Play ball!

Burnes is a free agent after 2024 so the Brewers needed to get something for him while they could because he already said he wants to play somewhere else.

The Cardinals have made a lot of moves but half of them are for guys I've never heard of. Keynan Middleton? Andrew Kittredge? Nick Robertson? Victor Santos? All pitchers, along with the 3 starters they also signed, the Cardinals acquired 7 pitchers so far this season. I guess that tells us what management thinks the main weakness was in 2023.

I haven't heard of any of them. I assume they are all BP arms.

The Jays signed a Cuban right-hander who last pitched in Japan in 2022. THey gave him $32M over 5 years.
https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/news/yariel-rodriguez-deal-with-blue-jays

The money isn't bad but 5 years? For a 27 year old nobody knows anything about? That doesn't make sense unless somebody on the inside of the organization thinks they know something.

It's their money, which is fine. As long as it doesn't preclude them from signing a necessary piece.

It's not the first time they've done this. In 2017, they signed Lourdes Gurriel as an international free agent for 7 years, $22M dollars plus a $3M signing bonus.

The Cardinals signed 37 year old veteran shortstop Brandon Crawford yesterday. He's going to back up 21 year old rookie shortstop Masyn Winn so I like the deal. Hard to believe that it was just a few years ago (2021) Crawford was an All Star in SF when he won a Gold Glove and hit .298 with 24 HR and 90 RBI. Obviously the Cardinals don't expect anything like that but it's always good to have a reliable backup at short especially when you're planning to start a totally unproven rookie at that position.

That sounds like a good deal to me. He's not blocking any prospects but can take over if needed.

The Jays have had a good amount of regulars in their lineups so far. Manoah was an interesting one the other day. Not because he was good (he wasn't)—he beaned 3 batters, walked 1, and gave up 4 runs on 3 hits in 1-2/3 innings. The interesting part was his velocity, which was up to 95.5 mph. He exceeded 95 only 17 times over 19 starts last season. He did that 305 times in 2022 and 104 times in 2021. There was obviously something up with his arm, shoulder, or something else last season, which likely accounted for some of his troubles.

The Jays' spring training game was on MLB Network today. Unfortunately I only got to see about half an inning because I had errands to run but I did get to hear a bit of the stellar announcing of Shulman and Martinez.

It was a slow game and the Jays got shut out. But, the announcing with those two is always stellar, as you say.

It's sort of Jays-related, but it is nice to see John Gibbons coaching again. I imagine that if the Mets have problems, Gibbons would become manager.

Did you see UL Washington died? Do you remember him or was he before your time? He was noted for one thing and if you're familiar with him you'll know what I mean.

Oh, wow. I hadn't heard that. I remember the name and that he played with the Expos and some other teams. Wasn't caught doing coke or something?

Nope, I just Googled it. That was Ron Washington.

What were you referring to?

UL Washington always played with a toothpick in his mouth.  ALWAYS; in the field and at bat.

Just look at the pic on his Wikipedia page.

I don't remember that. That is an oddity. I've seen players with chew, sunflower seeds, and gum, but never a toothpick.

It even says it in his bio:

Washington played mostly as a shortstop during his career, and was well known for having a toothpick in the corner of his mouth while on the field and at the plate.[1]

On Hot Stove, Harold Reynolds said when he first came up he couldn't wait to get to KC to see if UL did in fact have a toothpick all the time. He did.

MLB Network has the Jays game again.

Oh and did you see Josh Donaldson retired?

Cardinals are getting an early start on blowing up this season. Sonny Gray was removed from his start in the second inning today due to hamstring tightness.

Yeah, we've had three pitchers with similar ailments. I thought they trained in the off-season.

https://twitter.com/JoeyVotto/status/1765234770793886005

What a coincidence; the Jays have reportedly agreed on a non-roster deal with Votto. Interesting.

Yeah I saw that on Hot Stove today. It's a good deal because if nothing else Votto can give the younger guys some pointers about hitting. All Spring Votto has been doing funny skits on social media about wanting to play for a team this year and somebody finally took him up on it

I saw that Lance Lynn was not only ejected from yesterday's game for arguing the strike zone but when he went down to the bullpen to get some more work he was told he had to leave the stadium completely.  Guess who the umpire was? I guess Angel has to get himself into "game shape" too.

Why on Earth would be have to leave the stadium? And why on Earth is Angel still allowed to umpire games?

Quote :

Instead of leaving the field, Lynn walked out to the bullpen, planning to throw enough pitches to complete his scheduled work for the day.

Hernandez objected to that. He sent another umpire to Lynn in the bullpen to tell the right-hander he needed to leave the field. When Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol argued Hernandez’s decision, he was gifted an early exit as well.

The game came to a full stop as everyone watched Lynn and Marmol walk off the field. Lynn even waved to the crowd before leaving for good.

After the game, Lynn said Hernandez—who has a reputation to have a quick trigger ejecting players and managers—was in “midseason form.”

I'm sure teams just dread when they see Angel is on the crew for their series. I don't understand how MLB justifies him still working.

onebigfish wrote:

I'm sure teams just dread when they see Angel is on the crew for their series. I don't understand how MLB justifies him still working.

I think they just don't want to risk a lawsuit. You know how Angel already is playing the discrimination card because he doesn't get to work post-season games. Imagine the stink he'd make if MLB flat out fired his ass.

The Jays are pummeling the Rays 8-2 in the 4th inning. Everything they hit seems to be hit hard and the Rays are doing themselves no favour by making 4 errors so far.

I'm not sure where they had the mic for the broadcast, but the crack of the bats in yesterday's game was very loud. It was like that on almost every reasonably well-hit ball for both teams.

https://bluejaysnation.com/news/ernie-clement-hit-his-second-home-run-in-as-many-days-mason-fluharty-struck-out-three-as-the-blue-jays-defeated-the-tampa-bay-rays-9-2

Yankees today.

onebigfish wrote:

I'm not sure where they had the mic for the broadcast, but the crack of the bats in yesterday's game was very loud. It was like that on almost every reasonably well-hit ball for both teams.

https://bluejaysnation.com/news/ernie-clement-hit-his-second-home-run-in-as-many-days-mason-fluharty-struck-out-three-as-the-blue-jays-defeated-the-tampa-bay-rays-9-2

Yankees today.

I'm watching the Mariners/Dodgers on MLB Network and this game sounds the same way. Every batted ball sounds like it's clubbed 500 feet.