extra-base hit to go with 11 strikeouts in his final 30 at-bats.

He proved proficient at second base, earning praise from Reds’ leadoff hitter Billy Hamilton for robbing a single from him last week in Cincinnati.

“They don’t make that play in the minors,” Hamilton said.