I’ve kind of lucked out today since the big story in baseball right now is Anthony Rizzo’s slide and Duane and Sara ably have that covered. (And if “Duane and Sara” wasn’t a pop-folk duo in the sixties, it should have been.)
- Jonah Keri looks at the Phillies rebuild and how the team has arrived ahead of schedule, as well as what problems they might have in their quest for the playoffs this year.
- One of the Phillies biggest problems is the resurgent Nationals, who have passed the Phillies in the standings after winning five in a row. They’re only a half-game behind the Braves.
- ESPN.com had a roundtable discussion about where the standings are now and where they will be at the end of the year. Don’t worry folks, they all think the Cubs will win the NL Central. Also the Nats the NL East. The NL West? Is “No one” an option?
- Matt Snyder believes that the Angels three superstars (Trout, Ohtani and Simmons)are keeping them afloat, but they need more help if they’re going to make the playoffs.
- One of the best pitchers in MLB this year came over from NPB last season and has been dominating hitters all season. I’m speaking of Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas, of course.
- Grant Brisbee just cuts open his head and lets his thoughts flow onto the virtual page. He does go into the Rizzo slide, but he’s really fixated on Pablo Sandoval playing second base.
- Craig Calcaterra was actually impressed with Sandoval’s appearance at second base.
- Pirates third baseman David Freese and third-base coach Joey Cora got in a fight after Monday’s loss to the Cubs. Either that, or Gregory Polanco just really wanted to hug Cora close and Freese wanted a turn too.
- Luis Torres looks at Welington Castillo’s recent suspension for using EPO. Torres explains what EPO is, what it does and then questions why any baseball player would ever want to use it. In fact, Torres writes that there is some question as to whether EPO increases performance at all, even in endurance sports where it is traditionally used. Boy, Lance Armstrong must feel like an idiot if it turns out that EPO really doesn’t help endurance in athletes. (Of course, that wasn’t the only thing Armstrong was taking.)
- With the MLB draft quickly approaching, Joe Sheehan has some advice: “Draft bats, buy arms.”
- Emma Baccellieri takes a look at the history of the baseball, the actual physical ball. She notes that surprisingly little effort has traditionally been put into standardizing the ball. The actual rule about the characteristics of the ball have not been changed since 1861.
- Jeff Passan laments the vanishing single. Singles are on a pace to be the lowest-percentage of total hits than anytime in the history of the game.
- Rian Watt looks at some major leaguers who still hit like it’s 2008. He explains what he means by that and it doesn’t mean that they use “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse as their walkup song. (Although that would be pretty badass if someone did.)
- Brewers pitcher Josh Hader is on pace to set a season record for strikeouts by a reliever this season. The old record is held by Dick Radatz in 1964. Zach Kram has a profile of Hader.
- Padres longtime radio broadcaster Ted Leitner is stepping away from the booth as he fights kidney cancer. Let’s hope he comes back soon. Tony Gwynn Jr. will fill in for Leitner while he is on leave.
- Angels pitcher Blake Wood will have Tommy John surgery.
- The Rockies put reliever Adam Ottavino on the disabled list with a oblique strain.
- Braves rookie Ronald Acuna went on the DL with a ACL strain that is being called “minor.” It looked a lot worse than that when it happened.
- Mets ace Noah Syndergaard went on the DL with a strained finger ligament.
- Whitney McIntosh notes that it’s easier to list the healthy Mets than the injured one. And their season started with such promise.
- Earlier this month, the Mets batted out of turn. Meg Rowley has some life lessons that everyone can learn from batting out of order.
- Giants ace Madison Bumgarner will make his season debut next week after being hit in the hand with a comebacker in Spring Training.
- The Giants could use him earlier since Jeff Samardzija left Tuesday’s start after one inning with shoulder tightness. However, that meant that Dereck Rodriguez, the son of Hall-of-Famer Ivan Rodriguez, got to make his major-league debut.
- Speaking of sons of Hall of Famers, Whitney McIntosh notes that the Blue Jays are running out of excuses to leave Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the minors.
- Bob Nightengale looks back at the one-year anniversary of the Bryce Harper/Hunter Strickland fight that ended the career of Michael Morse. Morse suffered a concussion in that fight but to be fair, he was planning to retire at the end of last year anyway. But the concussion meant the end came sooner for Morse. And now he has a brain trauma as a souvenir.
- The Red Sox signed Adam Lind to a minor-league deal.
- Reds pitcher Homer Bailey has struggled this year and so the team is considering moving him to the bullpen. In a related note, the Reds are also considering moving the entire team to the bullpen.
- Jerry Crasnick profiles Braves’ Nick Markakis and Ryan Flaherty, who are not only close because of being teammates with both Atlanta and the Orioles, but also because they’re both married to two sisters. So they’re brothers-in-law. In fact, Markakis set up Flaherty with his wife’s sister, which shocked their Orioles teammates because apparently Markakis hardly ever talks to anyone, let alone set up blind dates.
- Not for the squeamish, but Phillies outfielder Rhys Hoskins fouled a ball off his own mouth. He’ll be fine, but there was blood.
- And finally, with not much else to do because he’s on the DL like almost every other Mets player, Yoenis Cespedes invented a new type of goggles in the dugout.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.