Month: May 2017

I suppose the idea is that bunting is viewed as the intentional act of giving oneself up

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On December 21, 2011, a Houston Astros employee accessed proprietary data on a St. Louis Cardinals server. Later, I would learn — through unlawful methods — that Cardinals’ data were used extensively from 2012 through 2014. Houston Astros employees used the data to replicate and evaluate key algorithms and decision tools related to amateur player evaluation. Many individuals throughout the Houston organization, including the General Manager and Assistant General Manager, were included in the e-mail discussions about these efforts.

An Astros spokesperson told the Houston Chronicle that the team would have no comment. The Astros hired Luhnow away from the Cardinals on December 8, 2011.

According to the tweet, Correa appeared to go public with his accusations in part because of treatment of the case by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, who later Tuesday shot down at least part of the tweet’s claims.

I suppose the idea is that bunting is viewed as the intentional act of giving oneself up, while a sacrifice fly is instead viewed as a literal stroke of luck. But I don’t buy that a sacrifice fly is pure luck; it is a skill, just like bunting. Boggs seems to agree.

“It’s really not even that hard,” he said. “It is what we preach at the high school [Boggs is a coach for the 2016 High School District Champion Wharton Wildcats] with a man on third and less than two outs.”

Sacrifice flies have been an official baseball statistic since 1954. Previously, they were grouped with sacrifice bunts, known as “sacrifice hits.” So, for example, Babe Ruth, who played his entire career before 1954 and had a career .474 on-base percentage, actually gets a bump because his Basketball Jerseys sacrifice flies were not held against him.

MLB trade rumors: Nationals eyeing White Sox’s David Robertson, but it’s probably not the right move

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The Nationals need a guy at the back end of their bullpen to make hitters swing and miss. Fitting, because they’ve swung and missed on back-end guys the entire offseason.

They attempted to re-sign Mark Melancon. Nope. Gone to San Francisco with the Giants. What about Aroldis Chapman? He’s good! He helped the Cubs win a World Series.

Nope. Ended up back in the Bronx with the Yankees.

In fact, the Nationals were linked to pretty much every free-agent reliever this offseason. And they’ve missed out. On all of them.

Washington still has options, however. The next logical choice? How about David Robertson of the White Sox? He could be the Nats’ next closer, according to the USA Today.

Given Washington’s interest in Robertson earlier this offseason — when it tried to get Chicago to include him in the trade for outfielder Adam Eaton — it seems to be a natural fit. Chicago is still trying to unload pieces in exchange for prospects and get in a good position for a competitive rebuild.

Given Washington’s seeming desperation at this point, Robertson could — and at this point likely will — be the guy.

But is he the ideal candidate to close out games for the Nats?

Robertson is coming off the worst statistical year of his career. He had 37 saves in 2016, but some of his other numbers were less flattering: He posted a 1.364 WHIP (worst since 2010) and a 3.58 FIP, which is nearly an entire run higher than his career average. Most of Robertson’s ineffectiveness NBA Jerseys For Sale occurred in July when he posted a 7.45 ERA in 10 games. He flirted with disaster a ton throughout the season, though, and he’ll turn 32 in April.

Still, Robertson finished the season strong (1.89 ERA, 12 saves in 20 games over the season’s final two months)

Derek Jeter’s tough day: Interview with A-Rod, reported setback on Marlins deal

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Sometimes even the great ones don’t have it so great.

That pretty much sums up Derek Jeter’s day Tuesday. Not only did the Yankees legend have to do a painful CNBC interview with former teammate (and still-frenemy) Alex Rodriguez as part of a charity event in New York; he also learned his plans to become a minority owner of the Marlins had taken a slight hit.

SI.com summed up the interview in two words: “nightmare” and “trainwreck.” Other outlets used “awkward.” There were questions about Jeter and Rodriguez’s supposed strained relationship. Questions about A-Rod’s relationship with Jennifer Lopez. Questions about Monday’s Met Gala (an arts event, not the Queens MLB team’s win over the Braves). Clueless questions about Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation.

Unlike last fall, Cleveland is expecting All-Star outfielder Michael Brantley and starters Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar to start the season in full health. Not to mention the addition of All-Star slugger Edwin Encarnacion.

“At this time of year, everyone is at glass half-full,” Francona said. “We have good reason to be.”

With the Cubs winning their first World Series title since 1908, the Indians have the longest drought in the majors. Francona is interested in seeing how the Indians respond to it.

The Indians never lost more than three in a row this past season, the only team in the majors to do that. With the Big 3 (Andrew Miller, Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw) returning in the bullpen, the Tribe could very well emulate the Royals’ 2015 season and go from Game 7 World Series losers the year prior to winning it all the next season.

“There are a lot of unknowns,” Francona said. “Just being brutally Miami Dolphins Cheap Jerseys honest, it could go one of two ways. They could come back with a sense of entitlement, or they can come back being hungry, knowing where they were and be like, man, I want to get back there again. My bet is on No. 2 with this team.”

