0 comments by Joe Lucia on 6/23/2014
I don’t really know *how*, but the Milwaukee Brewers are still dominating the National League Central. No division leader in baseball has a larger division lead than Milwaukee’s 5.5 game cushion over the Cardinals. Their .610 winning percentage is the best in the National League (clearing the once dominant Giants), and is just a half […]
0 comments by Jaymes Langrehr on 6/22/2014
Apparently Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright is a huge soccer fan, showing up at the ballpark this morning with an American flag painted on his face. Wainwright isn’t pitching today — Carlos Martinez takes the mound against the Phillies this afternoon — so here’s to hoping he keeps the facepaint on all afternoon while he’s in […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
I don’t normally like to spotlight a player in the opening of the Dugout Digest, but I felt this was important. Devin Mesoraco of the Reds has come into his own this year, and it seems like he’s getting overshadowed by half of the catchers in the National League for one reason or another. Mesoraco […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 6/21/2014
Reading that headline, you’re probably baffled. Three runs on a wild pitch? What the hell?
Oh, so that’s how it happened – a terrible throw by Michael McKenry let the second run score, and some heads up baserunning allowed Jean Segura to score the third run.
You *really* don’t see that every day.
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Everyone knows how good Victor Martinez is. He’s homered 18 times this year, and struck out just 21 times. He’s actually having a better season with the stick than Miguel Cabrera. But did you know that there’s another Martinez that is playing well for the Tigers? Former Astro J.D. Martinez has filled in admirably in […]
“It’ll definitely be different if a guy like Jeff leaves. He’s been one of the staples around here. You just kind of put his face with the Cubs team. It’d be definite culture change.
“It’d be like taking one step forward and 10 steps back.”
-Cubs reliever James Russell on Chicago’s failed efforts to re-sign their ace (via the Chicago Sun-Times)
To which Cubs GM Jed Hoyer says “meh”.
Jed Hoyer: "James Russell's opinion or anyone else's opinion isn't going to change the way we look at it." #Cubs
— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) June 20, 2014
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0 comments by Joe Lucia on 6/20/2014
I’m not going to lie to you guys – this week sucked for long home runs. The most memorable homer of the week was Giancarlo Stanton hitting a screaming liner over the right field wall. Now that I’ve killed the contents of this column, let’s do it! 1. Brandon Moss vs Colby Lewis, 447 feet […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Before Thursday’s Astros-Rays game, Matt Joyce did something that you don’t see every day. Many people more connected with baseball say it happens from time to time and isn’t incredibly rare, but seeing it in practice is crazy.
That’s right – Joyce hit the ball back into the pitching machine, which then proceeded to fire it right back at him. What a crazy world we live in…
0 comments by Joe Lucia
I’m starting to wonder just a little bit about the Toronto Blue Jays. They’re still in first place in the AL East, but things have gotten a bit dicey lately. The Jays have lost nine out of their last 12 games, and they’ve scored only 28 runs over those dozen games. Their division lead has […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia on 6/19/2014
This week, we’ve got double plays, game-savers, and some history that was saved. June 12th, Diamondbacks vs Astros – George Springer can fly. Not once, but twice. Springer’s defense has been much better than I expected. I think the best part of the way he’s played in the field this season is how quickly he […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
On Wednesday, Bartolo Colon doubled off of Lance Lynn – his first hit in the majors since 2005, when he won the Cy Young award as an Angel. That evening’s episode of Fox Sports Live decided to break down the mechanics of Colon’s hit in all its glory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5flQVAxlots
This is so hilarious. Poor Bartolo, just doing what he has to do.
0 comments by Ian Casselberry
Most baseball fans woke up Thursday morning to the news that Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw threw a no-hitter versus the Rockies on Wednesday night. But to only say that Kershaw threw a no-hitter doesn’t give the feat nearly enough credit. Many analysts — the Los Angeles Times‘ Steve Dilbeck, ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield and FanGraphs’ Dave […]
0 comments by Garrett Wilson
The trade deadline is still over a month away, but the rumor mill is already starting to churn. An extra Wild Card spot and increased parity, especially in the American League, is making it hard to tell who will by buying and who will be selling at the deadline, but we’ll do our best to […]
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Check out this play from Wednesday’s Reds-Pirates game. In the first inning, Starling Marte stole second base cleanly…and Brandon Phillips tagged him while pushing his leg off of the bag!
Second base umpire Jerry Layne wagged his finger at Phillips and both Phillips and Marte had a laugh about it, but could you imagine if Marte was called out? The amount of hot takes written about Phillips would be long enough to be confused with a George R.R. Martin novel.
0 comments by Joe Lucia
Part of the appeal of Vin Scully is how he fills the dead air between pitches. But on Wednesday night in Dodger Stadium, Clayton Kershaw wasn’t the only maestro at work. Scully’s efforts calling his no-hitter were fantastic. Because MLB.com loves us sometimes, they spliced together every out from Kershaw’s unreal performance, with Scully’s voice as the backdrop. It’s beautiful.
