If you ever do your job really well, I’m coming to your office and throwing a stapler at your elbow. Some of us are still old-school and think the unwritten rules still need to be enforced.
- So unless you just woke up from a long nap that started Wednesday afternoon, you know that Marlins pitcher Jose Ureña hit Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña with the first pitch of the game on Wednesday for no reason other than he had homered four times in the last three games. Ureña was suspended for six games.
- Ureña is now claiming (unconvincingly) that it was all an accident.
- Whitney McIntosh explains why this short suspension is wrong and disappointing.
- Here’s the part of the show where I link to a bunch of people who think that MLB should bring the hammer down on Ureña, which they clearly did not do. Jeff Passan calls Ureña “a coward” and argues that he deserved a long suspension. One thing this article does that I liked is that he bursts the myth that guys like Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale used to hit players all the time for perceived slights.
- Jon Tayler writes that MLB needed to make an example out of Ureña.
- Matt Snyder also calls it “an act of cowardice” and urged MLB to make an example out of Ureña, which they clearly did not do. I understand why MLB didn’t—the union would have forced it before an arbiter and then the story likely would have dragged on into the offseason. But someone has to put a stop to crap like this and the commissioner’s office is the only ones who can do it.
- I think you get the point on that. The lucky thing is that Acuña was not seriously hurt.
- Here are those four home runs Acuña hit in two days, three of which led off the game.
- Did you know that Acuña played for the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League last winter? Excuse me, make that the Acuña Baseball League. Or at least that’s what their Twitter handle says.
- Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig was suspended for two games for his role in a bench-clearing brawl on Tuesday.
- Please watch Andrew McCutchen describe the Puig-Hundley brawl from his vantage point in right field. It’s pretty hilarious.
- Giants pitcher Dereck Rodriguez went on the disabled list following a hamstring injury suffered in that fight.
- Tim Brown explains that Puig is just not going to change who he is, and certainly not to protect the feelings of the GIants.
- This piece by Jayson Jenks is another must-read about the sorrow and joy of Mariners second baseman Dee Gordon. Gordon always plays with joy, but behind it all is the tragedy of his mother, who was murdered when Dee was only seven. Another reason to read this piece is that Gordon talks about his PED suspension and he takes full responsibility for it.
- In light of the health issues that Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen is having, Rachael McDaniel writes about Jansen and heart issues in baseball in general.
- Retired Athletics first baseman Nate Freiman is writing over at Fangraphs about the strike zone. I’m particularly impressed by this piece about how the strike zone is called in minor league baseball. There’s a lot of detail, but the basic conclusion is that the strike zone in the low minors is a lot wider than the strike zone in Triple-A, and it gets progressively narrower as you move up the ranks. It’s a big reason to be suspicious of stats in the lower minors.
- And in this piece, Frieman examines how the strike zone is called against tall players like himself.
- MLB has announced some rules changes in the signing of international free agents. In short, teams can now legally bring 14- and 15-year-olds into their team facilities for training before they officially sign with a team. Also, teams are allowed to pay for transportation expenses for prospects. This is especially important in Venezuela, where some kids live in areas that are really too dangerous for scouts to travel to. Teams can now pay to bring the kids in for tryouts in safe team facilities.
- Sad news in that Aaron Cox, a former Angels farmhand who was also the brother-in-law of Mike Trout, has passed away at age 24. Cox pitched for Inland Empire this season and announced his retirement earlier this month.
- Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre is sounding like he’s considering retiring.
- Mike Axisa notes that the Athletics aren’t just a good story, they’re a strong contender to win the AL West.
- However, no one is as good as the Red Sox have been this season and a big reason is that Chris Sale is better than ever, writes Zach Kram. I was having a discussion on Twitter earlier in the week with Sara Sanchez, and she said that she didn’t want the Cubs to face Jake Arrieta in a playoff game because he’s so good. What I should have said is that I don’t want to face Chris Sale for the same reason. Except that I do because that means the Cubs are back in the World Series. Such a dilemma.
- Craig Edwards looks at the evolution of the leadoff hitter in baseball with a particular focus on Boston outfielder Mookie Betts. Betts is having a “Rickeyesque” season as one of the great leadoff seasons of all time.
- Steven Goldman uses a fun old technique of Bill James’ to compare the 2018 Red Sox to the other great teams of the last 40 years.
- Jeff Sullivan outlines how outstanding defense has been key to the first-place Diamondbacks.
- And staying with the Snakes, Sullivan notes that the humidor has had a dramatic effect on offense at Chase Field. Sullivan thinks that all teams should start keeping balls in a humidor to standardize them.
- Stephanie Apstein reports on how Rangers infielder Rougned Odor put his career back on track thanks to the advice and friendship of outfielder Shin-Soo Choo.
- Speaking of advice, ESPN.com asked six major league players about what advice they’d give to current Little Leaguers and about their memories of playing baseball at that age. One of the players surveyed is Albert Almora Jr., so that may raise your interest a bit.
- A Canadian Little Leaguer now been allowed to travel to the US to compete in the Little League World Series. His family has been tied up in a complicated immigration case and he wasn’t allowed to leave Canada until now.
- Remember all those stories from years past about how the Home Run Derby messed up a player’s second half? Well, here’s a piece wondering if the Home Run Derby didn’t “fix” Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper.
- Yankees slugger Aaron Judge isn’t close to returning from his wrist injury and he’s getting frustrated.
- I know he’s not a favorite here or anywhere else, but umpire Joe West is now second on the MLB all-time “games as umpire” list.
- The Nationals plan to introduce a bullpen cart next season and Sean Doolittle is excited.
- Minor league baseball sold over $70 million in merchandise in 2017. That’s terrific. Some of those dollars were mine once. But does anyone care to guess how much of that money went to the players?
- The Rangers and third baseman Jurickson Profar did something yesterday that hadn’t been done in MLB since 1912: They turned a triple play without retiring the batter.
- David Ross opens old baseball cards with Mike Oz. Find out why he wanted Oz’s Eric Karros card.
- Tiger Nicholas Castellanos flipped his bat after a home run and the umpire caught it on the fly!
- And finally, the world lost a legend yesterday as Aretha Franklin passed away at age 76. The baseball world remembered the Queen of Soul.
- What you may not know is that Franklin was a huge fan of her hometown Detroit Tigers. (And I saw a very weird promo she did in the nineties for MLB while wearing a Tigers jacket on the MLB Network yesterday.) In tribute, the Tigers did a Aretha-themed game notes for Thursday’s game.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.