The pitching has been far less impressive than the offense

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Joey Votto, after a slow start, is right where you’d expect him to be: 10 homers, 29 RBIs and an OBP of .399. Zack Cozart, in his seventh year in the league, has surprised everyone with a .351/.440/.588 slash line, and leads the NL in triples (4). Also surprising: Eugenio Suarez hitting .327/.408/.600. They’ve also gotten nice pop from Adam Duvall and Scott Schebler, who each have nine homers.

The point is, the offense is getting it done. But contending teams are Cheap UK NFL Jerseys rarely one-dimensional. The Reds are, let’s say, 1.5 dimensional so far.

The pitching has been far less impressive than the offense, but has produced some positives.

Despite a 4.42 team ERA that ranks 25th in baseball, the Reds’ staff has held opponents to a .230 average, which is third-best in baseball, and ranks (barely) in the top half of baseball in WHIP (1.31). The starting rotation has been paltry for the most part — the starters, led by Scott Feldman, Amir Garrett and Bronson Arroyo, rank 21st in the league in quality starts — but somehow the right pitches are being made at the right time. Credit that in large part to the bullpen — most notably Drew Storen, Wandy Peralta and closer Raisel Iglesias — which has kept the team in games when the starters have faltered and given the offense a chance to do its thing.

Why wait for a pitcher to get a ball back? No more human rain delays. Just have the dude on the mound throw five balls at once. If you swing and miss, you’re out. If you hit a ground ball, you’re out. Batboys can go running after balls on the field like it’s Wimbledon.

If a ball is hit to the outfield but stays in the park, it’s an automatic out, and the runner can advance at his own risk. Simple. Effective. Throw the next pitch. We don’t have time to wait for that ball to come down.

ESPN has producers monitor Adam Schefter so he doesn’t fall down stairs

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ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter is dedicated to his craft, so much so that he needs people around him to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.

In an insightful piece by MMQB, we get to see a day in the life of Schefter, but not just any day. MMQB shadowed Schefter on the first day of NFL free agency, when news is coming in practically every second of the day.

Trying to keep up with all of it — and stay ahead of his competitors — Schefter can get lost in the moment. As MMQB notes, the NFL insider needs supervision around him as his head is buried in his two cell phones, which have different providers by the way:

“Do I bat two or three left-handers in a row and let the manager wipe out my whole lineup with a couple lefties during the course of a game?” Baker asked. “Or do I try to achieve balance?”

Yes, achieve balance, by batting Eaton first with Turner second.

Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper are the two lefties currently slated to bat third and fourth this season. Murphy was great against left-handed pitching last season. His batting average versus lefties ranked 16th in all of baseball, righty or lefty, and his OPS was 23rd.

To further dispel Baker’s theory, Eaton batted .285 against righties and .284 against lefties last season. His on-base percentage was actually higher opposite left-handed pitchers (.369 to .360).

“A lot of people have tried to tell me during my managerial career what the lineups should be but nobody has really hit in all places in the lineup but me,” Baker said. “And also, my teams have always hit. I’ll let everybody know what my lineup’s going to be when the time comes.”

That may be true, but it’s highly doubtful Washington brass Chinese Cheap Jerseys traded away Giolito and company for an end-of-the-lineup hitter.

Joe Torre tries to turn down heat in Orioles-Red Sox feud

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The controversial series between the Orioles and Red Sox took another turn Wednesday night when Baltimore starting pitcher Kevin Gausman was ejected for hitting Xander Bogaerts with a 76 mph curveball.

“Once something happens, then it just seems to grow and fester and all that,” Torre said Wednesday. “Basically, in trying to keep score on who owes who what, we figured there was enough going on with both sides that we basically just had a phone call today to let them know we want to play baseball. We don’t want to get anybody hurt.

“Players deserve to be on the field. We appreciate your passion but we certainly need to have the focus on playing games instead of trying to get even, if somebody thinks they need to get even.

“Sitting in an impartial seat, you look at it and realize enough is enough. I know if you wear a uniform, you’re always feeling that you’re on the short end of it. I understand that feeling. But the commissioner made his point, without going into specifics, just about getting down to baseball. If this stuff continues, there will be some discipline.”

So, although Gausman ripped home plate umpire Sam Holbrook for the “bush-league” ejection, he was already given a short leash regardless of pitch type. Orioles outfielder Adam Jones, who is in the midst of his own controversy, also got ejected from Wednesday’s game for arguing with Holbrook Design Cheap Jerseys Online over balls and strikes.

The Orioles-Red Sox rivalry has been full of tension since Manny Machado’s controversial spikes-high slide into second base that injured Dustin Pedroia in April. Add in a fastball to Mookie Betts, slow home run jogs from Machado and Boston fans’ racial slurs directed at Jones, and it’s easy to see the growing tensions between the two sides.

Don’t expect the bad blood to go away soon.

Diamondbacks bench coach Ron Gardenhire diagnosed with prostate cancer

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Arizona Diamondbacks bench coach and former Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the team announced Tuesday.

Gardenhire, 59, is entering his first season as Arizona’s bench coach after spending 2002-2014 as the Twins’ manager.

“I’m going to fight it and I’m going to deal with it,” Gardenhire said in a team release. “It’s a bump in the road and it’s not how I envisioned starting spring training with a brand new team but that’s a part of life. With the backing of the ball club, we’ll get through it and I’ll get through it.”

“I’m not going to speculate on what I want the end of the process to be,” Manfred said, via Cleveland.com. “Paul has been fantastic about engaging. We’ve had a number of conversations.

“I want those conversations to continue and I think we’ll produce a result that will be good for the Indians and good for baseball. But what exactly that is I don’t want to speculate.”

Chief Wahoo has been the Indians mascot since 1947. Last year, perhaps bowing to public pressure, the Indians demoted the Chief Wahoo logo to “secondary status,” in favor of the “Block C.”

Yet the logo is still displayed on the team’s uniforms, and many fans love it, as anyone who witnessed the Indians crowds in the postseason last year can attest. Those games led hundreds of Native Americans to protest outside Progressive Field.

So there is no easy answer that won’t alienate some of the Cheap Michael Jordan Jerseys For Kids team’s fan base. But as Manfred’s meeting Friday morning showed, Major League Baseball is ready for the team to take action.

Jose Canseco is pretty mad about the Hall of Fame voters’ ‘hypocrisy’

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Mariners pitchers allowed 19 runs to the Tigers in a blowout loss, but Evan Marshall had the worst night of all. The Kansas State product allowed seven runs on seven hits in just two innings of work. Each Tigers starter recorded at least one hit and one run scored against the likes of Felix Hernandez, Chris Heston, Marshall, James Pazos and Evan Scribner.

Toronto’s Chris Coghlan was dead to rights at the hands of Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina. Then he went up, up and away to score an amazing acrobatic run in the Jays’ 6-5 win.

Jose Canseco is really juiced about the 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame class.

The former major leaguer and admitted steroid user took to Twitter on Wednesday to rip into the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for not electing more players suspected of steroid use, namely, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and former teammate and A’s “Bash Brother” Mark McGwire.

Canseco, in his infamous tell-all memoir “Juiced,” called out players he said used PEDs. His former Rangers teammate Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez was one of those players. Rodriguez never tested positive, and he made it into the Hall of Fame on Wednesday in his first chance at induction.

Another of the 2017 inductees, Jeff Bagwell, was under suspicion for years even though he, too, never tested positive for PEDs.

Maybe Canseco has a point, but it’s fair to acknowledge that the BBWAA sometimes operates with a hive mind. With the vote percentages for Bonds and Clemens on the Cheap Jerseys Wholesale rise, maybe it’ll be sooner rather than later that we see more Steroid Era players get Hall of Fame love.

Mets’ Noah Syndergaard could miss up to 3 months, report says

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The White Sox got off to a torrid start in 2016, then the offense went cold and entered a 9-24 stretch of baseball in May and June. The time to win with their core group of players was Cheap US Jerseys either up or ticking, so they traded outfielder Adam Eaton to Washington for top pitching prospect Lucas Giolito, pitcher Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning.

Adam Eaton is a great player, but pitching comes at a premium, and Cheap Golden State Warriors Jerseys giving up Eaton for not one, not two, but three potential top-of-the-rotation guys is quite the haul. That move alone puts them at the top of the list. And considering that they fleeced the Red Sox for Chris Sale, well, the White Sox may have won the offseason, even if the moves won’t be immediately impactful.

Noah Syndergaard’s shoulder injury has gone from superficial to significant.

Mets general manager Sandy Alderson took responsibility for the injury Cheap Google Jerseys Monday when he admitted it was his choice to start the ace despite his refusal to have an MRI on his injured shoulder just a couple days earlier. While an exact timetable was unknown at the time, Alderson acknowledged the severity of the injury and expected Syndergaard would miss a “considerable amount of time.”

Syndergaard, 24, is 1-2 so far this season with a 3.29 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings pitched.

NFL draft grades 2017: Did Chargers get enough talent to make the leap in AFC West?

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The 2017 NFL Draft concluded Saturday afternoon, casting the latest class of ballhawking defensive backs and developmental passers into the great wide open of rookie minicamps and contract negotiations. This year’s event was vital in the AFC West, a division that proved to be the toughest in the league. After Reebok Cheap Jerseys a handful of hauls in Philadelphia, the West should wear that crown once more this fall.

Cleveland’s stretch five — James, J.R. Smith/Iman Shumpert, Deron Williams, Kyle Korver and Channing Frye — forced Indiana to defend James one-on-one or risk giving up an open three-pointer to elite shooters when trying to help.

The four-time NBA Most Valuable Player is lauded as the best basketball player in the world not only because of his unique blend of size, strength, and speed, but because of his passing ability and his intelligence. It makes James one of the most dangerous players to guard one-on-one, as he showed against Indiana.

Surrounding him with shooters like Lue did on Thursday is like the Houston Rockets putting Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon next to James Harden. That’s because defenders can’t cheat off their man to help on a runaway freight train. Otherwise, they run the risk of getting peppered from downtown.

James commands so much attention that he doesn’t even have Where To Buy Cheap Jerseys to start the play. As the roll man, his finishing ability and court vision makes James equally as lethal. The additional shooters forced Indiana to pick its poison each trip down the floor.